The state of staying in Australia?

April 26, 2011

These days, due to the Australian Racing Industry's preoccupation with sprinting and 2yos, the Sydney Cup is rarely an event that you go back through and think that you've photographed a champion stayer. This is a shame, because the race has, over the years, been won by some wonderful champions. It's been won horses like the legendary Kingston Town, and great horses like Tie The Knot, Reckless and Makybe Diva. Horses like the immortal Tulloch, dual Melbourne Cup winner Rain Lover, as well as Dayana, Dhaulagiri, Mummify, Nothin Leica Dane and Taras Bulba have been placed in previous years.

This years Cup will not, I fear, be remembered as vintage. This is as much to due with the Weather God's sudden return to be fiercely unapologetic, with raceday morning arriving accompanied by driving rain, yet again. The track had not recovered from it's absolute drenching the weekend before, and quickly went from being an ok surface, and straight back to a Heavy 10. Much wetter and they call the meeting off. I had no idea who Stand To Gain was as his name was being called. Probably because he was the 1st Emergency, and perhaps therefore I took no notice of him? But at the end of the gruelling 3200m on the heavy track, he was the last horse standing, and therefore his name will go down in the record books. I am not expecting him to rewrite the history books anymore, but then, I didn't expect to see Makybe Diva win 3 consecutive Melbourne Cups either, in the aftermath of her 2003 victory!

While some writers were writing it as further proof of the demise of the Australian bred stayer, it has to be said that truly heavy conditions will always favour horses bred in the northern hemisphere, seeing as these are the conditions these horses are used to running in, and this horse was also the lightest weighted runner in the race, which no doubt assisted him at the end of such a long race on a track that was so rain affected.