STORY THE MURDOCH MEDIA COVERED UP & STOPPED A  JOURNALIST FROM WRITING BUT THANKFULLY ABC INVESTIGATIONS INTERVENED 

By WALKLEY AWARD winning ABC journalist FROM The 7.30 REPORT, GRACE TOBIN, who showed 'ethics' are still alive in Australian journalistm.

MEMBERS of Queensland's richest horse racing club are demanding answers after they discovered its former Chairman struck a lucrative deal with the developer of its luxury residential precinct while he had oversight of the $850 million project.

The Brisbane Racing Club's recently retired chair, Neville Bell, has been receiving more than $50,000 a year in rental income from property giant Mirvac for use of his trackside apartment as its display suite.

The revelation emerged at a recent Annual General Meeting with one member claiming it was a "conflict of interest", while another asked the Board if the Club had "foregone regular income for the benefit of the former Board member".

There is no suggestion (by the ABC) that Mr Bell has broken any law which LGHR reiterates in republishing this story which we believe is of public interest, especially to the racing industry and its stakeholders.

Mr Bell told the ABC that he only ever acted in the best interests of the club and its members "in compliance with all relevant laws".

The Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) said it had "followed all corporate requirements in relation to its governance responsibilities … at all times".

The historic race club is also facing a backlash over ongoing integrity and transparency issues, and ABC Investigations has learned that complaints about alleged governance failures and misconduct at the BRC have been raised with Racing Queensland, the Minister for Racing and the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).

It comes as the Crisafulli Government announced a major commitment of public funding towards replacing the Club's ageing grandstand, estimated to cost at least $100 million. 

MEMBERS NOT INFORMED ABOUT INCOME

BUSINESSMAN Neville Bell reigned over the Brisbane Racing Club for 12 years.

When he retired in January, his successor Richard Morrison paid tribute to him as "one of the great Chairmen" of the BRC after he led the Club through "what is arguably the greatest transformation of any race club in Australia".

That transformation was a $1.5 billion master plan which included redeveloping Brisbane's iconic Eagle Farm Racecourse precinct in the blue-chip suburb of Ascot into a resort-style residential complex called Ascot Green overlooking the racetrack.

In 2015, Mr Bell announced Mirvac as the BRC's joint venture partner for the project following a "vigorous selection process".

Neville Bell was chairman of BRC for more than a decade. (Brisbane Racing Club)

Since then, he has worked closely with the developer as both the Chairman of the Club's Master Plan subcommittee and as a member of its Project Controls Group, which involved him meeting regularly onsite with Mirvac to discuss plans for the joint project.

So far three residential towers of 286 units have been built and fully sold, some for millions of dollars.

Mr Bell already owned a penthouse in the first tower when, according to the BRC, he told directors in November 2021 that he was interested in buying a newly completed ground-floor unit in the second tower.

Property records show the unit was owned by the BRC.

"The BRC did not have a lease in place with Mirvac for the apartment," the club told the ABC.

"The purchase was settled in February 2022 in line with a policy that had been adopted by the BRC to ensure fairness and transparency in any apartment transactions."

Once the sale settled, Mr Bell started renting it back to Mirvac.

"At the time, Mr Bell advised the board that the apartment would be leased to Mirvac as a display apartment … and provided an independent rental valuation that was used to form the rental figure."

But the club's members were not informed of the deal.

Instead, they first heard the details more than three years later at this year's heated AGM.

‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’

ABC Investigations has heard an audio recording of the meeting.

The controversy kicked off when a member started probing Neville Bell's arrangement with Mirvac.

"Was rental income paid to the former Chairman for the use of his apartment while he was serving on the BRC board?" the member asked.

Current chairman Richard Morrison admitted, "Yeah, I think it was."

Mirvac signage outside Mr Bell's ground-floor apartment in May 2025. (Supplied)

The member claimed it was "a conflict of interest" before asking why Mr Bell's rental income from Mirvac was not disclosed by the Club in its annual report in what is known as a "related party disclosure".

It means any transaction in which a public company gives a financial benefit to a related party, such as a director, must be dealt with transparently and disclosed because of the potential for them to influence decision-making to their advantage or to the company's detriment.

"This is the Chairman that we're seeing [receiving] an income, while Chairman of the Club, that hadn't been disclosed last year in the annual report … and again this year," the member stated at the AGM.

Other members then started to question the Board about the revelation.

"Are you saying that the company has foregone regular income for the benefit of the former Board member — how is that in compliance with the Corporations Act?" one asked.

"Was it put to tender as to whose unit could be put up?"

A BRC director said he did not know. But members were told the arrangement Mirvac made with Mr Bell was "independent of the Club at the time".

At one point, Mr Bell himself stood up to address the audience.

"I feel a bit like the elephant in the room," he said, before offering an explanation.

"The apartment was on the market and was actually the display apartment that Mirvac had."

Mr Bell told members the unit was "already tenanted" by Mirvac when he bought it. He also revealed that he had been receiving about $50,000 a year from Mirvac in rental income.

"It's not a related party transaction," he said. "The auditors will confirm that."

The club's external auditors, Bentleys, did not respond to the ABC's questions.

An artist's impression of the Ascot Green development overlooking Eagle Farm Racecourse. (Mirvac)

ABC Investigations spoke with a number of experts from audit, tax and advisory firms about their views on the failure of the BRC Board to inform members of the deal between Mr Bell and Mirvac.

A forensic partner at a boutique advisory firm said: "Transparency is absolutely fundamental — what isn't disclosed can be twice as harmful as what is."

A lawyer who specialises in defending regulatory investigations noted that the Club had a policy that permitted directors to purchase properties from its joint venture with Mirvac and questioned why the BRC was not transparent with its Members on this particular transaction.

"Given what is disclosed about those circumstances, I think omitting this arrangement and the benefit received [by the Chairman] is arguably misleading."

A partner at a mid-tier accounting firm said she always advised her clients to err on the side of caution when it came to disclosures.

"Good governance means taking proactive steps to be transparent and accountable. Waiting for these issues to be discussed at an AGM is very late in the piece and may reflect poorly on corporate culture."

An expert in international corporate governance said that public companies and institutions needed to maintain the highest standard of probity.

"Having deals on the side that have not been revealed is not appropriate."

APARTMENT PURCHASE ‘CONDITIONAL’ ON LEASE TO MIRVAC

The ABC put detailed questions to Neville Bell, the Brisbane Racing Club and Mirvac about the concerns raised at the AGM.

Mr Bell responded through his lawyer, who said: "Our client always performed his role as Chairman and Director of the BRC in the best interests of the BRC and its Members in compliance with all relevant laws."

His statement said that Mirvac had been looking for a buyer of the apartment who would lease it back to it as a display suite since 2020 and that he sought approval from the BRC to purchase it in November 2021.

"A contract for the purchase of [the apartment], which was conditional on a lease back to Mirvac, was signed by our client, Mirvac and the BRC on or around 19 January 2022."

The lease started on the same day the sale settled.

*Neville Bell already owned a penthouse apartment in the development when he purchased the ground floor apartment as an investment. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)

Mirvac told the ABC that it still rents the apartment from Mr Bell at "market value" and that leasing investor-owned apartments for display purposes is "standard industry practice".

"This apartment has been used as a display suite and meeting point for purchasers to tour the site, and it continues to serve this purpose," a Mirvac spokesperson said.

"All transactions have been properly declared and recorded in accordance with compliance requirements."

In his statement, Mr Bell said he was "not aware of any requirement for the rental income from Mirvac Ltd for [the] apartment … to be disclosed in any Annual Report, or to the auditors of the BRC."

FORMER CEO ‘SILENCED’

THE former Chairman's rental income was not the only matter raised by members at the AGM.

The BRC Board was also asked about the amount of money being spent by Directors on travel, entertainment and other benefits, which was in excess of $150,000 between eight directors last year alone.

"I was aghast at the amount they spent on travelling overseas," a life member told the ABC.

The club was further taken to task over a termination payout made to a former BRC property executive and asked whether the employee was given a golden handshake when he left the company last year.

"Were [the payments] limited to contractual entitlements or did they include discretionary or ex gratia payments?" a member asked.

The Chairman, Mr Morrison, told Members the executive was only paid what he was "entitled to" under his employment contract.

"Any other assertions are incorrect," Mr Morrison said.

It follows last year's AGM where questions were raised over the abrupt departure of former BRC CEO Tony Partridge.

Then-Chairman Neville Bell told members that Mr Partridge had resigned "of his own volition".

Former Brisbane Racing Club chief executive Tony Partridge. (ABC Radio Brisbane: Jack McKay, file photo)

But he also revealed that the former CEO had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

ABC Investigations understands that Mr Partridge had demanded an investigation into allegations of poor governance, conflicts of interest and non-compliance at the Club prior to his departure and that a generous settlement offer was made by the BRC Board contingent on him signing an NDA which has effectively silenced him.

Mr Partridge did not respond to the ABC's questions other than to confirm he resigned from the BRC.

The BRC said: "Any contractual arrangements the BRC enters with employees are confidential."

RACING REVIEW CRACKDOWN

ABOUT 80 people attended this year's AGM, including senior executives from the industry control body, Racing Queensland.

Several BRC members who were present at the meeting have told the ABC that what has been uncovered about allegations of conflicts of interest and integrity concerns at the Club is "very troubling" and "worthy of investigation".

But Racing Queensland, which has the power to license, audit and investigate complaints about its licence holders, would not confirm whether it was looking into any termination payouts by the BRC or the former Chair's rental income from Mirvac

"As a statutory body, Racing Queensland treats all complaints seriously. RQ's ability to act in any situation is determined by the powers conferred under the Racing Act," a spokesperson said.

Queensland's Minister for Racing, Tim Mander, did not respond to the ABC's questions about whether he would direct or request an independent investigation into the Club's financial statements and related party transactions. 

Queensland's Minister for Racing, Tim Mander. (AAP: Darren England, file photo)

A spokesperson for Mr Mander said: "The Department takes allegations seriously and has encouraged the individuals to provide relevant information to ASIC or the CCC."

A long-awaited landmark report into Queensland's racing industry, released on Saturday, has recommended major reforms around the integrity and governance of racing clubs.

One of the recommendations accepted by the Crisafulli government is to prohibit related party transactions for clubs like the BRC without prior approval from Racing Queensland.

There will also be a crackdown on the rules around club travel and spending caps to ensure clubs "operate sustainably".

DO YOU KNOW MORE?

Contact Grace Tobin on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE perseverance of GRACE TOBIN and ABC INVESTIGATIONS guaranteed the ‘cover-up’ of this story did not continue and shows why Ms Tobin is a Walkley Award winning journalist. Why the Murdoch Media failed to do their job remains a mystery. Surely the stories of closeness between Editorial hierarchy at The Courier-Mail and high profile Directors – past and present – at the BRC are not correct. More importantly the industry, stakeholders and racing public want to know why Racing Minister Tim Mander and the Racing Queensland Board failed to do their jobs and have steadfastly refused to investigate these serious allegations. That has now been left to the CCC (Crime and Corruption Commission) which is currently investigating aspects of the above story. Will The CM do its job and now follow up after being made look arguably ‘unethical’ by the ABC because from their perspective this is far from the finish (we doubt it). But  standby for follow-ups in the New Year on The 7.30 Report and perhaps even 4 CORNERS which can only damage the reputation of racing in Queensland once more. Come on Minister implement what you promised from the recommendations of the Racing Review when it comes to transparency and integrity of race clubs - especially the biggest one..   

  

LYN KEEP, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL WHO CONVINCED THE GOVERNMENT TO BELIEVE IN THE FUTURE OF GREYHOUND RACING IN QUEENSLAND 

SUCH has been the impact of the animal liberationists on greyhound racing in Australia and New Zealand that even the biggest optimist has to admit the sport has an uncertain future.

It is already doomed in New Zealand and you wouldn’t want shares in the ‘dish-lickers’ in some States of Australia. Fortunately, for those who love greyhound racing – participants, spectators and punters – that is not the case in Queensland.

Lyn Keep, born into the sport and LGHR admits a friend from way back when, has proved a ‘guardian angel’ through her work as a consultant to the Independent Racing Review  conducted on behalf of the LNP Government into the three codes.

Thanks to a large extent to her passion and the submissions made by a host of greyhound lovers, dragged down by a small minority during the live-baiting debacle, Racing Minister Tim Mander provided this assurance to stakeholders when recommendations of the Racing Review were unveiled last weekend: “I don’t buckle to what I would call the fanatical side.”

The Queensland Government pledged its commitment to the greyhound racing industry, despite New Zealand and Tasmania moving to ban the code and NSW having an ‘off and on’ attitude to the sport.

These were some of the greyhound recommendations adopted by the Government from the Racing Review:

The Greyhound RQ Board Member role will be continued and RQ will ensure that the new organizational structure includes a senior greyhound executive.

Work will commence to develop a digital passport to track greyhounds from birth, through their careers, into retirement and end of life. Once established, it is intended that the passport is introduced to the thoroughbred and harness codes. A new program will be launched that aims to ensure appropriate levels of funding are available for greyhounds to receive whole of life care.

New rules will be implemented that will see greyhounds automatically stood down for an appropriate period after being subject to a fall during a race. In the first instance, RQ will advocate for national agreement on an appropriate stand down period following a fall. In the absence of national agreement, RQ will progress the requirement as a local rule. This will complement the existing stand down policies in place for greyhounds injured during a race, including those injured as the result of a fall.

The Government has accepted in principle the relocation of the Rockhampton and Townsville Greyhound Racing Clubs.

RQ will undertake a detailed examination of grading and programming noting that RQ is responsible. (This is an area of great controversy behind the scenes with many not happy with the current system and some of those responsible for implementing same. Perhaps it is an area of controversy that the Review should have looked more closely at).

MATT McMGRATH WON'T WIN MANY FRIENDS SUPPORTING BOOKIES 

FULL marks to Queensland Racing Review boss Matt McGrath for his frankness but support for the big corporate bookies, who many punters regard as parasites, will win him few friends.

The mail is strong that Racing Minister Tim Mander was so impressed by the job McGrath did that he wants him to take a lead role on the new RQ Board. Surely there are suitable credentialled Queensland-based racing identities with more knowledge of the local industry without looking interstate for appointments.

Of the 110 recommendations made in the McGrath Review, the Government accepted 79, accepted 26 in principle, and rejected five (no doubt these related to concerns over control of the racing media in Queensland and to be fair the Review had no powers to intervene but perhaps should have at least recognized there is a major problem).

The main reason for the delay of the release of the McGrath Review, originally planned for October, was the Government rejecting his Point of Consumption Tax recommendation. McGrath - and one suspects the Minister - wanted to ‘gift’ the greedy corporates a five percent reduction which would have cost the racing industry and taxpayers of Queensland tens of millions of dollars at a time when there are so many more needy causes.

"With the POCT recommendation, obviously I believed in it, and we spent a lot of time on it," McGrath, a former Australian Turf Club chairman, told Racenet. "When you read the POCT recommendation, we talk about going from 20 per cent to 15 per cent, but there were also commercial negotiations in regards to how you move forward while moving it down to that amount. I thought it was a pretty good recommendation, I thought we presented a really good outcome.”

Sorry Matt but there are more worthy causes and with all due respects, your Review should have focussed more on a National TAB rather than pouring more profits into the pockets of the greedy corporates who arguably ‘trick’ mum and dad punters into betting more through questionable  incentives every weekend.

The response to the decision to spend $500mn on Albion Park has been mixed, especially retaining the venue as the HQ’s of harness racing, the basket case of the three codes which punters have no confidence in because there isn’t a steward with enough balls to test the political interests of those with links to the 'crooks' who are running the rorts on the track on a weekly basis.

There was merit in the Review consideration of selling Albion Park and relocating harness racing to the Doomben infield. McGrath saw the writing on the wall – there was no way he had the influence on the LNP Government like harness king Kevin Seymour and admitted Doomben was always ‘Plan B’.

Racing Minister Mander has warned that many of the accepted recommendations will not happen overnight - here's hoping they don't take as long as he has to replace the Labor-appointed Board.

The first thing he needs to do is lock in a new RQ Board and Stewards’ Commissioner. If Kim Kelly doesn’t accept the position, the integrity of racing in Queensland runs the risk of returning to bad ‘old days’ when Russ Hinze was Minister.

McGrath believes the first priority is implementing a streamlined hybrid model for Racing Queensland and the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission. Many are still suspicious of how this will work and whether the administrative high rollers will attempt to cross the line and interfere with policing of racing by the stewards – and that’s despite the assurances of a separation of powers. Critics say there are a couple of ‘grubs’ from the past with too much influence on what Minister Mander is planning.

Time will tell! 

 

HIDDEN IN THE DETAIL OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE RACING REVIEW THE LNP GOVERNMENT PLAYS SANTA TO THE NON-BELIEVERS 

HIDDEN in the detail of the recommendations of the Racing Review is some good news for many who made submissions but feared these had been overlooked or swept under the carpet.

The $500mn plan for Albion Park, building of a new grandstand at Eagle Farm, denial of a five percent Point Of Consumption Tax break for bookies were always going to steal the headlines. Not to mention the proposed restructuring of RQ and QRIC into a hybrid model where the jury remains out.

RQ will now look to establish an implementation team to progress the recommendations that the Government has endorsed with a roll out plan to be developed in the New Year.

One would have thought that the appointment of a new RQ Board (with numbers on the current one that was appointed by the Labor Government continuing to dwindle) should be replaced ASAP before any implementation was undertaken.

Some of the recommendations the Government has agreed to adopt include:

RQ and QRIC will be more closely aligned with shared day-to-day services. An independent Commissioner of Stewards will oversee integrity-specific roles and will report to the Minister for Sport and Racing (ensuring a separation of administrative and integrity powers).

The RQ Board will be reformed to ensure broader representation across the industry. The Government recognises the importance of Country Racing to Queensland and will ensure the RQ Board has experience in regional and rural racing.

Wagering integrity is essential to a strong racing industry. QRIC will ensure a lead wagering integrity role is included in its new organisational structure. (This sounds like a good job for someone with a Degree in Corporate Bookmaking like he current CEO).

In response to submissions of concerns surrounding public availability of race club Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings Minutes, RQ will work with Queensland race clubs to improve transparency and implement strong governance arrangements. (This is designed to overcome the unacceptable situation where the BRC was in dispute with Member Wally Gleeson over the availability of their AGM Minutes).

