Trainer Gai Waterhouse has criticised Australia's racing clubs for short-sighted race scheduling, saying local horses are unlikely to win the 3,200m classic in the future, reports the ABC. Waterhouse bought the Irish-bred stallion Fiorente in 2012 to challenge for last year's Melbourne Cup, where it finished second behind the Lloyd Williams import Green Moon.
The six-year-old was set up to contest the Cup again in 2013, and provided the trainer's first success in more than 20 years of trying.
She said Australian horses would continue to be disadvantaged while local clubs schedule races that are too short.
"[It's] very hard, we haven't got the staying races ... this is the big problem, the clubs are not putting on enough staying races," she said.
"All the major Cups outside the Melbourne Cup and maybe one other are [2,400m] ... what a joke.
"All these horses racing over in England on much more arduous tracks than we've got here come and they've just got such an advantage. We have to change things."