The $2m Big Dance making life harder for country trainers

Country trainers are not only struggling to win their home-town cup, but even getting a run in it - with Sydney trainers flocking to the bush to get a spot in the Randwick feature on Melbourne Cup Day.

Queanbeyan trainer Nick Olive liked the concept behind the Big Dance (1600 metres), but felt it needed an important tweak to help country trainers.

Rather than having the country cups as the qualifying races, Olive suggested introducing a Big Dance qualifier at each cup meet.

That would provide a boost to country racing, while also giving the locals a chance to win their own cup.

Olive has Ready To Humble in the Big Dance, after he qualified by winning Gundagai's Snake Gully Cup last November, and Invincible Dash in the Little Dance.

Currently the first and second placegetters in the cups go into the mix for both the Big and Little Dances.

That's meant all the big Sydney trainers, like Chris Waller and Gai Waterhouse, were now targeting the country cups and squeezing out the locals.

That's reflected by the field for the inaugural Big Dance at Randwick on Saturday - with 11 horses in the field of 20 coming from Sydney.

Of those nine non-Sydney runners, four of them qualified before Racing NSW announced the concept in April - when they backdated qualification to already run cups.

It's also putting the biggest purse of the year out of reach of those local trainers and hitting them where it hurts.

Adding a Big Dance qualifier to every cup meet would give the big Sydney trainers something to target and bring them out to the bush - and more importantly open up the cup to give the locals a chance.

"I think it's not a bad concept. I think it could definitely be refined a little bit," Olive said.

"How I'd like to see it, maybe still have the country cups as normal and then on that day have a Big Dance qualifier as well.

"Leave the cups as country cups. A lot of those cups are getting raided by Sydney trainers now so it makes it harder to win.

"I think the idea for it is great for promoting racing in the country areas - you're getting better horses, bigger trainers and jockeys, so that's a positive."

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Fellow Canberra trainer Norm Gardner, who has Upper House in the Little Dance, said the $2 million race made it tough for country trainers.

The $200,000 Goulburn Cup, won by Waller's Oscar Zulu on Sunday, was the first qualifying race for next year's Big Dance.

Danny Williams' Marsabit was the only Goulburn horse in the race, with only three other non-Sydney horses in the the field.

"It's going to make the country cups very difficult for country horses," Gardner said.

"Look at Goulburn. The big stables have just smashed it because it's the first cup race for next year's Big Dance.

"Nick Olive and Joseph Jones and myself snuck in because we were in races before they announced it.

"After that the big stables just smashed those country cups. It's going to make it very difficult to get in next year, but at least we're in it this year - that's the main thing."

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