Brisbane carnival changes

Glen Boss is favoured to win Saturday's Brisbane Cup, but the champion rider said he would not be concerned if the race was never run again.

Just seven horses were paid-up for on Wednesday to contest Saturday's $400,000 Brisbane Cup and Boss said he feared the race, which reverts back to 3200 metres this year, was no longer viable in the face of great change in the sport, highlighted by Saturday's inaugural Q22.

"If it is not going to do your club any good promotion-wise or for your turnover, you have to look to get rid of it," he said.

"If you are running a business and something is costing you money and you can't fix it, you chop it.

"There's this thing about romance but it's not about that in these times. It's about running a profitable business.

"You don't really need a two-mile race or that sort of staying handicap at this time of year. We've got enough of them in Australia. Once you get to that special distance, you are really narrowing the pool of horses that could possibly run in it.

"That is just the way it is. It's this time of the year when the stayers just aren't around. Traditionalists might blow up, but it is not going to do anyone any good as far as turnover or promotion and so it's no real benefit to the club.

"If it disappeared, people won't miss it."

Of the seven final acceptances, Boss' mount Rondinella boasts the highest rating of just 104 and while she was runner-up in the Sydney Cup, she has not won a race since February 2019.

The three-time Melbourne Cup winner said this year's birth of the $1.2 million weight-for-age Q22 (2200m) race emphasises where modern racing is going.

"No one's talking about the Cup," he said. "They are all taking about the Q22. We've got a really exciting horse (Zaaki) coming through it and you'll get that every year from now on.

"That horse that goes through the Hollindale (Stakes) into this race. Good horses will go through that series and the Cup will just fade into the background."

Boss said Queensland racing might be better without a Brisbane Cup.

"The Q22 can be the flagship stayers' race," Boss said. "Exciting young horses are going to emerge through this race.

"You might as well put your eggs into the one basket. Something that is new and exciting like the Q22.

"It's so different to say the Melbourne Cup. It is part of a series of races that builds to the race. You can go the Cox Plate route through weight-for-age races and try and avoid a penalty or the Caulfield Cup route and people come along for the ride right through the spring.

"Peter V'landys has done a great thing making changes in NSW and Victoria now has The All-Star Mile, which is a very good race. Racing is changing. Tradition has just gone out the window. There are a lot of races that need to be a bit more exciting and more modern.

"So many horses winter in Brisbane and go to Melbourne for the spring and that's been a successful recipe, so you are going to get some quality horses go through the Q22 and then aim up at Melbourne for the big races.

"You've got to embrace change. It is always going to happen, so you embrace it, you don't fight it."