(Rod Gallegos is a veteran presenter and commentator with Sky Racing.)

On the back of the highly successful Melbourne carnival, there is mounting concern and consternation about the meagre Sydney race fields.

The burning question, however, is whether the emphasis of the Melbourne spring carnival is the most pertinent problem?

One suggested solution is that during the Melbourne Cup Carnival, in particular, the main Sydney meeting should be transferred from Saturday to Sunday.

Personally, I don't think that is the answer. Sunday racing never has been embraced enthusiastically by racegoers in the cynical city by the harbour.

There is another wise contention that programming of Sydney races may be a more intense issue.

The facts and figures of last Saturday's Sydney program underlines a pathetic trend - a total final acceptance figure of 68 horses, reduced to only 46 actual starters - racing for a total of $532,000.

In Brisbane, 109 horses accepted and 97 actually started on an eight event program and the total stakes for the meeting was only $380,000.

As one who is getting on and set in his ways, I struggle to understand the benchmark system - 80s, 82s, 90s etc.

Maiden, Novice, Transition, Encourage, Trial, Open Handicap or the Class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are the race classifications that I remember served racing well for a long time.

Whatever the solution may be, it must be found quickly. Sydney needs more substantial fields because small fields impinge on betting turnover which, as we all know, is the lifeblood of racing.

Last Saturday, five of the Sydney races didn't pay a third dividend and two had no place pool.

Absence of each-way betting does not stimulate turnover.

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THERE is little doubt that at present, Flemington rules as the best racecourse in Australia. Emerging from a perplexing pattern of wretched weather, the track not only stood up to the pressure but last Saturday's Emirates Stakes meeting was conducted on a surprisingly good surface.

The decision of the Victoria Racing Club to rebuild the course proper is proving to be a most worthwhile investment.

And the Melbourne Racing Club deserves congratulations for introducing the Sandown Cup as a 3200-metre event in an era when some race distances are being shortened.

This extended distance race may serve to be compensation for Melbourne Cup ballot victims or horses that didn't measure up to opposition in Australasia's greatest staying race.

Surely Capecover gets his chance to erase a couple of recent disappointments. He didn't have a lot of luck when third in the Moonee Valley Cup (2500 metres) and last Saturday he was as stiff as an ironing board when second in the Queen's Cup (2600 metres). His finishing effort at the end of those two races suggests that the 3200-metres is a natural progression this weekend.

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UNDOUBTEDLY, the highlight of the Sandown meeting this Saturday will be the Sandown Classic in which that wonderful warhorse, Zipping, will be striving for an historic fourth win in the race.

Considering his excellent fourth in the Melbourne Cup, the prospects certainly look bright for this evergreen nine-year-old.

Although a veteran, Zipping hasn't been overtaxed during his career which kicked off in 2004 when he won on debut in a Gold Coast 2YO Maiden. But from that relatively low-key launching pad, he went on to contest four Melbourne Cups for four fourth placings and four Cox Plates for two seconds and one third.

His prizemoney scorecard reads $4.3million and there still should be more to come.

If there is a party-pooper in the Classic it may be the Pommy stayer, Manighar. His Caulfield Cup run was full of merit when he finished fourth and he didn't disappoint entirely in the Melbourne Cup.

There is a punter-pleasing $141,000 Quaddie jackpot at Sandown for Victorian TAB punters. The NSW TAB, meanwhile, has pumped a $68,000 jackpot into Saturday's BIG6 which reverts to a cross-meeting BIG6, with legs from Sandown and Rosehill.