THE WEDNESDAY WHINGE has a new look but won’t be dispensing with some of our old favorites and will continue to focus on THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY side of what has happened in racing over the past week. The Whinge will continue to provide an opportunity for The Cynics to Have Their Say. Thanks again for your support for the most read column on this website. Our popularity continues to grow despite the bagging it is copping from some officials who cannot cope with constructive criticism and insist that no-one reads it. We encourage readers to continue to contribute but plan to restrict the Whinge to only eight or at the most 10 items as well as stories you may have missed in the mainstream media. That is what you seem to want. Feedback suggests that unless there is a major issue that the column at times is too long.
RQ DECLARES IT ‘LUNACY’ FOR THE INDUSTRY TO EXPECT DETAILS OF MM DEAL 
YOU would expect news that racing in Queensland will host Australia’s first $10 million race day at the Gold Coat in 2016 to be greeted with unanimous support and elation but that has not been the case.
In the numerous contributions to the Wednesday Whinge on the topic, sadly there was not one positive response. Most were skeptical or critical of the plans and wanted a great deal more information than has been provided.
On behalf of these industry participants – some of whom are stakeholders – we sought some answers from Racing Queensland but unfortunately without much success.
The major question that most want answered is this: How much money will RQ contribute out of TAB funding or prizemoney coffers each year to the Magic Millions deal?
RQ CEO Darren Condon told me: “We are not disclosing any of the intricacies of the deal. It is lunacy for the industry to expect this.”
We feel that is not an acceptable response but much of what happens under the leadership of RQ Chairman Kevin Dixon is steeped in secrecy. Whether RQ should be contributing to the profits of a private company run by one of Australia’s richest men is a matter for debate.
Whether they should be doing this rather than spending more money across the board on smaller clubs in the country where battling owners, rather than rich ones, will reap the rewards is also debatable.
Magic Millions has been a political football from the time Gerry Harvey and John Singleton became involved in the ownership. There were threats to take the event away from the Gold Coast and Queensland.
Even the Labor Government and the Bob Bentley Board bent over backwards to appease the wishes of the Millions group. This is not a situation unique to the LNP and RQ run by Kevin Dixon.
Magic Millions obviously contributes to the state’s economy and drives tourist dollars on the Gold Coast. Just what it returns to the racing industry in this state is questionable in the eyes of many.
There are a lot of racing people who believe it is a restriction of trade for Magic Millions day to be the primary Saturday meeting in Queensland when not everyone can compete. You have to buy a horse from the MM sales to qualify. Everyone is welcome to go along and try their luck but how many of the battlers who enable racing in Queensland to proceed on a weekly basis can afford to do that?
Time will tell how successful this new concept is. One thing is for sure the day itself will never compete in the eyes of the racing purists with the big events of the Sydney and Melbourne carnivals which are open to all comers – not just a privileged few.
Here are three of the emails that we received on the topic that should get the general message across:
WHAT’S THE CATCH? – BUY NOW AND PAY NO INTEREST FOR FIVE YEARS 
JASON B of BRISBANE writes:
‘TO suggest that Queensland racing is no longer the poor cousin of Victoria and NSW because of last week’s Magic Millions announcement is drawing an awfully long bow.
The major stakes increases announced in the southern states is available to all owners and all horses and is across the board. It is not restricted to starters from a specific sale at a race meeting to be run on just the one day of the year.
The massive prizemoney purse of $10 million for one day of racing sounds terrific – it’s a bit obscene actually when you consider the stakes will upstage the Melbourne Cup – but unlike our greatest race it is not open to all comers from within Australia and overseas.
The fact that to compete for this massive pool you have to buy a horse from the Magic Millions sales raises the question of restriction of trade.
What about those owners who pay just as much to have their horses trained but cannot afford to fork out the big bucks – some might say over-priced amounts – that yearlings attract at the MM.
It is hardly a game changer for racing in Queensland if not every horse and every owner are eligible for compete for the big money regardless of where they buy their hopefuls.
So on this day only those who have Magic Millions horses will be eligible to contest this race day which begs the question – how much will those buyers contribute to the pool of $10 million and worse still how much is Racing Queensland contributing?’
INSULT TO SUGGEST MAGIC MILLIONS IS UP THERE WITH BIG CUPS & CHAMPIONSHIPS 
CHARLIE H of SYDNEY sent this email:
‘WHO will be the big winner from the $10 million race day at the Gold Coast in 2016 – racing in Queensland or the Magic Millions Company and its owner Gerry Harvey?
One suspects that MM and Mr Harvey wouldn’t be doing this out of the goodness of their hearts or as the White Knight suggested: “Now you’ve got Queensland doing something that the other states would love to have. They would have cut off their right arm to have got this one.”
For him to compare the Magic Millions with the Spring Carnival in Melbourne and The Championships in Sydney is an insult to those major events. And to think that both of them are run at Flemington and Randwick not a goat track like the Gold Coast where every horse doesn’t get an equal chance is also farcical.
