Race of intrigue, but is it fair?

I DON’T know about you, but I find lining up Sydney form with Melbourne tough at the best of times.

As the good three-year-olds start to venture from Sydney to Melbourne each year, it’s an itch punters start to scratch.

Where’s the better form line? Are Sydney’s colts better than the Melbourne colts?

So now we turn to the greatest race in the country and the problem is magnified: how do we line up European form most of us know nothing about with performances in our own backyard?

It’s almost impossible when you consider the variables — left-handed tracks, righthanded tracks, hard ground, soft ground, training styles, and the way jockeys ride in Europe.

The Melbourne Cup has been internationalised and that’s now part of the fabric of the race.

From a purely Australian point of view, I would prefer we had more ballot-free races in Australia so if you win one of the prelims, you’re in the Cup.

It could be as simple as that. That way, you can entice a European who has a great but non-qualified horse to come down and have a crack at getting in by winning a leadup race.

The form line is then exposed, which leaves the punter better informed, which is what we should be striving for.

The clubs need to work together, put aside vested interests, and recognise the need for more ballot-free races.

There should be a clear pathway — for all horses — into the Cup, and not just through a few races.

The Metropolitan or Geelong Cup should be winand-you’re-in races. It takes guesswork out of the equation.

That way Greg Carpenter, the chief handicapper, doesn’t have to play with — and justify — weight allocations.

The Melbourne Cup deserves the best current winning form.

Do we have it in 2020?

I’m not sure.

In my opinion, there are anomalies in the weights, and it’s that way every year.

Some horses seem to avoid penalties, others are penalised. It’s subjective, but is it fair?

Verry Elleegant is a perfect example.

Since weights were released she’s won a Turnbull Stakes and a Caulfield Cup, both Group 1 races, and received a 0.5kg penalty.

Tiger Moth won a Group 3 in Ireland and copped a 2.5kg penalty.

Anthony Van Dyck beat Europe’s best stayer Stradivarius in a Group 2 and missed a penalty completely.

Speaking of Anthony Van Dyck, he’s a great measuring stick for punters because they know what he’s done in Europe as an English Derby winner and they’ve seen him in action here, flying home and desperately unlucky in the Caulfield Cup.

Tiger Moth, the current favourite, is a last-start winner in Ireland 11 weeks ago, which makes him the mystery runner of the race. He’s had four starts in his life.

If you can line him up with

Verry Elleegant and other proven horses in the field, you deserve to go straight to the top of the class.

On the flip side, the many obscure formlines add to the intrigue of the Cup.

They just don’t make it any easier to find the winner.

As great as the race is, the most disappointing thing about the Cup is that it has little impact on our breeding because we are not producing stayers in Australia.

For what it’s worth — and remember I’m a trainer, not a form student — if I had to pick a horse to win the Cup, I would go with the obvious and choose Anthony Van Dyck.

We don’t have a runner in the Cup this year, but we do have Outrageous running in the Grinders Trophy and he always runs well first-up.

I think he’s a winning chance. Good luck.