News

Sydney's lucre to lure Cox Plate champion

14th Nov 2013

The Australian - Stuart Honeysett - Thursday, 14 November 2013

COX Plate winner Shamus Award is expected to add the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes to his next campaign in a sign that the decision to transform Sydney's autumn carnival into one of the world's richest race events has been a winning move.

Trainer Danny O'Brien indicated yesterday he would not deviate from Shamus Awards's target of the Australian Guineas at Flemington in March, but a trip to Sydney was more than likely immediately afterwards.

The change in schedule comes after Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club announced on Tuesday it was transforming its carnival into an event on consecutive Saturdays that would carry more than $18m in prizemoney. The Queen Elizabeth Stakes is the showpiece of the carnival and at $4m will become the richest 2000m race in the world -- worth more than Australia's weight for age classic, the $3m WS Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

"Obviously it's a fantastic thing for racing across Australia to really see them ramp up the Sydney carnival to a level that it probably deserves to be, and we're very excited about it," O'Brien said. "Look, Shamus Award's initial targets are down here. He'll be running in the Futurity and the Australian Guineas and these sort of initial races down here but obviously there are some tempting targets up in Sydney.

"I guess the Queen Elizabeth (would be a target) and the Doncaster would be an option as well. They're both bloody good prizemoney and you can't argue with the direction it's taken."

O'Brien said he was hoping that Sydney's decision to lift prizemoney for its autumn carnival would prompt Melbourne to follow suit for its spring carnival, which boasts the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.

The Queen Elizabeth Stakes isn't the only Sydney race to benefit, with the $3m Doncaster Mile (1600m) and the $2.5m TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) also receiving cash boosts to make them respectively the richest mile and sprint races across the globe.

O'Brien isn't the only trainer reconsidering his options, with Darley's Peter Snowden admitting he was going to have to go back to the drawing board after mapping out the autumn programs for his horses a month ago.

The Sydney trainer agreed that Sydney's move would have a positive effect for other states.

"When one has a good carnival, the other tries to stiffen up to match it," Snowden said. "It's an enormous amount of money."