IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer, TERRY BUTTS, reports on the popularity of race-caller Josh Fleming who is just at home in the broadcast box at Koorooinya to Canterbury and Scone.
Butts also has his finger on the pulse at Mackay where plans for the Cup Calcutta to be held in a topless girlie bar were a well kept secret.
Here is his column:
JOSH FLEMING EQUALLY AT HOME CALLING FROM KOOROOINYA TO CANTERBURY
BY gosh it’s Josh…
The dreadful drought has claimed a few race meetings in outback Queensland over the past couple of years – but not the iconic Koorooinya meeting that races under the banner of Oakley Picnics.
They had their annual meeting last week – and it was a roaring success – just as it has been for the past 98 years. Plans are already underway for a super, sensational Centenary in 2018 – a definite diary date.
On Saturday Australia all-over heard the dulcet tones of race caller Josh Fleming, doing his job from the flash air-conditioned commentary box at the big Scone carnival, in the rich Hunter Valley of NSW.
Josh was there calling prized million dollar horses being ridden by the best hoops in the country decked out in the livery of the crème a la crème of Australian racing.
Just a week earlier the same bloke was calling grass fed giveaways (when he could see them through the dust) from a rickety old broadcast box in the remote drought stricken back-land of Queensland – far from the manicured lawns of Scone.
And amazingly, the same Josh Fleming, rated right up among the best in the country (therefore the world) has been doing it at Koorooinya for 13 years.
“I love it out here,” said the kid from Blackall who called his first race meeting at Birdsville as a 14-year-old.
It was actually after that meeting he was interviewed by ABC Radio. Someone out Prairie way just happened to hear it – and they say – the rest is history.
For Josh it has been a roller-coaster ride from Koorooinya to Canterbury – and all the major NSW tracks covered by SKY.
But he is just as happy with his ‘family’ in the outback where the cans are guaranteed to be gold and cold and where fashionable fascinators are for the over-friendly flies. Where the days are long and so too are the nights – highlighted by a unique revelry for which Koorooinya and its bush folk are famous.
It was a special day this year too for the hard-working secretary Robyn Brown. Her horse, Sunday Advice, was the popular winner of the inaugural Doug (Grumpy) Brown Memorial Cup, a race in honour of the man who was a club member for 62 years and president for two years before his sad passing last year.
PLANS TO HOLD MACKAY CUP CALCUTTA IN TOPLESS BAR WAS KEPT A SECRET
UNFORTUNATELY there is not the same measure of bonhomie in race clubs in other parts of the State.
Down in Mackay, Turf Club members say the first they heard of plans to hold their Cup Calcutta in a topless girlie bar was in this column last week.
Well, believe me, there was a genuine and concerted effort to conduct it in that highly unlikely venue – whether the current MTC committee knew about it or not.
You have to wonder who decides what and when in Mackay these days. Hopefully common-sense will eventually prevail and the Calcutta will go ahead at Ooralea with a couple of big name personalities in racing as special guests.
Yes, it’s about time ‘Thommo’ (Robert Thompson) returned to the track that has been the scene of some good wins for the evergreen jock dating back many years. Saltash Castle in the Newmarket in the mid-80s was one – bless ‘im!’
I can tell you a story about that win. The trainer gave Thompson a $1,000 sling after the race and the jockey did something almost unheard of in his profession.
He handed the money back with the words ‘No, mate, thank you – but you don’t have to do that.”
Unbelievable perhaps – but absolutely true!
SALE OF THIS HORSE DESTINED FOR STUD CAREER PROVED A ‘BALLS-UP’
AND the popular topic among the racing people of the sugar city is the well bred horse bought by a well-known local with the idea of perhaps a stud career after the horse finished racing.
That’s all good. The horse has ability but there is a major problem with the long range plan.
Only just recently, several weeks after the horse was bought, paid for and relocated to another stable, it was discovered the future stallion was in fact a gelding.
Oops!
BULL RIDE PLANS AS PART OF MT GARNET MEETING CAUSING A STIR
FURTHER up north there is a proper blue on at Mt Garnet over a proposed bull ride to be held on the Sunday after the two-day race meeting in June.
Ralph Tate, the only trainer who uses the track these days, is most upset that a section of the course proper in front of the grandstand is the area to be used. And he has strong support from the former president of 20 years Kevin McDonald who, in fact, first joined the Mt Garnet committee in 1967.
And he just also happens to be a trustee of the racecourse. So in spite of a decision made by the current committee last Saturday to go ahead with the bull ride, there just might be a hurdle or two yet to clear.
Contrary to claims that Racing Queensland had given its approval for the race club funded event, the CEO Darren Condon he ‘hasn’t heard a word’, but added: “RQ would only become involved it there was an insurance or safety issue.”
The club says the track would be top-dressed with the sand to be used in the bull ring.
Mr McDonald said: “It is going to cost the club $26,000 for this bull ride event and they hope to recoup it at the gate charging $25 per head and from bar takings.
“Will they get 1000 customers?
“I doubt it.”
‘HAVING TO HERD THE CATS’ IN MACKAY NOT A CREATION OF NEW CEO
AND back to Mackay.
The new CEO, Ross Prowd, the man in the hot seat, has found an ally in Paul Turner, himself a racing man of some experience, who has gone into bat on several points.
He says the newcomer is in a situation “where he has had to herd cats – a situation he walked into – not created.”
Mr Turner says there are too many people interfering with the operations of the club.
“(What I have found) in my 40 years’ experience with race clubs is that when you have people who think they know everything involved with running a club, the club is on a greasy pole.”
FRY LANDS HIS FIRST WINNER AFTER A FIVE YEAR ABSENCE FROM SADDLE
FORMER top Townsville jockey, Ivo Fry, celebrated his first winner after a five-year hiatus when Phoenix Dragon won the first at Home Hill on Saturday at only his third ride back.
Ivo had a highly successful association with trainer Steve O’Dea before that trainer moved south and the jockey ‘walked away’ from the game.
He became a fly in-fly out miner at Mt Isa.
Since October he has been riding weekend track work for Errol Covell who said the jockey turned up one day weighing 85kg and said he wanted to make a comeback.
With a comfortable riding weight now of 57 kg his return could not have come at a more appropriate time. There is currently a dearth of jockeys in North Queensland, and he is sure to be in great demand for heavyweights in coming weeks.
PLENTY OF CONFUSION AND FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT RE-OPENING OF CLUDEN
THERE has been much discussion, confusion and false information about when the new Cluden track will be open.
The contractors report that work has progressed according to the timetable and turfing of the new track is expected to begin in the next three weeks.
The expected date of reopening is September 5 (Parry Nissan Day) and the Townsville Cup will be run on the new track on September 26 – two weeks after the Cairns Amateurs.
That’s the program, weather permitting, of course.
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..
