With an unforgettable Black Caviar Lightning behind it, the Victoria Racing Club’s attention now turns to its March features with this year’s events not the only object of focus.
VRC chief executive Steve Rosich has revealed that the club is advanced in discussions at bolstering the club’s two showcase autumn races beyond this year.
Flemington will host the $1 million Australian Guineas (1600m) on March 5 before the Australian Cup (2000m) and Newmarket Handicap (1200m) seven days later.
The ‘Super Saturday’ features cornerstones of the Victorian autumn have been run on the same day since 2005, but this year could be the last that they are run together with a prizemoney injection likely in conjunction with any carnival reshape.
“The Newmarket and Australian Cup will feature heavily in our prizemoney submission for next season as part of a restructured autumn,” Rosich said.
“We’ve been having really collaborative discussions with RV over the last few months.
“The next step is the program being settled and that’ll be hopefully by the end of this month, early March and then the prizemoney submission will go in following that and that’ll be considered more fully over March and hopefully announced in April.”
This year’s Australian Cup and Newmarket Handicap will both be run for $1.5 million. Rosich would not be drawn on the proposed new purses for each race.
Another race that is expected to attract some love is the Group 2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
The 1400-metre event, which was first run in 1862, was a Group 1 race until 2004 and only had its purse increased from $200,000 to $300,000 this year, but VRC executive general manager of racing Leigh Jordon said the plan was to boost it even further.
“It used to be a Group 1 race and we’ve been wanting to build it back up,” Jordon said of the Sires’ Produce.
“It’s good to hear some people make comment about it. It’s definitely a race that we want to build.”