Melbourne Cup emergencies are back on the discussion table, reports Racing Network. After the scratchings of Sea Moon and Cavalryman reduced the 2014 Cup field to 22, the annual topic was again thrust into the public arena.
VRC chairman Michael Burn said on Monday there had already been “dialogue” with Tabcorp and more talks between the two along with Racing Victoria would be held.
Burn said the last time issue had been discussed and studies done was in 2010, when it was “collectively decided” the costs were prohibitive.
He said part of the challenge of introducing emergencies was that the “benefit of making change is pretty narrow”.
“The benefit sits with connections of horses 25 and 26 (in the order of Melbourne Cup entry),” Burn said.
“There’s no other great benefit commercially. It (emergencies) doesn’t impact on turnover.
“What does it take to preserve the dream for those connections?”
Burn said all parties would ideally like to find a solution that isn’t prohibitively expensive.
He said he’s mindful of “not creating confusion to the customer” with the introduction of emergencies.
“You have to be confident that any changes that are made will not lead to mass confusion,” Burn said
“You want to solve an issue, not create a bunch of other ones.”