IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS reports on the demise of one of the biggest country racing carnivals in Queensland – Rockhampton Newmarket and Cup week.
He also tells how bookmakers will not continue to field on Thursday TAB meetings in Rockhampton and questions the appointment process for a new CEO at Mackay.
Here is the Butts’ column:
THEY EITHER DON’T KNOW OR DON’T CARE ABOUT CUP WEEK IN ROCKHAMPTON
YOUR scribe was in Rockhampton last week – once the undisputed capital of Queensland country racing and renowned as a bustling metropolis during its winter carnival.
First surprise was the taxi driver driving me from the airport. He didn’t even know it was Cup week nor did he know that the time-honoured Newmarket was being run next day.
And judged by the roll up on Thursday not many others in the city knew it was Newmarket day either. Or worse, they may have been aware – but didn’t care.
I hasten here to add it is not the fault of the hard working and highly experienced CEO Bill Colgan either.
OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE OF ROCKHAMPTON RACING IS FRIGHTENING
IT is just the way things are. And what I witnessed at Rocky – on the club’s second biggest race day of the year – is frightening for the future.
I actually watched the Newmarket won brilliantly by the local Our Boy Malarchi (pronounced Mal-Ar-Kie, by the way) from the first floor of the public grandstand.
There was a tote, a bar and plenty of TV monitors catering to just myself and three other punters – no-one else up there to cheer home the local champ.
I walked into the betting ring and to my utter dismay there were just three bookmakers and their clerks servicing the needs of a mere handful of hardened punters.
“Ten years ago there would have been 30-odd bookies in this ring and you couldn’t move,” I said to Michael Moulds, one of the three fielders.
“Yeah, well don’t come back for the Thursday TAB meetings here because there won’t be any.
“We’ve just had a meeting and we all decided to give up the TAB Thursdays. It’s just no good,” said the man who has been swinging a bag at Callaghan Park since he left uni.
Unbelievable!
AND TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE THE ROCKHAMPTON PROBLEM IS NOT ISOLATED
WHERE is it going to end… or when?
Rockhampton’s lack of general patronage is certainly not isolated. It is well documented that racing is on the decline all over – an industry in the doldrums
I mentioned my Rocky experience to a leading administrator who said simply: “It is because of the corporate bookies. We will just have to get more money out of them.”
But is it really that simple?
Soon the owners will give up – just like the bookies
What then?
Will the bookies become the owners?
That’s when the punters will surely give up too.
Rockhampton, unlike a lot of other racing centres, has got some hope while a bloke like CEO Bill Colgan is at the helm.
He is a passionate racing man with a lot of experience and has earned a good reputation in the short time he has been on the banks of the Fitzroy. He has his difficulties (as do most new arrivals to RockVegas) but he is ‘getting there’.
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS APPOINTMENT PROCESS FOR NEW CEO IN MACKAY
MAYBE there is hope too for Mackay now that a new CEO has been appointed.
The $100,000 a year job has gone to Ben Michelmore, a member of a very well-known local family, who has a background in family-owned hotels (Nebo and Dolphin Heads resort).
Apparently he has little or no experience in racing administration which might surprise a few – as he has an enormous task to get the crowds back through the gate at Ooralea and placate a few of the remaining trainers and racing identities of the once strong racing city.
RQ Human Resources conducted the interviews with the ‘assistance’ of the Cairns Jockey Club CEO Graham Thornton who has been acting CEO of Mackay for a couple of months.
His involvement in selecting a new CEO was somewhat surprising – at least to one of the applicants – a graduate with a business diploma (majoring in marketing) and more importantly with a very strong background in racing and a close association with prominent racing people.
It is worth repeating here that the first question Thornton asked this applicant was:
“What are the first two things you would do if you got the job?”
Answer: “Number one, I would make sure the telephone was answered and number two, I would reply to all emails – and that just hasn’t been happening.”
Truth hurts because Ryan Vandevelde reckons that his honest, forthright response ended his hopes of putting Mackay back on the racing map.
“I went from 6/4 to 66’s” he said. But he is the least concerned for himself.
His concern is the future of Ooralea racing.
ONE OF THE BEST TRACKS IN THE STATE BUT MACKAY IS UNDER A CLOUD
TALKING of Mackay it is quite amazing that the false rail is out on Tuesday for Lightning Handicap day.
The Mackay track, rated by some the best in the state, has not been raced on for three weeks yet a false rail is out and restricted the fields in some races to just 10 runners.
Trainers are asking the same question:
What’s happening?
CAN WE EXPECT AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE NEW TRACK FOR CLUDEN?
WHILE on tracks we can expect an announcement on the new track for Cluden on Tuesday night.
To be nor not to be – that is the question.
And if the green light for the project does not flash it will be red lights for racing in Townsville – that’s for certain.
And it’s also imperative that work begins by the end of August.
LOCAL SCOOP THE POOL IN THE BIG RACES AT ROCKHAMPTON
ROCKHAMPTON trained horses staved off the challenges from the southern raiders (and New Zealanders) by winning both the coveted Cup and Newmarket.
There were highly emotional scenes after Our Boy Malarchi won his second Newmarket and the locally owned and trained Vandalised was a very popular win in the Cup.
Vandalised, an ex Victorian formally trained by Troy Corstens, was an $18,000 purchase and has proved a bargain for his band of young local owners.
THE SAD STORY OF A PROMISING APPRENTICE FOUGHT TO QUIT BY HIS WEIGHT
I knew Aidan Holt as the kid across the road who came over and rode a horse named I Got One in exercise on an old sand track carved into the bush on Racecourse Road at Cluden.
The horse, an old veteran, didn’t like the track and Aidan barely out of school wasn’t permitted (at that time) to ride there.
So he virtually learned to ride under the tutorship of his uncle, Alby Molino, on this old sand track that unfortunately is no longer, having been swept up in so called development. So sad!
Yes, it was on this same old track, known as pig hill and used by dozens of trainers for almost a century, that Aidan learned the basics under the masterful eye of his uncle Alby – a former Burdekin jockey and a man of great repute.
Aidan absolutely idolised his uncle and has done from a very early age. He’d follow him around the racecourses, silently dreaming of the day that he too could wear the silks.
In fact he went to all the school fancy dress balls as uncle Alby decked out in his hand- me-down silks, boots, whip and spurs. They reckon he slept in them!
He never thought of any other vocation. He was going to be a jockey – that was it.
And he made it to the top in just a couple of seasons.
But sadly, last Saturday, he farewelled his cherished career.
Increasing weight has made it near impossible for him to continue and very reluctantly the young apprentice from Home Hill, who had been compared to Michael Rodd and other great apprentices, slipped out of his silks for the last time.
He hasn’t given up hope of making a comeback sometime down the track. But…..
Meanwhile, Aidan will remain in Brisbane, riding work for the stables that have supported him in his short, meteoric career.
And he will no longer have a guilt complex when sneaking a chocolate (or three) between mounts at early morning workouts.
RACING CARAVAN ROLLS ON TO LAURA AND OAK PARK
THERE will be an armada of trucks, floats and caravans on the normally quiet dusty tracks around the top end of Queensland over the next weeks.
They will roll into picturesque Laura on Saturday for the ever popular annual and the next stop is Oak Park for the two day meeting on July 4 and 5.
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.
