IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS reports on behind-the-scenes drams as the Cairns Amateurs that the mainstream media has conveniently avoided.
Butts quotes trainer Greg Wehlow as declaring he will never start a horse in Cairns again after two of his starters have come to grief at the same spot but at separate meetings. He fears a jockey will be killed unless the track problems are rectified.
Here is the Butts’ column:
SAFETY A MAJOR CONCERN FOR CAIRNS TRACK AFTER AMATEURS DEBACLE
THE controversy surrounding the track at Cairns for the first day of the Amateurs still rages – and answers are needed to the many questions of safety.
Was the track on Friday presented in the state that punters, jockeys, owners and trainers expect of a highly publicised meeting covered nationally by various off course Totes and betting agencies?
Definitely not say the jockeys – and certainly Shane Pawsey who came to grief on the Greg Wehlow-trained favourite in the third race on Friday.
The fact that Pawsey had to drive himself to hospital – wait four hours and then drive himself home – is as a matter of great discussion.
“I asked the ambulance driver to take me so I wouldn’t have to wait in emergency.
“My nose was bleeding profusely for which they gave me an ice pack – and my arm was almost immovable,” said Pawsey.
“But the ambulance driver refused to take me, after I had showered and packed my gear”.
Bad enough!
WHAT CAUSED THE FALL IN THE SAME SPOT AS A CAIRNS CUP DAY FALL
BUT what CAUSED the fall?
Pawsey is adamant his horse lost its footing in the very same place that Melbourne jockey Mark Pegus fell and broke his arm on Cairns Cup day last month.
Pegus has been ruled out for the Melbourne Spring. He, too, said his horse just lost its footing and fell.
Pawsey reckons he dodged a bullet.
Racegoers were horrified to see the horse come down midfield and the jockey sprawled on the track under the flying hooves of other horses.
“I was very, very lucky,” said Pawsey.
So, too, was the Cairns club, it would appear.
The stewards have yet to finalise their inquiry ‘into why the horse blundered, dislodging jockey Pawsey near the 700m mark” said Chief Stipe Sam Woolastan.
There was speculation that the horse clipped heels and came down.
“Definitely not,” said Pawsey.
“I have been riding for 29 years. I know when a horse loses its footing and when it clips heels.
“This horse just blundered and lost its footing.”
The question that must be asked is: “Who made the order to put 8mls of water on the track on Thursday night?
Was it the part of the watering and maintenances plan set up by RQ track manager Warren Williams, who incidentally was in Cairns a fortnight before and was rushed back on Friday night?
These are crucial answers to crucial questions. Two jockeys have just escaped very serious injury and someone has to take responsibility.
That’s a given!
RQ OR CAIRNS JOCKEY CLUB COULD FACE LEGAL ACTION OVER FALLS
THE legal vultures are already circling.
The meeting on Friday almost didn’t continue. A deputation of senior jockeys approached stewards after the fall with very serious concerns.
Trainer Greg Wehlow who has strenuously and publicly asserted his opinion the track was ‘unsafe’ refused to start his horses on Saturday. In fact, he insists he will never race a horse there again.
“Someone will be killed here,” he said.
It was Wehlow’s horse that came down on Friday. It was Wehlow’s horse that came down and injured Mark Pegus on Cup day.
He has cause to be concerned.
But it seems no-one is listening to him.
AND it doesn’t end there. The meeting was held up for almost two hours while a tractor and aerator were summoned to work on the effected portion of the track.
The Chief Stipe said the jockeys only continued to ride because they wanted the meeting to proceed – not for themselves – but for the club.
One jockey said had it not been Amateurs they would have pulled the pin.
Then on Saturday the dramas and holds ups continued – again races were put back an hour after one of Ben Williams’ horses crashed through the starting gates and bolted a circuit.
“I was told the gate has been faulty for two years,” said the trainer.
Others wonder if there is a Work Place Healthy and Safety presence in Cairns – and just how active it is.
Yes, there was a lot going on behind the scenes at Cannon Park at the weekend and it wasn’t all champagne glasses tinkling either.
Then there was the protest in the Cup. Innisfail campaigner Junee Boy toughed it out to beat the gallant Ladrotto which notched yet another big race minor placing after looking the likely winner in the straight.
It was a welcome win for Walderson d’Avila who made a triumphant comeback after a nasty fall a few months ago (also at Cannon Park) and trainer Steve Potsiris who has done a remarkable job this season with his stout hearted Kiwi from the deep south of Otago.
But there was a dramatic postscript to the Cup win for d’Avila. He wrote off his Mercedes but escaped injury on the trip home.
‘MONEY FLOWS TO NQ CLUBS’ – A TIMELY PIECE OF POLITICAL PORK-BARRELLING?
UNDER the heading ‘Money Flows to North Queensland Clubs’, Racing Queensland announced the first of its increased feature prize money allocations with clubs in Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton the beneficiaries.
Cairns Jockey Club, the Far North Queensland Amateur Turf Club (Cairns) and Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton Turf Clubs will each receive an additional $90,000 per year.
It was heartening news for some clubs who believed they had been severely disadvantaged in the distribution of the $850 million booty.
Some still do, in spite of this $90,000 announcement and have not surrendered the fight for a more equitable distribution.
A Townsville Turf Club delegation met last week with the RQ Board and northern LNP politicians have also briefed their Premier on the subject and warned of a possible backlash at the ballot box.
