By Kelsey Riley
A year ago, Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club hosted the inaugural renewal of The Championships at Royal Randwick in Sydney. Designed to be Australia's equivalent of season-ending events like the Breeders' Cup, Dubai World Cup and British Champions Day, The Championships was held over two consecutive Saturdays, offering eight Group 1 races worth almost $20 million, including the G1 Queen Elizabeth S., which, with a purse boost to A$4 million, made it the richest weight-for-age race in the country and the world's richest turf race over 1 1/4 miles.
The event was considered a success by many in attendance; however, the closing comments from Racing NSW Chairman John Messara suggested this year's event would be bigger and better.
“In the end, we have to be satisfied with the contest we put on and the turnout of spectators,” Messara said at the time. “It was good, but I think we can build on it.”
Three days out from the first day of the second running of The Championships, the event's organizers have appeared to deliver on their promises. Set for Apr. 4 and 11, The Championships has drawn fields overflowing with Group 1 winners, and a few tweaks to the program provide added dimensions to the festival.
This year's Championships was shifted back a week, allowing it to bookend the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, which takes place in Sydney Apr. 7 to 9. Messara explained Racing NSW has previously aligned the state's biggest race days with the sale.
“This change of dates is actually a 'back to the future' move for us, because the original four-day Sydney Autumn Carnival also used to bookend the Inglis Sale when it was always scheduled around Easter,” he explained. “However, we've now re-shaped the entire event on both the global and local levels, and worked more closely with Inglis to connect The Championships with what is now one of the world's great yearling sales. The fixing of the Championships to the first and second Saturdays of April, with the sale between them, creates a clearly defined 'destination week' that everyone can remember and plan for from one year to the next.”
Last year's Championships hosted a pair of international visitors–Hana's Goal (Jpn) (Orewa Matteruze {Jpn}) and Gordon Lord Byron (Ire) (Byron {GB}). While neither triumphed at The Championships, both picked up Group 1 wins before leaving Australia, with Hana's Goal taking the G1 All Aged S. and Gordon Lord Byron scoring in the G1 George Ryder S. This year, the Japanese have ramped up their presence by sending Group 1 winner Real Impact (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) as well as group winners Tosen Stardom (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), To The World (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) and World Ace (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), while three-time Melbourne Cup runner-up Red Cadeaux (GB)(Cadeaux Genereux {GB}) ships from Britain to race in Sydney for the first time in the 3200 meter G1 Sydney Cup.
Due to limited time to prepare for last year's event, the international visitors were forced to train at the Werribee quarantine facility in Victoria and ship to Sydney for the main event. This year, however, the shippers have had the use of a new quarantine facility at Canterbury Racecourse in Sydney, and the results have thus far been encouraging. Real Impact won the George Ryder two weeks ago, while Tosen Stardom and To The World both finished second first-up in the G1 Ranvet S. Mar. 21 and the G1 The BMW last weekend, respectively.
“Those results confirm that we've got an outstanding quarantine facility, 20 minutes from The Championships' host track, Royal Randwick, and 20 minutes from Sydney Airport,” said Messara. “The international horses have exclusive six-week use of Canterbury Park Racecourse, which is regarded as one of the best surfaces in Australia.”
Messara said he hopes these results will encourage more international visitors from more areas of the world in the future, although he admitted that the timing of the event is inconvenient for some nations like the U.S. and Europe, where the major racing is just getting started while the Southern Hemisphere is winding down.
“I hope that we'll see more international visitors, especially from the world's major stables with the range of horses, the resources and the competitive ambition to target specific races anywhere in the world,” Messara said. “However, it is likely that Asia will provide most of the future international competitors, given the timing of The Championships. I am looking forward to the day that we can host an American champion, most likely from the West Coast.”
In addition to the new dates and quarantine facility, another new concept rolled out by The Championships this year has been the NSW Country and Provincial Championships. This series of nine races, which began in early March, is restricted to horses under the care of country trainers, rather than horses based at the Metropolitan tracks like Randwick, Rosehill and Warwick Farm. The series consists of eight lead-up races, each worth A$100,000, from which the top two finishers qualify for the A$300,000 Country Championships Final at Royal Randwick Apr. 4.
Messara said the idea behind this concept was to encourage participation in racing at all levels of the sport.
“This is a development intended to generate a more inclusive approach to regions outside Sydney, which often act as racing's nursery–not only of horses, but also of punters, owners, trainers, jockeys, breeders and all the skilled people who work with horses,” Messara explained. “Country people's love of the horse and the sport of racing is something we need to nurture and strengthen. We were confident the Country and Provincial Championships concept would go down well, but it's already exceeded our expectations in terms of attendance, turnover and the sheer enthusiasm of participants.”
With the enthusiasm displayed across all levels of The Championships, it is poised to be an event of international importance for years to come.
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