IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published by the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS has the good news story of what happened to ‘Nippy’ Seymour when he fronted court in Mt Isa.
Butts also reports that trainers were far from happy with the new Cairns track for the big meetings at the weekend and how some reckon Cannon Park should be renamed Albion Park.
He also provides further proof of just how bad TattsBet is which highlights the need for a national tote to combat the ‘parasite’ corporate bookmakers.
COURT SHOWED SOME COMMONSENSE IN THE NIPPY SEYMOUR DECISION
IT is not often we get the opportunity to write a genuine feel good story but happily this week we do.
The veteran Hughenden horse trainer Arthur Nippy Seymour took his tooth brush to Mt Isa court last Thursday expecting to, in his own words: “Be put in the pen”.
He had long lost the confidence that he could remain in the game that has been his life since the age of 12 when he roamed the west with the immortal Pug Greenwood from whom he learned the craft.
Nippy had lost the confidence too of the racing authorities to which he had been a loyal servitor since he was first licensed in 1969. He had been a horse trainer for 44 years – and amassed 900 winners.
He was in his own words “addicted to racing” and genuinely loved every minute.
And until he placed the bandage on his horse that fateful day at Hughenden in November 2011, he had a blemish-free record.
THIS WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT THAT ‘NIPPY’ WILL NEVER REALLY GET OVER
IT is well documented now that the bandage came loose; the horse stumbled or struck the heels of its galloping companion and came down. The jockey Corey Gilby was killed.
It was a tragedy and Nippy Seymour has never really got over it, and says he never will.
It was also an accident.
But the old trainer was at first hounded by stewards, charged and found him guilty of negligence. That opened the door for Work Place Health and Safety to pounce – and it did.
The old man had many sleepless nights in the past couple of years. Yet oddly, though he was suspended and barred from having a horse, he could float other horses to race meetings in the region.
And it was OK for him to remain president (and general fact totem) of the Hughenden Jockey Club.
Otherwise some horses may not have got to the races. And racing might have ceased altogether at Hughenden.
“I reckoned I was going to jail and I would not have handled that,” he said at the weekend, still pinching himself.
ONE HIGH POINT IN A LONG, LOW ROAD FOR NIPPY IN RECENT YEARS
THERE have been very few high spots for Nippy Seymour in the past couple of years.
But the day Rhiannon Payne scored on a horse named Fubu’s Image at Clermont last year was an exception.
Rhiannon was the partner of the ill-fated Corey Gilby and ironically it was Nippy who urged her to become apprenticed to Wondai trainer Norma King, who was on a three months stint in the north-west and based at Hughenden.
Fubu’s Image is owned by Nippy, but was transferred to Norma after he was suspended.
Ne was there when Fubu’s Image trotted back to the winner’s stall that day at Clermont.
It was Rhiannon Payne’s first win.
“Yeah, that was special – pretty emotional,” Nippy recalls.
SEYMOUR SAYS HE WOULD BE IN JAIL BUT FOR HELP OF HIS LAWYER
AND emotions ran high for Nippy in the Mt Isa court last week.
“It’s was great relief, and I owe it to my solicitor, Barry Taylor.
“I really don’t think I would be a free man today without him.”
And what does a man do when he walks from the front door of a court house when he fully expected to be escorted out the back door to a waiting prison van?
“Well, Barry and I just went to the pub and then we took a slab around to another old mutual mate David Core who had set up camp at the Mt Isa rodeo grounds.
“The three of us have been mates for 40 years.
“Then we went to the racecourse (there was a TAB meeting that day in Mt Isa) and as I walked into the betting ring the Winton-based bookie Kenny Elliot jumped off his stand and hugged me.
“That was special too,” he said, in that distinctly unique north-western Queensland drawl.
HOOFNOTE: Nippy Seymour had enormous support from the majority of North Queensland’s racing community. He had a lot of character witnesses that were presented to the presiding magistrate.
Nippy Seymour was placed on a good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded.
“I nearly cried,” said Nippy – and so, too, did a lot of other hardened old men.
PERHAPS THEY SHOULD CHANGE THE NAME OF CANNON PARK TO ALBION PARK
A WAG up north reckons they should change the name of Cairns Racecourse from Cannon Park to Albion Park.
Not because of the costly new track surface (it copped plenty of flak from jockeys and trainers at the weekend) but because of the predominant role played over the carnival by former harness racing identities.
First there is Kerry Baumann, a former Townsville harness racing supremo who took to gallopers after the demise of night pacing at the Showgrounds several years ago.
He has had an exceptional run of late culminating with the win of his stable star Landretto in the Cairns Newmarket on Sunday that followed his Cleveland Bay win at Cluden a fortnight earlier.
