The common complaint is Australia has too many Group 1 races, but there are four races likely to be boosted the premier status in the next couple of years to reflect shortcoming in our top level program compared to other international jurisdictions.
There are Group 1 races that should be on the chopping block with the Victoria Derby, the Metropolitan and Perth’s Railway Stakes surviving the first revision of the black type program in nearly a decade last week.
There will be Group 1s downgraded in coming years and it will reflect that more than 80 per cent of horses bred in Australia are sprinter-milers.
So, unsurprisingly the four races to upgraded are all at 1200m and fill holes in the schedule.
The Quokka
The slot race has become West Australia’s best race in just a couple of years. Its resume has it ready to be given Group status when the second half of the year changes are announced by Asian Racing Federation later in 2026. The trade-off will be losing one of the three Group 1 races in the Perth summer, most likely the Railway Stakes, which is seen as lead into the 1800m Northerly Stakes.
THE FAIRYTALE CONTINUES 🧩
JIGSAW WINS THE QUOKKA‼️SEVEN STRAIGHT WINS FOR THE MOST IMPROVED HORSE IN AUSTRALIA ⭐ pic.twitter.com/PfOYaXIqmF
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) April 18, 2026
The Arrowfield Sprint
This three-year-old sprint during The Championships will be an autumn mirror of the Coolmore Stud Stakes, only in Sydney. Winners like Tempted, Joliestar and Classique Legend show the standing of the race. If a race is to lose its Group 1 status to allow this to happen it might the Canterbury Stakes, or one of the four Group 1 sprints in the Melbourne autumn. If it becomes a Group 1, it would be swapped weekends with TJ Smith to encourage the three-year-olds to take on our best sprinters.
The Percy Sykes Stakes
Australia is the only major racing jurisdictions without a Group 1 for two-year-old fillies. Since this Championships race has been lifted to Group 2 level in 2017, the winners include Shoals, Away Game and Tempted. It will fill a hole in the program and give fillies a chance for Group 1 against their own sex.
The cherry on top! 🍒
Cherry Bomshell makes it three in a row and adds the G2 TAB Percy Sykes Stakes to the list!
@BenThompson2102 @archibaldracing @aus_turf_club @Austbloodstock pic.twitter.com/q18cBeJZBf
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 11, 2026
The Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes
While there are two three-year-old fillies mile Group 1s in the spring, there is no sprint at the highest level. The Melbourne Racing Club moved this race to after the Cup carnival last year and made it a $1 million affair.
In doing so stated their lofty goal. “Currently a Group 3 event, the MRC is striving for the Thoroughbred Club Stakes to be upgraded to Group 1 status, given the absence on the Australian racing calendar of a 1200m Group 1 contest for three year old fillies,” Club chair Cam Fisher said. It would come after the Coolmore with the Red Roses in Cup week being a lead-in.
Winners and losers
For new Group 1 races there has to be those that will lose their status. Those race are easy to identify but there needs to be a willingness to take the downgrades to make the pattern better.
There are number of Group 1 races could easily be downgraded, Derbies and Oaks are at the top of most lists, along with a plethora of staying contests don’t reflect the strength of the Australian industry.
The way to save the Victoria Derby may be to follow the lead of the French Derby run 2100m, while the Kentucky Derby is 2000m.
The Derby at Flemington is one of the biggest betting races of the carnival, and there are concerns that taking it back to 2000m would compromise the full field it usually attracts.
There had been no change for nearly a decade to the pattern, which should be evolving in Australia to show off the strength of our racing.
The way the international pattern is judged is by the best ratings of the first-four home in a Group 1.
It works in other countries were horses stick to their best trips, if they are milers they race over a mile, middle-distance horse rarely racing below 2000m and while stayers are always running at 2400m or above.
Measured to suit
Australia is different in that we race our best through the trips from 1400m to 2000m.
It means races like the Memsie Stakes, Winx Stakes and the Futurity, all at 1400m, rate highly because of our best horses are using them as starting point to get to their ultimate targets.
They should all be endangered of going to Group 2 level given their nature.
Some of the best races in the world are Group 2s like the Hardwicke Stakes and Prix Foy that are building blocks to Group 1 careers.
It would make sense for the Canterbury Stakes to join the Challenge Stakes at Group 2 on the same day and become an identifier of talent.
If that was to happen Melbourne would have to lose one or two Group 1 sprints in its autumn.
There is a need for a Group 1 race across the Christmas-New year period, where Queensland could put a Kingsford Smith Stakes or Doomben 10,000 with the Magic Millions carnival, another innovation that has improved Australian racing to follow.
While Queensland Oaks should take a leaf out the Yorkshire Oaks in England and become all aged race. A move to Tatts Tiara day would make a showcase for the fair sex to close the Group 1 season.
Australia has a flamboyant racing industry that needs to use the pattern to tell general public this is when you will see the best against best.
There are too many top-level races that simply don’t provide that showcase. There is not a perfect number but at the moment there are too many Group 1s.
