IRELAND might be the envy of other racing nations in several areas - like our production line of quality equine talent and industry-leading horsemen and women - but nobody would argue that there isn’t a bundle of scope for us to improve.

Having spent the week leading up to the Lexus Melbourne Cup getting acquainted with as many facets of the Australian racing model as possible, a host of factors stuck out where it feels as though Irish racing is lagging behind our counterparts down under.

It must be said that these countries’ two racing systems are clearly different and are designed for populations of different scales. Neither is perfect. What’s more, we can’t escape the fact there also appears to be considerably more financial strength supporting the Australian model.

However, there’s little reason why we can’t try to learn from the best of what’s on offer in the southern hemisphere. Here are seven areas where it feels as though the Australian offering is getting things particularly right.

1. Widespread promotion

From walking around Melbourne - a city of 5.2 million people - in the lead-up to Cup week, it is impossible not to notice Flemington’s Spring Carnival is about to take place.

Flemington signage is everywhere across the city, media events are coordinated by the organisers daily to ensure constant coverage in the television news bulletins, and the front pages of newspapers are regularly featuring images and stories relating to the Carnival.

It looks like considerable resources are put into promoting these fixtures and there is a meaningful return. A sell-out crowd of 91,168 on Melbourne Cup day was well up on the previous two years’ attendances (84,492 in 2023 and 73,816 in 2022), while there was a 9% rise in crowds across the overall four days to 285,675.

Throw in a terrestrial television audience boost of 11% for good measure.

Yes, budget sizes are clearly much different to home but this is a world away from the level of connection promotional campaigns tend to reach here, especially for flat racing.

It’s hard to imagine the populations of Dublin or Kildare being bombarded with notices of the Irish Champions Festival like is the case down under. Reported crowds of 10,135 and 8,849 at those meetings this year tell a contrasting story too.

2. Embracing the social side

Willie Mullins has made the point on several occasions that racing should be leaning more strongly into the social aspect that goes hand in hand with a day at the races and, while still shining a spotlight on the sport’s stars, there appeared to be a really healthy balance of this in what is delivered in Australia.

Even if you had limited interest in the racing, the entertainment and facilities at Flemington for the four days were strong enough to stand on their own two feet. Artists like Anastasia, Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were to the fore in an attractive, modern music area, and there was no shortage of well-designed bars and food stands.

The Best Dressed and Best Suited winners of the week took away over AUS$34,600 in cash and a suite of prizes from the meeting’s partners. As discussed at length recently by my colleague Amy Lynam, it was odd that there were no best-dressed competitions at this year’s Irish Champions Festival.

A band was on the track playing the popular singalong The Horses in the 15 minutes before the Cox Plate was run at Moonee Valley - the stands were rocking and that really set the tempo for the feature race. It hits home a little differently to The Curragh of Kildare.

Good weather clearly helps, but the organisers at the Victoria Racing Club placed proper emphasis on selling the social side of these meetings and were duly rewarded with excellent crowds.

3. Group ownership

A glance at the owner details in the racecard for any meeting tends to take an awful lot longer to read in Australia than at home. Shared ownership seems to be far more commonplace than we see here.

For example, for the 24 declared runners in the Melbourne Cup alone, a total of 194 names were listed in the ownership sections of the racecard, including 20 different owners for some runners.

That 194 figure doesn’t include either that some partnerships/racing organisations have many more members under the one name, such as MyRacehorse, who had 1,600 people involved in the ownership of their Cup runner. A highly positive dynamic for the sport.

4. Data availability

We’re making strides in terms of the availability of racing data on these shores but it’s definitely at a much advanced stage in Australia. The inclusion of pace maps, indicating where each runner was likely to be positioned, in the racecard for each contest when attending the Cox Plate was a really nice touch.

Likewise, in the pre-race coverage at Flemington on terrestrial television (Channel Nine), each horse’s profile was shown with a predicted ‘settling position’ (e.g. - backmarker) and a graphic indicating the range of distances they’d previously won over.

Those are just two small examples, and highlighting these types of information can only enhance the experience of those who might want to understand the sport more deeply, and/or have a bet based on their own opinion.

5. Super stewards’ reports

Speaking of detail, the level of information you’ll find in an Australian stewards’ report is off the charts. The report that emerged from Melbourne Cup day came to just shy of 2,800 words, including how some connections informed the stewards of changing tactics with their runners and which horses had pre-race blood samples/post-race urine samples.

To give an example, the report from Cox Plate day went into nearly 200 words alone on Pride Of Jenni, who disappointed as one of the market leaders in the main event.

A host of elements of the run were discussed with jockey Declan Bates and trainer Ciaron Maher, from how she underwent a veterinary examination upon arrival and was passed suitable to race, how she felt to the rider when entering the stalls, how the race unfolded tactically at several individual points of the contest and that a post-race veterinary examination revealed no significant findings.

With Maher disappointed by the performance, the report noted that the “stewards will follow up with the stable” on the mare. That is a different world to have the scope to produce such information, and it all makes for increased transparency.

6. Painless photos

How often do we see two horses hit the line together and then have to decipher which was in front from a frozen television shot (which we hope has stopped exactly on the line)? It isn’t always easy to gauge.

In contrast, it was a matter of seconds before we got a high-quality still image of the runners at the line on several occasions during my spell down under. As soon as the commentator had gone through the finishing positions of the Melbourne Cup runners, bang - there was a clear image of Knight’s Choice and Robbie Dolan in front by a short-head. Dolan and the rider of the runner-up weren’t certain who had won initially. Rapid visual confirmation was a simple but welcome function.

7. Youth to the fore

A couple of stats to conclude. Across Carnival week, 45% of general admission ticket buyers were under the age of 35. Additionally, half of the last 5,000 people who have joined as members of the Victoria Racing Club are under 30.

There is often plenty of talk about concerns over attracting the next generation of racing fans, but developing marquee events like this in the right way proves it certainly can be done.