Another issue specifically raised with the BRC involved Club Travel Governance and Spend Caps. The Government accepted a Review recommendation that Race clubs have a responsibility to their Boards and racing participants to operate sustainably. Enforcement of these Rules must be considered in the clarification of allocations and functions.  

Something that the mainstream media has conveniently forgotten to report is a Review recommendation that related party transactions will be prohibited for metropolitan and regional clubs without prior approval. (This will overcome a situation that reportedly occurred in recent years where a company associated with a former chairman of a major club sold an apartment to the developer but failed to record the transaction in the Financial Report so that Members were aware of what had happened). No-one is suggesting anything improper occurred. It’s simply a matter of transparency which the Review and the Government should be applauded for acting upon.

Racetrack infields can often be under-utilised assets. The RQ Infrastructure team, in conjunction with clubs, will assess opportunities to activate infields to generate revenue or for community use.

Investigate what systems and tools are available to ensure QRIC is equipped with the best possible technology to uphold wagering integrity. A random race in all three codes will be drawn each week, in which all runners will be subject to a pre-race or post-race swab. A minimum of three swabs per race will be introduced across all three racing codes. This will be rolled out in a staged process as capacity is built within QRIC.

The Review supports the implementation of a National Tote (needed to stop the influx of corporate bookmakers) subject to regulatory approval. The Government and RQ will continue to engage with Tabcorp on this important issue.   

In a move which hopefully could overcome the lack of jockeys for bush meetings through the acceptance of Asian apprentices, the Government accepted this Review recommendation. This acknowledges the current Registered Training Organisation status of RQ, alignment with TAFE Queensland and Commonwealth Register of Institutions and will ensure Courses for Overseas Students standards will be investigated as part of the implementation program. This is a major victory for Greg Blanchard who has worked tirelessly to see CRICOS introduced by RQ but his calls have fallen on deaf ears for years with RQ – at last someone – thanks to the Review – is listening and there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

RQ and clubs across the state will formalise a rolling 12-month feature race calendar that provides certainty to industry, local communities and tourists.

RQ will liaise with country race clubs as part of the implementation of the annual race calendar, with an offer to voluntarily reduce race meetings in exchange for enhanced features.

RQ will commence planning to secure sponsorship and introduce the ‘Super Maidens’ concept for Queensland thoroughbred racing.

RQ will undertake several measures to reform the Queensland Thoroughbred Incentive Scheme (QTIS). QTISx will be cancelled and replaced by the new QTIS Life scheme. RQ will launch this new bonus scheme for QTIS eligible horses, aimed at increasing participation in country races. The funding model will be determined in consultation with industry. RQ will re-introduce registration payments to QTIS.

Clubs and RQ will continue to work collaboratively to develop a reimagined night racing schedule that considers both commercial outcomes and participant welfare. There are currently no plans to introduce night racing at Doomben as suggested in the recommendations.

 

EVERYONE WANTS TO TIP YOU A WINNER AT HONKERS INTERNATIONAL

IT doesn’t seem to matter how far from home you travel to watch the races – down the road to the local pub, a few more kilometres to the local track, or even overseas to attend a major meeting – there is always someone ready to tip you a winner.

But nothing quite compares with Hong Kong where during International Week it is just assumed that you are there for the races. Everyone from the cab driver to the hotel porter and the guy on the street corner in Kowloon trying to flog you a fake Rolex has a very special tip.

That comes as no surprise when you consider how much the Hong Kong locals love a bet. Last season alone they invested close to a record $HK140billion on horse racing, which equates to an amazing $A27 billion.

This is the biggest week of racing in Hong Kong (on the bucket list for thousands of followers of the sport) and the locals have embraced it passionately from the pipe-opening International Jockey's Championship tomorrow (Wednesday) night at Happy Valley to the main event at Sha Tin when four Group Ones for massive prizemoney are run next Sunday.

Once it was a rare occasion if a local horse won one of the big races – Silent Witness the star sprinter of some years back became a Hong Kong racing cult hero – but these days there are few International meetings when a locally-trained star doesn’t salute.

And now the locals have a new hero – Ka Ying Rising who gave the Australians a taste of his brilliance donkey-licking our best in the $20mn The Everest at Randwick. He and Romantic Warrior are the blockbuster attractions at odds-on to win two of the Group One features this Sunday. 

On many visits to Hong Kong to cover International Week as a racing scribe, LGHR witnessed first-hand how punting is a common thread that bonds millions of locals much closer on race days.

Not having made the trip back for some years now I was given a gentle reminder of that through a strange twist of fate. For some time LGHR has received a series of e-mails not intended for us which have proved to be quite entertaining.

These have involved a dispute between neighbouring tenants in a Hong Kong apartment block and one of the parties shares a similar e-mail address to ours and consequently LGHR has been privy to some comical barter that has occurred.

His name is Jimmy Lucky and he has been in dispute with his neighbours Merry and Jerry Chung and Henry Lam. They have traded verbal blows after work undertaken on Jimmy’s part of the apartment block went somewhat amiss and has been the cause of much concern. It was like an episode of Fawlty Towers.

There were major drainage problems with leakage into neighbouring properties and the e-mails flew thick and fast. Plumbers were called in but it took much longer than expected to correct the problem.

Then the rains arrived, the drains over-flowed and pavers floated away. It all got too much – as the harshly worded e-mails again flowed back and forth – and eventually a project manager was appointed to sort it out.

His workers corrected the problem but unfortunately didn’t clean up their mess and it was on again between all concerned. About a week ago – after months of conflict – the problem was finally resolved. There was a general ‘kiss and make up’ between the parties.

A few days ago Jimmy Lucky offered an olive branch to the warring parties in the form of a 'tip' for one of the big races on International Day next Sunday which was very well received by all concerned, especially as he went so far as to explain where it had originated.

Believe it or not, the big tip originated from a high roller gambler from China and was passed on to Macau Mick at the Lisbao Casino. He then told Sampan Sam who passed it on to Kowloon Kate who is the girl-friend of Jimmy Lucky. By the end of the day Jimmy had tipped it to Merry and Gerry Chung and Harry Lam and where it went from there – who knows?

Like a pyramid letter I decided to give it a good send around too. Rather than keep you in suspense any longer the tip is for HAPPY TOGETHER (the name has to be an omen) in the Group One Hong Kong Mile and it is a $13 chance in Fixed Odds betting with the corporate bookies in Australia. It's a tough assignment for this Frankie Lor-trained six-year-old who hails from Ireland. At his last start in the G2 Jockey Club Mile at Sha Tin, Happy Together ran a close third to Galaxy Patch, favourite with Voyage Bubble for Sunday’s big race.

It just goes to show that with the help of an e-mail you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your lounge room to get a tip from as far afield as Hong Kong these days. Hopefully this one is a shade more reliable than most.

HONG KONG CARNIVAL A 'PARADISE' FOR FREE-LOADING SCRIBES 

ANY ‘free-loading journo’ who has ever been to International Week will tell you that when it comes to ‘junkets’ for the racing media the Hong Kong Jockey Club wins hands down with its spectacular each December.

They say there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ but in horse racing this could well be the exception – just ask those who partake of the annual Honkers media package.

Every year the HKJC heavily subsidizes what has become known as a pre-Christmas working holiday for hundreds of members of the racing media from throughout the world.

For a fraction of what it would cost an individual to travel to Hong Kong for International Week (social drinks with colleagues is all you pay for) the racing media is wined, dined and treated like Royalty. All that the club asks is that those who seek package invitations provide proof that they legitimately covered the event.

Those attending for the first time cannot believe the red carpet treatment. Others who have been going there for years remember when it was even better. The word continues to spread in the racing media that this is ‘the place to be’ every December and the numbers continue to grow.

Back in the era when the star Queensland sprinter Falvelon and the Hong Kong favourite Silent Witness were dominating the big day there were some in the racing media almost embarrassed by the magnitude of this ‘junket.’

It reached such dizzy heights that LGHR and some of his ‘media’ mates (yes they did exist) confided in a leading HKJC official over a few quiet drinks one year that they were 'doing too much for us.’ Can you imagine that – free-loaders from the media actually complaining that they were being too well looked after?

It had reached the stage where the social side of proceedings had started to overtake what the racing media from around the world was really brought there for to such a degree that some were too tired or hung over most days to even bother doing their jobs properly. You almost needed a holiday when you got home to recover from the week in Honkers.

Here’s an example of what the subsidized media package once included and in some cases still does: Return air fares and transfers from your point of embarkation worldwide; five nights’ accommodation in a five star hotel suite overlooking the spectacular Hong Kong harbor; a coach to and from Sha Tin for trackwork every morning where they provided a breakfast you couldn’t jump over while you watched the action; an endless list of functions where you never put your hand in your pocket; and an array of amazing gifts ranging from watches to merchandising jackets and caps etc.

That social calendar starts with the International Jockeys’ Championship meeting at Happy Valley on the Wednesday night where they have a special grandstand function area set aside for the media to be entertained overlooking the track; a barrier draw function and luncheon on the Thursday (where unlimited Peking Duck was once the big drawcard) followed by a media welcome at a special dinner that night (often held at a five-star restaurant on The Peak); an invite to one of the biggest social events in Hong Kong, the International Ball on the Friday night (held either at the Convention Centre or the former Governor’s Residence at Stanley); then the choice of a city or islands (Lantau) tour on the Saturday with another free lunch and endless drinks thrown in.

By the time the International Race Day arrived on the Sunday many are almost asleep in the coach on the way to the track – fatigued by the endless round of wining, dining and socializing that had preceded what they actually came to cover.

The HKJC provides a huge high-rise suite at the media hotel on Hong Kong Island decked out with computers, phones, food and drinks and then on race day at Sha Tin the press room on the ground floor provides a special luncheon area and some of the best media facilities on any racetrack in the world.

If that isn’t enough the media contingent is spoon fed information – interviews with jockeys, trainers, officials; photographs provided by the club of everything that moves during their big week and on International Day; then comments from all the participating parties as the feature races are run. Writers and commentators don't really need to leave their seats in the press room or grandstand.

When it is all finished, providing you can justify your trip with proof of coverage back home, you can return and do it all again the next year. Is it little wonder that some even double it as a pre-Christmas or annual holiday with their wives or partners?

The social side of the media package may have been scaled down to a degree from what it used to be – perhaps someone took our advice that it was affecting the amount of actual work being done. But it is still 12 out of 10 when it comes to racing ‘junkets’.

HOOFNOTE: The 70-plus contingent of racing writers from throughout the world covering this week’s International will receive as part of their accreditation: Economy air fares from their home country; five night’s accommodation at the up-market Renaissance; a media welcome at the International Jockeys’ Invitational meeting at Happy Valley tomorrow (Wednesday night), five-star breakfast at Sha Tin trackwork all week; a special barrier draw function on Thursday morning; and an invitation to the Gala Dinner at the Exhibition Centre on Friday night. They are given Saturday to recover for the big International Meeting on the Sunday.

 

‘HAND OF HARNESS GOD’ PLAYS ROLE IN  PLANS FOR ALBION PARK? 

THE overriding criticism of the host of excellent recommendations in the Racing Review is how the worst performing code – harness racing – could arguably benefit the most.

The ‘build it and they will come’ approach will remain dead in the water while the code lacks integrity on the track and punters have no confidence in the product.

Those who have followed the three codes of racing in Queensland for more years than they care to remember can feel the ‘Hand of the Harness God’ and his political influence in the decision-making process.

They want to know how much a Kevin Seymour-owned company will benefit from the $500mn redevelopment of Albion Park – a dream he has pursued for years – and what the industry will receive in return from major residential developments at the new-look Creek, contracts for which will undoubtedly go his way.

Stakeholders and the racing public are entitled to know full financial details of how well over $500mn in outlays promised at the weekend by the LNP Government will be repaid.

Hi-rise development in the newlook Albion Park will no doubt cover much of that but in the mean time a good start would be the sale of Deagon for too long a boutique ‘training’ centre for those who have used their political influence to protect stable and property investments in the area. They managed to stop one good thing Labor and the Bob Bentley Board wanted to do – convert the joint into a world class harness and greyhound centre.

To meet the cost of the $500mn Albion Park redevelopment, the Government will no doubt rationalise its property portfolio through the sale of the one-time proposed harness site at Norwell and QRIC’s current Bowen Hills site. Next step Deagon, which the old Brisbane Turf Club was forced to sell (for $4mn mind you) to pay for a new Doomben grandstand – they didn’t get any help from the Government or Queensland Racing at the time.

The Government talks of ‘careful consideration’ with the stakeholders at Deagon. There has been too much of that in the past. The only thing to consider is where to move the small number of trainers based there. And let’s not hear any more arguments about the investments of the ‘landed gentry’ in stabling properties at Deagon which they have bought up over the years and made massive profits on.

Bye Bye Deagon, thanks for the memories.

 

RIGHT DECISION TO MAKE BRC PAY FOR BULK OF NEW GRANDSTAND 

ALL those years of ‘sucking up’ to the Labor Government and former Racing Minister Grace Grace seem to have backfired for the ‘good old boys’ at the Brisbane Racing Club.

They got ‘sucker punched’ by the Review and the LNP Government who agreed, like the majority of us, that there is a need for a new Grandstand at Eagle Farm but the BRC should have to pay for a major part of it.

The BRC has finally got what they wanted – but not the way they expected, even with the help of the Local Member (Tim Nicholls) who has so many problems more needy of Government money in his Health portfolio that he couldn’t land the knockout punch for his ‘silver tail’ mates.

Of the estimated $100mn needed to build a replacement to the John Power Stand, which has been condemned, the BRC will receive $25mn from the Racing Infrastructure Fund and a $75mn loan which they will have to repay. Good decision?

But the downside is there has still been no confirmation on whether this grandstand will be for the exclusive use of a few thousand privileged Members of the Club. If a quarter of the cost is being paid by the industry, then surely the public are entitled to that percentage of use of it. Let’s face it, apart from feature days one could run a race through the place without risking injury to anyone.

A key and overdue infrastructure announcement was that new lights will be installed at Clifford Park in Toowoomba – one would hope without cost to the club but no word on when. 

TTC CEO Grant Sheather, one of the best in the business, summed up the situation perfectly: “I wouldn’t exactly say Santa Claus has arrived but we’ve certainly seen the support of the Government and Racing Queensland so we’re very thankful.”

 

SEYMOUR SUPPORT LEGENDARY – NO ‘JAIL-FREE’ CARD FOR TRAINER 

LGHR suspects that once again Kevin Seymour has proved the saviour of harness racing in Queensland – the sport should build a monument to the bloke and his wife.

Nevertheless, that should not provide those who train his horses with a ‘get out of jail free’ card on the track which will ‘dog’ the new Chief Steward at Albion Park until does something about it.

Make no mistake the future of Albion Park and decision not to relocate the State’s premier harness track has only been secured because of plans to commercialise the venue. It will now be part of a $500mn three-stage master plan to include residential apartments and multi-use of the facility (a new Racing Science Centre will be developed on the site while a newlook integrated Racing Queensland and Queensland Racing Intregrity Commission will be relocated there).

Racing clubs and interested parties also, not surprisingly, want more information on the planned $200mn Racing Future Fund that the Government plans to establish. From what LGHR can ascertain clubs will be invited to invest in the Fund to be managed by an Independent Racing Infrastructure Fund Board.

Clubs will be able to track their investments and have access to their funds if needed, subject to appropriate oversight. Sounds a bit questionable to us but we’re no financial advisers.

Push the political propaganda aside and LGHR fears for more than $50mn in cash that Queensland race clubs currently possess. By the way the combined profit these clubs make each year is $34mn.

Surely if clubs don’t want to invest their cash in the joint industry fund they won’t be denied any form of funding by RQ (eg prizemoney, race dates or club payments).

Archie Butterfly suggests: ‘The Government claims it can provide a better investment return than the clubs. It’s absolute bullshit. Since when has the Government been better managers of capital than private enterprise? This is a con. Supreme Court actions by clubs to try and stop their money being taken from them against their will are going to be flying left, right and centre. Who the hell is the LNP Government to tell well-managed race clubs how to invest their members’ hard-earned cash? Which bank or investment firm is the Board that the Government has appointed going to invest the money with? Will it be one run by LNP donors or mates?’

 

‘MAJOR’ MITCHELL PARROTING ALL THE RIGHT THINGS AFTER REVIEW

ALBION Park Harness Racing Club Chairman Greg Mitchell was parroting all the right things about the $500mn redevelopment and why wouldn’t he be – without it the ‘red hots HQ’ was destined for Toowoomba, Timbuktu or wherever. It was finger down the throat stuff.

“To finally get a Government that’s prepared to work with you, not against you, it’s just a relief. We’ve finally got someone with common sense to see that Albion Park should be retained and commercialised.

“It will not only be a great gentrification of the area and a headquarters for racing, one of the key parts is there will be an ongoing revenue stream for the racing industry. That’s what racing needs because we can’t rely on the revenue from wagering forever.”

It most certainly can’t rely on turnover from harness racing Mr Mitchell because the punters lost confidence in the product your code is providing long ago. And while the weekly ‘jokes’ are allowed to continue the ‘red hots’ will remain the poor cousin of the dogs and continue to ride on the back of the gallops.

Harness racing needs to have a long hard look over its shoulder at night racing – the punters prefer betting on the gallops and there is more of it coming. There is a plan for night racing four nights a week in Queensland – Wednesday to Saturday at Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast. Just imagine how much better it would be if Albion Park was a night gallops not harness venue as well?

  

MURRAY DESERVES ROLE AT RQ BUT NOT AS CEO OF NEW BODY 

RACING Queensland interim Chief Executive Lachlan Murray told the Murdoch Media that he is excited about the proposed streamlined hybrid model for RQ and QRIC that would cut duplication and provide better clarity on roles and responsibilities for all three codes of racing.

We agree with Murray but  if the powers-that-be are fair dinkum, he has no chance of retaining the CEO position but perhaps deserves a support role. There should be plenty of vacancies at the newlook RQ when they put the cleaners through his useless first lieutenants who double as rockets scientists right now on the good ship RQ Titanic.

