James Morrow: Melbourne’s attempt to blackmail Sydney over The Everest shows insecurity
Our city should remain the leading destination for great events such as The Everest and the insecure reaction of Melbourne to competition shows exactly why this is, writes James Morrow.
Opinion
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To paraphrase a line from the old Monty Python routine, what have the Melburnians ever done for us?
I mean, other than the Melbourne Cup and the Formula One and the … actually, that’s pretty much it.
Even the trams, which let Melburnians think of themselves as so much more sophisticated and European than their uncouth Sydney cousins are considered among the slowest in the world and are regularly beset by threats of strikes and industrial action.
Actually, come to think of it, that last bit really is quite European.
Which is why, from an outsider’s perspective, the reactions of certain Melburnians to a proposal by Racing NSW chief Peter V’landys that Victoria think with the national interest in mind and maybe, just maybe, consider looking at their racing calendar with an eye towards moving the Melbourne Cup were so hilarious — and telling.
It was, as they say, a power move that took the fight right up to the gates of Melbourne’s holy of holies, with the high priests inside wondering: “Is nothing sacred?”
Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger said: “The line out of that great movie, ‘tell him he’s dreaming’, came to mind when I heard the comments,” adding for good measure, “We think we have been innovative, we think we do act in the national interest.”
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With respect, that’s the sort of line that calls to mind not The Castle, but Hamlet: The chairman doth protest too much.
Six-time Melbourne Cup winner Lloyd Williams called the race’s date “untouchable”, as if the proposal were to move Christmas.
Though, this being Melbourne we’re talking about, there’s surely a local council cooking up exactly that sort of idea, and a “December Festival” name change as well.
And all over the local Melbourne media, the call by V’landys to look at the date was deemed “controversial” — a headline writer’s conceit that roughly translates as, “this idea is as radioactive as 10 Chernobyls and will fry any official that goes near it”.
For a city that prides itself on being hip and innovative and disruptive, the reactions were — dare one say it — really quite insecure.
How else to explain the Victorian move to stop The Everest from being classified as a Group 1 race, despite 10 of the horses racing in it this year at Royal Randwick having won a total of 22 Group 1s between them?
But just ask any jockey, if you’re not moving forward, you’re going to come last.
The Melbourne Cup may be a fixture on the calendar, but without refreshing the way racing — or any other event — is done will mean that it will slowly but surely whither, particularly as new generations are attracted by events which are designed around the audience and not the date — such as next Saturday’s Everest.
And honestly this idea that Melbourne — Melbourne! — should consider itself to be the events capital of Australia is a hilarious one.
Again, they’ve got a decent cricket ground, a good bar scene (though Sydney’s should catch back up with the relaxation of lockout laws), and of course Chadstone Mall, Australia’s largest shopping centre.
The idea that this somehow entitles them to wear the cultural crown is every bit as presumptuous as Fredo thinking he should be the don.
Not that Sydney isn’t at times intensely parochial.
I’ve visited and lived in cities around the world and none is as shot through with geographical rivalry as Sydney — north shore versus eastern suburbs versus inner west versus the west-west … you get the idea.
It’s why the theory that came out a couple of years ago that you could divide the city according to the “Red Rooster Line” was an instant hit with armchair sociologists. We love to obsess over our differences.
But really, there are limits.
When we get it together as a city, the results can be fantastic. And for those concerned that all this effort is all about the razzle dazzle of race day, remember that Sydney is as good at doing high culture as it is at horses. Think Opera Australia’s great performances on the Harbour, for example, which leverage our natural assets as great assets for truly special events.
V’landys’s idea represents a step in the right direction. So too does some of the work that has been done lately on infrastructure.
But this sort of creativity when it comes to events can only be sustained if Sydney manages to put aside its internal rivalries and get the boffins of business and government — and events and arts and culture — on the same page.
And not just in Sydney but nationwide. When you drilled down on V’landys’s call, it was not so much about stoking a Sydney-Melbourne rivalry but getting the Victorians to look at the race calendar as a holistic, nationwide thing, saying to 7 News: “I don’t think the way it is at the moment is of benefit to the Victorian racing industry, let alone the national industry.”
Either way, Sydney has all the natural advantages, cultural capital, and just plain talent and smarts to leave our rivals in Melbourne for dead. It’s time we started acting like it.