As much as us racing tragics love the nostalgia of “The Valley we knew”, racing does not survive by standing still. The next chapter might just give us the best of both worlds, a fairer fight and the same electric heart that has made the Cox Plate what it is.
Bad luck is inevitable in racing. Whether it’s the wide-open spaces of Flemington or the tight-turning Valley, it happens everywhere. But when you’ve only got a 173-metre home straight, like The Valley, those hard-luck stories are always going to be more common.
We’ve all seen it a thousand times: a horse bolting behind heels, the jockey sitting motionless, nowhere to go, and the post arriving too soon. That’s the beauty and the brutality of The Valley. It’s why the track divides punters. You either love it for its theatre or hate it for its chaos. Often, it’s both.
In summary: it’s a prick of a punting track. It seems trainers are also preferencing big, spacious tracks like Pakenham, which hosts similar style night programs, is impacting Friday nights at The Valley.
I’m a lifelong racing fan. I want the sport to innovate, to modernise, to find new audiences. But I’ve also spent four decades following it fanatically because I love it just the way it is. And I do love The Valley, the quirks of the track, the sharp turns that demand courage, and the cauldron-like atmosphere when 30,000 people are jammed shoulder to shoulder for the WFA Championship of Australasia. On a Cox Plate night, there’s nothing like it anywhere in the world.
Like many punters, I’m sentimental about the current layout. It conjures memories of Cox Plate fields taking off “by the school”, of champions fanning seven, eight, nine wide around the home bend, and of the sound that hits you, a rolling roar that builds with each stride. You can’t fake that kind of history.
But sentiment only goes so far. Maybe the change The Valley is about to undertake, extending the home straight to 317 metres as part of its redevelopment, is actually a positive for punters. A longer run home will mean fewer flukey results, fewer “should’ve won” excuses, and more chances for the best horse on the day to show it. That can only be good for confidence in the product.
The challenge, of course, is keeping that unique, furnace-like atmosphere. The administrators insist it will be maintained. If they are right, and the new Valley keeps that feeling of horses surging out of the shadows and into a wall of sound, then maybe this evolution is exactly what racing needs, a track that honours its heritage but gives modern punters a fairer, cleaner contest.
Meanwhile, the facilities are tired and in desperate need of a refresh. Sure, The Valley is packed on Cox Plate Day, but no one goes there for the glamorous bars or world-class Wi-Fi, because neither exist.
Racing venues need to be more than a patch of grass and a few grandstand seats. To get people to the track year-round, they need to provide the comforts and attractions of the competition, be that AFL stadiums, movie theatres, restaurants, or any other leisure activity racing competes with. And of course, the biggest competitor of all, the comfort of one’s lounge room, where punters have everything they once had to go to the track for.