Here’s what hasn’t been said about what will be happening at the once famous sand gallops track at the Creek. A new administrative building will be needed to accommodate up to 250 staff. This will hopefully be a joint development with a grandstand at the front. Hi-rise apartments with associated bars and restaurants will be a feature of the redevelopment. The Government will no doubt use its powers to block any objection from the Brisbane City Council or individuals. Then they can sell the land and ensure pre-approval of high-rise powers to developer ‘mates’ like Kevin Seymour. Don’t worry about flooding concerns. Sir Joh & Big Russ would be proud.

 

GOVERNMENT COULDN’T AFFORD TO REDUCE TAX FOR CORPORATES 

AND we have saved the best for last – bouquets to the LNP Government for shutting the door on a Review recommendation to reduce the Point Of Consumption Tax paid by the bookies – what were Matt McGrath and his team thinking?

With the demands of more important public and taxpayer needs like hospitals, schools and police, the Government was on a belting-to-nothing if they ‘gifted’ bookmakers, particularly some of these parasite corporates – millions in tax savings.

Of course the whimpering, whining, profit-making bludgers have spat the dummy – as expected – at the rejection and are planning all sorts of retribution. For too long they have pointed a gun at the head of authorities – sadly the Albanese Government have kow-towed to them for too long. It’s time for new Rules to be implemented and those who don’t play the game and operate their businesses as expected should be stripped of bookmaking licenses.

According to the Murdoch Media, Sportsbet boss Barni Evans has blasted the Government's decision to defy a Review recommendation to lower the Point of Consumption Tax.

Queensland Racing Review architect Matt McGrath recommended a new funding model which would have seen the POCT paid by corporate bookmakers reduced from 20 per cent to 15 per cent in Queensland. (It would have cost the industry tens of millions).

But Racing Minister Tim Mander was not able to get it through Cabinet, meaning Queensland remains the most expensive State for bookmakers to operate in. (Good on those MP’s who refused to budge on this issue).

There are now fears several corporate bookmakers could turn the taps off Queensland and offer better products in other jurisdictions and greatly reduced offerings in the Sunshine State. (If they do then bar them from betting on the local product and simply rely on the TAB which provides the bulk of prizemoney anyway).

Some existing betting company sponsorships of race clubs in Queensland may also now be in jeopardy. (Who cares? Too many racing and sporting clubs are getting into bed with these ‘parasites’ who arguably rob mum and dad punters wanting to have a leisure bet with promotional ‘tricks’ every weekend of the year. Not to mention paying less tax than they should).

 

INTEGRATION WITH SEPARATION OF INTEGRITY POWERS GOOD MOVE

AND finally on plans for the integration of Racing Queensland and the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission – which largely look to be positive.

Despite moves to integrate some of the services of a newlook RQ and QRIC, full marks to the Review for ensuring there is a separation of powers for stewarding and not a return to the bad old days when high profile Board identities used their positions to influence integrity decision making. 

The good news is that RQ will be restructured and hopefully that will mean Lachlan Murray will lose his interim role as CEO. His under-performance since Jason Scott quit has highlighted the need for a more racing and business experienced identity, hopefully someone who doesn’t have a corporate bookmaking background.

If Catherine Clark, the current QRIC Commissioner, isn’t appointed to oversee the new combined body, then they might as well close the joint down. She is a legend. And so is Kim Kelly who should be a shoe-in for the new Commissioner of Stewards’ role. Here’s hoping they find a spot in the new body for Kym Daly, who won plenty of industry support for the job he did with the gallops on behalf of the Review.

That leaves the basket case of an RQ Board and who to appoint. The Government says the Board will be strengthened to include members with expertise in integrity and country racing. The three codes will still have an independent voice – here’s hoping former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk retains the gallops role. LGHR would like to see an over-riding role for a Ministerial representative like MP Ray Stevens. He has forgotten more about racing than most of those likely to get positions could ever hope for – from the country to the city and in politics and racing. Just a thought!

THAT’S our look at major aspects of the Government’s reaction to the Racing Review recommendations but there are plenty of support issues to be covered and we will try to do that over the next few days.  

 

AND THE WINNERS OF THE INDEPENDENT RACING REVIEW ARE….. 

DURING a public event at Doomben racecourse this morning (Saturday), Racing Minister Tim Mander provided the Queensland Government’s response to the Independent Review - click here to see The Next Lap - which was overseen by Matt McGrath with assistance from Kym Daly, Lynette Keep and Scott Neaves.

More than 1,200 stakeholders, owners, trainers, breeders, clubs, racing fans and animal welfare advocates contributed to the Independent Review with the Queensland Government accepting more than 100 of its recommendations in full or in part.

The highlights include:

The Crisafulli Government will deliver a new Racing Future Fund and invest $200 million towards modern and fit-for-purpose racing infrastructure across Queensland. 

Infrastructure improvements will be delivered across all three codes, including a new grandstand at Eagle Farm, a new ‘Racing HQ’ at Albion Park, new harness infrastructure at Marburg and Toowoomba, new lights for the Toowoomba Turf Club and a new track for Bundaberg Greyhounds. 

The ageing John Power Stand at Eagle Farm will be replaced with modern spectator facilities, featuring upgraded amenities, more accessibility and a premium experience for racegoers. The project will be delivered as a partnership between RQ and the Brisbane Racing Club to ensure the additional investment is repaid. 

The new ‘Racing HQ’ will enhance the prominence of Albion Park as the home of Harness racing in Queensland, and will also become the future home to RQ, QRIC and a new Racing Science Centre.  

Racing governance will be stabilised with a new hybrid model that will see all non-core functions of the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission transition to Racing Queensland.

The modernised structure will give QRIC a clearer focus on delivering stewarding and integrity services, with an Independent Commissioner of Stewards reporting directly to the Racing Minister.   

In addition to securing a metropolitan home for the sport, a new training facility at Marburg will unlock opportunities for new participants to enter the industry, while reinstating harness at the original Toowoomba track aims to boost regional participation.   

An independent Racing Infrastructure Board will be established to ensure infrastructure decisions are driven by evidence-based proposals and prioritised by industry needs throughout Queensland. 

RQ will seek to rationalise its property portfolio and take steps to dispose of underutilised assets, including the former proposed harness racing site at Norwell and QRIC’s Bowen Hills site.  

In addition, animal welfare outcomes will be strengthened across the board, with new programs to support post-racing careers for horses and greyhounds, including a new-look Greyhound Retirement Program that will provide monthly vouchers for the care of retired dogs.  

Country Racing will be safeguarded for the future with several measures to enhance participation, remove burden from smaller clubs and boost feature racing events, including the expansion of the highly popular Battle of the Bush Series. 

“The Crisafulli Government delivered on its election promise to conduct the most thorough examination of racing in our history, and now we have delivered our plan for the future of Queensland racing,” Minister Mander said.  

“This plan delivers a more efficient and effective approach to governance and integrity, builds fit for purpose infrastructure, safeguards animal welfare and ensures the ongoing success of country racing.   

“I would like to thank the Independent Committee Chair Matthew McGrath and Committee Members Kym Daly, Lynette Keep and Scott Neaves for their hard work and expertise in delivering the Queensland Racing Review 2025.” 

RQ will now look to establish an implementation team to progress the recommendations the Government has endorsed with a roll out plan to be developed in the New Year.

This includes significant legislative reform, operational changes and infrastructure works to deliver on the recommendations.

 

 

 

FUNDING DEAL FOR A NEW EAGLE FARM GRANDSTAND PASSES THE PUB TEST PROVIDED IT IS NOT FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF MEMBERS 

THE ‘propaganda’ piece in The Courier-Mail today about a funding deal for a new grandstand at Eagle Farm resembled a Media Release written on behalf of the Racing Minister and the Brisbane Race Club.

There is no question that Eagle Farm needs a new stand to replace the one that has been condemned and full marks to the LNP Government for ensuring that the club has to at least part pay for it – that amount should not remain commercial in confidence.

The one thing that the Murdoch Media spin-doctor Big Ben Dorries forgot to mention in the story he wrote – that will ensure a lifetime of free crumbed mongoose in the Directors Room at the BRC – is whether or not the new grandstand will be restricted for use by Members only.

If it is, then the Racing Minister Tim Mander and the Government should hang their heads in shame. The public needs to have access – at least to part use of this new stand – rather than it be used entirely by a privileged few thousand Members.

LGHR understands that the one who fought hardest behind Cabinet doors to ensure his ‘silver tail’ mates at the BRC got what they wanted was the Local Member Tim Nicholls. Considering the problems in his portfolio with the health system in crisis here’s hoping the deal he did doesn’t ‘gift’ too many millions to the BRC at the expense of more needy working class mums, dads and kids with health issues.

There are strong rumours doing the rounds that the Training Centre will be moved from Deagon to the Gold Coast – not sure why that’s happening but it needs a fresh start and some Asian input.

Here’s a suggestion – move the gallops out or make them share with harness racing – Deagon would be an ideal venue for the ‘red hots’ when they sell Albion Park.

What's the bet those wealthy locals with strong investments in stabling properties at Deagon will once again influence political decision making when it comes to this complex.

And as for administrative changes at Racing Queensland – the best thing the industry could hear is that the Interim CEO and his First Lieutenants are being shown the door.

As for QRIC, it should be 'hands off' integrity. The last thing Queensland needs is to head back to the bad old days when it was an open door for every crook in racing to head north.

 

WHEN IT COMES TO RECOMMENDATIONS OF RACING REVIEW – THE LNP GOVERNMENT IS FACING AN UNENVIABLE PREDICAMENT

THE LNP Government faces an unenviable predicament responding to the recommendations of the supposedly independent Racing Review – they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

That particularly applies to a much-needed new grandstand for Eagle Farm. It has to be built but the question remains who kicks in the $150mn and can they afford to build it simply for the use of a few thousands privileged Members.

The most acceptable answer is a new Grandstand funded 50/50 by the industry and the Brisbane Racing Club. Unless Queensland’s leading club foots the entire cost then the stand also has to be a 50/50 use by Members and the racing public.

That’s the easy one out of the road. The Government cannot afford to accept a recommendation from the Review to reduce the Point Of Consumption Tax for bookies from 20 to 15 per cent.

Some estimates predict that could cost hundreds of millions in revenue and will be hard to justify considering the needs of schools (teachers are fighting for wage rises), hospitals (that’s still a basket case), police (youth crime is as bad as it ever was) and housing (rent is at an all-time high). Electricity and water bills continue to skyrocket.  How could any sensible Government ‘gift’ the big greedy corporate bookies in particular a ‘massive bonus’. They simply can’t and if they do it will come back to haunt them. Forget all the whinging, whining and threats from these ‘parasites’ of what will happen if ‘revenge’ if they don’t get what they want. If LGHR was running the show we would increase POC by five per cent and tell them if they didn’t like it to ‘piss off’. The TAB provides the majority of prizemoney and has been kicked in the guts for too long by the corporates.

The other major stumbling block for the Review is finding a new home for harness racing when Albion Park is sold. The ‘red hots’ deserve to be relocated to Russell Island. Punting confidence in the product and those policing it was lost long ago. Big names like Dixon with connections to the ‘King’ are said to be doing what they like. Turnover is terrible and the Standardbreds now run a long last behind Greyhounds who have their own woes with the new The Q track which the animal liberationists have christened ‘the killing fields’ getting worse by the week.

QRIC continues to prove a hot potato – not because better people aren’t running the show but the new Government has insisted from Day 1 that costs have to be reduced substantially. It begs the question: What price Integrity?

It is simply unacceptable for QRIC to come under the same umbrella as RQ Administration – there has to be a separation of powers. We’ve all seen what happened in the past when certain RQ Board Chairmen used their influence on Chief Stewards. That would be a return to the bad old days.

Despite the appointment of a new Chief Steward at the trots, the same old ‘tricks’ are occurring week-in, week-out. At the gallops there are growing concerns about swabbing and questions are being asked whether some stables are being raided. Stakeholders fear they are not.

Kim Kelly, the Deputy QRIC Commissioner with a mountain of stewarding experience, is doing his best. But most believe it’s a ‘mission impossible’ for him with many in the current panel of stewards not worth feeding and sadly in the opinion of many including LGHR, that starts with the Chief at the Thoroughbreds. When was the last time he convened an inquiry involving a leading stable, jockey or trainer? And let’s not even head down the track of those policing country racing especially in the Far North where the stewarding is regarded as a standing joke. Cut the costs of running QRIC and you might as well have no stewards at all.

There are so many supplementary issues that the Review should have dealt with, if they were doing their job, like lack of jockeys in the bush with enforced scratching of up to 20 horses some weekends, internal problems at the BRC (likely to be put in the too-hard basket), and control of the racing media (which the Review has little power over anyway).

LGHR had high hopes of a positive outcome when the Review started but the further we got down the track our confidence – and that of many others – dipped sharply. It was helped by the postponement of the release of recommendations.

Commissions, Inquiries, Independent Reviews – call them what you like. At the end of the day, no matter who is in Government, when it comes to racing – the more things change, the more they stay the same.  

 

INDEPENDENT PUBLICATIONS WARN RACING NSW: ‘RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM MUST NOT BE MET WITH LEGAL INTIMIDATION’ 

A LEGAL war is set to erupt between Racing NSW, its CEO Peter V’landys and racing publications that have upset the hierarchy with their coverage of industry governance matters.

Three independent racing publications, including The Thoroughbred Report, have recently received correspondence from PVL and/or Racing NSW’s legal counsel.

TTP has published this response:

We want to make one point unequivocally clear: Responsible journalism must not be met with legal intimidation.

Independent media exists to scrutinise powerful institutions and hold them to account, even if critical of leadership.

That role is essential to the health and integrity of any industry.

Australia’s implied freedom of political communication protects the media’s ability to discuss matters of governance and public interest. Trying to intimidate journalists through legal threats is fundamentally inconsistent with that protection.

When this happens, the message extends far beyond the newsroom. It tells trainers, owners, breeders, employees, and concerned participants that speaking up carries risk. It creates fear and encourages silence. And it erodes the culture of openness on which trust depends.

Governance is strengthened, not weakened, by transparency, independent oversight, and constructive conversation.

An industry cannot function with confidence if those tasked with informing its community are suppressed. It cannot claim transparency while simultaneously attempting to intimidate its critics.

And it cannot expect public trust if its default response to scrutiny is to threaten those who provide it.

We remain open to receiving and incorporating all perspectives at any time. However, our efforts to engage and seek information have routinely received no reply.

We will continue to remain open to dialogue from every participant, as open communication is essential to meaningful understanding and positive change.

We will not be deterred and remain committed to responsible journalism.

 

REVIEW 'TOO WEAK' TO MOVE ON MEDIA CONTROL OF QLD RACING 

HAVING witnessed for decades the control of the racing media in Queensland – when it comes to attempted constructive criticism of the Brisbane Racing Club – we at LGHR remain frustrated and have no respect for the way colleagues like 'Ding Dong' are selective in what they write about. We can feel another award coming on.

All LGHR will say about Racing NSW and PVL is that perhaps they have been treated too well by the Sydney mainstream racing media for too long.

Who knows whether this has something to do with those ‘extra jobs’ that the major turf scribes enjoy some unkindly say because of their ‘close’ relationship with PVL.

No journalist trying to cover racing on a daily basis can afford to get high profile identities like Mr V’landys or a top trainer like Chris Waller off-side. It would be simply impossible to do their jobs. Not so sure we agree with them being ‘treated’ to ‘extra cash’ through work with SKY on TV or radio though.

The recent Racing Review in Queensland received several submissions concerning how the media operates in Queensland. At the centre of much criticism was ‘Manuel’, the former Racing Editor for the Murdoch Media rewarded for his ‘services’ with a consultancy at the BRC when he retired.

LGHR witnessed first-hand what happened to any racing journalist trying to do his job under ‘Manuel’s’ turf editorship. I was only one of many – one was dispatched to the courts, another was sacked for declaring Eagle Farm a ‘goat track’ and the rest who didn't toe his political line were simply made redundant.

Don‘t expect the Racing Review to address this issue which continues today where even Editors are now ‘censoring’ stories to protect 'mates' that should be written about what is happening behind the scenes at a major club.

It seems the Review has determined that issues raised by one particular complainant (Peter Bredhauer) who has proved a real thorn in the bum for ‘Manuel’ is supposedly past the ‘statute of limitations’.

That’s a ‘cop-out’ – the same problems continue to exist right now if they had bothered (or wanted) to look into them. All LGHR can say is if this is an indication of what we can expect when the recommendations of the Racing Review are revealed on Saturday – they will be applauded by the likes of 'Ding Dong', their latest 'spin doctor' in the mainstream racing media but by those who feared as much the Review will still be regarded as a waste of time, money and a complete whitewash.

 

ASPECT OF SYDNEY RACING NO-ONE WANTS TO DISCUSS 

WE keep hearing how racing in NSW is leading the way and leaving Victoria in its wake.

That might apply to feature events, led by The Everest and run for absurd prizemoney mostly won by the rich and famous, but there is an aspect of Sydney racing that is going downhill fast.

Without the support of the powerful Chris Waller stable, Wednesday and Friday night racing, would be virtually a non-event.

The latest farce occurred yesterday (Wednesday) when there were nine runners in the Maiden Plate at Warwick Farm and Waller provided seven of them.

In the first on the card at last Friday’s night meeting at Canterbury, Waller had five of the seven starters. But for his numbers there would have been only six races on that card and again at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.

Something is horribly wrong with Sydney racing but don’t expect the mainstream racing media to question what, at the risk of offending ‘God’, the CEO of Racing NSW, PVL.

Our old chestnut of ‘bracketing’ stablemates would be a mission impossible in cases like this when Waller has seven of the nine runners.

That leaves the other option of restricting the number of horses that one stable can have on their books. And therein lies the ‘restriction of trade’ argument.

The answer’s a pineapple – the Waller domination is set to continue – but while his Group 1 success story is outstanding, his failure with favorites in bread-and-butter races continues to pump millions into the coffers of the big bookies and costs punters plenty on a weekly basis.

 

WALL OF SILENCE AROUND POLICING OF SYDNEY RACING

FROM a punters’ perspective there’s another aspect of this sad situation that no-one wants to address – especially the ‘suck-up’ spin-doctoring SKY and Murdoch Media in Sydney.

And that’s the policing – or more to the point some would say non-policing – of Sydney racing when it comes to some of the top stables.

It’s a tough call suggesting high profile stewards, like the internationally-experienced Steve Railton, need to lift their act.

But sadly that’s what the punters are suggesting not to mention questions being raised about whether some top trainers can ‘phone a friend’ if they strike trouble. LGHR doesn’t subscribe to that theory or want to go down that track.

