Your favorite races in Australia
Printed From: Thoroughbred Village
Category: Horse Racing - Public Forums
Forum Name: Racing Forum
Forum Description: General discussion about thoroughbred horse racing
URL: https://forum.thoroughbredvillage.com.au/forum_posts.asp?TID=63677
Printed Date: 24 Apr 2024 at 10:37pm
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Topic: Your favorite races in Australia
Posted By: ChrisB
Subject: Your favorite races in Australia
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 3:23pm
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Ok. So i grew up loving the Melbourne Cup but in recent years I've completely gone off it. Too many Internationals, lining up form etc etc. So my 5 favorite races that i look forward to, in order, are as follows; Cox Plate Doncaster VRC Sprint Queen Elizabeth Newmarket. Yours? No right or wrong here, just opinion! |
Replies:
Posted By: Tlazolteotl
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 3:42pm
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Depends entirely on who is in the race. ------------- An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought. Simon Cameron |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 3:48pm
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Of course that increases or decreases the appeal. The question is on a yearly basis disregarding individual cases of star horses |
Posted By: Second Chance
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 3:51pm
| Good thread. Hope there's plenty of responses. |
Posted By: Passing Through
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 3:55pm
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Cox Plate Golden Slipper All Star Mile ------------- |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:11pm
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All Star Mile? Surely taking the piss....ha |
Posted By: furious
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:14pm
| The golden slipper. As a child it was my birthday treat. A great day and race. |
Posted By: Passing Through
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:14pm
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It says favorite. ------------- |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:24pm
That's interesting as I've never been that interested in the Slipper. But with those memories no wonder is a special race to you. That's what i was looking for. |
furious wrote:Posted By: djebel
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:27pm
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Melbourne Cup Caulfield Cup Doncaster Handicap Newmarket Handicap TJ Smith Stakes The Spring Stake Newcastle. ------------- reductio ad absurdum |
Posted By: Carioca
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:34pm
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Breeders Plate Gimcrack Stk. G. Slipper Epsom AJC Derby Doncaster. Love em all , can't split fwiw. 
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Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:35pm
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Yeah i probably forgot the Caulfield Cup a little. Always a great race |
Posted By: Xavier
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:39pm
Just to be different  1. Grand Annual at the Bool / May Carnival 2. Swan Hill carnival in June 3. Oakbank at Easter 4. Casterton Cup Day 5. Dederang Picnics ------------- Karl and Susan Kennedy are my heroes |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:43pm
Never been to zny but I'm sure great days! Down here in Tassie the Hobart Cup (where i am) is pretty ordinary but the Launnie Cup is a great festival day. |
Posted By: stayer
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 4:52pm
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Caulfield Cup Melbourne Cup Doncaster Golden Slipper |
Posted By: Lord Hybrow
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 6:38pm
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1. Grand Annual Steeplechase - Warrnambool 5500m Just love going on that 7 minute journey in the ultimate test of horse & rider. 2. Melbourne Cup - Flemington 3200m Still love the race & it’s iconic status. But I agree that is losing its lustre with the field being contaminated with too many o/s trained runners. 3. Great Eastern Steeple - Oakbank 4950m For the same reasons as the GA Steeple 4. Any Steeplechase at Casterton - 3800m Live hedges, open paddocks, and as Rick McIntosh says ‘where the Glenelg meets the Wannon’. 5. VRC Hotham Hcp - Flemington 2500m Ok, a bit of a weird one. But I’ve always loved the theatre that this creates being the last desperate throw of the dice to qualify for the Melb Cup. |
Posted By: Good Old Ted
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 7:15pm
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Grand Annual at Warrnambool Caulfield Guineas Doncaster |
Posted By: Afros
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 8:04pm
It made me giggle that the top 4 are G1 Handicaps  Top 5 are all amongst my favourites as well, alongside the Cox Plate and Oakleigh Plate, probably the Stradbroke as well as a Queenslander. |
Posted By: maccamax
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 8:39pm
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ANY open grade or black type Races to 2040M . All Open 2 Y/O & 3 Y/O races to 1600m F & M races to 1600m |
Posted By: jacko1
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 8:59pm
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Doncaster Cox Plate (most interesting of the big spring 3 for me now since it has strong local chances) Tancred (sure it's not the race it once was, but I still love the 2400m WFA concept) Cantala Stakes (bit like the doncaster, big field and lots of chances)
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Posted By: djebel
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 9:03pm
They are simply handicaps. ------------- reductio ad absurdum |
Posted By: Speediskey
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 9:05pm
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1. Cox Plate - WFA Championship 2. Golden Slipper - Always a great race 3. The Everest - Highest quality sprint each year 4. JJ Atkins - Usually the best reference as to which two year olds will be top three year olds.
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Posted By: Tlazolteotl
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 7:49am
The melbourne cup has jumped the shark as far as I'm concerned. ------------- An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought. Simon Cameron |
Posted By: Carioca
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 8:46am
Such is our want,.....long live the OZ tradition.
