Safety measures to be reviewed despite fatality-free Cup Week

The Victoria Racing Club has breathed a collective sigh of relief after this year’s Melbourne Cup Week was run fatality-free for the first time since 2019.

Stakes Day on Saturday marked the final day of Cup Week, one mired in controversy in recent years following the death several runners, outrage from animal rights groups and public outcry.

But attention will now turn to whether the strict safety measures imposed on this year’s spring carnival, following the death of Anthony Van Dyck in last year’s Cup, are sustainable going forward.

Away He Goes was scratched from the Melbourne Cup after picking up a tendon injury at Werribee.Credit:Getty Images

Between 2013 and 2020, four horses were euthanised after suffering fatal limb injuries in Australia’s greatest race. All four of those horses - Anthony Van Dyck (2020), The Cliffs of Moher (2018), Red Cadeaux (2015) and Verema (2013) - were internationally trained visitors.

Two other imports, Admire Ratki and Araldo, died in 2014 after unique circumstances contributed to their deaths, while a number of horses have broken down at Melbourne’s quarantine facility at Werribee and been euthanised in recent years, tarnishing the reputation of the sport’s most coveted carnival.

Anthony Van Dyck’s death in last year’s Melbourne Cup led to an investigation, which resulted in 41 recommendations being endorsed to try to make the Cup as safe as possible.

Australia’s leading jockey James McDonald will go down in Melbourne Cup Carnival folklore after breaking the record for most wins in a Cup week, bringing up his 10th winner in the Mackinnon Stakes on Zaaki.

The haul included four group 1 wins - first the Coolmore Stud Stakes on Home Affairs, and then the highlight, of course, the Melbourne Cup on Verry Elleegant.

There were only two group 1s on the final day of the carnival, but McDonald claimed both; first, the VRC Sprint on Nature Strip before claiming the Stakes.

Just a handful of internationals put themselves through the challenging hoops asked of them to compete at this year’s spring carnival, including mandatory scintigraphy scans before boarding a plane to Australia. As many as 42 travelled to compete in 2018.

Those scintigraphy scans, which require horses to be injected with a nuclear dye, was labelled intrusive by a number of leading European trainers, including champion trainer Aidan O’Brien who decided not to send any horses this season. His son Joseph, who won the Cox Plate with State Of Rest, said he expected Racing Victoria to review that component of the safety measures going forward.

The more stringent vetting process also saw a number of horses withdrawn from big races on vets’ advice, despite the connections of those horses disagreeing with their opinions.

Gold Trip, who was one galloper who went through the hurdles to arrive at Werribee from Europe, was scratched from the Cox Plate due to lameness, as was former European Future Score on the morning of Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup. Gold Trip was later approved to run in NSW.

Gold Trip was denied the chance to compete in the Cox Plate on vets’ advice.Credit:Getty Images

Another international - Away He Goes - was found to have picked up a minor tendon injury while at Werribee, while Spanish Mission failed two vets tests before being passed fit to run in the Cup.

There was one fatality this spring, last year’s Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet, but that occurred after the horse suffered a catastrophic limb fracture in a routine track gallop at Moonee Valley a week out from this year’s Plate. Racing Victoria has not yet completed its post-mortem report on what led to Sir Dragonet’s death.

This year’s carnival was also the first time all Cup runners were either CT scanned or X-rayed, and had at least two veterinary examinations, before being passed fit to run in the race. That was despite Racing Victoria’s CT scanner at the U-Vet Equine Centre in Werribee incurring a mechanical issue a week out from the race.

The CT scanner discovered at least two injuries, to Young Werther and Harpo Marx, which saw those Melbourne Cup aspirants withdrawn before final acceptances.

Wilson said the club would look to work with Racing Victoria on what, if any, changes are made to the safety measures for next year’s Melbourne Cup.

“We’ll put everything on the table with Racing Victoria,” Wilson said on RSN on Saturday morning.

“The experts will work through whether the scintigraphy process is the right one, they’ll look at that data. But for us, it’s the model, how do we adjust the model and how do we make the execution is as painless as possible.

“It’s a different situation for us this year because we’re not starting from ‘what are we going to do?‘

“We’re starting with ‘what have we done?’ and ‘what should we continue’, ‘what’s worked’, ‘what do we need to adjust’ and ‘what maybe we should look at that we haven’t done’.

“The other thing about the first year down, a bit like [checking in with the COVID] app ... once you’ve been through it, I guarantee it - I’m certain - that next year a lot of the overseas trainers and owners will have worked out, ‘well now we get it, so let’s start working on this a bit earlier’.”

Wilson said the club would not keep things unchanged simply because of one fatality-free Cup week.

“This will be ongoing, every year it will be ongoing, and we’re not saying in any shape or form that we’re there now because we’ve had a safe race this year,” he said.

“This will be continuing to make sure we have the safest race in Australia.”

Racing Victoria confirmed it would review the new safety measures as part of its broader, wide-ranging review of the spring racing carnival, and that any changes were unlikely to be announced before March next year.

“Whilst it was pleasing that there were no significant injuries during the running of this year’s Melbourne Cup, RV remains mindful that it was one edition only and that the industry cannot afford to rest on its laurels when it comes to safety and equine welfare,” RV spokesman Shaun Kelly said.

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