If Australia offered more valuable staying races, breeders and owners would have greater reason to produce and purchase staying horses.
The breeding industry responds to the racing programme. The racing programme should not surrender to the breeding industry's existing commercial preferences.
If we continually shorten races because studs favour speed, we create a self-perpetuating cycle: fewer staying races produce fewer commercial stayers, which is then cited as justification for having still fewer staying races.
The bigger problem
There has been a persistent—and, in my view, pernicious—force in Australian racing towards shorter distances and more weight-for-age racing.
That may suit certain breeding interests. It does not necessarily suit racing, and it certainly does not necessarily suit punters.
Punters want interesting races: races in which horses are tested at their limits; races involving uncertainty over distance, weight, pace and stamina; races where there are genuine differences of opinion.
That is why handicaps and staying races remain such compelling betting contests. And produce more turnover.
Consider the same Saturday in October: despite the extraordinary prizemoney and publicity surrounding The Everest, betting interest in the Caulfield Cup demonstrates the enduring attraction of a large-field 2400-metre handicap. In 2024 I wrote down the turnover figures for the Caulfield Cup and The Everest:
Caulfield Cup Everest
Betfair 1.6m 0.993m
NSW tote 2.4m (more elsewhere) 2.1m (much less outside NSW)
If race prizemoney were determined principally by wagering generated, rather than fashion or industry politics, I suspect the supposed case for relentlessly shortening races would look very different.
What should we do?
Not shorten the Victoria Derby.
Strengthen it.
The Victoria Derby is presently only around the 38th-richest race in Australia. For one of the oldest, most historic and most recognisable races in Australian racing, that is extraordinary.
Increase its prizemoney.
Build more valuable staying races around it.
Give owners a reason to buy staying-bred horses and breeders a reason to produce them.
Create a programme through which the best Derby horses can progress into valuable four-year-old and open staying races.
And above all, preserve the characteristic that gives the Derby its meaning.
There will be more than 80,000 people at Flemington on Derby Day this year. That fact alone should cause administrators to think very carefully before concluding that the Victoria Derby is somehow broken.
Racing has spent 170 years building the Derby's history, prestige and identity.
Don't shorten the Derby to make it more like other races. Make the Derby valuable enough that other races aspire to its importance.
One other argument would make this considerably stronger: Australia already has an abundance of lucrative 1600–2000m races for three-year-olds, whereas genuine staying tests are scarce. Shortening the Derby therefore doesn't fill a gap in the programme; it removes one of the few remaining distinctive tests.
Rob Waterhouse
I’ve been doing a weekly ‘swim’ day for my workout routine, so I like to daydream me being an Accguy working out and it feels like this when Im doing laps
The winner will earn 10 points toward the 2027 Kentucky Derby and a partial entry credit to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Check it out: https://t.co/reLUaV6wKT
me when i was 13: oooh yaoi 👀👀
me when i was 16: how does people like this it's problematic it's fetishizing its horrible i hope people who likes thie dies
me when i'm 19: ooh problematic yaoi 👀👀👀
menko pangan, zulhas mengakui MBG program gagal
"kita akuin MBG gagal. anggaran besar, udh mau jalan 2 tahun, masalah ga berhenti termasuk yg terakhir (korupsi)"
"tapi MBG harus tetap dijalankan krn perintah konstitusi. orang miskin harus diurus oleh negara"
jepang makin lama makin anti foreign students dah, kemaren Spring dihapusin skrg MEXT U2U dihapusin, goodluck on your research output ajadah mengingat PhD students mostly gaijin
makanya menurut w mending kuliah di gulf states ajadah, stipend gede funding gede riset gacor
At least 80% of indonesians share the same value with Charlie Kirk, but when i say they need to be Kirked you will say that's phobia and shiiieeeettttt
People should talk about this more. Trans women in Indonesia are being hunted by these group of people who call themselves "boti hunters" (boti means bottom, but it's usually used as a slur against LGBT people in Indonesia)