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Posted By: Gay3
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 8:51am
Well that saved a lot of typing.............or none at all they're the exact 3 I had in mind but was too lazy to write in any detail, thanks LH  ------------- Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it! |
Posted By: acacia alba
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 9:02am
My favourite race is the Coonabarabran Cup . ( Thats where I met my OH over 25 years ago  )------------- animals before people. |
Posted By: Mayor
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 10:14am
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Blue Diamond Stks Caulfield Guineas Lightning Stks Newmarket Hcp The Cup Cox Plate (Sorry about the Victorian focus) ------------- Mayor |
Posted By: Mr Grieves
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 1:49pm
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The Cups Cox Plate Newmarket Goodwood Doncaster Tancred |
Posted By: furious
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 1:55pm
| Yes I love the Tancred also. Really miss it now it's not of Golden Slipper Day. |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2019 at 2:38pm
Yeah having gun sprinters back for the Lightning, after quiet months beforehand, is something i look forward to as well. |
Posted By: LuthersLuck
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 4:54am
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Cox Plate - can’t go past it as the WFA championship Doncaster - consistently the best mile race in the country and my favourite time of year Golden Slipper - a guilty pleasure, but I just love the build up, watching the 2yo’s emerge Apollo Stakes - biased because it was the first Stakes race Dad took me to (Red Anchor) but it remains a race that attracts a lot of top class runners returning for the Autumn, as do several races on the program on that race day. A very good opportunity to see the best horses without the crowds. |
Posted By: TIGER
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 5:58am
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Cessnock Jungle Juice Cup Toowoomba Weetwood Kalgoorlie Cup Birdsville Cup Darwin Cup Nothing like country racing ------------- EAD |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 2:01pm
| Launnie Cup is a great day out, no doubt similar to those |
Posted By: Majestic
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 6:54pm
| Any race a horse I own wins 😂👍🍾🥂✌️👌 |
Posted By: Lord Hybrow
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 6:04am
I’m intrigued as why some have nominated the GS as one of their favourite races. Rosehill today has got a fantastic race card. But personally, in terms of interest & excitement I don’t even have it rated in the top 5 races being run today. I’m much more excited about the Ryder, Rawson, Guineas, Manion Cup & Galaxy The GS itself I can just never get enthusiastic about. They’re a bunch of 2yo’s who’ve only had a few starts racing for over $3m, just seems like hype over substance. |
Posted By: furious
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 6:16am
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Because I work for this industry and the Golden Slipper changed the face of Australian Racing. Some would say for the worst. I don't think so. Speed is always essential in a thoroughbred. Golden Slipper speed is now short changed. They used to then take them over at least a 1600m trip as a three year old. Too often they don't now. That could be undermining the standing of the race. But I'm off to the races today. And appart from the Slipper I get to see Winx and The Autumn Sun and wonder if we are seeing the next superstar of the Australian Turf. No one has stood up yet but lets say Lonhro is having a blinder of a two year old season both as a sire and grandsire. Do his stock like it wet? Can Medaglia D'oro do it again? Will the Snitzel mudlarks both his daughter and grandson come out to play? Commands is getting a pretty good look in. The new next generation sires are in there with a terrific chance. So many questions. They may be a bunch of two year olds but they are the cream of their crop. Every other race you mention get parts of the cream of their generation - but usually just part of. Because there are so many variables as they get older and distance preferences come into play.
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Posted By: Lord Hybrow
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 6:50am
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Thanks for sharing furious, great reply. Love your enthusiasm for the sport, have a great day out there today 👍 |
Posted By: LuthersLuck
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 7:25am
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Really well said Furious. For me it’s the build up, seeing the field take form from the first two year old races on Epsom Day in October, through to the Silver Slipper, the MM, the various Inglis races, the Blue Diamond, the Black Opal and then the weekly qualifying races as the Autumn carnival builds. As a youngster, even the old Brambles Classic at Kembla and Penfolds Classic at Newcastle would warrant a sneaky listen on the transistor radio at a school. Then there is the breeding, watching the new sires emerge, often having been fans of the them as racehorses a few years earlier. It would be fascinating to see a first year sire come along and dominate, like in the mid 80’s when the ill fated Adraan came out of nowhere and had about 4 or 5 in the field (Magic Flute, Bataan and Khaaptivaan come to mind), only to be beaten by a one of the last good horses produced by a veteran local sire. It was to be Adraan’s one and only Australian crop from memory. It’s those two unique factors that put the GS on my list. |
Posted By: Carioca
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 9:48am
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As far as the Golden Slipper is concerned I go back to the very first when the great sire Star Kingdom blew them all out of the water winning the first five, very hard to forget moments like that imo, especially the first one Todman.
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Posted By: Lord Hybrow
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 10:43am
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No doubt Carioca, looking at the records of some of the early GS winners is fascinating. Todman, Fine & Dandy, Sky High, etc all went on to have great racing careers and win proper feature races as older horses. But looking at the last decade of GS winners (apart from Pierro) it’s not a very inspiring honour roll. |
Posted By: Carioca
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 11:31am
| Ya know Lord Hybrow I do go on at times about the "old days" but I've seen the difference in so many ways in regard to training , feeding and the durability of being able to extend the careers of some of the early winners and longevity of their careers makes the memories so easy and that includes the beaten brigade with the likes of Wenona Girl and the odds on favourite that fell and broke his ribs Imagile, the photo of the AJC Derby the following year was worth a thousand words, the only reason Tulloch didn't start in the Slipper was because the sire had to be nominated and alas Khorosan (spelling) was not and there was no second way to get in like today. cheers mate. |
Posted By: ChrisB
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2019 at 12:28pm
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Yes i must admit I've never got that excited about the Golden Slipper either. But some excellent replies here to justify, great discussion
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