Why Make It A Race For Plodders?

Every year as the Melbourne Cup rolls around there's rumblings about overseas visiting horses taking up places in the field which might otherwise be filled by locals. Bart, who has won the race so often it should be called the Cummings Cup by now, makes it his cause celebre. It must be a while since he's won it. Of course he and others know full well that the second-rate imports basically have our measure barring accidents.

So I ask the question, what locals are they depriving of starts?

Imagine the quality of this year's Cup field if the 8 or 9 visitors going to the post were replaced by 8 or 9 locals who thus far haven't proved good enough to get in on merit?

Thank heaven for overseas participation (and that's even without the Japanese). "Australia's greatest race" would be descending into utter mediocrity without them. Those who espouse restrictions are thinking of themselves rather than having the quality of the race at heart.

It's just a handicap. Resist any attempts to restrict free and fair access to the field. Let overseas interests cart off the lion's share of the prizemoney every year until we locals get so fed up we change the distance to 2000m. Either that or we put greater emphasis long-term into programming which positively promotes the preservation of stamina in this part of the world. There's no chance of that happening, incidentally, if commercial breeders run racing.

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Four three-year-olds compete for 70 grand at Rosehill on Saturday. Hard to believe, isn't it?

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Wanted in the two-year-old race. By how far?