Let’s look at the Maiden Plate where Waller had seven of the nine runners yesterday (Wednesday). We, along with our colleague Archie Butterfly from peterprofit.com, share the opinion of concerned punters about the running of the race.

Waller, who had 10 of the 14 acceptors prior to scratchings, finished with the first four placegetters. Great training effort, as his ‘spin doctors’ at Sky would say, sweeping aside how the race was run.

The winner, Botanist, a $10 chance and the roughest of the First Four, jogged along in front. Nash Rawiller was strangely allowed to dictate without a single challenge from any of the Waller stablemates.

Tommy Berry circled on the favourite Pink Persuasion $2.05 to sit like a statue outside the leader but once there applied no pressure and allowed Rawiller to do as he liked. It ran a three length third, overtaken in the run to the line by the fast-finishing stablemate Miss Lola $3.1.

Once again the poor old punters got it wrong when Waller had multiple runners in a race. It happens far too often in races in Sydney.

Stewards questioned Berry who reported that he was instructed to ride the filly Pink Persuasion with cover from barrier three. He said however that due to the moderate tempo in the early stages Pink Persuasion travelled very keenly and when he was unable to find cover, he elected to allow it to stride forward from the 900m to race outside the lead. He added that although the filly then relaxed better and travelled satisfactorily through the middle stages it was unable to close off strongly due to it racing keenly in the early stages.

From a stewards’ perspective there were more interested in the tactics adopted on the fourth placed Waller runner Man of Worth.

Their report states when questioned regarding her riding in the early stages of the home straight apprentice Siena Grima stated that, as instructed, she settled back in the field from the outside barrier. She said that as Man of Worth was first-up, she had hoped to be able to make ground near the inside and on straightening identified an opportunity to improve to the inside of Menthon. However, before she could obtain this run Battuta (another Waller runner, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy that finished last) shifted out and beat her to the run. She said that she then shifted the gelding out around the heels of Battuta and when disappointed for a run between that horse and Sharbino commenced to improve around Sharbino but was further impeded when that runner drifted out. She further stated that when able to place the horse under pressure from the 150m Man Of Worth closed off well. Grima was advised that her evidence would be noted.

GOD only knows what the latter comment means. 

 

QUEENSLAND RACING REVIEW UPDATE THIS SATURDAY BUT DOES THAT MEAN RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE ANNOUNCED? 

AN update on the much-awaited Queensland Racing Review will be made at Doomben racecourse on Saturday morning.

Whether that update will contain recommendations of the supposedly independent Review is a little ambiguous in this circular to stakeholders and interested parties, which reads:

The independent Queensland Racing Review 2025 is the most substantial review of Queensland's racing sector in over 25 years, covering all three codes. 

More than 1,200 stakeholders, owners, trainers, breeders, clubs, racing fans and animal welfare advocates across Queensland gave valuable insight into the industry.

Now it's time to look ahead.

Join us for the launch of the Queensland Government's response to the Independent Queensland Racing Review.

This response reflects the Queensland Government's commitment to fostering a thriving racing industry across every track in the state.

Those who wish to attend that have not already registered need to.

Here’s hoping this is not another postponement BUT it does say 'this is the launch of the LNP Government response to the Review'. Here's hoping things are much clearer on Saturday.

 

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW BUT WHO YOU KNOW IN RACING MEDIA 

WHEN broadcasters like SKY decide to make major personnel changes do they ever think of consulting the ones who listen most to their shows – the punters and the racing public?

Obviously not when you consider some of those they dump not to mention the no-talent bums who inevitably get promoted – not on ability but because they double as industry promoters and arse-lickers to high profile administrators who control their destinies .

Ben Dorries has finally got around to reporting for the Murdoch Media the worse kept secret of major changes to the nation’s media landscape when it comes to racing.

The rationalization of Australian’s racing radio stations continues in the New Year with Queensland’s Radio TAB being absorbed (not joining as is being reported) by Sky Sports Radio.

Major casualty has been popular Queensland broadcaster Steve Hewlett who after more than 30 years on racing radio has been made redundant.

A humble and extremely popular guy, who has never played the racing or media politics game, Hewlett has copped his axing on the chin and actually has admitted to close friends: “It wasn’t unexpected. If I was in their (Sky’s) shoes I would probably have done the same thing”.

In other words Steve admits he had reached his use-by date. LGHR doesn’t agree and nor do a legion of fans – this guy would be a massive asset to any racing radio station.

There is no better promoter of the three codes in Queensland than Hewlett and it doesn’t matter who they replace him with nationally, there is no hope that ‘talking head’ will have the same experience, popularity or ability.

 

HOW MUCH QUEENSLAND NEWS CONTENT WILL BE LOST ON SKY? 

ONE wonders how much Queensland content there will be in the new Sky Sports Radio national format that Radio TAB listeners will soon be tuning into.

This will be hosted by Sydney-based Dave Stanley from January 5, who hails from suburban Brisbane. A ‘likeable larrikin’, he was catapulted into the role of Racing HQ host some years ago replacing the legend Andrew Bensley.

Stanley describes himself as a happy-go-lucky bloke who loves a punt. ‘I’m always up for a drink and a chat and that’s probably why I enjoyed one of my first jobs before the media which was working at a pub and brewery,’ Dave explained when he took over from Hall of Famer ‘Hoss’ back in 2020.

‘As far as I can remember I’ve been around racing and that’s mainly thanks to my grandfather Merv, who has since passed away but I have some fantastic memories with him as a youngster.

‘My dream was always to be a commentator, whether it was rugby league or racing. But I didn’t have the faintest idea on how to go about achieving that.’

While working at a pub back in 2013 Stanley spotted an ad for a Sky Racing Talent Show and decided to enter. He didn’t win but  ended up with a great consolation prize, a job as a Sky Racing producer.  That grew to gigs for the TAB and Sky Racing, even co-hosting on the Big Sports Breakfast with Laurie Dailey.

Nevertheless, one could argue that Hewlett has more racing knowledge and broadcast experience in his little toe, but something he and Stanley share in common is both were mentored at an early stage of their careers by broadcast legend Michael Maxworthy. An indication of how hard ‘Maxy’ took it on learning of his good mate, Steve’s redundancy, when the pair hooked up on Radio TAB soon after he broke down on air.

So it’s out with the ‘old’ and ‘in’ with the new but if Dave Stanley thinks filling Andrew Bensley’s shoes was hard, replacing Steve Hewlett won’t be easy either. The pair might be from Queensland but the locals are a tough bunch and haven’t taken what happened to Hewlett too kindly as DS will discover if the northern content suddenly drops off on his watch after the Magic Millions honeymoon is over.

 

PRESS ROOM - ONE OF THE CASUALTIES OF SYDNEY SKY TAKEOVER? 

LGHR understands that the Sunday morning ‘Past the Post’ program which is co-hosted by David Fowler and Ben Dorries will survive.

However, the news is apparently not so good for the long-running Press Room program pioneered by race-caller Fowler with strong mail it will be axed after the launch of the new Sky Racing radio service in January.

So there’s one important segment of Queensland content – which has built a strong following – that looks like it is gone. Not a real good start.

What irks contributors who deal with LGHR on a regular basis is the inconsistency and lack of loyalty that Sky displays. It reminds us of ‘Sir Rupert’ in his days of axing hundreds of journalists as he closed down newspapers to ensure a newspaper monopoly.

One would hope when Steve Hewlett walks out one door that Ray Thomas, who recently announced his retirement after a lengthy career with News Ltd in Sydney, doesn’t walk through another at Sky.

Thomas has always enjoyed multiple jobs in the racing media in Sydney but will he inherit more work on Sky radio and TV because he is retired from his Turf Editor role at The Sydney Telegraph?

No-one doubts ‘Razor’s’ talent when it comes to all things racing but how does Sky justify axing someone like Hewlett (or others for that matter) with a good decade of work ahead of him and providing a bonus cheque each week after retirement to Thomas?

There are even waves being made about SKY Racing in Queensland where Hewlett was once employed as a popular on-air form host at TAB meetings.

That was seen as one too many jobs for Steve – yet others in Sydney who are great supporters of the boss-man PVL are given unlimited opportunities. Don’t think for one moment Hewlett is upset. In fact we understand he is already ‘job-hunting’ for life-after Radio TAB and will always be thankful for the opportunities enjoyed there.

A couple of our readers want to know how Sky can employ retired school-teacher Damien Courtney to cover TAB meetings in the south-east corner while they put a far more talented form student  out of work.

Throughout his career Courtney spent much of the time when he wasn’t school-teaching or on holidays being paid to cover sport on a part-time basis. He worked as a race and rugby league caller and in the eyes of many held down jobs that those out of work could easily have been employed in. Now he’s working regularly for Sky. It just doesn’t seem fair.

 

WARNING LABEL A MUST FOR HORSES SOLD TO OUTBACK QLD 

ANY reject sold in the south or interstate that is bound to end its racing career in outback Queensland, should be branded with a warning.

There is no guarantee of a return on your investment for prospective owners with dozens of horses failing to secure starts each week because there are no jockeys to ride them.

No individual has worked harder to rectify this problem than GREG BLANCHARD of the GOLD COAST whose calls for Asian apprentices to be based in country Queensland continue to fall on deaf ears.

Greg has highlighted the continuing plight of owners in the bush at the weekend when 15 horses had to be scratched because there was no jockey to ride them at Mt Isa. That followed 22 at Julia Creek and 21 at Cloncurry recently.

While a succession of CEO’s and their First Lieutenants at Racing Queensland have simply relegated the problem to the ‘too hard’ basked, it will be interesting to see how it is addressed when the Racing Review recommendations are eventually released.

 

NEW SCRATCHING FEE – IS THIS JUST UNBRIDLED GREED BY RVL? 

REGULAR Sydney contributor, PETER MAIR, weighs in on another interesting topic:

‘ONE can only wonder about the crass venality of racing administrators chasing the racing-dollar --  money then often wasted funding 'dead loss' rural racing with no prospect of being commercially viable.

Consider this explanation for RVL's new scratching-fee structure:

The new model is designed to protect and enhance field sizes, which have declined over the past decade and continue to be challenged. Maximising field sizes through managing the volume of scratchings promotes stronger wagering outcomes which ultimately benefits all through the maintenance of prizemoney and other returns to industry.

One can only further wonder about the morally-sedating air that is apparently recirculating in the RVL bunker -- as written this policy is just a  jumble of deceptive words like 'protect', 'enhance', 'maximise', 'stronger wagering outcomes' et al.

Plain malintent is embodied in a policy falsely claiming ‘outcomes which ultimately benefit all’.  Such administrative deceptions intended to increase punters’ losses, should be alarming to the punters that pay the freight. 

For starters, field sizes, 'acceptances less emergencies', are inflated by offering prizemoney down to 10^th place. So inflating race fields with long--odds, 'no hopers' that clutter fields, impedes the fair running of races. 

Connections with good chances drawing wide barriers can sensibly opt to 'scratch' because the game is stacked against them -- especially races run over 1400 &1600 at Caulfield and Flemington, or the sprint courses at Rosehill.

It adds insult to the injury of drawing a too-wide barrier to penalise connections with scratching-fees. 

Rather than 'scratching fees', let’s have more substantial acceptance fees to discourage racing horses which the SP-odds say have no hope of winning.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is what Peter is referring to:

Racing Victoria (RV) advises that a new scratching fee structure will take effect in Victoria for race meetings scheduled from 1 February 2026 onwards. 

The new fee structure applies for professional flat races (excluding Group and Listed races) and jumps races and brings Victoria into line with the model in other states where fees are structured around the declaration of a rider.

A new standard scratching fee of $274.25 (ex GST) will mirror the current riding fee that RV is required to pay to the declared rider on a scratched horse. This scratching fee is lower than that applied for the majority of professional races in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

The current 50% discount for scratchings lodged prior to 4pm on the day before a race meeting will conclude on 31 January 2026. Instead, a discounted fee of $100 (ex GST) will apply when a horse is scratched prior to the declaration of a rider.

The new scratching fee structure has been implemented following consultation with all stakeholder groups, including through the industry’s Racing Forum.

The new model is designed to protect and enhance field sizes, which have declined over the past decade and continue to be challenged. Maximising field sizes through managing the volume of scratchings promotes stronger wagering outcomes which ultimately benefits all through the maintenance of prizemoney and other returns to industry.

 

TALE OF WOE FROM WEST AFTER WINTERBOTTOM STAKES 

IF a story emanating from Perth concerning Bjorn Baker after Saturday’s Winterbottom Stakes Day is correct, one imagines the ‘laughing boy’ of the Sydney training ranks won’t see the funny side of it.

But if a disturbing incident did occur – and LGHR has heard it from a reliable source – then surely the Stewards aren’t turning a ‘blind eye’ fearing it will cast a bad light on the West Australian carnival.

The story goes that the likeable Baker spent more time socializing than working during this visit to Perth and was allegedly ‘incapable’ of saddling up the favorite Overpass for the Winterbottom Stakes.

If you are to believe what is being claimed, rival trainer Annabel Archibald had to saddle up the hot-pot that roughie Libertad, the horse she trains in partnership with husband, Rob, ended up snatching victory from on the line.

It’s not only LGHR that has been told of laughing Bjorn’s reported faux pas. The same has been the case with our mate Archie Butterfly at www.peterprofit.com.

The Butterfly published this message from a reader:

SOME exclusive goss for you…because I’m sure it will hit the media tomorrow. B Baker was in a shocking drunk mess state today! None of us have ever seen him that drunk. He couldn’t even saddle the horse – Annabel had to do it.

Anyway he just now got escorted by police off track because he was an aggressive mess and abused the living shit out of his strapper in front on everyone blaming her for losing the race – so he’s in big trouble for that too.

If the above is true – LGHR did notice Bjorn embracing Annabel in front of the cameras after the race then appearing in a very ‘jolly mood’ for a trainer who had just been beaten a wart in a big race – then it confirms the old beliefs.

Kiwis can’t handle the grog. Punting and the piss don’t mix.

Here’s hoping this isn’t a massive mischief making exercise or that a rival didn’t slip a ‘roofie’ into Bjorn’s drink and that after he woke with a sore head on Sunday he was quick to make amends.

The question now is: Will the stewards in the west slip this under the carpet ensuring they don’t offend one of their favourite eastern state visitors of recent years?

Bjorn Baker is a good bloke and a great trainer. We all make mistakes. He won’t be the first to suffer embarrassment at the hands of the evil booze.

LGHR does not know Bjorn Baker but is a big fan on and off the track regardless of what did or did not happen in the west. We welcome his version or that of someone connected with the stable as well as the WA Stewards. Let’s set the record straight.

 

STRANGE STEWARDS’ RULING – THIS TIME IN TOOWOOMBA 

ONE wonders what that wonderful Toowoomba trainer John Dann thought of the ride of Dylan Turner on Chasing Time which should have won the fourth at Toowoomba on Saturday night.

Rather than be accused of providing a slanted version of what happened, here’s a precise of what our colleague Archie Butterfly reported on his website, www.peterprofit.com:

AN inquiry has been convened into jockey Dylan Turner mistaking the position of the winning post and sitting up early on his mount in Race 4 at Toowoomba on Saturday night and costing it the race.

That’s good, so there should be an inquiry.

As to the other matters with Dylan Turner’s ride, all I can say is ‘only in Queensland.’

Stewards determined three different instances of careless riding by Turner in the race, each of which caused interference to another runner and their rider.

The Stewards report that each incident constitutes careless riding in breach of Rule AR131 (a). But they don’t actually charge Turner with anything.

All they do is issue Turner with a severe reprimand for incident one, a reprimand for incident two and a severe reprimand for incident three.

And all that of course is on top of him dropping his hands early and costing his mount (and the punters who backed it) the race.

What the hell sort of Stewarding is this?

How many times do you have to breach the careless riding rule in a race and cause interference to other runners in Queensland before you get suspended?

The answer is obviously a minimum of four.

And the QRIC Stewards want us to have confidence betting on local races in the belief that they are run within the Rules.

Puh-lease!

Only in Queensland.

 

JERICHO CUP DIDN’T DESERVE SUNDAY'S EMBARRASSMENT 

THE annual Jericho Cup has become an important and integral part of the Victorian racing calendar and deserved better than the bastardised version of the race that was run on Sunday.

Horse and jockey safety have to be first and foremost and a problem in the Consolation caused some concerns with the Final salvaged after an 11^th Hour decision to transfer it to the course proper.

No problem with that – better a Jericho Cup than no Jericho Cup in 2025 – but it would have helped if the Stewards had bothered to tell the punters about the change prior to the horses entering the parade ring for the race.

Matty Stewart, the regular racing.com host also known as the unofficial Mayor of Warrnambool, does a great job promoting the club and its major meetings, like the Grand Annual and Jericho Cup.

But when it comes to contentious issues, like that which occurred on Sunday and saw jockeys refuse to ride the Hurdle course after one of their number had to be taken to hospital when a runner fell at Cozer’s Crossing, ‘Matty’ is not the man for the job.

You can’t put a positive spin on everything and while his colleagues in the racing.com studio were obviously concerned by the lack of information he was providing from the track re plans to run the Jericho Cup, ‘Matty’ sadly failed miserably at the job he is paid to do.

Aided and abetted by a snail-pacing panel of stewards running the meeting, this meeting, run for a wonderful cause, copped a barrage of criticism from the racing public and punters around the country that it was not entitled to.

 

SYDNEY NEEDS TO LIFT ITS GAME AS PART OF NIGHT CIRCUIT

ONE gets the impression right now that Sydney is just going through the motions with night racing.

Their season starts well after it is underway in Victoria and Queensland.

Not that they don’t do a good job at promoting the meetings that are run at Canterbury through free entry and plenty of off-track family attractions, especially for the kids.

But fields have been light on the ground and some weeks were it not for the numbers from the powerful Chris Waller stable Sydney would struggle to program more than six races some Friday nights.

Last week was a good example when five of the seven starters in the first at Canterbury were provided by Waller. At least he did the right thing by punters with stable rep, Darren Beadman, tipping the winner Patonga.

That run of luck didn’t last too long when the heavily-backed Waller runner Snitzel Miss could not overhaul Jaegers in the second.

