The race is on … for a place in the race.
It’s the $5 million All-Star Mile we are talking about!
Voting opened earlier this morning with racing enthusiasts from both Australia and New Zealand eligible to vote for their favourites … with the final vote tally deciding ten of the fifteen runners who will make up the final field for the 2023 All-Star Mile which will be run at Moonee Valley on March 18.
Voting will close on Sunday, February 26 at 10pm with the voting leader-board being on display until twenty-four hours before cut-off time, at which time it will be blacked-out for the final hours of voting.
For some of the connections of the seventy-eight horses nominated for the race, the voting period will be attacked like something akin to a political campaign … cementing the sure bets, trying to rally those who are their side but who are being slack about placing their votes … trying to win over the undecided … finding long lost relatives and friends … to lobbying, lobbying, lobbying to get their runner over the line.
The top 10 who carry the day in the voting stakes will be announced by Racing Victoria on February 28.
Beyond the ten runners who earn their stripes that way, the winners of two ‘win and you are in’ races (the Group 1 Futurity Stakes on February 25 and the Group 2 Blamey Stakes races on March 4) will qualify to face the starter for the All-Star Mile.
The remaining three runners will be decided by an All-Star Mile wildcard panel with the names of those runners due to be announced on March 7.
Game on!