Sydney's $18m turf carnival threatens Australian Cup The $1 million Australian Cup could soon slip into the shadow of Sydney's $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes, now the world's richest 2000-metre turf race, with the country's leading trainers unlikely to ask their star horses to contest both weight-for-age events. With trainers increasingly reluctant to overtax their best talent during the autumn, instead opting for a light preparation ahead of the spring carnival, the Australian Cup at Flemington on March 8 seems destined to become the poor cousin of the behemoth Queen Elizabeth, which became the centrepiece of Sydney's new $18 million The Championships race series announced on Tuesday. The Queen Elizabeth is at Randwick on April 19. "I'd probably have to target Sydney; $4 million is a big carrot and it does stand out as the most valuable race of the autumn," trainer David Hayes said. Although history shows that it is possible to contest both the Australian Cup and Queen Elizabeth in one preparation, only Durbridge (1994) and Veandercross (1993) have been able to complete the double in the past 25 years. The $3 million difference between the two races suggests Sydney will be irresistible for those with a weight-for-age player. "It's very tough to target both carnivals and very hard for a horse to peak twice in a preparation," Hayes said. Although not to be drawn on a possible target for Cox Plate winner Shamus Award, trainer Danny O'Brien added that the enormous boost to the Queen Elizabeth posed a planning conundrum for trainers of group class horses. We saw the three winners of the major spring races, Fiorente, Shamus Award and Fawkner all had light autumn preps. It's very hard to do both [carnivals] and there's only so much you can do with a horse. I'm sure the $4 million will play a part," he said. Although stressing the 10-race group 1 championship series, to be staged on consecutive Saturdays, starting on April 12 and culminating on Easter Saturday, April 19, was not designed to compete with, or detract from the Melbourne spring carnival as Australia's iconic racing carnival, neither Racing NSW chairman John Messara nor ATC chairman John Cornish made mention of the impact on major races in the Melbourne autumn carnival, with the Australian Cup the most obvious casualty. Racing Victoria chief executive Bernard Saundry said his team would begin to consider those impacts, but said Sydney's new autumn program could only be seen as a positive for racing in Australia. "Any investment in thoroughbred racing is to be welcomed," he said.