RSN927 WE NEED TO PROTECT THIS RACE April 29, 2021 12:49 pm By Matt Stewart, Racing Editor Those in faraway lands crying foul about Racing Victoria’s strict new rules for international horses, howling that it will now be just too damned hard and that overreaction has led to the creation of a giant wall, were obviously nowhere near Flemington in the aftermath of last year’s Melbourne Cup. The course was eerily COVID-empty yet there was palpable fear and anger that another foreign horse had perished in our most famous and watched sporting event. I was one of the few allowed on course for media commitments and as I left, two senior VRC officials in top hat and tails (odd, given the emptiness) stood silently at the back of the betting ring looking utterly morose.