Steroids, money and state wars: The demise of the Australian Cup

The Australian Cup honour roll has the names of some of racing’s greats, but perhaps since Makybe Diva won the race in 2005, Victoria’s top weight-for-age group 1 race of the autumn has suffered a painful demise.

Name a middle-distance champion of the 1980s or 1990s, and the Australian Cup – first run in 1863 – is tied to their story. Horses like Bonecrusher and Vo Rogue, who fought incredible battles, and Better Loosen Up, Let’s Elope, and later Saintly, Octagonal, Northerly and Lonhro.

Bonecrusher pips At Talaq in Bruce McAvaney’s favourite Australian Cup, in 1987.Credit: Fairfax Media

It was a golden era, according to former racecaller Bryan Martin, when people flocked to the races and donned the colours of their favourite horses, cheering them on like they would their football team. For Bruce McAvaney, it was the second best weight-for-age 2000-metre race in the country, behind only the Cox Plate.

One of the few connections tying Saturday’s edition to those great races of the past is the surname Cummings. The legendary Bart Cummings won 13 Australian Cups. His grandson James is gunning for his first with favourite Cascadian, a year after his brother Ed won the race with Duais.

Retired hoop Greg Childs looks back fondly on the race, his greatest memory winning on “The Fighting Tiger” – three-year-old Northerly – in course-record time.

Post-race, he compared him with Sunline, another star of the turf, which spoke of the depth of Australasia’s weight-for-age stocks.

Anabolic steroids were common – and legal – back in those days, says long-time Linsday Park vet Dr David McKellar. He says that allowed horses to back up so quickly out of the spring, and race every fortnight – starting in Melbourne and then going to Sydney – when the racing pattern was at its best, building magical rivalries that are still spoken about.

But Australia’s breeding game has not replenished the middle-distance ranks, with the heavy focus on juvenile form reducing the number of warriors left in racing.

The pattern

Much has been made of the states wars between Victoria and NSW, but there was a time when the autumn carnivals perfectly aligned, allowing the greats to clash every few weeks.

The Australian Cup held a crucial date on the calendar, on the long weekend in March, and for a number of years raced as the feature event on the Monday public holiday.

Better Loosen Up, winning the 1991 Australian Cup.Credit: Geoff Ampt

When Octagonal won in March 1997, having come off a second in the Apollo Stakes and a Chipping Norton win, he returned to Sydney and won the Tancred Stakes 12 days later, before falling short to Intergaze – the 2000 Australian Cup winner – in the Queen Elizabeth.

The pattern was even more accommodating in 1990 when Better Loosen Up was beaten by Vo Rogue in the Australian Cup, before winning the Ranvet 12 days later, running sixth in the Tancred another fortnight later, followed by another second in the Queen Elizabeth.

On Saturday, the Australian Cup and Tancred will run just 20 minutes apart, splitting the nation’s middle-distance weight-for-age stocks.

“The ... Australian Cup and the Tancred; they were spaced,” Childs recalled.

“Now, the congestion of horse racing and prizemoney and wanting to race at the best time of the year … that’s why we don’t have the clash of the titans like we used to.”

McAvaney, who will lead Seven’s coverage on Saturday, believes having the two races on the same day, for the first time this year, is of the biggest detriment to the Australian Cup.

“The horse that won the race last year won the Tancred,” McAvaney said.

“This century, 13 Tancred Stakes winners have contested the Australian Cup. They’re on the same day this year, so the whole dynamic has changed.

“The Australian Cup has certainly been affected by the rise of the Queen Elizabeth, no doubt about that. And the All-Star Mile has changed things a lot for Victoria’s autumn.”

The breed

McKellar says racing was different in the ’90s, when most of the champions were geldings.

“Probably the elephant in the room is they used to be full of steroids back in the day, which certainly enhanced recovery and ability, and how hard they could be trained,” he recalled.

“That was within the rules back in the day. They could have anabolic steroids when they went to the paddock and within recovery phase, as long as it wasn’t within six weeks of racing, so there was nothing illegal about it.

“That’s completely gone by the wayside.”

Now the middle-distance greats are either mares or entires; horses like Winx and Makybe Diva, or Anamoe, who might be the only galloper left today worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as Vo Rogue or Bonecrusher.

“When that match of Vo Rogue and Bonecrusher happened in the autumn of ’88, there were 30,000-plus [spectators] at Flemington,” Martin reminisced.

Anamoe (main image) might be the only modern galloper worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Vo Rogue (top right) or Bonecrusher (bottom right).Credit: The Age

“It had rained earlier in the day and there was a doubt about Bonecrusher getting there, [but] the VRC were able to put a flight on just to make sure he got here, and the people came out. There were kids walking around with badges saying ‘Go Vo Go’ and ‘Crush ’em Crusher’.

“Bill Collins called the race, so I just went there as a spectator, and it was awesome.”

McKellar said the heavy focus on winning two-year-old races had also been detrimental to the middle-distance stocks.

“We’re selecting for peak performance as a juvenile, rather than longevity – stallions and mares,” he said.

Vo Rogue, winning the first of two Australian Cups in 1989.Credit: Geoff Ampt

“On the whole, if you’ve got a six-year-old stallion running around in distance races, they’re not sought after by studs. So we’re breeding for juvenile speed rather than the old war horses or longevity.

“Then there’s the European influence. They’re designed to run on softer ground typically. It’s a bit unscientific; it’s just my observation over the years.”

Injuries have certainly dented racing’s top line, with Zaaki, Incentivise, and Hitotsu among the big names on the sidelines, all of whom are proven at the 10 furlongs.

“I don’t think today’s breed is as tough as those horses, like Better Loosen Up,” Martin said.

“He came through the spring of 1990 basically unbeaten … and later in November he was in Japan, and then he came back in the autumn, and he was even better.

“He was durable and tough, he just kept going at it.”

The money

Putting aside the lucrative prize money on offer in both Melbourne and Sydney at the same time of the year, there are also the cheques coming from Hong Kong and from stud farms that are thinning the top end of talent.

If it wasn’t for prominent owners the Ingham family, champions Octagonal and Lonhro may never have won the Australian Cup, for, in this day and age, the star three-year-old colts are often lured to stud early, so as not to dent their stud fees.

Ole Kirk, Super Seth, Castelvecchio and perhaps even The Autumn Sun would still be racing, had they not been colts rushed off to become stallions.

“The Inghams used to race horses. They were a bit like Godolphin; they used to race them,” said trainer Wayne Hawkes.

“There’s too much money in the breeding barn, so you can’t blame anyone for doing that. If I had a good colt and it had done its job, I’d retire it as well, to be honest.”

Hong Kong also gets its hands on its fair share of talent, picking the eyes out of Australian yearling sales each year.

Would the Hong Kong champ Golden Sixty have raced in the Australian Cup? We’ll never know.Credit: Getty Images

Golden Sixty, for example – Hong Kong’s champion miler – was a Gold Coast Magic Millions purchase, bought by a New Zealand bloodstock company, and pinhooked for a Ready To Run sale in New Zealand, where he was sold to Hong Kong. Thirty years ago, it’s more than likely he would have been sold to race in Australia.

So on Saturday, the Australian Cup is left with James Cummings’ Cascadian as its favourite. It’s a quality miler, but hardly comparable to Saintly, who Cummings’ grandfather trained to victory in 1996.

“Since the Queen Elizabeth has been in vogue, I would have thought over the past 10 years, it’s been Cox Plate, Queen Elizabeth, Mackinnon and then the Australian Cup just in front of races like the Ranvet and Might And Power,” McAvaney said, ranking the country’s weight-for-age 10-furlong races.

“I’m not down on this Australian Cup at all ... but it just doesn’t look on paper like a classic weight-for-age Australian Cup.”

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.