THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: A SPECIAL TIME WHEN THE RACEHORSE COMES TO THE FORE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, October 22, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

NB The column has moved from its previous Sunday position to the Saturday newspaper and therefore will also now be published earlier on HRO.

This column was written before the running of today's Cox Plate.

It’s that time of year again, a time when the true spirit of thoroughbred horseracing shines in the spotlight and takes that spectacle to its highest level.

Last week’s Caulfield Cup, today’s Cox Plate and on to the crescendo of Melbourne Cup week ... we are in the midst of the country’s biggest annual racing spectacular which carries on a tradition that becomes more formidable with each passing year.

It is so good to have ‘the horse’ and ‘the race’ back in focus.

Winx v Hartnell in today’s Cox Plate is a clash that has provoked lively debate amongst racegoers for several weeks.

Winx is looking for back to back Cox Plate wins and to extend an already exceptional twelve race winning sequence. The year older Hartnell has won his last three starts by a combined distance of fifteen-and-a-half lengths to underline his credentials as a genuine threat to the rule of Winx.

It is really mouth-watering stuff.

That’s even before you look at the names of previous winners of the Cox Plate such as Might And Power, Sunline, Northerly, Makybe Diva and So You Think, amongst others, which underlines the stature of the competition that racegoers are privileged to witness at this time.

Then it is on to the Melbourne Cup where the greater part of the nation becomes racing ‘tragics’, spilling out in force at race tracks throughout the country in fashion finery in a burst of colour that compliments the racing silks worn by jockeys as they ramp up the social side of a sporting day.

So it is a time that is enjoyed on so many levels, year in, year out!

The bottom line is few can put on a show of this size and stature and what racing delivers here for participants, spectators, sponsors ... all the way through to the massive boost to the economy is a tremendous outcome for everybody.

Many are quick to put the boot in when the racing industry finds itself under pressure.

Few give praise when praise is due.

This is no doubt this is one of the instances where racing can take a bow!