Where have the champions gone? | Thebigtip

Way back in the mid-1990’s I had my greatest day in racing. It was not that I owned a horse - I had never even touched one - and I didn't win big on some outsider. Sitting in the bleachers, I didn't even get to see much of the actual racing.

It was on this day that I attended my first real race meeting. Sure, I had gone to the local track a few times and the atmosphere of that terribly small betting ring, the amateur looking winning stalls and the under-dressed patrons, some smelling less than acceptable, did somehow suck me into the sport. I was intrigued by the anecdotes of years gone by; of the former champions, the crocks that came good, the folk lore of the turf where anybody can be a winner, the big punters, the race day characters, the scams. Looking around you could smell the history and the stories of even this racing outpost. But to really soak in what racing was is to attend a big meeting, to watch the big players do their stuff on and off the course.

The day I chose to initiate myself into racing was one of the great days of the modern era, as for me and the tens of thousands that attended got to see the birth of a champion. It was Derby and Doncaster day at Royal Randwick. With Carlyonesque imagery humming away in my head I managed to perch myself on the turn out of the straight, nowhere near the finish line but that was fine with me, I was there! I managed to see my favourite horse of all time Quick Flick win an earlier race on the card and I was ecstatic. What ever happened after this was a bonus. But by the time the big race had finished I was close to tears in the excitement of the moment. Octagonal had just won the Derby, possibly the greatest Derby of all. How he managed to just keep grinding away, keeping Saintly and that perennial bridesmaid Filante at bay is a mystery. He just did. And he proved there and then he was a champion. Sprint By managed to be plucked out of the pack to win a blanket finish of seven horses in the Doncaster but that all seemed irrelevant to me and most at the track.

I may have just entered the racing scene as a casual player at the right time, but from what I read in books and watched on videos this seemed the norm. You did not need to bet, you got the adrenalin by watching and soaking it all up. 

This leads me to the quality of racing the last few seasons - there is simply no champion horse in sight for us to get enthusiastic about, to suck us in at our first visit to a meeting.  We can only hang our hat on the “Bart train” for so long because ultimately the sport is about the horses, the humans are the peripheral players. A look at the period since Octagonal’s three year old season shows we have been blessed year in year out with champion race horses.

The best way to assess the strength of the racing is to look at the Horse of the Year awards. The year after Octagonal was Saintly who won the then rare Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double. The next two years it was Might And Power, a genuine super star who managed to blitz the Caulfield Cup by 7 lengths and back up next start to lead all the way in the Melbourne Cup, and the following season he dominated the Weight for Age scene.

After him on the list is Sunline, one of the greatest mares to grace the track. She managed the award three times with a litany of major wins including two Cox Plates, two Doncasters, and a Hong Kong Mile. She was followed by Northerly who enjoyed cult status wherever he went and managed to snare 4 big races of 2000 metres or more including the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup. Lonrho, son of the great Octagonal, won the award in 2004 Winning 4 group ones ranging from 1400-2000. And then we get to maybe the greatest stayer in Australian turf, certainly the greatest staying mare. Makybe Diva won three Melbourne Cups, a Cox Plate and six other group one races to claim two Horse of the Year honours.

Most would agree that during this period we have been blessed with some exceptional horses producing exceptional racing that the public can really enjoy watching. We have seen the “Cups King” win his cups, the emotion of Damien Oliver winning a Melbourne Cup, international raiders, some good some bad, the lot. The media lapping up every story behind the story, the public engrossed in every major race. Yet over the last three years the romance seems to be fading and frankly it could be said that the racing at the moment is boring.

What is missing is a champion horse to inspire a new generation of racegoers, a horse that can produce the line “I was there the day he won….” And what makes it very obvious as to there being a lack of a genuine champion is that the last three winners of the Horse of the Year award have all been sprinters.  Miss Andretti is the pick of them, she won in England and 6 from 8 in her winning year but she had no stamina to win beyond 1400. Weekend Hustler won the award as a three year old but couldn’t produce as a four year old; and last year Scenic Blast picked up the award for winning 4 races, one of them a regular handicap and none beyond 1200 metres. None of these horses will be remembered as champions, nor should they be.

We are now lamenting the lack of quality long distance horses and of all things a Weight for Age star. A look at recent Cox Plate winners is an eye opener. El Segundo promised a lot but a few injuries cost his lot, Maldivian had an underrated record but took forever to warm up after a spell. And the prime example is Fields of Omagh, a quality handicapper who managed to scrounge out two Cox Plates, the second at 10 years old!

Maybe Danehill’s death a while back is now hurting the breeding industry because most international grade sires from Australia are short distant horses, but the line and that of Zabeel is still going strong. Maybe syndication has meant that the “quick return” is needed for these small players to continue with their involvement, but no one said a long distance horse needed to start over sprints. Maybe the lure of the cash for fast two year olds is taking over, but even the country cups throughout the year add up to millions in prize money.

Whatever the reason is we need a horse or several to grab the headlines, and let us hope they can run a mile and a half.