What the industry in Queensland wants to know is how much TAB distribution is being put into this meeting that is restricted to horses from a private sale and how much in ‘sweepstakes’ the owners of the starters will be required to contribute.
Of course we’ve had the usual garbage from the Racing Minister praising the efforts of the RQ chairman for achieving such a magnificent result for Queensland. Don't they ever get sick of patting each other on the backs?
And worse still the RQ chairman making no apology for the decision to back Australia’s richest race day as opposed to spreading money to other parts of the state. He says it was an easy move from a business point of view. That’s the way Kev, look after the big boys, while the battlers can please themselves.
TWO PAGES OF FREE ADVERTORIAL WITH LITTLE DETAIL IN COURIER-MAIL 
ALBERT W of REDCLIFFE writes:
‘THE coverage in The Courier-Mail was something you would have expected from a propaganda political media release from the Queensland Government, Racing Queensland or the Magic Millions company.
There it was two pages of wall-to-wall coverage, every story written by the turf writer regarded by many as the ‘spin doctor’ for RQ. And even a follow up quoting his good mate the Chairman the next day.
As I delved through the reams of propaganda hoping to find some devil in the detail of the $10 million announcement my search was in vain.
Not a word of how the big race day in 2016 will be financed, not a word on what affect it will have on yearling prices and whether the battler will be able to afford horse without even the guarantee of having a starter, not a word of how much RQ is contributing out of TAB coffers, in fact not much more than a two page advertorial for RQ and Magic Millions.
Good one Nathan – that should ensure you a front row seat and red carpet treatment at all the major MM functions while you are Racing Editor at the CM which they tell me could change if there is a new Editor in the next 12 months.’
RACING MEDIA BROADCAST BATTLE WAS A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN 
STEFAN M of MELBOURNE writes:
‘GEE, you really didn't have to be Nostradamus to predict racing’s broadcast media rights debacle, did you?
Well, as predicted, the faeces has hit the cooling device in no uncertain manner and a resolution seems unlikely in the near future. As any sort of national approach to any of this is probably further away than the nearest galaxy, we are stuck with cards we've been dealt.
Money Money Money, always Sunny, in the Rich Man's World!
As I pen this piece, the Exocets are launching from all sides and who's ducking for cover as usual, the owners and punters who for Pete's sake, just want to watch their horses compete.
By the time this letter is published it will be known if the TVN who has the rights to six meetings this Saturday has ditched their "premium" Sydney/Melbourne only coverage, morphed into a wall to wall psuedo Sky 1 or arranged for yet another ( gasp! ) racing channel on pay TV to show the other four meetings.
What a dreadful scenario would it be if there are owners out there with horses running that can't get to the races who will be denied seeing their horse race live! Dedication, thousands in trainers’ fees, propping up the industry and you can't see your horse even run. Shambolic and patently unacceptable, to anybody.
So, who are the heroes and who are the villains in this sordid saga? Let's sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Tabcorp, without whom unquestionably we don't have an industry to even be talking about, are sticking to their guns and offering what they think it's worth to them. Should they cough up the extra? Probably, but at the end of the day they have responsibilities too. Not only to shareholders, but indeed to the very industry itself to ensure the funding model remains in place and that the whole show can go on. What's the point of paying TVN extra money and taking it away from the very people that provide the product that TVN want to sell? Does that make any sense?
TVN, I think was a fantastic idea in the beginning, it all sounded so logical and gave us a feeling of this utopian state of horse racing nirvana being born and breaking out from its little acorn and blooming into this 200ft of mighty oak tree broadcasting. Well, regretfully it's been a rocky road to say the least, not the least of which has actually been getting anyone to actually watch it! During all the time it was part of the Sport Package, Neilsen ratings revealed more people watched the TVSN Home Shopping Channel!
This in itself was disturbing enough and the alarm bells were ringing loud. Did we really need four horse racing channels? One, Sky 1, one of Foxtel's most popular channels, Sky 2 and Sky World, created to satiate the need for a premium dedicated horse racing channel and another costing millions to run that hardly anyone ever watched?
Listening to TVN's Bruce Mann on radio the other morning made things a little clearer in my mind. Much like chiefs before him like Harold Mitchell, he, by his own admission, comes from a ‘media background’. I get the feeling this corporate high flyer might not be much of a punter. If he was, he might be able to see that forest but for all the trees. With all the panache of any good executive out came the fancy phrases ‘consumer trends’, ‘upwards trends in the value of sports’ and more. He is for a start, not comparing Apples with Apples in his ‘value’ assessment. He needs to ‘get it’ that racing is not a ‘sport’ that people sit down and watch for entertainment and will pay for. That notion is just out of touch with reality, 95% of the general population find horse racing as boring as bat droppings, even 95% of the people that watch the Spring Carnival only do so because it's such a media ‘event’ and want to feel involved in some way. Sorry, but the other 51 weeks of the year all you have are owners and punters, that's it, period.
How you could ever in your wildest dreams image that horse racing is a ‘sports’ related commodity alongside cricket, tennis or the AFL, is just so absurd it beggars belief that anyone who could even think such drivel could even be in the broadcasting business. They belong in Disneyland.
