Racing Victoria is looking to put on two more richly-endowed staying races at Flemington that would guarantee the winners a spot in the Melbourne Cup.
Executive Paul Bloodworth confirmed Racing Victoria's interest in the initiative as debate intensified over the number of foreign horses starting in Australia's great Cup races, and whether their presence was denying the owners of locally-bred stayers the dream of having a runner in Australia's biggest contests.
Local trainers want more of a chance at the Cup.
Ever since the Dermot Weld-trained Irish invader Vintage Crop became the first foreign-trained horse to win the Melbourne Cup 25 years ago, the big prizemoney has lured an increasing number of overseas owners and trainers to Melbourne during the carnival.
The Cup has been won by horses trained in Ireland, France, Germany and Japan, and while their presence has undoutedly glamourised the carnival, local owners fear they have been the ones left out in the cold.
Racing Victoria's plan to run a 2800 metre race at Flemington in May with a prizemoney pot of around $500,000 would in itself provide not just an attractive end-of-season target for leading stayers but also guarantee the winner an armchair passage into the following season's Melbourne Cup.
Racing Victoria is also looking at staging a similar event over 2500 metres in September – Makybe Diva Stakes day – which would also give the winner a ballot exemption into the race that stops a nation.
These two races would most likely be contested by locally owned and trained horses (although a fair number would probably be gallopers already imported into this country) thus providing, in theory, more chances for so called ''battling'' owners and trainers to live the Australian dream of having a runner in the Cup.
''It's very much a concept at the moment,'' Bloodworth said on Wednesday morning from Werribee, where the foreign invaders for this year's carnival are in quarantine.
''We are talking about it with the Victoria Racing Club who own and dictate the conditions of entry to the Melbourne Cup. In the end their board would have to agree to implement any proposal.
''But the idea of the race at the end of May would be for it to appeal to horses who have won or run well in races like the South Australian Derby or VRC St Leger to get a chance to qualify automatically for next year's Cup.
''We would see it being open to three, four and five-year-olds so we would encourage progressive horses who are maturing into stayers , and we would like it to have decent prizemoney.
''If a horse could win that his (or her) connections would know that he was qualified for the Cup six months in advance and could plan his spring campaign accordingly, knowing that they would not have to chase prizemoney or ratings or win certain races to get a start.''
The other putative race, at Flemington in mid September, would have a similar motive. If a horse could win that his trainer could then tailor his program over the next seven weeks knowing that he would be able to get him cherry ripe for his big test without having to worry about first qualifying him to run in the Cup against foreign raiders who, on paper and handicap ratings, might be higher up the pecking order.
There has been some debate this week about whether Sydney's premier staying contest, the 2600 metre Metropolitan (to be run at Randwick on Saturday) should have a ballot-free exemption into the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, but Bloodworth said there were no plans for such a move.
"We have races here like the Naturalism (run last week at Caulfield and won by Night's Watch) and the Bart Cummings (due to be run on Turnbull Stakes day) which give winners a start in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups respectively. Why would we run the risk of weakening our own races by giving the Metropolitan in Sydney the same status?''
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