‘Not so big’ Richie Callender, putting a slice of pizza under his nose when he’s trying so hard to stick with that new diet was not nice, does his best to pump up the meeting with promotions for the SKY viewers. But what’s happening on the track is what really matters and that needs addressing.

 

HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB DONATES MILLIONS TO VICTIMS OF FIRE TRAGEDY - SUNDAY RACING PROCEEDS BUT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 

OUT of a terrible tragedy has emerged one of the feel-good racing stories of the year.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has donated $A14 million (over HK$70mn) to the victims of the Tai Po fire after a subdued afternoon of racing at Sha Tin on Sunday.

A minute’s silence was observed before the closed-door meeting, which was restricted to owners, stewards, voting members and their invited guests, and there was none of the colour and buzz of a normal Sha Tin meeting. (PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB).

“I want to express my deep condolences to all of those who have been affected by this tragic fire,” said Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges. “I hope that we conducted today’s race meeting with the utmost respect.

“We will look at what arrangements we will make for next week because we are of the view that even on Wednesday, even though the period of mourning is three days, I don’t believe that we should go Wednesday to a full Happy Wednesday.

“It’s not the right time. We have to be very mindful of the feelings of people. We are of the view that we will admit the public but the activities will definitely not be in normal mode.”

The HK$70.2 million was the gross income from Sunday’s meeting and the HKJC has now donated HK$170.2 million to relief efforts while also providing practical support to families in need.

THE death toll has now risen to 146, with members of a police unit finding 18 bodies on Sunday, five days after the inferno at the Wang Fuk Court Estate in Tai Po broke out.

The South China Morning Post reports:

• 146 people, including a firefighter, confirmed dead
• 79 injured, including 12 firefighters
• Around 40 people deemed to be missing; about 100 cases categorised as “unresolvable”
• The eight residential blocks in the estate had been undergoing renovations since July 2024, covered in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh
• Authorities say highly flammable styrofoam material used in renovation works caused the fire to spread rapidly
• Government has launched criminal investigations to find the cause of the blaze
• Three-day citywide mourning, national and Hong Kong flags at half-mast
• Seven Indonesian helpers confirmed dead, another 79 missing
• Beijing has praised Hong Kong’s rescue and relief efforts and pledged support

 

IS THIS THE MATE OF PVL EARMARKED TO SAVE SYDNEY RACING?

THE man in charge of Penrith’s four NRL premierships has emerged as a potential saviour in the stand-off between Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club.

Brian Fletcher, the Panthers Group CEO during Penrith’s title success from 2021 to 2024, and the CEO of Hawkesbury Race Club for nearly 30 years, says he is open to helping the ATC get back on its feet – and once again become one of the most powerful racing clubs in the country.

CHRISTIAN NICOLUSSI reports for FAIRFAX MEDIA that Racing NSW issued the ATC a show-cause notice in September over fears the club was in financial strife, and threatened to appoint an administrator to replace the board.

Four ATC Board members – Chairman Tim Hale, Deputy Chair Caroline Searcy, Directors David McGrath and Annette English, as well as interim CEO Steve McMahon, met with Racing NSW’s Board yesterday (Thursday) to state their case.

A decision on whether to press ahead with an Administrator, or give the ATC more time, will be made in the coming weeks.

Several key stakeholders have since started urging Fletcher to become involved, ideally as a consultant who could advise the club while being the man to deal directly with Racing NSW and their CEO Peter V’landys.

Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly said Fletcher had huge appeal because he had just retired from the Panthers and had time, enjoyed tremendous success at Hawkesbury, and is a close ally in V’landys from their dealings in racing and rugby league.

“I haven’t been approached, but you’re not the first person to ask me if I’m getting involved,” Fletcher said on Thursday.

“What I will say is I’ve spent most of my life in racing, I’ve always had a passion for the sport, and if the ATC thought I could help, I’d be more than interested.

“I’d be more than confident I can help the ATC become one of the leading race clubs in Australia.

“They have everything there. They have a good product. In two or three years, I could see the club humming. I’ve known a lot of people and trainers for a long time, and I’ve always worked well with Peter – every club needs to have a good working relationship with Racing NSW to succeed.”

It emerged in September the ATC owed Racing NSW $145 million in the form of a non-interest loan, which is only repayable if it sells a major asset. The club also owes the Commonwealth Bank $30 million, which is due in October 2026.

The ATC sacked its CEO Matt Galanos, in September, which led to two Directors, Ben Bayot and Natalie Hewson, quitting the Board in the same week. Bayot said it was “untenable to continue working with a dysfunctional board”.

The botched $5bn sale of Rosehill to the State Government in May heaped pressure on the ATC to perform financially. The club posted a $2.59mn operating loss last financial year, but claimed $2m was spent on making sure members knew exactly what they were voting for when it came to the Rosehill deal.

Hale wrote to members to inform them the “club’s core businesses are performing well”, and they had the benefit of owning the land at Rosehill and another racetrack, Canterbury.

A record crowd attended Everest Day at Randwick in October to witness Hong Kong champion Ka Ying Rising win the $20m showpiece race. Crowds at Rosehill, however, have continued to dwindle the past decade, which was pointed out by those in support of selling off the western Sydney track for housing purposes.

 

CYCLING THE 160km TO PICKLEBET PARK WAS JUST ‘NOT ON’

THE ‘rocket scientists’ at RQ were summoned to an emergency 7am meeting on Thursday – three hours before they normally clocked on to work. Was the axe about to fall – not until after Christmas folks?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The ‘boss’ needed to make an urgent trip to the country. Who was going to convince him that the 320km round trip to Picklebet Park was too far to cycle.

The message from above (to the Board via the Racing Minister) was crystal clear. This was an opportunity for the new Government to show they cared about bush racing, even if they are doing nothing about 20-odd horses being scratched from some outback meetings because there are no jockeys to ride them.

Warwick was in big trouble after the racetrack and facilities were destroyed by a storm of cyclone-like intensity. There would be no racing on Friday (today). In fact it was uncertain when they would be able to race there again, even if officials hope to on Boxing Day.

‘Treat the place like it was Eagle Farm,’ was the message from above. That meant the Government and RQ needed someone at Ground Zero. The buck stopped with Interim CEO Lachlan Murray but this was an area he had not encountered studying for his Diploma in Corporate Bookmaking.

The ‘rocket scientists’ readied him for the long journey west. ‘Gopher George’ was instructed to prepare the best car in the RQ Fleet and to have it fueled up and ready to go.

The GPS was set Deagon to Warwick. The number of Ben Dorries from Racenet was added to Murray’s mobile in case he got lost. This was a well-worn track for Big Ben from the days when he and his daughter had that free-loading vacation at Wally World, so he knew it well.

With Lachie strapped into the driver’s seat, the pride of the fleet (RQ’s Answer to Air Force One) sped through the Deagon gates and an honor guard of ‘rocket scientists’ with his trusty Malvern Star strapped to the roof rack and the Pet Shop Boys old favorite, Go West, blaring from the car stereo.

The mission was underway. It was all systems go. Who said these blokes running RQ couldn’t find a root in a brothel?

 

BOUQUETS TO ‘LACHIE’ EVEN IF RQ WAS 'JOLTED INTO ACTION’ 

ALL jokes aside, full marks to RQ and CEO Murray for addressing the problems at Warwick so promptly (no doubt under the urgings of the Office of Racing Minister Mander).

According to a report by Ben Dorries for the Murdoch Media Warwick racetrack and facilities resembled a ‘war zone’ after a wild storm that lasted only 15 seconds.

‘Wednesday night’s storm madness tore the roof off the clubhouse and destroyed the bookmakers’ ring. The running rail crashed down around the entire track, the roof was smashed off the toilet block, the storage shed for race day barriers and other equipment was flattened and the race day stalls sustained major damage. The club, which races 12 times a year, had been due to race on Friday but the local committee on Thursday instead sprung into action to start repairs.

‘RQ CEO Lachlan Murray made the two-hour drive from Brisbane to inspect the damage and was stunned by the incredible scenes. “To be honest, it’s a warzone,” Murray told Racenet. “It is worse than I was expecting. “But this club has shown they have got great resilience. Whatever we need to do, we will throw heaven and earth at getting them up and running again and insurance will play a role in that.”

Warwick Turf Club president Eric Standing said there was only 15-20 seconds of storm mayhem, but that was enough to shred a lot of the facilities at the club. Thankfully, the track itself was not damaged.

“We were meant to race on Friday, but we obviously aren’t now. We have got our next race meeting on Boxing Day and I’ll be very surprised if we are not up and running by then.”

 

WARWICK MORE DESERVING OF INDUSTRY ASSISTANCE RIGHT NOW 

THE big question is: Will insurance pay for the damages bill or will Picklebet Park need financial help from the Government or the industry?

There should be no hurdles to getting Warwick up and running as quickly as possible. Cost or insurance hold-ups (some of these companies are parasites when it comes to parting with pay-outs) should present no barriers.

RQ has to remain consistent in any call for financial help from the WTC and no doubt the LNP Member for the Southern Downs James Lister will ensure the control body is.

Eagle Farm had industry funding for the sight screens that supposed were needed after a fall occurred not to mention work on their new track, Gold Coast received plenty of financial help to correct their new track problems and millions in extra funding was needed to address the cost blow-out at the new The Q greyhound track.

Warwick should be given priority over any new harness racing HQ to replace Albion Park (the code is a basket case and contributes next to nothing when it comes to betting revenue) and Eagle Farm may need a new grandstand but couldn’t possibly receive funding for one used exclusively by a few thousand privileged members.

Mr Minister, when it comes to priorities Warwick needs to be first cab off the rank. Here’s your chance to show that racing north of Nambour and west of Toowoomba does count.

 

THE YAKAPARI KID ‘FIX’ FOR ALL THINGS WRONG IN OZ RACING

IT’S the WEDNESDAY WHINGE with a difference this week highlighted by an offering from our old mate, Gary Gorrie, the former ‘playboy bookie’ in the north (aka the Yakapari Kid), now living the high life in retirement in a ‘little shack’ (read mansion) in Phuket Thailand with his beautiful wife and son.

‘Gaz’ graced us with his presence Down Under recently and here’s what he had to say about the visit:

‘I’M just back from the Gulf catching Benny Barramundi and dodging Charlie Crocodile. Geez, there's more Crocs there than sand flies these days.

That Katter bloke has a great idea, turn some of them into handbags and shoes for the ladies. Those southern idiots should stick to their own back yard (they aren’t doing too good there either) and and not interfere with ours. Our mining in the North pays for all their stuff-ups.

For those that don’t know me, I'm the ‘Yakapari Kid’, Dux of my Class until I left in Fifth Grade . Having a beer or three with me other classmate, my accountant ‘Knuckles Knowall’ and we were talking about that grouse Sheila that rode the Cup winner. It was the best ride we’ve seen since George Moore blew his whistle and won on Expressman at Doomben when we had our last fiver's on him.

That Albo bloke's nothin’ like Bob Hawke. ‘Bob’ would have given us the day off after Half Yours won (a la Australia winning the America’s Cup), the only Aussie-bred horse in the field won.

Now ‘Knuckles’ oozes common sense and if you don’t agree with him he can knock some into you. He is famous for getting the Pindi Pindi Parrot and Pigeon Club out of debt [25 quid down they were]. He has a few ideas for fixing the debt these big race clubs in Melbourne and Sydney have right now. 

For years they have run the Cup as the last race on the card at Darwin. They sell more booze and food and attract more turnover and maximize their take for the day. That place is not in debt. The Moonee Valley Club programmed the ‘Cocks Plate’ (not a typo) last. With the World Pool intermingled massive turnover is guaranteed. They can now close the place down and build a new track, as long as they do it right.

The so-called southern ‘Educated Idiots’ don't realise that the Chinese springs in their clocks are not real good and in Hong Kong their time is three hours slow (but no curtain fade).

At the moment The Everest and Melbourne Cup are run at Noon Hong Kong time. Imagine how much extra they would bet if our feature races were run three hours later as the last on the card.

Now tradition is no excuse. The canned the ‘Cup Day Hurdle’ which used to be a great start to the day. Have a tenner on Ted Byrne used to cash you up for the rest of a tough Cup program ahead.

Flemington just announced they were very happy losing $7.2mn. Even Jimmy Olsen's mate Peter Profit wouldn’t be making a loss on his site. How can anyone be happy doing that amount of money?

MOVE MELBOURNE CUP TO THE LAST RACE ON CARD

MOVE the Melbourne Cup to Race 10 and they would arguably earn an extra $7 million on the day in turnover on Races 7, 8 and 9. And wow, what turnover would the Cup attract plus extra booze and pie sales?

Now ‘Knuckles’ says there is an economic thing called the ‘Multiplier Effect’. This would also trickle down into all the Race Clubs, pubs and club TAB outlets all over Australia, increasing turnover, working hours for staff and might even get Albo’s Budget into the black. 

Do it with The Everest too and don’t sell Rosehill.

At the moment it’s like putting JOK on at 8pm and Dick and the Dropouts at 10pm. Everyone goes home after ‘The Wild One’ performs. You have your main attraction on last and keep the crowd there.

Even Caufield has Caufield Cup as the second last race – haven’t heard that they are in financial trouble, instead heading in the right direction.

So let’s put the Rugby League Grand Final back to Sunday afternoon (BBQ and Stubbies), run the feature races last at all clubs throughout the land, honour our flag and National Anthem and make it compulsory to wear Crocodile-leather shoes with handbag accessories.

These are just the thoughts of the Yakapari Kid and Knuckles Knowall.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  CRICKEY ‘Gaz’ – next thing you’ll have us all breaking into a chorus of ‘Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars’.

 

WHO CARES ABOUT 'EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITY' THESE DAYS? 

WHEN our regular SYDNEY contributor PETER MAIR shoots from the hip, it’s not too often he misses the target.

Peter recently sent us an email entitled EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITY, which is a ‘pet’ topic of LGHR when it comes to racing coverage these days.

Forget about your commitment to the racing public and the mum and dad punters who keep the sport going, many writing for the mainstream media are only interested – in our opinion – in sucking up to survive.

But before LGHR gets on a tangent on one of our ‘major hates’, here’s a backhander that Peter Mair sent to the publisher of one the newer racing websites, The Straight, which is now asking people to subscribe monthly to read the service.

Hi Bren,

.........much as my sense of happiness does not depend on anyone taking notice of what I might say, some recent stories have not really cut-the-mustard, as I have remarked.

This story is one:

https://thestraight.com.au/you-cant-cut-your-way-to-future-sustainability-morrisons-racing-victoria-challenge/

Have you considered finding Rob Hines -- the CEO at RVL that ran Melbourne metropolitan racing as the best in the world, when it is now struggling for credibility.

If The Straight is to deliver on its promise, a much tighter editorial stance will be needed.

............there have been some wonderfully independent contributions to knowing how the industry works and could be more transparently managed in line with the realities of the business.

As is, it is not.

Some recent stories have not passed the pub-test’.

EDITOR’S NOTE: LGHR does not have access to The Straight so will steer clear of commenting there. But what we do know is that the ‘rules’ adopted by the Murdoch Media ensures there is no criticism of high profile officials or top stables and jockeys – so much for being the mouth-piece of the punters. But it gets even worse when high profile editorial identities ‘censor’ constructive criticism of what is happening behind the scenes at major clubs to ‘protect their mates’ in official positions. Thanks a million for what you’ve turned the Australian Media into Mr Murdoch.

 

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ASIAN INTEREST OF 12 YEARS AGO? 

GOLD COAST-based GREG BLANCHARD, another regular contributor, continues what seems to be an unwinnable fight to overcome the lack of jockeys which has seen obscene numbers of horses scratched from bush meetings in Queensland.

Greg tells us:

‘RACING NSW recently advertised for a overseas Liaison Officer mainly for Filipinos and Turkish employees.

I congratulate them for being proactive about this problem which I believe will get worse.

Back in 2013 I was involved as a volunteer with a Korean horse group in Brisbane. There was a Courier-Mail story (published on October 16 2013) under the headline: KOREAN JOCKEYS TARGET QUEENSLAND AS A TRAINING GROUND with an accompanying photograph of BRC Chairman Neville Belle, Korean horseman and high school teacher Kwangjin Hwang, then Racing Minister Steve Dickson, BRC CEO Steve Ferguson and RQ Chief Executive Darren Condon).

The thrust of the story was that the emerging racing nation of Korea had singled out south-east Queensland as the ideal starting point for students looking to make a mark. It was supposedly all-systems-go.

Much was talked about the benefits etc but 12 years down the track and nothing has happened. I said back then we need a connection with Asian country re jockeys, stable hands etc. I have spoken and written to all administrations at RQ since pushing for this – the result a duck egg.

EDITOR’S NOTE: PERHAPS when the much-awaited Racing Review finally surfaces this will be an issue that is addressed Greg. They say that will be released before Christmas – they forget to tell us which Christmas. 

 

TIME TO RELEASE RACING REVIEW RECOMMENDATIONS AS RUMORS INTENSIFY OF MAJOR CLEAN-OUT AT RQ, MANY FACING THE AXE? 

AS the rumor mill gains momentum, the time has come for Racing Minister Tim Mander to provide the industry in Queensland with an update on the release of recommendations of the Racing Review.

The continued delay is creating too much uncertainty and has opened the door for all sorts of speculation about what the future holds for Queensland racing.

It’s simply not good enough. The LNP Government has now been in power for over a year. The RQ Board that Labor appointed remains in control supposedly until the Review outcome is released.

LGHR has been criticized for suggesting Review recommendations will be released at the final sittings of Parliament for the year (starting on December 9).

Those supposedly in the know are claiming that this has been put back further until after the Magic Millions Carnival which makes no sense unless it contains contentious decisions that will steal the spotlight from the Summer Carnival.

The other big ‘rumor’ is that Racing Minister Mander is preparing to put the ‘cleaners’ through Racing Queensland. It’s no surprise that many of the current Board won’t survive when a newlook control body is announced. Chairman Steve Wilson has already departed.

The good news – if it is right – predicts that seveneral high profile identities – we call them ‘rocket scientists’ – currently running RQ are on borrowed time.

The jury is out on Interim CEO Lachlan Murray with the general opinion that he should survive but not in his current role. The Government needs to head-hunt someone like Scott Whiteman, current CEO of Country Racing Victoria, to try and salvage something from the wreckage of the good ship RQ Titanic.