Well then, like it or lump here is my view. I think the three Sky Channels are way enough racing on TV for anyone's needs. The millions it costs to run TVN would be far, far better spent on improving the industry as a whole. If TVN had someone from a ‘racing’ background in charge it might just sink in. Deduct what it costs to run TVN and the money
Tabcorp are offering would be about right. Racing vision should always, absolutely, without question, be about getting punters to punt, nothing more, nothing less, it's the lifeblood of the industry. Have your special interest shows on breeding and such by all means, but to disrupt the punting dollar flow with all this pie in the sky ‘media landscape’, ‘a changing demographic’, ‘moving digital platforms’ rubbish is just that, rubbish and nonsense. Punters are punters, always have been, always will be, and no, just because they sell two million new smart phones a year you won't get two million new punters as well.
I am definitely not a Tabcorp stooge plugging their wares, but it has to be said. I know Queenslanders are probably not aware of TabActive on Sky but it's fantastic. I would now not even consider watching races without it on. Same with the Sky Media Player on my desktop, works without any problem, except of course you can't actually see mostraces! As it is now, these Einsteins at TVN want me to disconnect all of these ‘punting friendly’ options every time a NSW or Victorian race is on switch channels or websites and then go back and start all over again, and again.
One can only hope that somewhere in all of this someone realizes that we, the owners and punters are the losers here. Without us there are no rights to squabble over, no wheeling and dealing in the gazillions this way and that, executive pay slips the size of telephone numbers and gin and tonics in the boardroom. Wake up you numbskulls, smell the roses and take a step out of your 35th floor offices, visit a TAB or try some betting on your computer like we do. One of these Fridays who knows maybe you'll get that ‘light bulb’ moment, and we can all get some peace.’
IS VICTORIAN RACING AS ‘SQUEAKY CLEAN’ AS SOME WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE? 
CRAIG B of OYSTER BAY writes:
‘I couldn’t help but write about this bloke’s contribution.
PERCIVAL SMITH of MELBOURNE writes:
‘HOW much chance is there of the stewards in Sydney and Brisbane following the lead of their Melbourne counterparts at carnival time?
Being a proud Victorian I would suggest – next to none.
Little wonder racing in Victoria is leading the way when it comes to integrity and that many punters regard Sydney and Brisbane, in particular, as ‘no go’ zones.
During the spring carnival RV stewards performed 772 race day raids more than double last year.
Can you imagine the blokes in Brisbane doing even 22 during the Winter Carnival up there and I won’t even mention Sydney where the big go is a ‘walk through’ of the stable areas on race morning akin to ‘coming ready or not’?
Little wonder the latest spring carnival in Victorian has been declared the cleanest ever. It just shows why punters have more confidence in betting on the product in that state.’
Can Percival tell us where they are up to in the Les Samba murder investigation?
I would also point out to Perce that the Admire Rakti incident is still viewed with some cynicism by some.
And there was the Damien Oliver betting case. Stewards charged him with betting on a single race. Does Percival honestly believe that Damien only ever bet in one race and then ceased that activity after being caught? Wouldn’t a steward’s panel full of integrity investigate to see if there were other incidents?
And how is Bill Vlahos these days?
Don’t get me wrong. I know Victorians are passionate about their racing.
But spare me the criticism of Sydney and Brisbane. Victoria probably lags those two towns when it comes to integrity.’
SHOULD ACTION HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER THE WHIP USE OF THIS HORSE? 
STEVE C of SARINA writes:
WHERE were the stewards?
And not a word from the RSPCA – at least not yet!
Many of us can’t understand how the unncecessary ‘flogging’ of a horse in a QTIS Three Year-Old race at Townsville last Saturday went unnoticed – at least to those who should have acted.
For those who have watched the replay, a horse with the unlikely name of Just Lucky was hit 30 times in the straight – by a jockey who leaned to the side to get extra leverage behind every powerful stroke.
It was not a pretty sight on a very hot day – and begs the question: If the horse had been flogged (like it was in the race) at any other venue, the person would arguably have been charged with cruelty – and perhaps even jailed.
It was a truly a most distressing sight – and there wasn’t a single word.
It is not too late for the RSCPA to have a look at the film. But we wait with bated breath.
Flogging horses is all to prevalent – especially in North Queensland – but the Just Lucky episode was way, way over the top.
EDITOR’S NOTE: IF the jockey, trainer or connections wish to respond to the above email they will be provided with unedited right of reply.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY TO NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS 
WE wish all our readers and contributors a happy and holy Christmas and a prosperous New Year of good health where they find many winners. Normally we close the Wednesday Whinge down for the holiday period but we are keeping it going this time, albeit the size will depend on how interested readers are in contributing.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the above e-mails should not be interpreted as those of JOHN LINGARD, the owner-editor of the letsgohorseracing web-site. That is why he has added an ‘EDITOR’S NOTE’. Every endeavor is made to verify the authenticity of contributors. We welcome any reasonable and constructive responses from parties or individuals.
