By David Nagel
Pakenham Racing Club CEO Blair Odgers can see a bright future for the club’s most prestigious race on the calendar despite the Pakenham Cup initially appearing to be snubbed by Racing Victoria (RV) this week.
RV announced key enhancements to the Spring Racing Carnival (SRC), which include the addition of a new Group-1 meeting that will take place a week after the famous four-day carnival at Flemington.
The new raceday, designed to give the racing industry a stronger foothold in the sporting landscape in November, has resulted in several key race dates being pushed back a week.
This year, the new Thousand Guineas meeting will take place at Caulfield on Saturday 18 November, pushing the Cranbourne Cup back to 25 November.
The Zipping Classic meeting at Caulfield will now be run on 2 December, with the Ballarat Cup – usually a staple of Spring – now becoming a permanent summer fixture, to be run this year on 9 December.
While the two meetings at Caulfield – and country cups at Cranbourne and Ballarat – have been set in stone, no set date has yet been fixed for the Pakenham Cup, run in the first week of December since the PRC moved to Tynong in 2015.
The obvious decision is to push the Pakenham Cup back a week, but Mr Odgers suggested that both RV and the PRC were assessing their options.
“We support the push to strengthen the spring carnival in November, and we have acknowledged that the change was likely to have an impact on the Pakenham Cup, which is an issue we have been working through,” Mr Odgers said.
“Representatives are coming out to Pakenham next week, including the Chief Executive of RV on Monday, so I’m pretty confident we’ll find a good position for the Pakenham Cup going forward.
“The likely option is that we get pushed back one week, which puts us on December 16 this year, which really doesn’t have a substantial impact on the club.
“But we’re using this opportunity with Racing Victoria to have a broader review of what our metropolitan raceday might look like.”
And it’s not just the date of the Pakenham Cup that could change, with the PRC open to all options put forward.
“It’s not so much the cup date, we’ve been very comfortable with the positioning of the cup, our track likes the warmth of the summer, the kiykuyu loves it, but there are some benefits and challenges associated with that time of year,” Mr Odgers said.
“Currently we’re at 2500-metres, and it’s a big ask to have staying horses up for that long, through the Melbourne Cup, Zipping Classic and Ballarat Cup.
“That provides challenges in attracting the best field.
“What is the best distance, the appropriate prizemoney, and how to we attract the best horses?
“We’ve more been focussed with RV on what is best for the Pakenham Cup itself, maintaining its tradition and prestige, but modernising it so it’s a desirable race for owners and trainers to target.
“We’re open to all options that are best for the industry, but uphold the history and tradition of the Pakenham Cup.
“We’re not wedded to a distance; we need to modernise the race and innovate around it to make it the best it can possibly be.
“The possibility is that we look back at this change of programming and say that Pakenham has come out better for the experience.”
RV Executive General Manager-Racing, Matt Welsh, insists the Pakenham Cup is still a prominent fixture on the racing calendar.
“The dates of the Cranbourne, Ballarat and Pakenham Cups will change next season, but they will retain prominent timeslots where the clubs can continue to deliver fantastic meetings for fans and participants,” Mr Welsh said.
“Work is continuing with clubs on the broader spring program and this will intersect with our annual prizemoney process.
“We will have more announcements to make in the weeks and months ahead.”
