Victoria’s state of disaster dashes hopes of spring racing crowds

Victoria’s move to a state of disaster has effectively doused any hopes of crowds attending major spring racing meetings including the Melbourne Cup in 2020.

Craig Williams with 2019 Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare in front of thousands of fans at Flemington Racecourse las year

Victoria’s move to a state of disaster has effectively doused any hopes of crowds attending major spring racing meetings including the Melbourne Cup in 2020.

The prospect of major international trainers participating in the prestigious carnival is also becoming less likely by the week due to the COVID-19 crisis, with 2018 Melbourne Cup winning trainer Charlie Appleby and fellow Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor ruling out a trip to Australia this year.

As recently as late June there was hope up to 50,000 fans would be allowed to attend each of the four days of the Flemington carnival running from October 31 to November 7.

But with Melbourne in lockdown for the next six weeks and the rest of Victoria in Stage 3 restrictions, it is increasingly likely the lawns lining the straights of Flemington, Caulfield and Moonee Valley will be empty.

Vow And Declare, ridden by Craig Williams, wins the 2019 Melbourne Cup

“It has been a rollercoaster,” Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger said.

“You look back over the last four or five months and the number of changes that have been there, the changing levels of optimism and pessimism, but you would have to say at the moment that you would be thinking that the likelihood of us having any sort of significant crowds during our spring is very, very low.”

When the initial shutdown in Melbourne began earlier this year, consideration was given to potentially delaying the carnival by a month and running the major meetings in November.

This was in part due to fears about the impact a potential clash with the rescheduled AFL season would have on racing attendances through this period.

But with the health outlook improving through autumn and the AFL aiming to complete its season by mid-October, the industry opted to press ahead.

It has not doused the optimism of those trying to win the 100th running of the Cox Plate, with 182 nominations received for the weight-for-age classic on Tuesday.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I try not to dwell too much on those decisions. It is not something we can chop and change,” Kruger told RSN 927.

The potential lockout of fans in Melbourne and from regional Cup meetings will have a significant impact on the fiscal health of racing clubs across the state, some of which have already received industry assistance.

“It is the time when not only that they have their time in the sunshine and everybody is looking at them, but it is also a critical time for them from a financial point of view,” Kruger said.

The movement of horses and also participants into Victoria is also challenging, particularly for international hopefuls given quarantine protocols.

Godolphin’s international trainers Bin Suroor, who has been coming to Melbourne for 30 years, and Appleby are major players.

Racing Australia is lobbying the government seeking exemptions for participants from stables in Europe and also New Zealand, RV racing manager Greg Carpenter said.

Craig Williams with Vow And Declare before a trackwork session at Flemington racecourse

“Whether the staff and handlers can come to Australia is in the hands of the government,” he said.

A shipment of horses from Europe, which will be trained locally for the major Cups, will arrive in Australia in late September or early October.

Leading jockeys will also need to be mindful of quarantine procedures when assessing their preferences of whether to ride in Sydney or Melbourne through the carnival.

Star Western Australian jockey Willie Pike will spend a fortnight in quarantine in Victoria before riding Melbourne Cup hopeful Schabau, and also horses owned by Bob Peters, through the carnival.

As dispiriting as the outlook is, the silver lining from an industry perspective is that all three codes of racing in Victoria have been allowed to continue despite the lockdown in Melbourne.

“I certainly had a few nervous calls on the weekend, so it definitely wasn’t a slam duck decision as far as I was concerned and I didn’t want to treat it like that,” Kruger said.

“I think the fact the industry has been able to display combined efforts from participants, staff, clubs, to the point where we have not had one COVID case, that was a large part of it.”

Guidelines have been tightened further in a bid to ensure the industry remains COVD-19 free and all three codes are risk averse, though there have been isolated issues.

In a year full of what ifs, one thing is certain...

182 dreams now alive...

One #LEGENDARY Ladbrokes @CoxPlate 🏇 pic.twitter.com/fXqUPNOsOG

— Moonee Valley Racing Club (@TheValley) August 4, 2020