 

REVIEW CAN’T AFFORD TO FINANCE EAGLE FARM MEMBER'S STAND FROM ALBION PARK SALE OR GIVE CORPORATES A ‘FREE’ RIDE  

THE supposedly independent Review, initiated in May, was designed to consider key issues – prioritization of the care and welfare of racing animals, the need for a fit-for-purpose infrastructure to support all three codes and the effectiveness of existing Governance arrangements.

After extensive consultation with just about everybody bar the tea lady at the Brisbane Racing Club, Chairman Matthew McGrath and his Steering Committee completed their report to Government months ago.

A special date was set down for its delivery in October but for unexplained reasons the industry is still embarrassingly waiting to learn the recommendations of the Review.

Insiders are blaming the delay on a proposed reduction of the Point of Consumption Tax for bookmakers from 20 to 15 percent. There is Cabinet indecision on the issue because some MPs refuse to accept the loss of up to hundreds of millions in POC revenue.

They are highlighting the need for spending on hospitals, schools, roads, help for the aged that the Federal Government isn’t providing and teachers wanting more pay not to mention the infrastructure and prizemoney needs of racing.

There is disagreement over whether the Brisbane Racing Club should receive industry or Government funding for a condemned grandstand which is used exclusively by a privileged few Members of the BRC.

Then there is the ‘basket case’ of what to do with Albion Park. Any recommendation to move the HQ of harness racing to Toowoomba will be strongly resisted by the industry as will the use of proceeds of the sale to help the BRC build a new grandstand.

Sadly, the ‘red hots’ have lost so much confidence among punters that it is hard to justify spending money on a code that continues to return so little in betting revenue.

That is not the case with the greyhounds but the new The Q state-of-the-art complex remains a major headache. The Stewards’ Report from Sunday’s racing was another tale of woe with one greyhound euthanized and two others injured during the running of races. This continues to give the animal liberationists a free kick and is not acceptable from a complex that cost so much and that figure has continued to explode in attempts to correct the ‘killing fields’.

 

WHAT PRICE INTEGRITY?  NEED FOR TEAM OF TOUGHER STEWARDS  

WHILST it seems the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission – which some feared would be scrapped by the LNP Government – is safe, changes will need to be made to reduce costs.

Some might say: What price integrity? And if ever there is a need for ramping up swabbing and ‘fence jumping’ to catch those breaking the rules, the time is now.

Under no circumstances can QRIC return to the umbrella of a control body – there has to be a separation of powers to ensure RQ doesn’t see the interference from high profile Board Members that happened in the past.

The problem confronting the good people running QRIC, especially Kim Kelly with his experience on the local and international front, is that his hands are tied with the experience (a lack of) available in his stewarding ranks.

It’s highlighted when you have a Chief Gallops Steward that the punters have no confidence in. Of course, the licensees have no problem with him and why wouldn’t they? When was the last time he opened an inquiry involving one of the state’s leading stables or jockeys?

And some of the stewarding talent outside the south-east corner – or lack of it – well that’s another story. Look what has happened in Birdsville in recent years – use of jiggers, positive swabs, allegations of disqualified trainers working horses there.

Let’s not forget our old mate – the everywhere man of the stewards’ ranks in Queensland – now running the show in the Far North and what a farce it is. As we have suggested before he would be hard to place in Istanbul racing.

 

NEW HARNESS CHIEF STEWARD BAULKS AT FIRST HURDLE – GRANT DIXON DOES WHAT HE LIKES WITH KEVIN SEYMOUR CONNECTION? 

PUNTERS were promised things would change in the policing of harness racing with the appointment of a new Chief Steward in Neil Finnigan.

But the first real opportunity he gets to show that things have changed, Mr Finnigan takes one step forward and 10 back. It seems that when it comes to a high profile owner and his trainer they are ‘dead-set’ untouchable.

Here’s what QRIC Chair Catherine Clark said about Finnigan:

Neil Finnigan brings nearly 25 years of stewarding experience across multiple racing juristictions and codes to QRIC.  He has extensive knowledge of the integrity landscape and has previously held senior roles, including Senior Stipendiary Steward – Harness and Acting Deputy Chief Steward – Harness, and was formerly a QRIC Stipendiary Steward from 2016 to 2022. Currently the Chief Steward – Harness with Tasracing, Neil will commence on 7 October.

Well Mr Finnigan has had plenty of time to get his feet firmly planted in the Chief Stipe's shoes and, some critics say, had a great opportunity to prove his worth at the Albion Park meet last Friday.

Archie Butterfly of peterprofit.com, who follows the ‘red hots’ much closer than LGHR does these days, reported on a most concerning situation.

Here’s a brief resume of what the Butterfly reported:

‘YOU have never seen a more obvious ‘team drive’ in your life than the one Team Dixon pulled in the $100,000 Sunshine Stars Three-Year-Old Classic at Albion Park on Friday.

It was disgraceful.

As you will learn later the stewarding was worse.

Grant Dixon trained six of the 10 runners in the race.

Kevin Seymour owned three, the Albion Park Chairman Greg Mitchell owned two and Dr John Mammino owned one.

Of four non-Dixon trained runners, only two were possible dangers.

Stay Foolish drawn in gate two outside one of the no-hopers was the $2.7 equal favorite with the Grant Dixon-driven Race For Riches drawn out in five.

Amanda Turnbull was certain to take Stay Foolish straight to the lead and all things being equal would be very hard to run down.

All things are never equal at Albion Park though when Grant Dixon has six in a feature race and the three best ones are owned by Mr Kevin Will Seymour AM, as we are about to find out.

The other good one that wasn’t trained by Dixon was Mr Ultimate Fix, a smart young pacer trained by Donny Smith and driven by Angus Garrard who would have been much shorter than $10 if he had drawn better than the horror outside of the second row.

Kevin AM has made a billion dollar fortune by eliminating risk, and his long-time trainer who has become rich through hard work, skill and his owner’s patronage has learned the principles of the strategy from his master.

Dixon knew what all the horses could do, and knew that some of them were fast but none of them were strong.

If Turnbull or Smith’s horse got the breaks in the race they could beat him, and that was a risk.

So Grant Dixon eliminated the risk, both of them.

In the Stewards’ room Dixon is quizzed about wiping Garrard out (on Mr Ultimate Fix). He says that Garrard was to blame for pushing up into a space that wasn’t there, which was horse-shit.

Stewards had no option but to charge Dixon but of course the pro-Seymour fix went in.  One could argue this was a deliberate tactic by Dixon that cost the connections of the Donny Smith horse any chance of winning. This wasn’t careless driving.

Dixon was charged with careless driving and Stewards gave him an out. They found that the horse driven by Nielson may have shifted out when being eased and contributed to the interference to Garrard which was an absolute load of baloney.

Neilson dropped his right shoulder allowing his horse to move over and slam Garrard – it was as clear as day.

He didn’t get charged with anything. Dixon was fined $400.

His devilish tactics won Mr Seymour AM another $73,000. I am sure he will foot the fine.

Not a question was asked of Dixon about why he sacrificed the favourite that punters around Australia had bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on so he could eliminate risk and ensure that the Seymour horse driven by his wife would win.

Grant Dixon did not drive his horse to win as required to under the Rules. Quite to the contrary, he gave it none.

I am an avid punter who loves the trots, and I have lost confidence betting on the sport in Queensland after seeing what Grant Dixon did in this race.

Anyone who understands harness racing and watches the replay of this race would share this loss of confidence. This was a team drive of the most public confidence sapping if not destroying order imaginable.

The Stewards who let this perversion of the notion of fair racing pass without comment should be transferred to work at the dogs giving them time to improve their skills of being an integrity official.

We need Stewards who are not afraid to take on team driving. Stewards who have the mettle to take on Grant Dixon knowing he has Kevin Seymour AM behind him’.

LGHR EDITOR’S NOTE: At last, someone who is prepared to write the ‘truth’ about what’s been happening for too long in harness racing in Queensland.

HERE’S what the weak-kneed Stewards reported from last Friday’s embarrassment at Albion Park:

STEWARDS questioned drivers M Neilson (ULTIMATE ARK), G Dixon (RACE FOR RICHES) and A Garrard (MY ULTIMATE FELIX) into the reason why MY ULTIMATE FELIX broke gait racing toward the first turn. Stewards after hearing from the drivers, reviewing the official race footage and after considering their own observations, charged driver Dixon for carelessly causing a tightening to MY ULTIMATE FELIX which when in restricted room broke gait. Stewards in issuing the charge were mindful that there were a number of mitigating circumstances, including but not limited to ULTIMATE ARK when being eased may have shifted wider marginally and driver Dixon prior to MY ULTIMATE FELIX breaking gait had begun to ease wider. Driver Dixon pled not guilty to the charge, reiterating his belief that driver Garrard had also contributed to the incident by placing his gelding in restricted room. Stewards on considering all the evidence in its entirety believed they could sustain the charge and thereby found driver Dixon guilty as charge. Stewards, when considering penalty took into account all mentioned above together driver Dixon’s driving record which shows over 4700 drives since his last suspension, weighing this up against the fact that the incident had occurred in a 3YO Classic Final, and fined him the sum of $400

ALL LGHR can say about harness racing in Queensland is: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ There is no hope for it.

 

ANYTHING GOES IN SA RACING, EVEN LYING BESIDE BARRIER STALLS 

JUST when you thought it was ‘anything goes’ on the track in South Australia, it seems officialdom doesn’t care what happens off it either.

In front of a national audience on Sunday, an arguably inebriated woman laid down next to the starting stalls at Clare while officials just proceeded to run the race.

As Archie Butterfly reported on his website peterprofit.com: ‘Health and safety standards are clearly not of a particularly high standard in South Australia’.

LIVE coverage captured the portly woman in a white dress, accompanied by a guy in shorts, sitting on the ground adjacent to the No 1 barrier as the starter dispatches the field.

She simultaneously takes a sip of a drink and lies down. The starter in his nearby stand seems oblivious to it, as do track staff, while the Clerk of the Course watches in disbelief from the opposite side of the starting stalls.

Only in South Australia where racing should be branded with a warning: ‘Betting in this State is a wealth-hazard’.  

But surely if the patrons prefer to get pissed than punt they should be required to do it in the safer confines of the grandstand.

LGHR would like to tell you that the Stewards opened an inquiry or issued a warning after this situation which could have ended in disaster.

But as of early today (Monday) they had still not posted a Report on the Clare meeting. It’s 144km to Adelaide so here’s hoping after a exhausting day they didn’t detour to one of the region’s fine Riesling wineries on their way home.

HOOFNOTE: The hard-working SA stipes finally got around to posting a Stewards' Report which contained no mention of the incident at the barriers. They were asleep at the wheel when that happened but did manage to conduct a search of the jockeys' room for mobile phones without any being found.  

 

PITFALLS OF TURNING DOWN BIG HONG KONG MONEY FOR HORSES 

THE pitfalls of turning down big money from Hong Kong for a young horse were highlighted at the weekend when boom youngster Boots flopped on debut at the Sunshine Coast.

Reports in the Murdoch Media suggested that connections had rejected an $800,000 offer for the Stuart Kendrick-trained colt before he even started in a race.

The son of Capitalist was one of the favorites for the $3mn Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic at the Gold Coast in January after bolted in with a trial on his home track at Corbould Park.

Backed into odds-on Boots dropped out to run a distant last on Saturday with the stable reporting he had suffered heat stress.

Not only did the dreams of Boots winning the MM evaporate but so also did the chances of the Asian buyers ever offering $800,000 for him again.

It raises the question whether owners confronted with big offers should ‘tie prospective buyers to a tree’ or press ahead regardless believing that eventually their horses will win more in prizemoney.

For Kendrick, who is said to drive a Lamborghini purchased from the profits of previous sales of young horses to Hong Kong, ‘that’s racing’. He’s one of the owners and has no regrets about refusing the offer regardless of Saturday’s setback.

 

SHOULD STABLES BE RESTRICTED IN HORSE NUMBERS? 

THE old chestnut of whether the number of horses permitted to be trained by the leading stables should be capped has again raised its ugly head.

It happens in Hong Kong where you race according to the Jockey Club rules but such is not the case in Australia where ‘restriction of trade’ obligations would protect the high flyers.

Was it a good look to see Queensland’s leading trainer Tony Gollan with seven starters (almost half the field) in last Saturday’s Listed Swiss Ace Plate at the Sunshine Coast?

And there are reports that the powerful Chris Waller stable will have up to six starters in next weekends’ Group 3 Festival Stakes at Rosehill. But that’s becoming par for the course in feature races in Sydney.

Not so much further north where Gollan did the right thing by punters winning one of the opening feature races of the Winter Carnival with the heavily-backed favorite Hidden Wealth while stablemate Party for Two ran third.

Such is rarely the case in Sydney where the Waller form is hard to follow and more often than not the second-string runners beat home their favored stablemates.

If Day One of the Summer Carnival was any indication in Queensland, the locals are set for a field day. Interstate visitors were few in number but no doubt that will change as the Magic Millions gets nearer.

 

CONTROVERSY RIDES SHOTGUN WITH MUNCE SUCCESS STORY 

CHRIS MUNCE was a champion jockey, has made the conversion to outstanding trainer and, according to those who know him well, is a good bloke.

But controversy continues to ride shotgun with him and the more wins that the training combo of Chris and son Corey achieve, the worse it seems to get.

It’s not only the ‘faceless’ keyboard warriors who are working in over-drive but also some of Munce’s training rivals which might come as a surprise to him.

For legal reasons we can’t publish the increasing number of emails that are being sent to us. The situation worsened at the weekend when Team Munce landed a winning quadrella at the Sunshine Coast.

This was headed by rising star Walsh Bay in the Mooloolaba Cup, Brave Monarch in the Three-Year-Old QTIS Quality, former Victorian Kaluakoi in the Benchmark 80 and underrated mare Poster Girl in the last.

Ironically, the target of such rage once would have been another stable – that of Mark Currie (who won on the day with heavily-backed Thinkhardandfast).

Here are a couple of comments we can reproduce:

‘THE Munce winners are going so fast at the finish the jockeys seem to be having trouble pulling them up.’

And:

‘WHEN they put the money on the Munce horses these days rival stables know they are simply competing for second.’

 

STEVE HEWLETT TO DEPART RADIO 4TAB - WHAT A TERRIBLE LOSS! 

LGHR understands that a good friend of racing and a wonderful radio presenter STEVE HEWLETT will announce on his show this morning that he is leaving RADIO 4TAB after what seems an eternity.

Here's hoping he wasn't pushed as part of the redundancies that are occuring in the radio racing media because he's one of the best and has been a terrific servant to racing, especially in Queensland.

Someone of Steve's talents won't be on the sidelines for long. Here's the chance to snap up the services of a media identity specialising in racing and radio. This bloke is worth 10 times those being given big jobs with backgrounds in Corporate Bookmaking.

 

 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING THAT DEGENERATED INTO A NON-EVENT 

IT’S a sure sign that the racing industry in Queensland is in more you-know-what than a Werribee duck when the Annual Meeting of the control body degenerates into arguably, a ‘non-event’.

LGHR has been told by reliable sources that there would have been next to nobody at the AGM of Racing Queensland held at Ballymore on Wednesday had they not bussed in a ‘rent-a-crowd’ of ‘rocket-scientists’ from Headquarters at Deagon.

One has to ask where were the representatives (Chairmen or CEO’s) of major gallops, harness and greyhound clubs (if you were there hiding under a rock guys or gals, let us know).

And where were the representatives of the Owners, Breeders, Jockeys and Trainers’ Associations. Do they have so little faith in what lies ahead for RQ that it was pointless attending?

The solitary souls who decided to attend hoping to glean some information from the RQ Board were left disappointed – not that they expected any answers to contentious questions that should have been addressed by the Board long ago if they were doing their jobs.

Deputy Jane Seawright, the Acting Chair after the departure of Steve Wilson who insiders say left before he and most of the Board are pushed, did her best to report on RQ’s achievements in the past 12 months – which had already been tabled in Parliament some time ago.

When it came to question time and the matter of the on-going cloud hanging over what has or has not happened behind-the-scenes at the Brisbane Racing Club, as expected, they circled the wagons.

Wally Gleeson was there seeking answers but was told by Interim CEO Lachlan Murray that the RQ Board did not have the power to act on certain BRC issues – which is a load of cods-wallop depending on which legal eagle you talk to.     

The mainstream media wasn’t to be sighted – apparently former high flyers from the Courier Mail are currently trying to hose down questions now being asked by a rival entity.

One wonders why the State’s leading newspaper has ‘censored any coverage’ of the BRC debate, some say because of the closeness of high profile Editorial identities to BRC Directors.

If that's not right – and LGHR isn’t suggesting it is – why then isn’t the Murdoch Media doing its job? ‘Big Ben’ can’t be that focused on making the transition from his weekly helping of crumbed leg of Mongoose in the BRC Directors Room to Mud Crab at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Carnival.

Not to worry we are told there was an interesting observer, who asked a question at the AGM concerning the BRC situation – and she’s a Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist from the ABC.

Another lady, representing the interests of the greyhound industry, was also denied answers to questions one would have expected from an RQ AGM concerning the supposed state-of-the-art new The Q track and major problems apparently still confronting it.

We are told that the most farcical debate involved RQ CEO Murray and if this is any gauge to his qualifications for the top job here’s hoping that Interim role doesn’t become Permanent.

Murray’s degree in Corporate Bookmaking let him down badly during a debate with Wally Gleeson, the renegade Member whose concerns about the BRC are now in the hands of the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the ACCC.

Gleeson tried to explain to Murray that there was a difference between a ‘complaint’ and a ‘public interest disclosure’ which the CEO apparently refused to accept.

They found no common ground with Gleeson frustratingly asking Murray to explain what a ‘complaint’ was. Murray declined, saying he would need a dictionary to answer that question.

That’s racing Queensland style folks. And the time can’t come quick enough for Racing Minister Tim Mander to dismantle the current Labor-appointed Board and to fire a few of those ‘rocket scientists’ calling the shots at RQ out of a cannon.

Another session of State Parliament has now ended without any mention of the release of recommendations of the Racing Review. There’s one more to go before the Christmas break and we are assured much will be clearer on that front at the final sittings set down for December 9 to 11.

HOOFNOTE for the attention of RQ & LACHLAN MURRAY:

MOST dictionaries describe a COMPLAINT as:

• A statement of dissatisfaction.
• An illness or ailment.

