Racing Victoria has not ruled out moving the Cox Plate in the future, after deciding to leave the feature race in its traditional time slot for this year’s spring carnival.
As part of a raft of changes for this year’s spring racing carnival, the Thousand Guineas will move from its Wednesday slot in Caulfield Cup week to the Saturday after Champions day, in an attempt to keep wagering revenue strong beyond Melbourne Cup week.
The Cox Plate won’t be moved to late November this year, but may be moved in the future.Credit:Getty
The new Thousand Guineas meeting will also feature the group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, moved from September, the Blue Sapphire Stakes, and a new $1 million country cups final over 2000 metres.
But the Cox Plate, slated for a potential move to two weeks after Champions Day, will stay in October, bolstered by the Manikato Stakes which will be moved from the Friday night slot.
Racing Victoria’s board met last Monday and was satisfied that the Cox Plate could be successful in November, touted as the weight-for-age grand final of the year.
But ultimately, they put the idea on the backburner, blaming uncertainty over the next Victorian wagering licence for not pulling the trigger.
“The Ladbrokes Cox Plate works brilliantly already,” Racing Victoria’s chief executive Andrew Jones said.
“It would also work well as a carnival-ending weight-for-age grand final in November. In the end, we were reluctant to make such a monumental change until the uncertainty around our future funding from the wagering licence is resolved.”
The shuffling of race dates has also seen a number of standalone Saturday country cup meetings moved.
The Cranbourne Cup will move from the Saturday after Champions Day to a week later, which will be followed by the Zipping Classic meeting at Caulfield.
The Ballarat Cup, normally run a week before the Zipping Classic meeting, will now be a week after the Zipping Classic race day, leaving the Pakenham Cup scrambling to find a new date.
Caulfield will maintain its Wednesday meeting during its carnival, but it has yet to be decided what races will be put on the day.
Moonee Valley will maintain its Friday night meeting before the Cox Plate, with the feature now to be the Moonee Valley Gold Cup over 2500 metres – one of the key Melbourne Cup lead-up races.
Jones said he had more work to do to improve the racing program.
“We will continue to innovate our schedule across the year,” he said.
“Our goals are always to provide more entertainment for fans and punters, and to increase returns to owners, trainers and jockeys.”
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