Seven days in … racing – Plates and Patterns

In this edition:

• Beyond Black Caviar – The legacy of equine perfection lives on for Neil Werrett
• Flemington to host 2026 Cox Plate
• A pattern of behaviour – Australian racing’s groundhog day
• A numbers game – Gary Crispe’s quest to figure out racing’s never-ending puzzle
• King Island season reconfigured but doubts remain

A lost opportunity or a move based on common sense? That’s the two sides of a debate fuelled by a necessary change of venue for the 2026 Cox Plate.

After an expression of interest process, Flemington will stage next year’s race in a collaboration between the Moonee Valley Racing Club and the Victoria Racing Club.

It’s a safety-first approach that Racing Victoria ratified this week as a switch to Flemington is considered the most likely racetrack to achieve key performance indicators that racing administrators use as a measure of success or failure.

“We believe that Flemington is the best location to maximise attendance, wagering and engagement with the meeting and we have confidence in the VRC’s ability to present a high-quality track for Ladbrokes Cox Plate Day and the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival that follows,” Racing Victoria chief executive Aaron Morrison said.

The announcement left the Melbourne Racing Club, considered the early frontrunner to stage the race when the bidding opened, on the outer.

It also ended any thought of shifting the race to an “off-Broadway” location, one that could have been more accessible to an audience new to racing.

But it will also mean Flemington will host five meetings in the space of a fortnight, raising concerns the track will be compromised by the time the Champions Stakes meeting is run at the end of a four-day Melbourne Cup carnival.

The beauty of the Cox Plate lies in its unique setting. Since 1922, it has been staged on a racetrack that is vastly different from most of Australia’s metropolitan layouts.

Yet it always seems to deliver a special moment, and the best horse on the day is rarely denied.

Flemington will now host three Group 1 races over 2000m in five weeks during the 2026 spring carnival – the Turnbull Stakes, the Cox Plate and the Champions Stakes.

Throw in the Caulfield Stakes, another 2000m Group 1 race run between the Turnbull and the Cox Plate, and you realise there is a bit of “sameness” about that programming.

It should be a topic for discussion by Racing Australia’s (RA) Pattern Committee, but as we know, its status has been dormant when it is needed the most.

The Pattern and how it shapes our racing is back in the news.

RA is canvassing regulators, race clubs and other stakeholders about a different approach towards assessing the strength and merit of Australia’s black-type racing.

The reaction has been lukewarm at best to a proposal that upgrades and downgrades will be ratings-based, rather than having a committee-led system that makes recommendations to the RA board.

Gary Crispe has made a living out of rating racehorses as one of the co-founders of the data provider RAS Technology Holdings, better known throughout the industry as Racing and Sports.

The ASX-listed company is a global leader in supplying racing information to race clubs, principal racing authorities, and wagering firms.

It’s been a hard slog from humble beginnings, but Crispe is enjoying the fruits of his labour as an owner with an impressive bloodstock portfolio.

His latest success story on the racetrack is the well-performed filly Memo, who returns on Winx Stakes day at Randwick in the Silver Shadow Stakes.

Always the analyst, Crispe reveals how he bought into the Peter Snowden-trained daughter of Newgate sire Capitalist.

Crispe has never rated an Australian horse higher than Black Caviar, the unbeaten queen of our sprinting ranks who lost her battle with laminitis a year ago this week.

Black Caviar had a legion of fans, but few were as close to the champion as her part-owner Neil Werrett.

In what can only be described as a “must-read” story, Matt Stewart spoke to Werrett about the impact Black Caviar had on his life and the legacy she has left behind.

On the racing front, unfortunately, the numbers aren’t adding up at the moment for the King Island Racing Club.

King Island needs an influx of horses to make its summer season of racing in Bass Strait viable.

Meetings in 2025/2026 have been reduced to four in January but whether the club races at all is likely to be decided as early as next week.

Group 1 racing is back on the Australian calendar on Saturday with the Winx Stakes and Via Sistina is the favourite to make a winning return in a race certain to be run on a heavy track after continuous rain in Sydney.

What you may have missed this week:

• Written In The Stars – Val Hayward’s Magic journey
• Putting a name on it – why bookies sponsor race clubs
• MIXI ups PointsBet sweetener
• Waterhouse VC – Lessons from Ben Keith
• Grieve to head AgriFutures’ thoroughbred advisory panel as D’Arcy joins committee
• ‘Enormous opportunity to evolve’ – Frank Smith appointed as Sky Racing’s new executive producer
• ‘Textbook example of government overreach’ – Bowlers banned in New Jersey
• How Machine Learning could solve the Pattern debate
• Run The Numbers – When eight is enough
• Amo fires on record final day at Arqana as Godolphin lights up Deauville sales ring
• Rowe On Monday – Clarke’s French connection, South Africa goes online and Darley headline mares booked for Too Darn Hot

Don’t forget to check out this week’s episode of the Straight Talk Podcast where Bren O’Brien and Tim Rowe catch up with champion jockey Clare Lindop about transitioning from riding and building industry pathways. They also speak to Inglis’ Chris Russell about yearling inspections and discuss the renewed controversy over Australia’s pattern system and the temporary move of the Cox Plate to Flemington. 

Enjoy your Group 1 racing weekend,

Warwick Barr

Senior Editor

The Straight