Nowhere in Roget’s Thesaurus (perhaps RQ should kick in and buy a pocket-sized version for Lachlan) does it find any connection between ‘Complaint’ and ‘Public Interest Disclosure’.

And for the record, if a report is made that is a PID, it is imperative that the recipient quickly recognises that they have received a PID.

Accurately identifying PIDs is important because, if a report is a PID, the public official who made the report will have special protections under the PID Act.

These protections include:

Immunity from civil and criminal liability that might otherwise arise because they made the report

AND to avoid CONFUSION because the RQ CEO doesn’t know the definition of a complaint without the help of his dictionary, a PID is a Public Interest Disclosure not to be confused with a Pelvic Inflammatory Disease – although many believe that a common symptom of dealing with RQ on contentious issues (especially anything relating to Queensland’s leading club) is a bad dose of Diarrhea.

  

ATTENTION GAZ: HOW DARE YOU POT RACING’S MR UNTOUCHABLE

FROM Cairns to Canterbury Park in Sydney and even Sha Tin in Hong Kong, it wasn’t just the punters who got hot under the collar in the past week.

Trainer Gary Portelli committed the ultimate ‘sin’ criticising Hall of Famer Chris Waller for starting Group 1 placed Sweltering in a midweek Maiden.

This story in the Murdoch Media (but updated by LGHR) explains best what prompted his comments:

WHEN trainer Gary Portelli took out the $350,000 Inglis Bracelet at Flemington on Oaks day with Verona Rose, he didn't expect to be seeing the runner-up against one of his maidens.

The Warwick Farm-based conditioner headed to yesterday’s Canterbury meeting with 99 winners at the track but knew he wouldn’t be raising the bat in the opener with Babyfaced Assassin.

Portelli conceded Babyfaced Assassin would be no match for Sweltering but admitted he was gobsmacked when he saw Chris Waller's horse among the acceptances.

The daughter of Too Darn Hot held the tag of Australia's best maiden with a Group 1 placing in the Australasian Oaks earlier this year along with her runner-up finish to Portelli's stable star during Cup Week.

"He's an improving type that has started to work it out but he can't beat this favourite," Portelli said. "I can't believe we've run into this in a 1900m maiden at Canterbury … It's just ridiculous.

"But that's what you get when you've got a powerful stable like Waller's, they can put them where they want, but I'm not sure if I owned it that I'd be going around in a 1900m maiden – I'd be aiming up.

"We're all running for second, so I don't think we'll be breaking the century in that race but I'm expecting him to run well."

Sweltering bolted in at $1.12. Babyfaced Assassin started $19 and was beaten 19 lengths – so we're not sure what all the fuss was about.

 

‘COME ON CHRIS – HOW ABOUT GIVING THE ‘BATTLERS’ A GO’?

BUT there were plenty lining up to support Portelli’s comment. Jack from Manly wrote:

‘Waller’s entitled to enter any horse eligible for a race. But it’s just typical of his stable. They plunder Cup races in the country chasing Big Dance eligibility like many of the other top stables do. Surely they should be ineligible for those.

‘At least the Sweltering race today (Wednesday) was one Waller favorite that won. Plenty of those at backable odds for the punters seem to get beaten and on quite a few occasions second-string stablemates salute.

‘Waller is a great trainer – wish he would take on the best in Hong Kong with his horses though – but whether stables of the size of his are good for racing or not is argumentative.

‘Of course officialdom is not keen to rock his boat and the media doesn’t want to upset him because he has so many good horses that they need to write about. Without his stable numbers some of these midweek meetings in Sydney would look pretty sick.’

 

NOT EVERYONE HAPPY WITH HEDLEY DOMINATION IN FNQ

IT was domination of a different type that came under fire in the Far North when Cairns hosted the Sunday meeting in Queensland.

Leviathan owner and businessman, Tom Hedley, is the one caught in the crossfire but without his support racing in the region would struggle to survive.

The property tycoon’s stable of horses has been likened to the once-powerful ‘Blue Army’ of Godolphin. He recently cut back his horse numbers from over 100.

Hedley’s bright orange ‘H’ silks are synonymous with racing in the north and were front and centre at Cairns on Sunday. In race 5 he had almost half the field and was successful with Victorian stable newcomer Khabalov.

Concerns from punters who complain to LGHR is that the Chief Steward, Paul Gillard – in our opinion the worst in Queensland – is intimidated by the ‘power’ of Hedley

We’re assured that isn’t the case but after watching the way Gillard was catapulted into a permanent position after good Chief Stipes didn’t want him, LGHR would rather see him policing racing in Poland.

 

PLEASE EXPLAIN FROM BOSS AFTER LOST RACE COST HKJC $160mn 

OVER in Hong Kong there was a blow-up of a different nature after a serious incident in one of the races at Sha Tin last weekend and it came from the boss of the HKJC.

Here’s a report from the South China Morning Post that explains that situation:

Jockey Club Chief Executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges estimated HK$160 million in turnover was lost in an ‘unacceptable’ incident that saw race eight on Sha Tin’s Saturday card voided following a loose horse galloping the wrong way down the track.

As the runners were dispatched for the Class Four Lukfook Jewellery Cool Collection Handicap, Matthew Poon Ming-fai was dislodged from Dreaming Winner, with that runner turning around and galloping the wrong way around the track.

Thankfully, the Frankie Lor Fu-chuen galloper stopped at the entrance to the stables and was unharmed, along with Poon.

The stop-race siren was eventually deployed to signal to the jockeys to pull up their mounts, but the race ultimately came to a conclusion, with Emblazon first past the post before an inquiry was called and the race was declared void.

For Engelbrecht-Bresges, the turnover loss was secondary to what he described as “negligence”, which allowed the incident to occur.

“We will have a discussion because we have certain operational procedures which should prevent this happening,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges. “It is very clear that you have a tape behind the gates and this tape should not be removed until the horses have gone.

“This was a clear failure in standard operation procedures and this is unacceptable – it’s unlucky, but you have these procedures in place so that if something unlucky happens, it is prevented.

“The turnover implications are around $160 million. For me, I think it is not about the turnover. I am deeply disappointed that we have practices and procedures in place to prevent this and people have not followed them.

“I accept that everybody can make mistakes, but this is not about mistakes, it is negligence.”

Although the jockeys should have pulled up their mounts following the siren, there seemed to be some confusion mid-race and Jockey Club chief steward Marc van Gestel explained why this was the case.

“The issue in this race is that the siren was activated quite late at about the 500m mark, and so the jockeys indicated to us that they were confused as to whether it meant an abandonment of the race,” said Van Gestel.

 

EVEN WHEN YOU WIN IN QUEENSLAND , NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY

AND finally in the fallout from a weekend of whinges it seems that even when you win it doesn’t please everyone - at least in the Sunshine State.

Call it Tall Poppy Syndrome if you like, but senior co-trainer Chris Munce has come under fire with some unpublishable emails and texts doing the rounds about his stable’s recent remarkable run of success.

There is no stable in Queensland – and few in the land – with a better strike rate at present. And when the money comes for the Munce horses, follow it – because they generally go close to winning.

To those who are sending us ‘contributions’ on this subject, we won’t be publishing them for legal reasons. Those trainers who are asking what stables are being raided should have confidence in the job that (QRIC Deputy Commissioner) Kim Kelly is doing. Rest assured under his watch there are no favorites.

  

BUSH OWNERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER SECOND-RATE TREATMENT FROM RQ – THIS WOULD NEVER BE HAPPEN IN SOUTH-EAST CORNER

CAN you imagine the furore that would erupt if the owners of more than 20 horses were denied a start at a TAB meeting – even Eagle Farm or Doomben – because there were insufficient jockeys available to ride them?

It wouldn’t be allowed to happen. But it has the last couple of weeks in the bush while the powers-that-be continue to do nothing about it and are being accused of only caring about the big clubs, especially in the south-east corner.

Talk about a disgusting restriction of trade. When bush owners buy southern cast-off to continue their careers in the outback, those sales should come with a warning – ‘You are not guaranteed a start because we don’t have enough jockeys to ride at outback meetings.’

The Stewards Report for Julia Creek last Saturday reveals an amazing 27 horses (a few of these dual acceptors) were denied starts in five races because ‘no rider was available or willing to ride.’

On Saturday, November 1, at Cloncurry, another 21 horses were scratched because no riders were available. This could have been avoided if the meeting had been transferred to the next day (Sunday) to avoid a clash with Barcaldine but the rocket-scientists at RQ did not head down that track without any explanation.

Greg Blanchard, of the Gold Coast, has for years highlighted the need for Asian apprentices to come to Queensland to alleviate this problem like happens in South Australia and New Zealand. But RQ has failed to take the necessary steps to sidestep the bureacracy.

LGHR believes the LNP Government should intervene where Labor wasn’t prepared to with Racing Minister Grace Grace seemingly more interested in a new Members’ Grandstand at Eagle Farm and getting right the then basket case that was the new multi-million dollar Gold Coast track.

There’s no point boosting prizemoney for the bush if there aren’t sufficient jockeys to ride horses that want to start. It costs owners in the outback just as much to have their investments trained. What’s the point if when they are ready to race, they can’t?

Why not get Billy Slater – an idol of so many young kids because of his rugby league heroics – to lead a campaign for youngsters to become apprentices in the outback. Most would be aware of Billy’s recent riding skills when he did the track interviews on horseback for the Nine Network with winners during Cup week.

There has to be a host of young men and women (they are quickly becoming the strength of the riding ranks throughout the country) – not to mention indigenous kids who would be keen to pursue a career in racing – all that is needed is some incentive.

Perhaps this will be addressed in the soon to be released recommendations of the Racing Review. It’s time Racing Minister Mander instructed RQ to get off their backsides and do something about this problem or to appoint someone with the skills to ensure it happens.

 

ALL RQ IS INTERESTED IN IS FOCUSING ON THE SUMMER CARNIVAL

LACK of jockeys to ride horses in the bush won’t be on the agenda when Racing Queensland ramps up promotion of another Summer Carnival which moves into full swing this weekend.

It actually had a low-key start with the running of the Listed Keith Noud at Doomben last Saturday. Spare LGHR some self-indulgence paying tribute to one of the great Turf Editors and race-callers of yesteryear in Queensland.

After having the privilege of working for ‘Mr Noud’ at the Brisbane Telegraph, let me tell you he had more ethics in his little toe than one of those who succeeded him at The Courier-Mail that shall remain nameless.

Keith had a close association with the Brisbane Turf Club but never would he attempt to influence any criticism of them of administrators or reports on controversies in racing – which his son-in-law Rod Gallegos was famous for.

Unlike one of his high profile successors you didn’t run the risk of being rail-roaded to court coverage if you weren’t his flavour of politics, or being sacked for daring to call Eagle Farm a ‘goat track’ when it was in need of repair and you wouldn’t see him scampering from the jockeys’ room to the bookies ring with important messages.

The promotional blurb on the RQ website informs us that:

The 2025/26 Summer Carnival is set to deliver almost $20 million in prize money and bonuses, across 10 thrilling race meetings featuring Australia’s best thoroughbred racing talent.

It all gets underway on November 22 with the Mooloolaba Cup at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club, before the Tattersall's Listed Recognition Stakes and Tattersall’s Classic take centre stage at Doomben seven days later – kicking off six weeks of thoroughbred racing at the Brisbane Racing Club.

The Group 3 George Moore Stakes will feature some of the state’s top sprinters on December 6, alongside the Listed Phelan Ready for two-year-olds on a Magic Millions path.

The Gateway is back and bigger than ever, and once again open to both three and four-year-olds, offering an all-important ticket to the $3 million The Star Stradbroke Handicap.

The three-year-old staying programme has become a mainstay of the Summer Carnival, with Group 1 champions in recent years including the NZ thoroughbred horse Kovalica and Gypsy Goddess having emerged through the Group 3 Grand Prix Stakes – to be held on December 20. 

On the Gold Coast, racing under lights will again be showcased as part of the Summer Carnival on December 19, which will host a $250,000 edition of Magic Millions The Debut, open to unraced two-year-old colts, geldings and fillies.

The reshaped twilight Magic Millions Gold Race Day on January 10 will feature the second running of the $3 million TAB Magic Millions Sunlight (3YO) slot race, before the iconic Magic Millions Race Day on January 17 wraps things up, with $13.25 million in prize money across its 10-race line-up.

STANDBY for another serving of Magic Millions propaganda from our wonderful mainstream media without mentioning that the biggest beneficiaries are one of Australia’s richest men and the company he runs. It’s that time when the pollies, the media and the who’s who of racing prepare for their annual dose of ‘noses in the trough’ Surfers-style.

 

WILL FORMER RQ CHAIRMAN FRONT THE AGM TO ANSWER CONTENTIOUS QUESTIONS - OR DESERT RACING'S TITANIC?

WILL long-serving and recently retired Racing Queensland Chairman Steve Wilson front the Annual General Meeting of the control body tomorrow (Wednesday) to answer some contentious questions arising from the past 12 months?

Not likely say many in the industry where feelings are mixed on just how good a job Mr Wilson did during his tenure as the boss and what state he leaves the three codes of racing in.

Here’s the picture that the RQ Annual Report, tabled in Parliament recently, paints:

Highlights include:

• A $34.4 million parent profit versus a $25.9 million parent loss in FY24;
• Total revenue marginally declining to $460.4 million, which represents a 0.7% decrease from $463.9 million in FY24; and 
• A slight decrease in payments to participants from $388.4 million to $368.9 million due to wet weather accounting for twice the typical abandonments.

Wagering turnover declined 9.3% year-on-year from $6.1 billion to $5.6 billion.

As a $2.5 billion economic heavyweight, almost 14,500 Queenslanders now make a full-time living in the racing industry, with close to 50,000 people actively involved across the three codes.

 

‘EXCELLENT BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR BUT MANY AT THE COALFACE BELIEVE WILSON FAILED MISERABLY IN RACING TOP JOB?’ 

STEVE Wilson, the longest serving Chairman of RQ, decided to retire from the start of this month – many believe escaping the axe that awaits the current Board once the Racing Review has been released (whenever that may be – they say by Christmas but didn’t mention which year).

He might be one of Brisbane’s leading businessmen but in the eyes of many those achievements have not translated to the basket case that is racing in Queensland since his appointment by then Racing Minister Grace Grace in what was regarded a quid pro quo arrangement which saw her appointed by him to Boards at Southbank.

Here’s how one high profile racing identity summed up Steve Wilson’s achievements as Chair of RQ:

‘SOME of the ‘who’s who’ of racing assembled at Eagle Farm recently to farewell the Chair of Racing Queensland, Mr Steve Wilson – they had to be kidding. In the financial business world Mr Wilson has excelled but as a racing administrator one could argue that he has failed miserably.

Just look at the series of stuff-ups while he was RQ Chairman – racetrack issues around the State from Eagle Farm, Gold Coast, Townsville, Charleville and Bundaberg. Who paid for those – one assumes the industry.

Confidence in harness racing is at rock-bottom as evidence by turnover figures. And now there is uncertainty over where the HQ of the code is heading - surely it's not going to be relocated to Toowoomba?

And the worse disaster was the latest, the supposed world class greyhound venue, The Q. How many extra millions of dollars did that cost the industry under his tenure.

What did Mr Wilson do about the behind-the-scenes situation at the Brisbane Racing Club – next to nothing. Yet he was one of the first made aware, back in August 2024, of the abrupt departure of the CEO of the BRC followed by that soon after of a very reputable Board Director.

Minutes of the 2023-24 BRC AGM were finally released to Members (close to a year after these should have been) and revealed that an NDA was involved in those contentious departures. It is not a good look when RQ, under the guidance of Mr Wilson, were aware of this NDA and did nothing to explain to the industry what it involved.

Gone are the days when people gave their all in a voluntary capacity (Chair of RQ is certainly not voluntary but well paid) and would just fade off into the sunset knowing they had done a good job without any fancy farewells. The back-slapping that seems to occur in certain racing circles in Queensland is finger down the throat stuff.

LGHR has no argument with the achievements of Steve Wilson in the business community but when it comes to racing o a specialized area like horse racing it’s hard to turn a pig’s ear into a sow’s purse.

Anyone who followed the theatrics of the out-going Chairman in side-stepping Board requirements to instruct the BRC to release a copy of its 2023-24 AGM Minutes would liken it to ‘Mr Wilson and Denis the Menace, aka Wally Gleeson). If it wasn’t so serious it would be funny.

 

WHAT DOES FUTURE HOLD FOR RQ, RACING REVIEW KEY TO PLANNED CHANGES - PROMISED RELEASE BY CHRISTMAS, BUT WHAT YEAR?

THE question being asked by many close to the coalface is whether this will be the last AGM of Racing Queensland in its current form?

There will definitely be major changes and there needs to be with the current Board appointed by Labor Minister Grace Grace still running the show over a year since the new LNP Government came to power.

Those close to LNP Racing Minister Tim Mander insist it was never his intention to name a new Board (or similar body to run racing in Queensland) until after the Racing Review had been completed and its recommendations released but he expected that to have happened by now.

It had to be unexpectedly postponed because of reported disagreements in Cabinet. Those apparently involved plans to reduce the Point Of Consumption Tax from 20 to 15 per cent which would provide a ‘multi-million gift’ to corporate bookies.

The delay is also said to have something to do with whether the industry and taxpayers will foot the bill for a new Grandstand at Eagle Farm to replace one that has been condemned. Problem there is the stand is currently used exclusively by a few thousand privileged Members and some MP’s and the industry in general believe if the BRC does not fund it themselves this sort of investment has to include public use as well.

IN the eyes of many long-time observers racing has got bogged down in recent years by:

Former Labor Minister Grace Grace being too close to high profile Directors of the BRC.

Racing Minister Tim Mander procrastinating for too long in replacing a Labor-appointed RQ Board that many believe were still taking their orders from Grace Grace.

The questions remain: Can Labor afford to cost the industry hundreds of millions in revenue from POC Tax (to advantage corporate bookies who many despise) when the State needs millions for hospitals, roads, schools etc. And where is that lost revenue going to come from when it is needed to boost prizemoney?

The last thing Queensland racing needs is a return to the era of the ‘Two Dicko’s’ – as they were labelled back then, Minister Steve Dickson (he was the bloke that promised within a year the Sunshine State would be a furlong in front of NSW and Victoria when it came to racing) and RQ Chairman Kevin Dixon (the least said about his term at the top the better and surely the stories of Tim Mander listening to him about the industry heading forward are simply ‘mischief-making’).

