The traditional rule of media management is always dump something bad or potentially controversial on a Friday afternoon.
Racing Victoria, in fairness, didn’t necessarily release the latest changes to their pop-up race, the All-Star Mile.
They just gave the details to their media arm, racing.com, at 2pm on the Friday before Christmas.
Life, as they say, is about timing.
Not that there’s anything even too controversial in the changes, which makes it an even weirder decision not to send it around.
It’s even possible the race will be better with what is planned.
Perhaps the quiet release is because the All-Star Mile is still seen by some influential figures as a complete waste of money. It was once worth $5 million, while to the frustration of some, many millions of dollars were also spent on marketing the race and a voting mechanism for punters to choose which horses would compete.
It was Victoria’s answer to The Everest when pop-up races started to become in vogue.
Despite best efforts, the ASM didn’t really stick [and we all know how The Everest has gone].
The race, the baby of then Racing Victoria General Manager of Racing Greg Carpenter, was sunk by shallow fields, horses being voted into the race then not accepting to run and shit horses that shouldn’t be competing for millions of dollars.
There were some editions worthy of the cash. The first ever ASM was won by super mare Mystic Journey at Flemington while Mugatoo won a classic finish at Moonee Valley in 2021. Other winners include quality runners such as Mr Brightside, Pride of Jenni and Tom Kitten.
The powerful figures who hated the race slowly had their way. The race is suffering its death by a million cuts [$3 million to be exact, RV announced in July prizemoney for the race was now only worth $2 million].
In some ways it’s a shame – the race has continually rated at Group 1 level and proved at times a notable form race.
But the race is slowly heading towards irrelevance. The race is now to be based at Flemington full-time in another effort to make it gain traction.
Now to the changes RV and the Victorian Racing Club announced on Friday to the conditions of the race.
Prizemoney will now only be paid down to eighth, like other major races. First is to be worth $1.15 million and this has probably been done to eliminate some runners who took their start knowing they had nothing to lose as they’ll pick up good cash anyway. They’ve reduced the amount of win-and-you’re-in races to four: The Elms Stakes, the Futurity, the Blamey and the Australian Guineas.
RV will also allow for a 16-horse field at weight-for-age conditions and be stoked if they get a strong enough field to justify it [only seven started in 2025].
Perhaps the only controversial element of the changes is how RV and the VRC plan to choose wildcard entry into the race. According to RV, they’ll choose horses based on “emerging talent” and those based outside of Victoria.
The irony here, of course, is many Victorian administrators have blamed interstate trainers for the ASM’s lack of success – some trainers have had their horses voted into the race but waited until late before making the decision not to run. It, in effect, made thousands of votes redundant and probably killed it off.
- The removal of the voting mechanism in regards to the All-Star Mile was done by my business partner, Matt Welsh, when he was working for Racing Victoria.
