Add to that the hype around Australian racing, an army of successful Kiwis led by James McDonald and Chris Waller, and the knowledge of the Australian product among New Zealand punters and the last at Ellerslie or Trentham is no longer the “get out stakes”.
It is just the race five minutes before the next at Caulfield.
The growth of interest and turnover in Australian racing has, of course, overall been good for New Zealand racing.
Put simply, the New Zealand TAB pays next to nothing for the costs of running Australian racing, makes a profit from it and can put that money back into New Zealand racing.
And in spring and summer it can lead to mega days, such as October 18 this year.
That is Livamol Stakes Day at Ellerslie, Everest Day in Sydney and the Caulfield Cup in Melbourne.
If that isn’t your idea of a good time, you are probably reading the wrong story right now.
But in winter the New Zealand interest in Australian racing doesn’t so much die as go into hibernation.
Punter fatigue is undoubtedly a factor, with plenty of people feeling “raced out” after The Championships in Sydney and that has been exaggerated in the past two years by fewer New Zealand-trained winning chances at the Queensland carnival.
It also doesn’t help that no New Zealand-trained horse won a Group 1 in Australia last season.
If a Kiwi-trained horse you knew was favourite to win the Queensland Derby you might make the time to watch the race or even have a bet.
Without using your phone, try remembering who won the Queensland Derby this year? Or almost any other feature race at the carnival for that matter?
The reality is, as poor as some New Zealand racing can be on heavy winter tracks, the stuff coming out of Australia isn’t much better, it’s just worth more.
There is less Jmac or Damian Lane as they rest up or go ride somewhere warmer and the names in the races all blend into one.
That started to change last Saturday when Via Sistina was back and winning in Sydney, but there were no New Zealand-trained horses and we had some decent racing with the Foxbridge Plate meeting at home.
Today is different. Today we start dividing up the pie again. We have two interesting local meetings at Whanganui and Riccarton but while the Guineas in the river city should be a lot of fun, it doesn’t contain many appointment viewing horses.
Caulfield does.
A Kiwi superstar of last season, Damask Rose, returns as a last-start winner of our richest ever race, the NZB Kiwi, as well as a Karaka Millions 3-Year-Old.
Now trained at Te Akau’s Cranbourne base, she contests the A$200,000 Cockram Stakes over 1200m and despite drawing the ace she has drifted from $7 to $12.
Her spring form will be an interesting measuring stick for what may lie ahead for the stars of last season’s 3-year-old crop this campaign.
Later at Caulfield the former New Zealand-trained hero Mr Brightside, probably one of the better-known horses to many Kiwi punters, returns in the A$1 million Memsie.
He will be accompanied by Here To Shock, last season’s BCD Sprint winner at Te Rapa, NZ-bred Antino, Fangirl and the talented Treasurethe Moment.
Real horses, in races you know the names of. You can also chuck in ex-pat jocks Mick Dee and Daniel Stackhouse to boost the Kiwi parochialism.
From next week, the Saturday transtasman tennis match for punters’ attention, back and forth, back and forth, will be in full swing.
We will have our best back at Ellerslie for the Group 1 Proisir Plate, and Alabama Lass and Karaka Millions winner La Dorada clash just hours later in the Group 1 Moir Stakes at The Valley.
New Zealand racing, led by a resurgent Ellerslie, will need to be better, slicker, more professional and better informed to win the race for punters’ attention because starting today, we have to start sharing again.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
