Racing reset: Move Slipper to ANZAC Day?, Waller’s best year, Tempted needs to be cut free plus throwback to an eight race Randwick on Saturday

Should racing look to ANZAC Day to provide the perfect end to the autumn carnival?

While other sports in the past 30 years have embraced our proudest National holiday, it has become just another raceday, in the roulette wheel that sport has become.

We need events to bring racing into the mainstream, look at The Everest, the Melbourne Cup and the spring as a whole, when people want to get dressed up and head to the track.

We don’t have that in the autumn anymore in Melbourne or Sydney.

So how could ANZAC Day be made into a racing high point of the carnival?

It would require a radical break from tradition and the creation of a raceday, which would draw the best horses to be tested against one another in Sydney.

But racing needs to change or risk becoming irrelevant.

As the St George-Illawarra-Easts match is played at the Football Stadium, the meeting would need to move west to Rosehill to draw on a different massive audience.

The Golden Slipper carnival has arguably lost some of its lustre this century, and while it remains important to racing, it at times doesn’t convert to the mainstream.

So, why not move the Golden Slipper to ANZAC Day?

It gives the two-year-olds another month to fully develop.

The trend with younger horses has been to race less and later in recent years.

It would make a race like the Percy Sykes Stakes a lead-up rather than an afterthought for fillies.

The Slipper lead-ups would have to be strategically moved as well. The Todman would probably be on the same day as the Percy Sykes and worth the same purse.

Secondly, put the Tancred Stakes on the same day, returning Rosehill’s great races to the same program.

It would act as a race that could gather horses from the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Sydney Cup, Derby and Oaks towards for a test at 2400m. It would like the King George in England.

The jockeys which sit on the top of Rosehill’s winning post would be painted on the same day.

Thirdly, the All Aged Stakes is one of the most under-recognised races in Australia and by having it on ANZAC Day and positioning The Championship correctly, the Doncaster, TJ Smith, and Arrowfield Sprint would bring the best sprinter-milers, the sweet spot for our bloodstock, to the table.

The meeting should be only seven or eight races to intensify the feeling of quality.

Work the main races into the sporting program of the afternoon by scheduling them, before and during breaks in the football.

Maybe even sell them to different free-to-air networks.

We have the Black Type Committee looking at our pattern at present, its strengths and numerous weaknesses.

A move to ANZAC Day could give the opportunity for a complete reset of the autumn program.

Moving it back will give the opportunity for a long break for horses from the spring.

Another advantage would be to restructure the entire autumn program looking at the gaps between runs, traditionally is set at two weeks, whereas three is more common these days.

It might be radical, but when the Golden Slipper was born, the majority said it wouldn’t work.

The Everest was doomed to fail according to some.

It is worth a discussion, even if it sounds silly.

Chris Waller has had the Winx years, won the Grand Slam and is unchallenged in the Sydney premiership, but he has not had a better season than 2025-26.

He will set a new record for most Group 1 in a season after finishing the autumn carnival on 18 wins.

However, usually his biggest years are dominated by one horse. It has been a team effort at Waller’s this season, across all distances and all ages.

Via Sistina and Autumn Glow, both stars, have three Group 1s each, Aeliana and Joliestar have won two at different ends of the distance span, while Autumn Boy and Beiwacht have each have two Group 1s as three-year-olds.

Add two-year-old success by Campione D'italia in the Sires and Fireball in the Champagne Stakes, which was a Waller trifecta, and it is a masterpiece from our champion trainer.

He needs two more to bring up 200 Group 1 wins but remains humble in victory after the All Aged Stakes on the weekend.

“I've got a great team behind me that help get colts like this to the races because it's not an easy task. My team at home do me proud,” Waller said.

“There’s lots of options, isn’t there? That's the beauty of racing in Australia and Sydney Racing. We're just so lucky to be racing in this era.”

Godolphin have an outstanding group of three-year-olds, but it has become clear that Tempted is at the top of the list.

The racing and breeding giant has focused on its colts with Observer, winner of the VRC Derby and Australian Guineas, Tentyris, Coolmore Stud Stakes and Lightning Stakes victor, and Beiwacht with Golden Rose and All Aged Stakes successes doing them proud.

Attica won the Spring Champion Stakes while Tempted won the Surround Stakes to round off the three-year-old haul, part 10 Group 1s season for the boys in blue.

But if the focus was purely winning Group 1 races some of the decisions have been questionable.

We haven’t seen Tempted enough. She was Everest runner-up in the spring, got her Group 1 against the fillies in then won the Arrowfield Stakes to give the colts a clear run at Group 1s.

Hopefully, we will see her placed in Group 1 races in the spring, especially The Everest, where she could be the main challenger for Ka Ying Rising after a light autumn.

There will be only eight races at Randwick this Saturday, because of a rule that doesn’t allow events to start until after midday on ANZAC Day in Sydney.

The ATC and Racing NSW have taken the Midway and Highway highways from the program, which is a throwback to 20 years ago.

They will be run on the public holiday Monday program on the Kensington track, which was moved from Canterbury on Wednesday.

“We didn’t lose any races, but we just couldn’t run 10 races with the late start,” ATC general manager of racing Nevesh Ramdhani said. “We were able to get a good start working with the guys at Racing NSW.”