BROWNIE'S BLOG: WHEN TRYING TO MAKE A COMPARISON IS JUST A FOOLISH EXERCISE

By Damian Browne | Thursday, October 15, 2020

Any attempt to compare the status of The Everest and the Caulfield Cup … the one to the detriment of the other … is a foolish exercise.

It is like comparing the AFL Grand Final to the NRL Grand final … they are both going to be great games, but do you have to compare them?

To put the whole argument in perspective … it is going to be a great day’s racing.

It is as simple as that!

The whole afternoon is going to be well worth watching from both Randwick and Caulfield and I honestly feel you can’t compare those two main feature races. Let’s just enjoy them as they are.

They are two completely different races with the Caulfield Cup at 2400m being twice the distance of The Everest (1200m) and therefore they are obviously very different in the make-up of the respective fields, not least because, once you get beyond a mile, the overseas raiders, in general terms, are superior to us … and when you get below that into the sprinting arena, Australian horses are superior to them.

I think Australia has probably worked it out well because it means the really big money (in The Everest) is going to stay in Australia.

As regular readers will know, I’ve been with Classique Legend all the way for The Everest and I’m sticking fast with the Les Bridge trained runner. Les has gone on the record saying he thinks Classique Legend is the best horse he has trained.

Being a Melbourne Cup winning trainer himself, who has trained a number of very good horses over the years, that’s assessment is good enough for me … particularly as Les is not prone to making rash statements. Apart from that, I’ve been watching Classique Legend closely and I’ve been quite impressed by what I have seen.

To be quite honest, I think The Everest field this year is below par from what it has been. You could probably put a line through a number of runners because there is probably only four, five or six winning chances this year, whereas in the past there were probably ten runners to seriously consider … or even the whole field.

It is interesting that there are no three-year-olds in The Everest line-up this year. When you look at some of the runners the slot-holders have selected, you have to wonder if maybe they thought the three-year-olds were not up to it this year.

The slot-holders, obviously, all go through their own selection process so they will know more than I do … but it is surprising that there is no three-year-old in there particularly, as I say, when you look at the overall quality of the field compared to the last three years.

As far as the Caulfield Cup is concerned, I’m going for Dashing Willoughby.

Michael Walker has chosen to go with Dashing Willoughby over Prince Of Arran. It’s won a couple of handy races and the Caulfield Cup looks quite even race in which there are a lot of winning chances … but Dashing Willoughby will be the one I’ll be shouting for.

I hope you all will be able to take the time out, to settle down and enjoy what should be a great day’s racing.

It should make absorbing viewing!

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