The horse, unbeaten since joining the Baumann stable, is in fact virtually unbeatable in the north and a trip south is an absolute must.
But then on Sunday Kerry and hard-working wife Rachelle produced another ex-Victorian in Secret Stealth which bolted in with the Class 6.
Kerry freely tipped the newcomer to all and sundry and after significant gear changes and a masterly ride by Graeme Kliese duly won and stamped himself another to follow in upcoming races, especially over more ground.
And then there is John Manzelmann who was a leading harness trainer-driver in Mackay before being “forced into gallopers” after Ooralea trots went pear shape – as did every other trotting track in the State with the exception of Albion Park, Gold Coast and Albion Park.
Has anyone ever asked why?
But back to Manzelmann – he has been an absolute star since he made the transition to the gallops.
He recently won his second Townsville Cup with More More More which scraped in from lesser-fancied stablemate Sarbi to quinella the Cairns Cup on Sunday.
Sarbi, by the way, had previously finished third to the same horse in the Townsville Cup. So the Manzelmann juggernaut just keeps rolling on!
And then there was Steve Massingham, who also landed a double on Sunday. He and other members of the family were former leadings lights in Cairns harness racing before it went belly-up 10 or more years ago. No we won’t ask why it closed!
But the Massingham’s quickly adapted to the galloping code and have enjoyed considerable success since the switch.
One of their winners on Sunday was the aptly named Bob and Dolly, formerly with the late Bruce McLachlan stable in Brisbane. She is out of the mare that raced as Pickabox which probably doesn’t mean much to the Gen Y’s.
If you don’t get the significance just ask your parents. They are bound to know!
TRAINERS FAR FROM HAPPY WITH STATE OF NEW TRACK AT CAIRNS
NO, your scribe is not going to get into the debate – partly because he wasn’t there.
But he fielded a few calls on Sunday from trainers voicing their strong views on the state of the new Cannon Park track.
One, a leading northerner (make that far northerner) said he won’t be going back for the Amateurs next month unless there was a miraculous change.
“I’d sooner go to Maxwelton,” he snorted. And he is not a bloke who usually says a lot.
“My horses came back as though they had been sand-blasted.
“And I’m telling you all the jockeys and trainers I have spoken to today are complaining,” our informant said.
So that’s a different spin on the glowing track report we heard from caller Bluey Forsythe who was full of praise for the new surface, and claimed the club was too.
But, as the saying goes, winners are grinners.
Apparently the track was much better on Saturday, though there were complaints of “kick back” in the back straight.
Seems it deteriorated as more races were run.
The track issue has certainly become a perennial problem in spite of the millions that have been spent.
And if you believe the trainers and jockeys, it’s still not right.
What next?
NEED FOR A NATIONAL TOTE WAS NEVER MORE EVIDENT – TATTSBET THE PITS
THE idea of a national tote to combat the infectious and damaging spread of corporate bookies that are sponging on the industry to the detriment of stakeholders got another push on Saturday when dividends were declared for the First 4 on the last race at Cairns.
The NSW toted dividend was $848. Victoria paid $428. But Queensland’s TATT’S tote paid a miserly $98.80.Unbelievable!
Why would punters bother to bet on the tote when the corporates offer best tote odds?
And the simple way to stop that is to have one tote. When will common sense prevail?
TIME GOVERNMENT AND RACING AUTHORITIES STOPPED THE DRAIN TO THESE ‘PARASITES’
TALKING of corporate agencies – the latest news is that Tom Waterhouse, after trying to flog off his off-course betting corporate wing for a reputed $500million, went to William Hill and offered it for $200m.
William Hill, which had recently bought Sportingbet for $670mn, offered Tom $20mn.
They apparently settled for $34mn with contingencies (that included bad debts of $6mn) or so the story goes.
When will our Government and racing authorities stop this drain of money from the Australian racing industry?
It is a well-known fact that the off-course bookies have crippled racing in the UK and they seem hell-bent on doing the same in this country.
They squealed like stucked pigs when NSW won a landmark court case to impose a turnover tax of two per cent.
But it hasn’t stopped the corporate. They just kept marching on like the proverbial cane toad.
Maybe it’s time to increase the turnover tax by another couple of per cent.
It would do two things. It would provide millions of dollars more to the industry, and Australia would be much less attractive to Mr Hill and his Irish colleagues.
Who needs them anyway?
Hong Kong won’t let them in the gate and nor should we.
COLUMN COURTESY OF TERRY BUTTS AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, one of Australia's leading rural newspapers.
TERRY BUTTS can be contacted by e-mailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
