The Melbourne Cup weights are set for another change with Racing Victoria announcing on Friday they will not be raised at final acceptance time.
The change also applies to the Caulfield Cup.
It follows a Racing Australia rule change whereby Principal Racing Authorities are no longer bound to raise weights for Group I handicaps if the highest-weighted horse has less than 57kg at final acceptance time.
It is the second major recent change in Cup weights after it was announced last week that horses with original weights of 56kg or more in the Melbourne Cup would not be penalised if they won the Caulfield Cup.
RV will implement the latest new amendment for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups only, with all other Group 1 handicap races, including the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington, to remain the same.
RV Executive General Manager – Racing, Greg Carpenter, said the change to AR 103 (2) would provide greater certainty to connections in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups where weights are released more than a month before the races are conducted.
"The amendment to the rule has been implemented by Racing Victoria at the request of the Melbourne Racing Club and Victoria Racing Club and provides certainty for connections around what weight they will actually carry in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups," Carpenter said.
"Under the previous arrangements, the weights to be carried for these two races could significantly change in the week leading to the race and in the case of the Melbourne Cup final acceptances are taken less than 72 hours prior to the race being run.
"An increase in weights for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups could be viewed as detrimental to those horses higher in the weights, given it has the potential to impact a horse's performance more significantly in races over extended distances.
"Last year's Melbourne Cup, where the weights were raised 1kg at final acceptances, is a case in point. It could be argued that the performance of the default topweights, Big Orange and Our Ivanhowe, was impacted more over 3200m than those lower in the weights such as the winner Almandin, who had his weight lifted from 51kg to 52kg."
