NO INTERNATIONAL HORSES HAVE FLIGHTS BOOKED YET FOR THE MELBOURNE SPRING CARNIVAL

By Graham Potter | Friday, July 23, 2021

The participation of international horses in this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival remains pretty much in limbo at this stage, but the early signs are not good for those who like a good portion of overseas involvement in their Melbourne Carnival recipe.

Yes, it is still a little over three months away from Melbourne’s Spring showpiece but, as reported by The Age, normally by this time overseas bookings for horse transport flights to Australia by the connections of carnival contenders are already in full swing.

As reported, so far this year not one booking has been made.Three of the last four winners of the Melbourne Cup have come from the overseas contingent, a fact which underlines the force factor that foreigners bring to the game.

While not everybody has been enamoured with the way that the makeup of the Cup has evolved in recent decades with regard to the growing number of International horse supposedly keeping Australian runners out of the race … that’s another story altogether … a complete shut-out of International runners will only serve to lower the profile of the race on the international stage, so that would never be the preferred option.

Yet that could well happen this year as a combination of factors currently exist which could well override even the best remaining intentions of overseas connections still wishing to have horses participate in the carnival.

Not least of those is the on-going and ever changing Covid-19 situation with its strict protocols. Part of the stringent conditions involved at this time includes the fact that any stable staff travelling to Melbourne from overseas would have to do so two weeks before their horses so that they can complete their quarantine in time to get back to work when the horses arrive.

The logistics of organising that may not be as simple as its sounds.

Secondly, and this is something overseas trainers have baulked at since it was announced, the new, extremely detailed veterinary procedures and requirements that Racing Victoria have issued for overseas runners seemingly already had a number of trainers pulling the plug on their Melbourne Carnival aspirations.

Throw in the fact that for overseas stable it is certainly not a case of Melbourne or nothing. Other options … notably the Breeders’ Cup in America and the International races in Hong Kong … will take on added attraction if they come with so much less red tape than is required in Australia.

The deadline for nominations for both the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Cup is in August.

We will know more then, but for now the very real possibility exists that we might have a Melbourne Cup run with no crowds and no international runners.

That would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. It is still too early to make that call (the club is reported hoping to have permission for 60 000 people to attend each of the carnival week’s four race-days) but, looking at it right now, you would think that unhappy option of no crowds and no internationals would be close to the top of the betting boards.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen … but nobody will be holding their breath.