by Brian de Lore
7th March 2019
Traditionalists will be hating it but the new generation of Australian racegoers are loving it, as the long-feuding state versus state stakes rivalry takes more twists and turns than a post-earthquake Christchurch to Picton train journey.
This long-standing feud goes back more than 50 years, but with Australian racing more international today than ever before, the intensity of the stakes war has heightened in the past year to the point where the accusation is now about it undermining Australia’s pattern racing.
Australian racing has taken a big leap forward over a long period in the eyes of the internationals. It started way back in the late 1970’s with Robert Sangster and Swettenham Stud and then reached a new level when Vintage Crop become the first northern hemisphere visitor to come south and win the Melbourne Cup of 1993.
The willingness of state governments to support racing, a change in the tax regime to benefit breeders, the shuttling of international stallions which worked sensationally in the upgrading of pedigrees, and the ever-increasing presence of international breeders and racing syndicates has seen Australian racing transform over the past 40 years.
Even before that, racing in Australia was always of a very high standard, and had a great history, and was a sport or pastime well-suited to the Australian psyche of being willing to bet on anything including the fabled ‘two flies crawling up a wall’ with the resulting nonchalant catch-cry of ‘she’ll be right, mate.’
The propensity of the population to bet combined with the inherited traditions of the old country has seen Australia establish an enviable history of racing over the past 150 years. That tradition is indelibly felt in the atmosphere that pervades historic courses like Flemington and Randwick on the big race days.
And from that history has evolved pattern racing which is the very foundation upon which the system operates. It determines every good horse’s level from the division of the also-rans, the status of the races divided into group and listed, the allocation of prizemoney to those races, the venues and dates for where and when they run, and how everything fits not just into a domestic racing calendar but in more recent times an international one.
The evolved pattern system establishes every level of achievement and is what encourages breeders to breed the best to best, before hoping for the best. Today the traditionalists are fighting to protect it. Racing is taking on a new persona now a new generation of under-35 Australians are voting with their feet and saying the excitement of the event is what matters.
The movement is both fuelled and led by Racing NSW CEO Peter Vlandys who was recently quoted as saying, “Racing has been built on tradition; does it have a place in modern Australian racing?”
We don’t think about tradition in Australian racing being to forefront of its future decision-making, but deep in the heart of Australia’s oldest racing clubs, tradition is one of the strongest elements present and is at the very core of its pattern racing.
So, the advent of The Everest in October 2017 was like a dagger through hearts of the very staunch traditionalists. But commercially it was a resounding success, and the whole racing world stopped and focused on one sprint race for $10 million.
What The Everest didn’t do so much was interfere with the pattern races and most of the horses contesting the race were still able to relocate to Melbourne and run in the major sprint races such as the winner Redzel who went on and won the Darley Classic at Flemington in Cup Week.
“The Everest is the highest turnover race of any race we have ever had in NSW,” Vlandys told Racing.com recently referring to the 2018 running, “and 82 per cent of the people that came to it were under 35 so they are definitely interested in wagering – they are our future customer.”
But this Racing.com interrogation of Vlandys, who wasn’t taking a backstep on any of the NSW initiatives, had him more under fire for his promotion of the Golden Eagle which is a $7.5 million race for four-year-olds over 1500 metres at set-weight conditions scheduled to be run the same day as Victoria Derby Day at Flemington on November 2nd.
On that same card, Racing Victoria also run the $1 million Gr. 1 Kennedy Mile. When questioned about the undermining of pattern racing, Vlandys responded, “Just because there’s a pattern there, who’s to say it should stifle any innovation. What’s good about these new events is that the younger generation do embrace them. It’s their event; they don’t care about tradition. They care about a product that they can engage in, and we are giving them that product. We are focused on a 20-year plan, not just a two to three-year plan – to have customers 20 years down the track.”
When the announcement of $5 million All-Star Mile came, which will debut at Flemington on Saturday week, it seemed a very retaliatory move. But instead of criticising the race, Vlandys defended the Racing Victoria move even though the event will be run only one week before the $1 million George Ryder Stakes over 1500 metres at Rosehill – the highest contested ratings race run in Australia in the past two seasons.
“I was the first person to compliment Racing Victoria on the All-Star mile even though it was smack bang in the middle of our autumn carnival,” continued Vlandys. “I have no concerns about it; I think it’s a great initiative and I think it’s good for the long-term future for racing in Australia. It will hopefully attract a whole new generation because they could become customers of NSW racing, or Queensland racing or any racing for that matter.”
Since those comments, the All-Star Mile field was declared and no fewer than nine of the final field of 14 runners have won, been placed or contested races at group one level, and it’s highly unlikely any of the 14 including Happy Clapper will now be in Sydney for the George Ryder Stakes.
“There’s certainly a place for tradition, but it’s a balancing act,” quipped Vlandys. “If you stay solely on tradition you will perish; it can only last so long. What I have noticed is that this under 35 years racegoers are different to what other generations have been.
“Every new race we have put in place has been pretty well self-funded – The Everest is funded by slot holders, The Kosciuszko by sweepstake tickets. This one is a completely new product and a joint venture because we have concentrated on returning our traditional revenues to bread and butter races.
“When I started with Racing NSW the metropolitan prizemoney was $40,000 a race; now it’s $125,000. Everything has gone up two or three hundred percent because we have given all our traditional revenues back to the bread and butter races. At the same time, you have to have aspirational races; races that promote your industry and that people can aspire to. They should be aspiring to win a Golden Eagle or an Everest. We need those races because they are our marketing races to get new customers.”
No one denies that Vlandys has done an excellent job for Racing NSW over a long period. His no-nonsense approach and determination to succeed has seen him step on a lot of toes without stopping to apologise – a Captain Marvel type character we could greatly benefit from on the eastern of the Tasman.
And in the unapologetic Vlandys responses of this interview, he said something that would loudly resonate with most Kiwis in terms of what has been sadly lacking – “We have to look at ourselves every year and do a three, a five, and 20-year plan.
“My job is to maximise the returns to the participants in NSW. As far as I’m concerned the revenue I can get for them is prizemoney. The more prizemoney I can return to the participants the better. I will continue to look, to review and to analyse every opportunity and take it if I can maximise the revenue for those NSW participants. If I don’t do that, I’m negligent and should not be here.
“Any CEO has to maximise the dividends to the shareholders, “continued Vlandys to strongly reemphasise the point. “My shareholders happen to be the participants. We will continue to look at all elements of racing and analyse everything we do to maximise the revenues for the racing industry.”
