RACING Queensland officials have jumped at the opportunity to bag websites for publishing rumors circulating in the industry from late last week that the top stable of Tony Gollan had not one – but two – positive swabs.

This could easily have been stamped out by RQ stewards simply issuing a Media Release declaring that the rumors were incorrect and that at that stage there was no case to answer by any top stable. That would have simply ended the speculation.

It’s a bit rich for the RQ Chairman Kevin Dixon to find another opportunity to question the credibility of racing websites when it wasn’t them that started the rumor campaign. All they did was report what was being suggested as a warning to punters.

They were doing the job that the stewards should have been doing in advising the industry what was being said was not right.

Unfortunately for those media people who did try to contact the two gun stewards of RQ in Wade Birch and Allan Reardon they did not get a reply. It seems that both were on leave or unavailable or whatever.

We might also mention – seeing the credibility of websites like ours is again under attack from the RQ boss – that some time ago letsgohorseracing made him aware of vicious rumors circulating concerning a prominent Brisbane stable which is close to him. We agreed to his request at the time not to run this for acceptable reasons.

Unfortunately Mr Dixon has a selective memory when it comes to the question of credibility.

Once again we had a situation where clarification of the swab situation is not made in a general Media Release but exclusive to the communications unit of Racing Queensland - the Courier-Mail - which should have been reporting the rumor speculation or attempting to have it cleared up like the websites and racing radio media were from as far back as Friday of last week.

They will be called responsible racing journalists by RQ. Websites will be called trouble-makers. It comes down to protection of the punters - something that the stewards and RQ need a course in public relations on. This continued secret society and selective information being released by RQ has to end.

The swabs issue aside if the RQ chairman is concerned about the profile of racing in Queensland he should direct his Integrity Department to look at what is happening on the track, associated bookmaking activities (including Betfair) and why punters are deserting betting on Brisbane racing in droves. The number of beaten odds-on favorites in recent weeks is quite incredible - whether they should have been that short to start with or not.

As for Tony Gollan we at letsgohorseracing wish him well in his current run of success and are delighted that punters – who should be best informed – can continue to back his favorites with confidence and expect him to maintain his amazing strike rate which currently stands at about 25 per cent.

In the meantime we will continue to provide information that we believe the industry, the punting public and racing in general needs to know whether RQ, its chairman or those running the show like it or not.

EDITOR LETSGOHORSERACING.