Yet another ‘city’ 2mile cup that still has group status, amazing. Generally speaking almost always turns out to be just another (albeit with more than normal prize-money) race for the local stayers. Timing of this race in particular should be reviewed. Why would any interstate or o/s (e.g. NZ) trainer want to travel over west to race in the middle of Perth’s notorious hot summer. Keep the other ‘city’ cups but reduce the distance and status. Then let’s create an alternate ‘shared’ 2mile cup (call what you want) that dovetails out of the Melbourne Cup carnival that is hosted in different locations (including NZ) on a rotation basis.
Would work for me. Yo Ho Ho!