GALLOPERS PUNTING EDITORIALS

Thoroughbred Traditions:
Gone With The Wind

When I was a young kid growing up in Sydney, my dear old dad used to take me to Royal Randwick on a regular basis. The memory of Strauss winning the Metrop back in the mid 60s, Prince Grant winning the Derby will always live long in my mind. I still remember vividly Altai Khan with Mick Mallyon aboard winning the Metrop in the early 70s and the mighty Imagele winning that legendary 1973 AJC Derby with the old man standing next to me at the top of the Leger Stand.

The Leger Stand at Randwick was demolished many years ago, and for good reasons, and along with it has passed many other thoroughbred horse racing traditions that have been tragically lost to our great industry.

Three great traditions have all been eclipsed by time, and race goers of the future may never know of their existence.

1    Commercialisation in Naming of Group races
2    Distance changes to major staying races
3    The trend for Monday Public Holiday racing to be denegrated to mediocrity

The commercialisation and bastardisation of the names of great Group races in Australia is here to stay. We completely understand the commercial nature of this decision by race clubs & the reasons behind corporate sponsorship. We do agree with it to a point.

What we believe is the most disappointing aspect of race name changes is the original name of the races are now completely left out, so future race goers will have no idea about the history of the race and how it originated. We refer specifically to races like the Ranvet Stakes & BMW Stakes run at Rosehill during the autumn carnival, formerly the Rawson & Tancred respectively. Now these races were originally named after great racing administrators who founded both race clubs and commenced the scheduling of such races. These names will now be forgotten by all but a select few who are involved in racing administration at these race clubs. And in a  few years when financial circumstances force mergers between major race clubs, the memories of these icons will become extinct. In fact, administration of racing into the future will more than likely be conducted from one central point, by one organisation for all race clubs in Australia. Who then will pass down the history and traditions of race clubs and specific races?

Races like the Caulfield Stakes are now known as the Yalumba, the Hotham Handicap now known as the Saab and now even the naming rights to the time honoured Herbert Power Handicap traditional final lead up to the Caulfield Cup is sold off to the highest bidder.

What is worse, are Group races who are sold off every year and have a different name every year so it is almost impossible for race goers to understand which race ths actually was last year, or even the year before.

And some of the names of mere Saturday city races are bastardised to the point we cringe to even repeat the sponsors names in this piece.

We have discussed distance changes in other articles here however this does fall into a similar category of lost tradition. Races such as the Sydney Cup, Brisbane Cup, Perth Cup all now run over 2400m not the traditional 3200m. The race clubs have done this in an attempt to attract higher quality fields after the races were downgraded to from Group 1 to Group 2 level. Prize money for these races have also fallen well behind the 2yo sprint events set up for breeders and yearling purchasers chasing quick returns on their investments.

Racing administrators easily forget horses such as Restless who won 3 Cups races in in the late 7os before running a mighty second in the Melbourne Cup. Great horses such as Galilee who won the Sydney Cup before winning the Melbourne Cup in the same year, a feat achieved by no other horse in our history. Agreed these instances were few and far between however the memories of these horses and their feats should be immortalised, not forgotten.

The only races still attaining Group 1 status for stayers in this country are the Melbourne & Caulfield Cups. All other Group 1 events over distances of 2400m or longer are restricted to 3yos. A sad indictment of racing in this day and age.

And gone now are the two day feature carnivals run on the Saturday and Monday of a long weekend. The Derby/Doncaster on the Saturday, Sydney Cup on the Monday, Stradbroke/Derby on the Saturday, Brisbane Cup on the Monday. The Goodwood Handicap on the Saturday, Adelaide Cup on the Monday.

Now we are inflicted with "Super" Saturdays, or in Adelaide's case "Super" Sunday where racing administrators attempt to showcase all major events in one day, leaving the Monday Public Holiday meeting in their wake as a mediocre anti climax. Little wonder race attendances are dreadful on the Monday Public Holiday and turnover has fallen dramatically.

As always we will be accused of in the words of the great Ian Anderson to be "Living In The Past". We welcome that moniker, we adore to live in the past traditions of this great sport. Where would this great sport be without the legendary names of the turf like Tulloch, Phar Lap, Kingston Town, all of whom adorned the trophy cabinets of some these races and race meetings now lost in our memories. We live with these and other memories for life, as should every racing enthusiast.

Without great champions, without great memories, without these great traditions, where would thoroughbred racing be today?

And who will pass down these traditions and memories to our future generations when these traditions are "Gone With The Wind"?

Good luck & profitable punting to all . . . . .