2026 is a great time to be alive if you’re a chunky, bearded actor in your mid-20s who can convincingly play a punter/drinker in a TV commercial.

It’s also not a bad time to be the owner of a racehorse capable of competing at a high level over 1400 metres.

The Australian calendar now contains 16 races worth $1 million or more over that trip, seven of them Group 1s (plus four 1400-metre Group 1s worth less than a million, for a total of 11).

Two decades ago we had three million-dollar races over 1400 metres (Golden Rose, Stradbroke, Magic Millions 3YO) and a total of six Group 1s at the trip.

These days the spring carnival on Australia’s east coast both begins and ends with a $1 million weight-for-age Group 1 over 1400 metres.

Technically it was still winter on August 22 when Autumn Glow got the ball rolling by beating Sheza Alibi in the Winx Stakes at Randwick.

This Saturday we wrap up with the second springtime running of the C.F. Orr Stakes, this time back at the race’s ancestral home, Sandown.

The question was always going to be whether, 84 days on from that first “spring” major, there would still be the cattle around to stage a genuine Group 1. Happily, the answer is yes.

Last season’s Orr (at Caulfield) saw Jimmysstar prevail in a field of seven containing only three established Group 1 winners (plus future Group 1 winner Angel Capital).

This Saturday’s field includes no fewer than nine Group 1 winners. And, remarkably, eight of those nine have already won a Group 1 at 1400 metres.

Between them Saturday’s runners have two Orrs, two Rupert Clarkes, two editions of the All Aged, a Stradbroke, a Golden Rose, a Memsie, a Futurity and a Tatt’s Tiara.