It's been a meteoric rise for the Gold Coast Magic Millions race day but one recent change to the meeting's format still has many industry participants scratching their heads.
From a $3.462 million program in 2015 to the $10 million blockbuster it is today, the Magic Millions carnival on the Gold Coast has come a long way in a short space of time.
But with radical change there is always going to be some level of disapproval, regardless of how bright the future might look.
And it takes only a quick glance over the nine-race card to see the glaring programming flaw that is showing blatant disregard for some Magic Millions graduates.
I had not felt compelled to raise this issue until last Saturday at Randwick where, in the minutes after Crack Me Up (pictured Steve Hart) won the Villiers Stakes (1600m), one journalist asked winning trainer Liam Birchley: "So you'll go to the 1800m race at the Magic Millions now, yeah?"
To which Birchley replied: "No they don't have that anymore for some reason, so we'll have to go back to 1400m. To some degree it's not going to suit us but it's worth a shot."
If I was a trainer lucky enough to have a horse win a Group II over 1600m at Randwick, why would I want to go back to 1400m around a tight turning circuit like the Gold Coast?
This is the reality some trainers must now face, after officials made the bizarre decision in 2016 to increase the 1800m Stayers Cup to 2200m. Due to distance constraints at the Gold Coast track – most notably the absence of a 1600m start – the revised format left no race on the card between 1400m and 2200m.
What didn't seem to enter the minds of the powers at be was the possibility of having both the 1800m and 2200m? Or better still an 1800m and 2400m event? Surely this would represent a more even distribution of prizemoney rather than overloading the sprint races.
As alluded to earlier, milers that emerge from races like the Villiers Stakes (1600m) and Bernborough Handicap (1600m), would be far better suited over 1800m at the Gold Coast rather than reverting to 1400m on a typically on-pace favoured track.
The out-and-out stayers coming through December races like the Summer Cup (2000m) at Randwick and Shoot Out Quality (2200m) at Doomben, could then be saved for a 2200m or 2400m Magic Millions race – preferably the latter as it provides a longer run to the first turn.
The counterargument to this, of course, is that Australian breeders aren't producing enough stoutly-bred horses for the Magic Millions to host two races at 1800m and beyond.
But if you flip open the catalogue for the upcoming Gold Coast Yearling Sale you'll note more and more stamina is being integrated back into Australian pedigrees, as seen by the strong representation of sires like Adelaide, Animal Kingdom, (It's A) Dundeel, Reliable Man, and So You Think.
Where will the progeny of those stallions run? They are already next to no chance of figuring in the $2 million 2YO and 3YO races so why not give them the chance to run in an 1800m and 2400m race?
This proposed programming adjustment would go some way to ensuring there is still an incentive for people to invest in horses other than one-dimensional sprinters. After all, it was only this year we sawBoom Timefinish fifth in the Stayers Cup nine months before his Caulfield Cup triumph.
