Quote Originally Posted by Showgrounds View Post
Must try to dig up footage, if it exists, of Popular Alm's second Kilmore Cup win off 35 metres. I have just rediscovered a long misplaced CUB framed advertising print of the great horse in that race. It might compel those too young / ignorant to know how good it is to watch great horses a handicap over big distances in big races. You won't see King of Swing starting at $1.22 from a handicap, that's for sure. You might even get increased betting turnover!
Most kids watched Cartoons I watched a Popular Alm video on repeat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNlLhMcTNpY Head to 52mins in for the Kilmore Cup victory.

With advances evening out the breed with fewer outliers like Poppy, and hopefully we are on a more level playing field in regards to chemists, the ability of a horse to give away those big starts in top grade doesn't really seem achievable to me. Whilst I only really follow Riverina and Sat night Menangle over the past couple years it would seem the rating system has done a pretty good job of evening out races in these jurisdictions & therefore I don't think a distance handicap is required. I think you will find betting turnover was crap which is a key reason they don't have them anymore.