Racing Victoria a takeover target

An artist’s impression of The Everest’s 2018 Barrier draw being projected onto the Sydney Opera House. Photo: Supplied

That people are uncomfortable, and vocally so, about the mighty sails of the Sydney Opera House being used to promote the social scourge of gambling is hardly a bolter.

To offer surprise that it has created a moral stampede is to refuse to take off the blinkers.

The Everest, a sprint race over 1200 metres, is worth prizemoney of $13m and boasted to be the richest contest in the world for horses on turf. Fair enough. Something to skite about. Even on the sails of the Opera House. They jump this Saturday.

The goodwill comes a cropper if betting odds or anything akin to gambling tools are posted on the Opera House. Name of the event, horse colours, vision of last year’s race, barrier positions, jockey names. Fine, we should not have an issue with that. But anything else and we are turning the sails into nothing more than a TAB ticket. And that is an abuse of a piece of architecture that is treasured around the world, if not so much in Australia.

But to equate the appearance of The Everest, which has taken over the nation’s racing agenda at a gallop, with events like the Rugby World Cup and the Ashes is mischievous. The Everest and thoroughbred racing are gambling from ear to hoof. Cricket and rugby are sports you can also bet on. Fine line, big difference.

The Everest has only been run once. Last year the race was won by Redzel, a very good sprinting horse. It was enough to push the race from gimmick to quality sprint of genuine interest. That provided a footing that suggested this year’s planned advertising boost would be rewarded with heightened interest and brand awareness. Done.

Jockey Kerrin McEvoy comes back to scale on Redzel after winning The Everest last year. Photo: AAP

Media coverage, however garnered, has swamped the beginning of the Victorian spring carnival. The quality of this year’s Everest field is demanding the race be elevated to group status.

The Caulfield Guineas, a Group 1 race worth $3m, will be run on Saturday and signals the “serious” start of the Victorian spring carnival. It is a race for three-year-olds over 1600m and first place earns $1.2m. But if the winner has had the good fortune to retain his full bag of tricks then his value as a sire catapults into multiple millions. Not every winner becomes the Opera House of architecture. Last year’s winner Mighty Boss, he of the surfer dude looks, ever since appears to have settled for waxing his board as a full-time occupation while waves of opposition horses barrel for the line. So the clash. Caulfield Guineas surrounded by other enticing races now up against The Everest.

Alan Jones is a major supporter of the plan to beam The Everest barrier draw onto the Sydney Opera House. Photo: Supplied

The Opera House administration has found itself in the middle of a war to which its only contribution has been to exist.

Broadcaster Alan Jones was of little help in settling an argument that was moving quickly to fire-in-the-hole status. Jones took it upon himself to be a standover man for Racing NSW’s chief executive Peter V’landys. His bullying — no other word encapsulates it more accurately — on radio of Louise Herron, Opera House boss, emphasised how decayed; how unsophisticated legitimate debate has burbled to in this country.

Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron. Photo: Craig Wilson

Racing Victoria is locked in a takeover bid by V’landys, whether it is prepared to admit NSW’s ambition or not. Last Saturday was racing for everyone. Winx won at Flemington to make that 28 in a row. The course flooded with emotion if not people (conservative estimate 23,000) and the media coverage swamped all other Flemington racing. And then comes The Everest to stomp to death any surviving shoots of interest in Melbourne’s month in the spring sunshine.

The Caulfield Cup is fewer than two weeks away, the Cox Plate three and the Melbourne Cup four. To many, the normal Victorian coverage has evaporated as The Everest grows tall. The Sydney event even has the enthusiastic support of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Over the weekend he rigorously backed Jones’s bodyguarding of V’landys.

“This is one of the biggest events of the year, why not put it on the biggest billboard Sydney has?” Morrison said. “I come from a tourism background and these events generate massive economic opportunities for the state.

“It’s just common sense. And I don’t know why people are getting so precious about it,” he said, adding, “This isn’t about advertising a packet of chips,” and urging critics to “have a bit of a lie down”.

Putting NSW racing on the map ... Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'landys. Photo: Britta Campion

Racing Victoria is aware of the push to dominate Australian racing coming from NSW, led by V’landys who is following his brief with energy and imagination. Yet down south there remains no suggestion of panic. Turnover on feature races through September was up 10 per cent. Early breakdown of figures shows the trend continued into this month. And then there is good growth and engagement with viewers on the sport’s free-to-air coverage.

And so RV, under its less flamboyant chief executive Giles Thompson, watches carefully and adjusts where necessary. Prizemoney for feature races is up, crowds strong, the calendar adjusted as discreetly as jockey Craig Williams shifts weight on his mount.

Matters like The Everest being run just one week before the famous group one sprint, the Manikato Stakes, next year is monitored. With a handful of days between races, the Manikato may end up with an inferior field.

RV must not gloat but the Melbourne spring carnival has been refined over more than 100 years. The pattern has an acknowledged rhythm. It welcomes international horses. Indeed, they have enriched racing as well as broadened the knowledge of the punters.

And herein could lie Racing NSW’s main obstacle. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. And it is a killer. Many climbers have spent all their energy getting up only to die getting down. And there is Morrison at base camp. “Where the bloody hell are you?” he says. Every time more limply than before.