RESPECTED Townsville-based racing journalist, TERRY BUTTS, says the LNP has pledged to dismantle the proposed merged control Board for the three codes if they win Government and Opposition Racing Minister Ray Stevens has promised to sack Bob the Builder, his sidekick ‘Tonto’ Tony and the ‘chosen ones.’
In his widely-read and at times controversial racing column, ‘Silks and Saddles,’ Butts pulls no punches highlighting serious problems with the two Cushion Tracks, now under fire from leading jockeys as well as disgruntled punters.
This web-site welcomes the opportunity to reproduce the Butts’ column, courtesy of the North Queensland Register, to give the racing industry a different perspective to what they are mostly reading and hearing in the mainstream media.
CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT AND IT’S ‘GONSKI’ FOR ‘BUILDER BOB AND THE BOYS’
WHILE the Bentley juggernaut has rolled on seemingly without a hitch since the last Queensland election, things have taken a turn in recent days.
The old juggernaut might have hit a pretty big bump, and all those ambitious plans, including the controversial amalgamation of the trots and dogs into the Queensland Racing Board might not happen after all.
And if it does, it will only be for as long as Labor is in power, as Ray Stevens, the Queensland Opposition spokesman for Racing, has pledged to ‘disentangle’ the whole process if and when the LNP gains power.
Suffice to say Bob and his Board will be ‘gonski’, if the latest opinion polls are any guide.
It seems Ray, the former squire of Doncaster Station near Richmond (north-west Queensland), and in contrast, former Mayor of the Gold Coast, has been very quiet on racing matters in and out of Parliament.
But suddenly he has unharnessed himself from the party influence that, reportedly and incredibly, was keen to see him toe the Bentley line.
This is clearly evidenced in his speech to the Queensland Parliament last Wednesday, when, limited to a mere two minutes, he
delivered 380 words that left no doubt that the gloves are well and truly off.
He expressed what he thinks of the QRL chairman Bob Bentley (‘an intimidating bullyboy’) and his three code policy that Stevens described as ‘all about extending his unfettered reign’.
And he didn’t miss the Racing Minster, Peter Lawlor, either.
The full text of Mr Stevens’ speech, which somehow missed the mainstream media, is reprinted here:
“The Racing Minister, Peter Lawlor, has abandoned all three racing codes in Queensland and has himself adopted the intimidating and coersive bullyboy style of his mouthpiece, Labor Party messenger Bob Bentley, to force an amalgamation of all three codes into one racing board to continue the long-term reign of Bob Bentley over racing in Queensland.
“I table a letter from the Minister to Queensland Harness Racing blatantly threatening them to agree to the amalgamation proposal or face ‘new funding arrangements’ which will be forced on their industry.”
(Tabled paper: Letter, dated February 5, 2010, from the Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading to the Chairman, Queensland Harness Racing Ltd regarding the establishment of one racing control body to administer the three codes of racing in Queensland).
“The Minister is crystal clear in his blackmail attempt on Harness Racing, saying that if they did not follow his wishes they would lose operating funding and get no capital injection from the supposed extra funding from Treasury.
“Harness Racing has the Minister’s gun at their heads, so, of course, they will be forced to agree to the detrimental proposal for the future of harness racing in Queensland.
“This is not about the betterment of racing in Queensland; this is about extending the unfettered reign of Bob Bentley, the Labor Party fall guy for all of the Government’s woes in all three racing codes.
“The Labor Party is happy for Bentley to take the blame for its lack of funding to all three racing codes in its neglect of the racing industry in Queensland.
“When Bentley takes the heat, Minister Lawlor hides meekly away, hoping industry woes will not create a voter backlash for the Labor Party.
“Bentley tried to extend his long-term dictatorship over Queensland racing for several more years when racing was under Treasurer Andrew Fraser. But his undemocratic proposal was even too hot for a Labor Party under fire for jobs for Labor mates.
“So Bentley came up with this new scheme to extend his unelected reign over racing in Queensland for another five years without any consultation with industry, any public disclosure of the terms and benefits of the amalgamation, or any quantification of the projects he will deem worthy of expenditure of the new-found industry’s money at Bentley’s discretion.
“If the Government has extra money for the racing, trotting and greyhound industries, it should commit it now to the current boards for immediate injection as part of a very worthy stimulus package to racing.” (Time expired).
Yes, Mr Stevens says he has had talks recently with the Charters Towers Jockey Club and other clubs around his old hunting ground that are concerned for their future.
Of course, he can offer no promises – just yet. Really, it’s up to the electorate.
What, you might wonder, is the future of Albion Park, which is ‘cherry ripe’ for housing or commercial development, no doubt. And what then has the old Milton tennis courts got to do with it? Hmm.
SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THE TWO CUSHION TRACKS IN SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND
THERE are obviously serious problems with the two cushion tracks in Queensland.
Some leading jockeys simply refuse to ride at the Sunshine Coast on the dirt and a top Toowoomba-based jockey told me at the weekend he ‘hates’ the new Clifford Park track. Great to ride work on, but ‘gluey and terrible’ when it gets warm, he says.
Punters obviously think the same, because the turnover is paltry.
The anomaly is, the cushion tracks apparently require lots of water to keep them cool.
And, of course, it was the lack of water in Toowoomba that brought about the switch from turf to dirt.
COLUMN REPRODUCED COURTESY OF TERRY BUTTS AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER