Bruce McAvaney’s bold idea to move dates of Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate are run to counter Sydney races

Sydney’s booming spring carnival has prompted calls for Racing Victoria to rethink how and when it runs its signature events — including a possible shift of the Melbourne Cup to later in November.

Legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney says a shake-up could help revitalise Victoria’s racing calendar, which has been hit hard by Racing NSW’s big money events, The Everest and The Golden Eagle.

He suggested moving the Cox Plate to after the Cup could give the Melbourne season a stronger finish and restore its dominance but stressed no formal discussion had been held.

While he doubts the Melbourne Cup will be moved anytime soon, he said other changes such as moving the weight-for-age Group 1 feature could give the Victorian racing season a true “grand final” finish.

“The Melbourne Cup will always be the No.1 race in the country and has a special place in Australian sport and culture, but the Melbourne spring has certainly been affected by the rise of the Sydney spring and there are some challenges for Melbourne,” McAvaney said.

“Ironically the Cup itself is the least affected by Sydney’s push deeper into spring. But the Cox Plate has been challenged the fact the King Charles is on the week before. I think Melbourne has got some deep thinking to do.

The congestion of big races at this time of year meant some jockeys or horses were not running in the Victorian races they normally would with connections opting for the bigger prizemoney on offer at the $20 million Everest and $10 million Golden Eagle.

McAvaney, who has called horse racing for 50 years and is one of the most well-respected voices in Australian sport, told The Nightly that these were just ideas from a man “who probably has too many ideas”, but argued Racing Victoria needed to do something to strike back at the Peter V’landys-led Racing NSW incursions.

“Sydney has established itself and is not going to change what they have done over the last few years,” McAvaney said.

“Melbourne have now got to decide ‘OK are we going to stay where we are or are we going to do something really radical and say to NSW, OK Peter why don’t you stay with what you’ve got, let’s have a moratorium, don’t go behind Derby Day or Five Diamonds Day, the week later. If you stay there then maybe we can make some changes to the Melbourne carnival’.

“What I am getting to is whether they would be prepared to shift the Melbourne Carnival by a couple of weeks and go deeper into November. It would be a very brave decision, and you would have to think through but it’s a possibility.

“How can Victoria have two or three weeks of clear air from NSW? There’s only one way to do that, and that’s to go deeper into November. And you can do that one of two ways by shifting the whole carnival back by a couple of weeks and maybe the Melbourne Cup is run on the third Tuesday in November.”

McAvaney said Racing Victoria was facing a dilemma over the future look of what the spring looks like on its Melbourne tracks and moving the Melbourne Cup from the first Tuesday to the third of November would not be the first time it had run on a different date.

When the Cup first started in 1861 it was run on a Thursday in October before being moved to the first Tuesday of November in 1875. During World War II it was run on a Saturday.

In a big picture sense, Victorian Racing has now lived with almost a decade of the Sydney spring having an extension, and in that time, the quality of their racing has been affected.

“They’re having to share things where they didn’t in the past. I think there’ll be some deep thinking going on,” McAvaney said. “I think the Melbourne Cup moving would be very hard for the Victoria Racing Club to come to terms with and to justify.”

McAvaney said The Everest was now the No.2 race in Australia, on par with the Cox Plate, behind the Melbourne Cup and the only thing holding back tomorrow’s Golden Eagle seriously challenging as a major meet was a strong crowd.

“NSW have got a great race, now they need to build it into a great race day,” McAvaney said.

And that was something he said Racing NSW was addressing by moving the race from Rosehill in Sydney’s west to Royal Randwick just outside Sydney’s CBD this year.

To counter these moves the Racing Victoria needed to look at making some bold calls.

“For the Victoria Racing Club any fine tuning their famous four-day carnival would be an unbelievably brave call, and maybe not the right course. I’m not saying they should do it. I’m saying it’s coming to a point where there’s three things that can happen,” McAvaney said.

“Leave it as it is. Sydney and Melbourne have still got great carnivals. They had a great Cox Plate. They’re going to have a very good Melbourne Cup. So, leave it as it is, or you could move the whole thing by a couple of weeks, and they could thrive. They would need an absolute gilt-edge guarantee from NSW that they don’t go deeper, or you might put the Cox Plate on after the Melbourne Cup (to the Saturday 11 days later).”

V’landys, who also runs the NRL, is unlikely to agree to any compromises with Racing Victoria, making it harder for them to revamp their carnival without looking like they were waving the white flag.

“That’s the problem, it would probably. And that would be a pretty big thing for Racing Victoria to swallow,” McAvaney said.

“There would be a sense of caving in. But there’s no way that NSW are going to go back. They’ve put a flag in the ground and they’re not moving from it. They’ve established one remarkable phenomenon Everest, and they’ve established a very successful Golden Eagle. Their challenge now is to get a bigger crowd to The Golden Eagle, which they’re trying to do by going to Randwick.

“With the Cox Plate being run at Flemington next year, it will have a very different look toward next year’s carnival. So perhaps that reset of a Cox Plate will provide a catalyst for some deeper thinking.

“It’s (the Melbourne Carnival) not broken, it’s being affected and only Racing Victoria knows what the bottom line is in terms of how it affects them economically.

The turf war between the two States ultimately meant punters were missing out on seeing the best horses and jockeys with McAvaney pointing out Golden Eagle favourite Autumn Glow in the past would have run in the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington.

Australia’s best jockey James McDonald chose The Everest over the Caulfield Cup five horses raced in the King Charles III Stakes that would have traditionally run in the Cox Plate.

“Victoria’s got great racing, and they’ve had a terrific Caulfield Cup and I think they’ve got the most interesting Melbourne Cup they’ve had in years and they’ve got a very strong (Victoria) Derby on tomorrow,” McAvaney said.

“In a big picture sense, Victorian Racing has now lived with almost a decade of the Sydney spring having an extension, and in that time, the quality of their racing has been affected.

“They understand that better than I understand that, and it’s probably come to a point now where they will make a long-term commitment to leaving the carnival exactly as it is, or perhaps having a think about how can we get a little bit more free air?”