Not only is James McDonald the best jockey in the country, he is a man of his word.
The super hoop insisted he would make it through to the last meeting of the Melbourne spring carnival with a “Lexus – Sydney City” logo emblazoned on the neck of his race-day skivvy, and sure enough, he did.
James McDonald after winning the Cox Plate.Credit: Eddie Jim
But McDonald’s Victorian-based compatriots might not be so lucky in coming weeks when it comes to displaying personal sponsorship on their race-day outfits.
Racing Victoria stewards have written to the Victorian jockeys association to say they will be clamping down on the practice, which is banned under rule LR 66.
The Victorian rule stipulates “that, unless otherwise approved by RV directors, a jockey must not display or wear any clothing item showing advertising while riding in a race or during any race meeting”.
The letter went on to say: “Recently stewards have noticed more advertising on rider’s stocks and skivvies has started to creep into circulation.
“We recognise that car companies amongst others sometimes ask your team to promote their product, the issue we face is that the rule regarding advertising, LR66, is clear.”
McDonald, who flew to Hong Kong to ride Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin on Sunday, says he has hit no such roadblocks in New South Wales.
“I am allowed to do it in Sydney, as long as it is not on my silks,” McDonald said.
“They would be pretty rich to stop people doing that when every other sport around the world is allowed sponsorship.
“It is like a restriction of trade. It’s ridiculous. It is generating another sponsorship for our industry in a sport in which sponsorship is declining.”
Racing Victoria said stewards would be taking a pragmatic approach to policing advertising on skivvies.
Thousand Guineas goes back to the future
Melbourne Racing Club is going back to the future. Club chairman John Kanga says the two-year experiment of staging the Thousand Guineas and Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield a week after the Melbourne Cup carnival needs to come to an end.
Another Prophet, right, wins the 2024 Thousand Guineas from Aeliana.Credit: Getty Images
Kanga says the club needs to return the group 1 events back to their original timeslots on the racing calendar.
“The previous MRC committee got it wrong and ignored the experts,” Kanga said in a statement.
“All the major breeders and owners agree that the Thousand Guineas is now four weeks too late and needs to go back to Caulfield Cup day so that it attracts the best fillies from the Flight Stakes, leads into the VRC Oaks or Empire Rose Stakes and allows those fillies enough time to spell for the autumn.
“Similarly, the Rupert Clarke Stakes needs to go back to its stand-alone feature day, which includes the Guineas preludes and leads into the Toorak Handicap.”
But Kanga says the MRC still wants to capitalise on its feature race meeting at the back-end of the spring carnival by adopting a joint proposal put forward by the Thoroughbred Racehorses Owners Association, Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria and the Australian Trainers Association.
It would involve staging a $1 million 1200m race for three-year-old fillies, which would upgrade the existing group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes to a group 1 race, as well as holding a $1 million group 1 1400m weight-for-age race – by relocating the Orr Stakes from the autumn.
The proposal would also bolster the mid-November meeting’s support card by moving the group 2 Sandown Guineas and group 3 Summoned Stakes back to that day, together with a new $400,000 two-year-old Magic Millions qualifying race.
“It will actually give us a real feature race day with proper destination races and the earlier part of the spring racing carnival at Caulfield will be bolstered and returned to what it was,” Kanga says.
“In my view it is a much better outcome and should be adopted in 2025. The recent positive changes at Racing Victoria will hopefully result in support for that proposal.”
Racing codes take gambling hit
An alarming drop in wagering turnover has created a flood of disturbing red ink in the annual reports of Victoria’s three racing codes.
Racing Victoria, Harness Racing Victoria and Greyhound Racing Victoria lost a combined $58 million in the past financial year.
Racing Victoria announced a $12 million loss last week, with wagering dropping 10.2 per cent to $7.9 billion in the past year. Gambling peaked at $9.1 billion during COVID-19 lockdowns.
New Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron MorrisonCredit: Scott Barbour/Racing Photos
Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron Morrison said in response to the loss that the sport’s governing body would be looking to save $10 million across the next 12 months by streamlining its media businesses as well as reviewing race programming.
He said RV was in talks with the trainers’ association about the possibility of more race-free days, as well as speaking to clubs about sharing resources, such as marketing, catering and back of house.
Racing Victoria is also conducting an in-depth review of the more heavily subsidised jumps racing, which will be finalised by the end of November.
HRV announced a $24 million loss for the 2024 financial year, and as a result has axed staff, is slashing prize money and is cutting back breeder bonus schemes.
At Greyhound Racing Victoria, the dogs’ governing body said it had restructured race programming and made “some staff cuts” in response to a $22 million financial year loss.
Take a punt on new towers
One way of helping prop up wagering during the spring carnival is investing in some more high-powered mobile phone towers.
Both Caulfield and Flemington became Wi-Fi go-slow zones on the major race days, a source of frustration for punters looking to place bets before races.
There is nothing worse than seeing the slow-turning circle of death on a betting app when you have just been tipped into a good thing.
Melbourne Cup runner Vauban has been sold to Australian connections.Credit: Getty Images
Melbourne Racing Club has already indicated that it will bring in extra portable towers at Caulfield to cope with the load next year, while Victoria Racing Club will surely follow suit at Flemington.
Werribee on the nose for Vauban
Thankfully, for all those punters who blew their once-a-year Melbourne Cup cash on Irish spruik horse Vauban – not once, but twice – they now know why the Irish raider failed so dismally – he hated Werribee.
It is one of the several excuses for consecutive Cup flops that have been put forward by Vauban’s new co-trainer, Gai Waterhouse.
“Emerging from six-weeks quarantine on a strange racecourse can distress some horses,” Waterhouse explained in a letter on her website. “Vauban didn’t seem to enjoy Werribee both years.”
The Hall Of Fame trainer also blamed long lead-up breaks (90 days and 58 days) into the Cup, as well as heat stress for Vauban’s downfall. But all that is about to change now that the 21-start galloper has been granted an Australian passport.
Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott have taken custody of the seven-year-old gelding from Irish trainer Willie Mullins after mega-rich owner Rich Ricci decided to offload him to Australian connections – for “less than” a widely reported figure of $2 million.
Now Waterhouse and Australian Bloodstock are offering up shares in Vauban, which is already “fully qualified for next year’s Cup”. Ricci has maintained a small slice of the former hurdler.
“Trained at Flemington by Adrian and my good self, and away from ‘wearisome Werribee’, I know you’ll see a different horse on the 1st Tuesday of November next year,” Waterhouse said. “Additionally, we will put a turn-of-foot in his legs.”
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