RQ CEO Darren Condon said the majority of the funding would kick in for the 2015-16 racing season but ‘some meetings later in the current season would receive an increase before next August’.
“These regions boast some of the best provincial racing in the state and we are pleased to be able to deliver the first round of increases, which will be spread across races on feature days,” Condon said.
“Next year’s Cairns Cup meeting will receive an additional $25,000 with all $15,000 races boosted to $20,000. This will be the same for the Cairns Amateurs meeting as well as the FNQATC Cup day, resulting in a $55,000 boost for those meetings.
“In Townsville, the biggest boosts will be seen on Ladies Day in the lead up to the Townsville Cup with an additional $40,000 allocated to the day. We have also split the Pallarenda Stakes into sex classes for the first time.
What he didn’t say was that the Pallarenda, until recent years, was always run in separate divisions
“We have also re-introduced a major early season two-year-old race for Mackay, which will now carry $30,000 up from $10, 000,” said Condon.
He said Rockhampton would be the first to benefit from the new allocations with feature meetings leading into the Rockhampton Newmarket and Rockhampton Cup receiving a boost from June next year.
“From June 2015, Rockhampton will host a Country Cup, which will be run for $30,000, while the Tatts Sprint and Tatts Cup will each receive a $10,000 increase, while the Rocky Cup and Newmarket meetings will be boosted with an additional $12,000 and $16,000 respectively.”
But that’s not all for the club that hosted probably the worst attended and lack lustre Cup carnival of all northern clubs this year.
Newmarket day particularly was in a word – pitiful.
Surely it’s time to consider a one day Cup carnival for what was once the capital of country Queensland racing. Rockhampton currently rates far below Cairns as an ‘event’. Cairns nowadays have everything bar a safe racetrack.
This announcement from RQ coincided with a media release from Rockhampton Jockey Club last week that sang the praises of Racing Queensland – and little wonder.
As one Townsville committeeman commented: “If we got the deal Rocky got in terms of dates and prizemoney we would sing in the same chorus”.
WAS ROCKHAMPTON DEALT THE RIGHT CARDS FOR REASONS YET UNEXPLAINED?
THERE is a distinct feeling Rockhampton was dealt the right cards for reasons yet unexplained – and that the perceived favouritism with date allocations doesn’t end there.
From next month, prize money at a standard seven-race Thursday program at Callaghan Park will increase from $70,000 to $91,000.
Standard mid-week TAB races in Rockhampton will each carry $13,000 prize money – up from $10,000 – from October 1 and $12,000 semi-features will also rise to $13,000.
An eight-race Friday program at Rockhampton will carry $104,000 prize money.
And now this.
Rockhampton is also, inexplicably, included in the inaugural Racing Queensland Summer Provincial Series commencing on Melbourne Cup Day this year.
The series will feature seven $20,000 heats at the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast, Warwick and Ipswich leading up to a $100,000 final at Doomben on December 6 this year.
The winning horse from each heat will gain automatic entry into the final while the winning trainer of the series finale will receive a $5000 bonus.
Why only Rockhampton?
And what about Warwick – are there breeders out that way?
Is there a $100,000 series for the northern horses as well?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
Does a one- legged duck swim in circles?
GEORGE DOOLAN DEPRIVED FAIRYTALE ENDING TO TERRIFIC TRAINING CAREER
IT should have been his moment of bliss and a fairytale ending to the training career of George Doolan in the last race on the last day of Cairns Amateurs on Saturday.
But just as the maestro Robert Thompson dashed the favourite and aptly named Rich and Famous to the lead inside the furlong, along came the Townsville-trained roughie Makeshift to spoil the party.
Doolan, who saddled up his first Cairns Amateur winner in 1978 didn’t get the best report from his doctor on Friday. Suffice to say George had probably and sadly witnessed his last Amateur meeting and certainly saddled up his last runner.
Already Rich and Famous is bedded down in the Atherton stable of Janel Ryan as George this week vacates his Cannon Park stables from which he has trained for the last 20 years.
Doolan, an ex-copper (pre Fitzgerald he clearly states) has been a much admired character in North Queensland since his first day at the races.
That was at Mt Garnet in the 1950s where he helped his dad saddle up a runner in the grass fed Maiden.
It won too, George remembers, in that typical lay back laconic manner.
“So it should have. It was a ring-in from Melbourne and we named it Pigeon.
“I remember it well. I had five bob on it.”
And so began the racing career of George Doolan – under age gambler and party to a ring-in.
Hardly the background for a career in the police force, but as old George explains: “It was a mending of my ways.”
He doesn’t know how many races he has won – they have been scattered all over the north – but he loved to win at Laura more than anywhere.
“He has carted horses all over Queensland. He might have been based in Cairns for 20 years but his heart was often in Cunnamulla area where he served as a copper and at Ingham where he met and married his devoted long-time soul mate Vivian.
It has been a long road with many bumps and bridges and you get the distinct impression George wouldn’t have swapped a single day.
He was a devoted horseman (as opposed to horse trainer), outspoken, and never took a backward step in the 25 years that I’ve known him.
He loved a beer and he loved a smoke. He is as genuine and as tough as an RM Williams boot – and has held his own in any company – from the high flyers down – from the Alan Bonds to vagabonds, if you like.
He has seen 'em all our George and it’s quite apt that the last horse he saddled after a mercurial career was named Rich and Famous.
That’s him!
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.
