KEY POINTS:
The thin edge of the wedge just got thinner.
The announcement this week that the Perth Cup will drop back from 3200m to 2400m is yet another major blow for stayers as we know them in this part of the world.
It's only a little more than a year since the announcement that the Brisbane Cup was following the same path, leaving just five 3200m events in Australia - the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Cups, plus the Andrew Ramsdan Stakes and Queensland Cups, both of which are for lesser class horses.
There is no surprise in these moves. For years, Australia and New Zealand have been breeding increasingly for speed and putting the greatest numbers of dollars up on raceday for stayers.
At least Australia has million- dollar races at less than 1600m.
They'll shoot the first person that suggests the Melbourne Cup be brought back from 3200m and perhaps it never will be because that would tamper with something that has as much to do with Australian culture and heritage as it does with horse racing.
But Perth racing chief executive Alistair Robertson said with this week's announcement: "It's throwing out 130 years of tradition, but it [Perth Cup] been reduced to group two status and based on the past two years it was going to struggle to hold on to that."
Because we are a long way behind Australia in breeding speed and ignoring stamina, it won't be in the foreseeable future that there is pressure to bring the Auckland, Wellington and New Zealand Cups back from 3200m, but the Australians have struggled in recent years to find homebreds to be competitive in the Melbourne Cup.
Don't forget Makybe Diva was bred in Europe.
An unlikely voice was heard on the subject this week - one of Australian's major breeders, John Messara.
In an interview with Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, Messara conceded he was a "prime culprit" in breeding fast horses for a quick return".
Messara was specifically referring to the incident in the Kentucky Derby when hugely talented filly Eight Belles had to be put down after finishing second to runaway winner Big Brown when she broke both front fetlocks.
That came on top of the tragic incident in last year's Preakness Stakes when hot favourite and Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro shattered a leg early in the race.
After a very public drama, Barbaro was eventually put down.
Messara sees both incidents as a sign of perhaps breeding too much speed into frames that are not equipped for it - the exact same analogy you can draw for horses unable to withstand the rigours of a Melbourne Cup campaign and race.
It may not happen for 20 years, but imagine if the Melbourne Cup were to become the only 3200m race in Australia - or dare we even think about it, Australasia?
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Graeme Nicholson is more pleased with Sir Slick in Singapore this week than he was in Hong Kong.
Sir Slick was the only international to be worked at speed on Tuesday morning in preparation for Sunday's Singapore International Cup.
Nicholson said the gelding would continue doing much the same work as he has since arriving all the way through to Friday.
And he'll be fitter this time than he was for the Queen Elizabeth Cup in Hong Kong, Nicholson said.
"He likes to bowl along in his work and if he doesn't get his second lap, then he gets a bit agitated."
Nicholson said Sir Slick currently weighed in at 510kg and wants him down to around 507kg come raceday.
"I would say he actually feels better than in Hong Kong," said trackwork rider Roxanne Rattley. "He got there too late and was a little short of preparation, whereas he got in early in Singapore and that was always the plan."
New Zealand's other runner, Spin Around, had an easy time under the saddle of track rider Lauren Page early this week, doing not more than three-quarter pace for one lap of the circuit, running the last 600m in 43.7s.
This has been pretty much his routine since he arrived. "He's not the greatest worker and I don't want to overload him too much," said trainer Stephen Cooper, a former British amateur rider. "Gavin [McKeon] will ride him on Wednesday and Friday, and he should be spot-on for the big day."
