Legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse at odds with suggestions to shorten the Victoria Derby

Legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse has entered the long-running debate over the possible change to the distance of Flemington’s iconic Victoria Derby.

The famous Group 1 race has been run over 2500m since 1973 but many think it’s possible this Saturday will be the last time the Derby will be at that trip.

Those in favour of change believe that running the race over 2500m is detrimental to the long-term performance of the thee-year-old horses who compete in it ... and say the best three-year-olds are now not even bothering with the event.

It is highly possible that next year the race could be trimmed to 2000m (it was originally run over one-and-a-half miles but was changed to 2400m in 1972 due to the metric system and then changed to 2500m to suit the long straight at Flemington).

Speaking at Flemington on Tuesday morning, Waterhouse didn’t hold back when asked about the possible change.

“Leave it the way it is,” Waterhouse fumed.

“It drives me crazy the way people have to tamper with things.

“It’s a derby, and it’s the precocious staying horse that races in it. I think it’s magical because it’s different.

“Who wants every race to be 10 furlongs (2000m) or six furlongs (1200m)?

“Let’s get with it. We’ve got no staying races. Everyone wants to bring stayers, but we’ve got no staying races. It’s wonderful.

“And you know the saddest thing? The saddest thing is that they’ve dropped the Derby winner backing up in the (Melbourne) Cup. That was magical.

“We had Nothin’ Leica Dane (win the Derby in 1995).

“And it caused so much media interest (because it ran in the Cup three days later - and came third).

“It’s the local horse that gets people to bet on the horses. Not the overseas horses, because they don’t know their form.”

After the rant, Waterhouse then turned the journalist who had posed the question and added: “You got a good answer on that one.”

The debate around the Derby distance has been raging for years and two years ago champion jockey Glen Boss said it could not be considered a “proper race” if it stayed at 2500m.

“I’ve been banging on about this for years, no one listens,” Boss said.

“It should be 2000m. If it’s spring three-year-olds, you’d get a much better field. It’s as simple as that.

“A Derby is a derby, who cares about the distance. Let them run over a mile-and-a-half when they’re proper three-year-olds at the end of the autumn when they’re mature, not now.

“You get 64-raters in there and all that sort of stuff. I’m sick of talking about it to be honest. Until there’s a change, it’s not going to be a proper race.

“It makes sense to everybody, but you know what, no one even bothers to change it.”

In 2019 Newgate Farm director Henry Field said “no one in their right mind with a proper three-year-old” would take a risk with their horse over 2500 metres, given they had not even turned three yet.

“When I was growing up, people ran their best three-year-olds in that race, but that’s not happening anymore,” he said.

“The proper three-year-olds are now going to the Cox Plate and are usually avoiding running in the VRC Derby,” he said.