Racing Victoria has recently sparked conversation around pushing the Victorian Spring Carnival back a number of weeks in order to race further into November. This has now become somewhat of a reality with Racing Victoria set to break a 100-year tradition and move the date of the prestigious Cox Plate, back to a potential post-Melbourne Cup date of November 25, two and a half weeks after the race that stops the nation. The change of date may also be accompanied by an increase in prize money and the beginning of a rejigged Spring Carnival.
Such a move will impact the whole spring dynamic and begs the question of whether it is really worth changing a 100+ year tradition. Racing Victoria sees a window in late October and into November with football codes AFL and NRL being done for the year and just before the cricket starts to ramp up. They have also considered the weather at this time of year and how that may attract more people to the races and may create more of a spectacle as well as more fair tracks with the weather really starting to warm up into November.
If this change were to occur, however, it will have major impacts on Coc Plate contenders’ Spring campaigns which may be detrimental to other major races on the Spring calendar. Regular kick-off points for Sydney siders like Anamoe and Mo’unga include the Winx stakes in mid-August but this race may be bypassed for a lot of contenders in order to avoid being up for too long and avoid an unnecessarily extended preparation. The Might and Power Stakes is often the final lead-up race before the Cox Plate held two weeks before the great race, however, this will no longer be the occasion with the new concept of Champions Day and the Champions Stakes on the final day of the Flemington carnival now likely to become the final tune-up for Cox Plate contenders should the move take place.
If the move of Australia’s greatest weight-for-age race towards the end of November, after the Melbourne Cup, were to occur it would send shockwaves through the racing community and no doubt come with its controversy. It will certainly be interesting to see if Racing Victoria goes through with its decision as it will change the shape of not only the spring carnival but the whole racing calendar.
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Just crazy to think they’d move such a historic race