THE ALL-STAR MILE VOTING ENTERS ITS FINAL STAGES

By Graham Potter | Friday, February 11, 2022

We are just hours away from the start of the blackout period of the voting standings for the All-Star Mile, after which a further 50 hours of ‘blind’ voting will still take place as connections, friends of connections, relatives and friends of relatives rally as many supporters as they can to vote for their respective horses to try and secure a place in the richest mile race in the world.

For their part though, most ardent punters will be more inclined to vote on a professional rather than a personal level for two reasons. They will be looking to have the best horses in the race and will be hoping to have their vote drawn for a horse that has winning credentials … and then wins … so they can pocket the $250 000 on offer for the winning horse’s ‘racing ambassador.’ The racing ambassador for each runner will be determined prior to the race by a lucky draw out of those who voted for each horse. Those ambassadors will also get to have a race-day ‘experience’ ay the All-Star Mile.

Ten starting places are allocated in the All-Star Mile field purely on the outcome of the public voting while a further five places will go to wildcard entries. Racing Victoria has allocated the choice of one wildcard runner (five horses in total) to each of the following … Nationwide News Australia Pty Ltd; Entain Group Pty Ltd, Tabcorp Holdings Limited; Australian Radio Network Pty Limited and a separate race-day competition promoted by Racing Victoria. The order in which these parties select their runners from the certified wildcard list will be randomly determined.

The All-Star Mile Leader-board positions, at the time of writing (in order of most votes received) are held by: Verry Elleegant, Zaaki, I’m Thunderstruck, Regalo Di Caetano, Mt Brightside, Espiona, Probabeel, Bohemoth, Elephant, Lightsabre, Flying Mascot, Lighthouse, King Magnus, Shirileo Miss and Colette.

At the business end of affairs, the All-Star Mile has a prize-money pool of $5 million. Just getting into the race is a win as shown by the following prize-money allocations.

First place is worth $2,250,000. The runner-up will get $720 000. Third place is $360 000. Fourth and fifth places are worth $210 000 and $150 000 respectively. Sixth, seventh and eighth placed finishers will each earn $120 000. Ninth and tenth place will pick up $100 000 each while those runners who fill the finishing positions from eleventh to fifteenth place will all receive $50 000 for going around.

Some lucky owners and ambassadors are going to have a lot to look forward to on their big day out at Flemington on March 19, although it will be a bit of an anxious time for those waiting to see if they have made the final field.

The announcement of the final field for the 2022 All-Star Mile will follow a prescribed procedure.

The top ten horses voted by the public will be announced on or before Friday, February 19. The five Wildcard runners will be announced on or before Tuesday, March 8, 2022 and the final field, including emergency runners and barrier draw, will be finalised on Tuesday, March 15.