Moving Caulfield Cup won’t fix problems: RV
THE door has not been shut on changes to the spring racing carnival as soon as next year.
Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger yesterday slapped down Caulfield officials for “damaging the image of the sport” in their “childish” response to last week’s decision to keep the calendar unchanged this year.
And amid ongoing fallout, several trainers have claimed their position on the matter was misrepresented by the Melbourne Racing Club in its push to move the Caulfield Cup to November.
But Kruger said the appetite for change from the MRC and others in the industry was clear and authorities were “openminded” about any innovations that were in the best interests of racing.
“Absolutely the door is not shut,” Kruger said.
“We would need to be convinced that any changes we make to what is one of the world’s best racing carnivals would be the right thing to do.
“But we are open to ideas and one of the great things having gone through this process is we have got some great ideas from some very smart people that we can consider.”
Kruger said he was disappointed with the immediate response from MRC chairman Peter Le Grand, who described
RV as “gutless” and “weak” for not moving the Caulfield carnival.
Le Grand apologised yesterday morning as Kruger said RV would not make decisions to suit one “noisy stakeholder”.
“RV is not convinced moving the Caulfield Cup is going to be the panacea to fix all the problems,” Kruger said.