I hope the man they call the Cups King, Bart Cummings, never reads this but let me say that the race that stops a nation, the Melbourne Cup, is in serious need of a makeover.

Every country boasts it own racing showpiece - the USA has the Kentucky Derby, France has the Arc de Triomphe, England it's Derby.

Can anyone who claims to be a racing purist honestly say that the Melbourne Cup is a worthy representation of Australia's thoroughbred industry?

Yet it remains our richest horse race and is held in almost obsessive esteem in the national psyche.

Curious to those who love racing in light of what happens on the other 364 days of the year.

For starters, we as an industry just do not breed or even respect two-mile horses in this country yet on that one day a year they are held up as national heroes.

Race clubs are aware of the situation which is why in recent years, they have cut back some of the existing 3200m races on the calendar.

Now they are a novelty act  - no more, no less.

Ask any breeder if he or she would send a mare to a Melbourne Cup winning stallion.

I know what answer you'll get. No.

Now just because we breed world class sprinters in Australia doesn't mean we have make the Melbourne Cup a straight-six race but the conditions have to change if the race is survive as anything more than a `sweepstakes'.

I would argue that the Cup should be cut back to 2400m, contentious enough, but let me also add that it ought be weight-for-age and not a handicap.

And here is why.

Handicaps by their very nature are designed to give every horse a chance of winning.

That doesn't mean the best horse always wins.

Champions flourish under WFA whereas mediocrity is far too often rewarded in handicaps.

The Mebourne Cup isn't so much a handicap but a penalty for excellence.

Can you imagine the field we would be able to assemble if the Cup became the number one target of the truly elite horses in Australia knowing that they wouldn't get weighted out of the event?

A true test of the best.

Granted there have been some outstanding Cup winners, champions even in recent years...Makybe Diva, Saintly, Might And Power, but where is the depth?

The W.S Cox Plate (2040m) frequently has half the number of runners compared to the Cup yet always twice the amount of depth.

Fair enough if the authorities want to maintain a 24-horse field, in the Cup, it would be a marvelous spectacle.

Let's just do our best to ensure that it is the best field.

I am certain that if the Cup was a 2400m $5.5 million WFA feature, it would have even more pulling power in relation to overseas runners.

Unlike some, I have found their presence to have injected much needed interest and intrigue over the last decade or two.

The downside to overseas participation has been to deter the really high class stayers from making the trip.

Sure some have from Drum Taps to Yeats but asking them to carry the grandstand is the best way to ask them to stay ay home or go to Hong Kong - just not here.

The Cup as a spectacle will probably never be diminished.

Those in the public that get the day-off won't suddenly turn up for work nor will the proverbial all-afternoon office lunch in other parts of Australia loose their appeal.

But if that is all we want our greatest race to be,