Winx main target for Melbourne All-Star Mile

MELBOURNE will host one of the richest horse races in the world next year, cementing its status as the centre of racing in Australia.

The new $5 million All-Star Mile will sit alongside the Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate as jewels in Victoria’s racing crown.

And racing fans will get the opportunity to decide who contests the race through a public ballot.

The inaugural All-Star Mile will make its debut on Saturday, March 16, at Flemington with super mare Winx at the top of the wish list.

Racing Victoria has been desperate to hit back at its Sydney counterparts after they launched the Everest concept, with its world record prizemoney, to much fanfare two years ago.

The All-Star Mile puts Melbourne’s autumn carnival on the world stage and the presence of Winx will be a priority.

The four-time Cox Plate win- ner is likely to have her final campaign through the autumn in Sydney but the $2.25 million winner’s purse for The All-Star Mile could entice connections to divert to Melbourne for one last hurrah.

A fan vote will determine 10 of the 14 runners in the weightfor-age event with RV retaining four wildcards to complete the field.

The fans will also get a slice of the winnings with each horse in the field having a voter attached who then becomes a nominal owner for the day. If their All-Star is successful the lucky punter could snare $250,000.

RV chief executive Giles Thompson said the key to the new concept was getting the three Victorian metropolitan clubs on board and the race will rotate annually through Flemington, Caulfield and Moonee Valley.

“It’s totally unique, no one else can do it,” Thompson said. “We’re lucky enough to have three vibrant and different clubs.

“The core of the race will be the same year in, year out but the experience will be totally different because the clubs will bring what they bring.”

The fan voting concept has been used successfully in Japan with the Group 1 Arima Kinen event over 2500m known as the “people’s race”.

They also have 10 runners selected by public vote with six added by the racing authorities and since 2013 they’ve had more than a million votes each year.

“Our fans are passionate about racing,” Thompson said.

He said the All-Star Mile wasn’t a reaction to the success of The Everest or about getting bragging rights.

“Our autumn racing schedule is pretty impressive with Super Saturday ... but we felt it could do with an injection of newness and innovation,” Thompson said.

The All-Star Mile takes over from the Hong Kong Mile ($4.29 million prizemoney), which is run in December, as the richest 1600m event in world racing. Sydney’s famous mile event in the autumn is the $3 million Doncaster.