AUSTRALIA'S ABILITY TO PRODUCE STAYERS A REAL CONCERN

By Matt Nicholls

20/06/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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ARE the days of Australian-bred horses winning the Melbourne Cup numbered?

This has been a much debated topic in recent years after the dominance of imported gallopers in Australia’s most famous race.

But often these discussions are reactionary and “caught in the moment” commentary.

That doesn’t necessarily make those opinions incorrect, but, where possible, it’s always best to let things settle before weighing in too heavily.

Let’s just look at the facts for a second.

It’s nothing new for Australian-bred horses to be dominated by those from outside of our shores.

A quick look at the last 20 Melbourne Cup winners and you can see more have been bred in New Zealand than in Australia.

The tally is: New Zealand 6, Australia 5, United Kingdom 4, United States 2, Japan, France and Ireland 1.

So it’s a common misconception that it has only been in recent years that non-Australians have been dominating the Melbourne Cup.

Here is the list ...

One clear trend, however, is the amount of imported gallopers being brought Down Under to be trained by Australian trainers in preparation for the Melbourne Cup.

Simon O’Donnell and Terry Henderson and their OTI Racing operation have been doing this for a few years, but in recent times we’ve seen horses like Lucas Cranach, Americain, Manighar, Illo and Unusual Suspect shipped here to race in our top staying events.

In last year’s Melbourne Cup, overseas horses filled the top seven places. In order they were: Dunaden, Red Cadeaux, Lucas Cranach, Americain, Manighar, Lost In The Moment and Fox Hunt.

Pretty damning stuff.

The first Australian home was Niwot for the Hawkes team after jumping from barrier 23.

Niwot confirmed his ability with a win in this year’s Sydney Cup (3200m) and should be a better horse for this year’s Melbourne Cup.

So perhaps it’s not all doom and gloom.

But, to be frank, this trend of imported gallopers only looks to be gathering more momentum.

Personally I don’t have a massive problem with this – and I certainly don’t think there should be a cap on international horses – but I’m concerned that our breeding industry might just give up on producing stayers.

The problem at the moment is not the lack of staying progeny in Australia, but the lack of trainers utilising it.

Thoroughbred breeding guru Brian Russell, who has been following racing for longer than most of us have been alive, agrees that there is a lot of untapped staying potential in Australia.

“I believe that hundreds of horses could be made to stay but they’re not trained to stay,” he said yesterday.

“The truth is there are not many races left for long distance horses.

“That race on Saturday (the 3200 Stayers Cup at Rosehill), you’d never see so many tired horses.

“It was a heavy track but when Peter Pan won his second Melbourne Cup (in 1934) he did it in a foot deep of mud. He still managed to run it in 3:40. They look longer to run it on Saturday.”

Russell said Australian trainers were so focussed on speed that stamina was often overlooked.

“You see the way they train their horses over there (in England) and it’s over hills and the tracks are undulating,” he said.

“Here it’s more about speed and that’s why our sprinters seem to do better over there.”

Russell pointed to the success, or lack thereof, of stallion Galileo in Australia.

“Now Galileo has been a top sire around the world, but he’s got a shocking record in Australia,” Russell said.

“That says to me that we just aren’t training these staying types well enough.”

Incidentally, Niwot, currently Australia’s best prospect of winning a Melbourne Cup, was sired by Galileo.

Russell said it was unlikely things would change in Australia until it became more beneficial for trainers to produce long distance runners.

“If you look around there just aren’t many races over a mile and a half (2400m),” he said.

“The Brisbane Cup has been brought back to a mile and a half and other races have done the same.

“Apart from a handful of Group 1 races there aren’t many other reasons to train a stayer.”

And that’s the problem.

It’s a catch-22 situation. A lot of two mile races were dropped in distance because we didn’t have the quality of horse to contest them to maintain their Group 1 statuses.

But now we’ve lost a number of distance races which further discourages owners, trainers and breeders to produce stayers.

History says that racing goes around in cycles, so I won’t write off Australia’s ability to breed top-class distance thoroughbreds, but it’s a worrying trend we’re seeing at the moment.

On a final note I’ve been going through the markets and a bit of form for this year’s Melbourne Cup to see if I can find some value for Melbourne Racing readers. I thought I would have a tip ready but I’ve still got a bit more form to go through before putting my neck on the line. So stay tuned for that. If you want to read more about Brian Russell, you can read this biography Phil Purser did on him HERE