If it is the plan of the LNP to replace the RQ Board, here’s a thought. What about a body with an MP at the helm – someone like Ray Stevens, who should have been Racing Minister but for internal politics?

Imagine racing in Queensland run by Stevens with former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk as his First Lieutenant. In their hands there is only one direction the industry can head – and that’s forward!   

 

SHEZA ALIBI – ONE OF MANY SUCCESS STORIES OF SPRING CARNIVAL

WHO would have thought when SHEZA ALIBI was beaten on debut at Rockhampton in April that seven months later she would emerge as one of the star fillies of the Victorian Spring Carnival?

And don’t think it has purely been the expertise of Peter Moody-Katherine Coleman that has solely paved the way for her success story. Former jockey-turned trainer Kris Hansen – based in Rocky – played a major role.

Hansen trains a number of horses for Central Queensland grazier Fred Noffke, who bought the Saxon Warrior filly on-line as a weanling. After her defeat on debut Sheza Alibi went on to win a Rockhampton Maiden and then a Two-Year-Old Classic in Townsville.

Aware of her ability from the early days, Hansen headed to the Winter Carnival in Brisbane where Sheza Alibi ran second in the Listed Tattersall’s Classic in June. She sat three wide in that race and was beaten by Autumn Boy, the Chris Waller-trained son of The Autumn Son. He has now won three of five starts, earnt more than $2mn in stakes, his latest success in the G1 Caulfield Guineas. 

In case you’re interested Universal Harmony, the former Victorian that beat Sheza Alibi on debut in Rockhampton, has now had 17 starts for three wins and eight placings – two successes in Rocky and one in Mackay.

At her first start for the Moody-Coleman team, Sheza Alibi ran third to the brilliant Tentyris in the Listed Gothic Stakes at Caulfield then went on to win the G3 The Vanity at Flemington and last Saturday the G2 Sandown Guineas at Caulfield in a canter taking her earnings past the $500,000 mark.

"That was pretty painless," Coleman commented after the Sandown Guineas. "She was put in a beautiful spot from that draw by Luke Nolen and when that gap opened, didn't she take it well."

Moody is no stranger to star fillies and confirmed that the Autumn will be Sheza Alibi's oyster, with Group 1 options in both Sydney and Melbourne. "I don't think we'll have too much trouble finding a nice race for her.

"She'll be back at Flemington in the Autumn in something like the Australian Guineas because outside of her old adversary Autumn Boy, you're probably not going to hide from the rest."

Original trainer Kris Hansen is the son of long-time CQ conditioner Kevin and has followed in his father’s footsteps into the training ranks over the last few years. 

A former jockey, Kris started his apprenticeship under his father decades ago when the family was based at Ipswich. Like many young apprentices, he battled with his weight when he first started riding and only lasted around nine months in the saddle.

After stepping away from riding, Hansen completed an extensive ‘apprenticeship’ in stables around the world, gaining knowledge before he went out on his own.

He spent more than a decade at the Gold Coast with the Guy family and Gillian Heinrich, worked for John Hawkes, as well as heading over to ride in Singapore for a period of time.

 

CARNIVAL SAVED BEST FOR LAST WITH RACING’S LATEST SUPERSTAR 

DESPITE the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup success story of Half Yours and the Cox Plate-Champion Stakes double of Via Sistina, one could argue they save the best for last at the Spring Carnival.

Jimmysstar built on his already enormous fan base of punters with an enormous win in the G1 C F Orr Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday beating no slouch in promising filly Angel Capital. It was Group 1 win No 60 for trainer Ciaron Maher.

Since his luckless third to Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising in The Everest, ‘Jimmy’ has won the Russell Balding at Randwick and now the Orr taking his record to 11 wins and seven placings from 23 starts for $6.7 million in stakes.

Sydney could be calling Jimmysstar again in the autumn, with the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes on the agenda before another The Everest tilt next spring.

“He’s earned a breather now … it’ll all probably be centred around The Everest next year,” Maher said. “A race like the TJ Smith probably suits him down to the ground.”

Maher and ‘Jimmy’ shared the spotlight after the last G1 of the season with the rising star of the riding ranks in Australia, Ethan Brown, who many are predicting will be the best in the land in five years’ time.

“I knew I was on the best horse and I believed I was on the best horse so I rode him accordingly,” Brown said. “He began really well. I thought halfway up the hill ‘woo boy, come back’.

“Once that rush came across he relaxed beautifully in what was a good tempo. When they came up for air a bit down the side, then quickened I just had to be on top of that. He does hit a flat spot.

“He sort of felt Angel Capital there and I think that helped him and off he went. He gives me such an amazing feeling … he’s such a good horse.”

 

TEN LESSONS OF SPRING RACING - A GOOD READ 

FAIRFAX MEDIA has produced 10 LESSONS of the SPRING which we felt were worth republishing:

1. MICHELLE PAYNE WAS RIGHT - WOMEN RULE 

JAMIE Melham would own the quote of the spring, if only it were fit to print in full.

When asked for a defiant Payne-type line after becoming the first woman to ride the winner of the Caulfield Cup, Melham warned her feedback was not fit for public consumption.

“What I want to say can’t go on camera,” Melham said. “I would say, ‘they can all get …,’ and it would start with an F.”

The “they” she was referring to were the chauvinists who once dominated the sport and preferred it when women did not ride.

But Melham proved beyond doubt that women owned the spring. She doubled down on her historic Caulfield achievement by winning the Melbourne Cup – the first female to land the double.

2 JAMIE'S SUSPENSION COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED 

SOME of the shine was taken off Jamie Melham’s mountain-climbing spring after she was suspended from riding for a month. Her careless riding offence happened two races after the Cup.

But the incident could have been avoided. Instead of allowing her horse to shift out, causing fellow hoop Blake Shinn to fall and break his leg, she should have been allowed to sit in the stands.

It is time for racing to introduce a Cup Day sub. That way, the jockey who wins our great race can take time out to soak up their incredible achievements.

By contrast, Melham was thrust into a no-win situation.

Because of her status and the historic nature of her Melbourne Cup victory, the superstar hoop was in huge demand from media outlets immediately after the race. She was elated and emotionally drained.

3 IF YOU CENSOR FOOTAGE, YOU CENSOR THE TRUTH

BLAKE Shinn’s unfortunate fall in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes was all but erased from history.

Soon after the incident, Racing Victoria’s media arm, Racing.com, deleted the footage from the replay.

But such censorship is not uncommon. The industry has a long-standing policy to remove “distressing” incidents from its archives.

Unfortunately, the practice also removes transparency. Which is not to suggest stewards erred in their call on Melham. They didn’t. Existing Nine footage from Cup week shows that her actions were careless.

4 RACING NEEDS TO BE LOVED - TOO MUCH 

THE industry’s mass fawning over the Racing Blogger during Cup week was understandable – because the guy was genuinely appealing – but also a little nauseating.

Haven’t heard of the Racing Blogger? Then you’ve been sucked into a social media black hole.

In real life he is known as Stephen R Power, a content producer from the UK who posts his work all over X – the site formerly known as Twitter.

He was sponsored by Racing Victoria to spend two weeks in Melbourne this spring and did a fine job of encapsulating all that is good about our sport, beaming out his content to his 223,800 followers.

But he also exposed our unhealthy desperation for the outside world’s approval. Or anyone’s approval.

Because if the Racing Blogger is the future of all media coverage, as some have trumpeted during the carnival, then we are in a lot of trouble.

5 THE AFL DOES NOT NEED TO BE LOVED

THE racing crowd had barely shuffled out of Flemington on Champions Day when footy dropped news of its controversial wildcard round.

Fan reaction was swift and harsh.

The footy public, ex-players and media commentators were quick to accuse the AFL of introducing a new finals system that was a blatant cash grab and rewarded mediocrity.

But, sadly for racing, the blowback meant the AFL had also snatched back the news cycle.

6 THERE IS LIFE AFTER 'KANGA'

A number of things happened at Caulfield Racecourse after Kanga’s shock MRC resignation in early October, on the eve of the club’s Caulfield Cup carnival.

There had been upheaval around the club for months, including the departure of key figures at the top.

But come Caulfield Cup week, crowds flocked to the track.

Beers were poured, hot chips served and bets placed.

Horses paraded in the new (old) mounting yard in front of the members’ grandstand.

7 THERE IS LIFE AFTER JAMES CUMMINGS 

FOR the first spring carnival in a gazillion years, there were no Cummings horses running in Melbourne.

As sad as it was, the carnival rolled on regardless.

While James Cummings was preparing for his new life in Hong Kong, his former employer, Godolphin, was getting on with business, celebrating several big winners with their new public-trainer model.

The Blue Army dominated Derby Day, winning the group 1 Victoria Derby with the Ciaron Maher-trained Observer and the group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes with the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Tentyris.

8 WHIP RULE NEEDS MORE CLARITY 

IT is against the rules of Australian racing for a jockey to use the whip on a horse more than five times before the final 100m of a race.

But the penalties for enforcing this rule continue to cause confusion.

Chad Schofield was fined $35,000 and suspended for 11 race meetings for using his whip nine times – four more than permitted – when winning the $3 million group 1 champions mile on Ceolwulf.

But Ceolwulf was allowed to keep the race, despite beating Pericles by a nose.

Here in lies the problem – it is highly unlikely that Ceolwulf would have won the Champions Mile if Schofield did not show a blatant disregard for the whip rule. By rights, he should have lost the race, a decision that would have cost connections $1.26 million in prizemoney.

But leaving such a judgment up to stewards on a race day is unfair. It is time for Racing Australia to remove all conjecture and make it a hard and fast rule: three more strikes than allowed, and you’re out.

9 TIME TO SCRAP THE QUADDIE SUB 

FOR too many years the TAB’s quaddie sub rule has let punters down.

It happened again on Champions Day at Flemington when Tentyris was scratched at the barriers.

Instead of quaddie punters getting their money back, the TAB automatically replaced Tentyris on betting tickets with race favourite Joliestar. This has been a longstanding, and unpopular, practice.

Joliestar finished third and punters did their dough.

10 GERARD WHATELEY WAS WRONG

ARE we allowed to say that in Melbourne?

Of course we are. He might be the country’s preeminent sport broadcaster, but he is also human like the rest of us.

Whateley opened the sentimental floodgates in the days after this year’s Cox Plate, declaring he was heartbroken by Moonee Valley Racing club’s decision to rip up its famous velodrome-like track.

The crestfallen, and slightly peeved, commentator called the planned redevelopment madness and sporting vandalism, and a decision that “sacrificed racing at the altar of commerce”.

But that’s just one man’s opinion.

 

HARNESS RACING LEGEND LOST – DEATH OF ‘GINGER’ MANZELMANN 

WE finish today’s offering with some sad news, relayed via our good mate, former bookie extraordinaire, Gary Gorrie, now living the high life in Phuket.

Gary wants a legion of friends to know that a legend of harness racing in North Queensland – ‘Ginger’ Manzelmann – has passed away.

Gary wrote this small testimonial:

‘Ginger is of course, prominent Mackay trainer John Manzleman's dad. Theirs was the foundation family for Mackay harness racing for years.

Ginger, Jack Rix and Kevin Scharper, all top reinsmen, had some legendary clashes at the old showgrounds in Mackay.

When they closed down trotting in Mackay, Ginger put his resources behind his son, John, at the gallops and they have supplied many starters to meetings all over Queensland, especially in the country.'

INTERNATIONALS WARN CUP PRIZEMONEY NEEDS TO BE DOUBLED 

STRONG backlash from the international raiders after the Melbourne Cup carnival suggests they won’t be returning unless prizemoney for the big ‘two-miler’ is doubled to $20 million.

Far from happy with the protocols where visitors and locals are put under the veterinary microscope to avoid any likely breakdowns during the Cup, that will not stop them from coming.

But the prizemoney issue will and they have made that clear to Victorian racing officials in a post-mortem to a Cup which saw 10 internationals from six nations compete without success.

The other nightmare to emerge from the Spring Carnival is the need for collaboration between Victoria and NSW. International visitors have suggested that what a ‘pathetic’ governing body like Racing Australia has allowed to happen in this country would never by tolerated in the United Kingdom.

There are suggestions floating around that the Melbourne Cup should be moved to the ‘third Tuesday’ in November to dodge clashes, especially with the Breeders’ Cup in America.

LGHR believes that not only is a united industry of utmost importance but also the need of racing officials to recognise that the biggest challenge is sports betting which the younger generation seems to be more interested in than punting on the horses.

 

THUMBS DOWN TO THE RADIO CUP COVERAGE OF ‘RICHO & LIZZIE’ 

PLENTY of feed-back from armchair racing followers who watch the four days of the Melbourne Cup carnival coverage from their armchairs.

The general opinion was that the Nine Network did a wonderful coverage and there were plenty of bouquets for Francesca Cumani, Elly Mosley and tipster David Gately.

Punters weren’t as complimentary about the race morning broadcasts on Victorian radio hosted by Jason Richardson and Lizzie Jelfs. It seems that wherever he bobs up – be in the Seven Network TV coverage, Get On on racing.com and now this special Cup week radio special, Jason is struggling for fans.

And as for Lizzie, the general opinion is there is too much self-indulgence with listeners referring to her ownership interest in a Magic Million starter back in January and now a similar involvement in a starter in the Melbourne Cup. There is also a general opinion that she’s a ‘legend in her own lunch-time’ and is nowhere near as good a tipster as Elly Mosley on SKY and more recently on the Nine Cups coverage.

The general opinion is TV racing would be better off without these ‘talking heads’ and ‘promotional noddy’s’ representing a host of corporate bookies. It starts with Simon Marshall – you either like him or not – and ends with an endless crew of what some describe ‘capable of doing little more than reading out prices’.

 

‘LITTLE RESPONSE TO CONCERNS OVER CONCRETE SURFACE AT FARM’ 

THIS is an email from one of south-east Queensland’s prominent trainers. He doesn’t want to be identified and who would blame him after being so brave to make the comments that others are talking about in whispers.

‘I wonder if anyone is going to address the elephant in the room after last Saturday’s debacle of a concrete surface that they served up at Eagle Farm.

It’s not even summer time yet.

Hats off to Gary Doughty for putting horse welfare first after he walked the track and late scratched Rock Hard Love. Then four more trainers in the last pulled out too. It’s only a matter of time before the RSPCA steps in.

And isn’t a certain stable absolutely flying? Must be the luck of the Irish!’  

EDITOR’S NOTE: If the predicted Brisbane rain arrives in the next 48 hours there will be more chance of the meeting being called off than another ‘concrete’ surface.

 

RACEHORSES ARE LIKE GOLD: THE PRICE IS THE PRICE 

REGULAR contributor PETER MAIR of SYDNEY believes that when it comes to the price of racehorses currency exchange rates are irrelevant. He writes:

‘I sometimes have good reason to worry about our neighbours across the ditch and this extract from a story on The Straight explains why.

Anyone initially responding favourably to this ‘encouragement’ to buy a horse should stay at home.

NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook told The Straight that the exchange rate between the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar, made this sale even more compelling for overseas investors.

“The New Zealand dollar against the Aussie is the lowest in 12 years, so the New Zealand dollar is very weak,” Seabrook said.

“The New Zealand dollar is 86 Australian cents. That’s the lowest it’s been in 12 years, so it makes our horses better value than ever. 

‘Against the US dollar, we’re 56 cents, so it’s great for our export sales, having such a weak dollar, because a lot of the overseas buyers just look at that bid board. They don’t look at the New Zealand currency, they look at their respective currency. 

“That’s going to help, for sure.”

I do not think so.’

 

CHARTERS TOWRS TRACK REDEVELOPMENT ‘ANOTHER RQ DEBACLE’? 

HERE’S another email with the writer concerned about happenings in outback racing. He writes:

‘I feel it would be revealing if you could shed some light on the ongoing fiasco basket case that is the Charters Towers racetrack.

Large amounts of money spent on a redevelopment of the track several years ago and I think they held one or two races on it before the meeting was called off and they have never raced again there.

The Racing Queensland website this week confirmed that the 29 November meeting ‘has been cancelled’.

....that's it, no explanation but I guess everyone knows the reason. This must surely be RQ’s most unsuccessful project (yes, big call) and zero prognosis of where it is going.’

 

 

SHOULD STEWARDS HAVE RELEGATED CEOLWULF - WOULD HE HAVE WON CHAMPIONS MILE WITHOUT EXCESSIVE USE OF THE WHIP? 

THE downside of the Victorian Spring Carnival has been Stewards allowing top jockeys to make a mockery of the whip rules.

One could argue that if they were doing their job policing the sport then Ceolwulf should have been disqualified after his win in the $3 million Champions Mile.

But once again no high profile Steward in the country seems to have the balls to implement the Rules to the letter of the law and take the fall-back option of heavily penalising the winning rider.

Jockey Chad Schofield copped a massive $35,000 fine for overuse of the whip during his winning ride on Ceolwulf – hitting his horse four more times than allowed. Five is the limit for jockeys before their horse reaches the final 100m.

Even FAIRFAX MEDIA posed the question that many stakeholders and punters are posing: The fine is fair enough, but should Schofield have lost the race?

Ceolwulf beat home Pericles by a nose, so a compelling case can be made that Ceolwulf would not have won had Schofield not urged him forward by overusing the whip.

But, realistically, for Schofield to have lost the race, Racing Victoria stewards would have had to launch their own protest, hear their own protest and then make a decision. It is confusing stuff.

Plus, to do so would have created serious ramifications.

Relegating Ceolwulf from first to second would have cost his connections $1.26 million in prize money. Not sure they would have taken that lying down. There’s a fair chance they would have appealed such a decision to the Victorian Racing Tribunal.

As for Pericles’ trainer, Bjorn Baker, he was typically laidback about it all on Sunday morning when contacted by The Age.

He said he had been too busy watching his own horses in the Champions Mile rather than watching the opposition.

 “It’s very easy in hindsight to say, ‘we could have, should have, would have’ (protested), but at the end of the day, it’s really up to the stewards to decide,” Baker said.

“I’m not too sure how much of an impact it could have had. At the end of the day, both my horses went great, Stefi Magnetico, too, and you have got to look forward, not back. On the day they got beaten by the better horse.”

CEOWULF and SCHOFIELD have a love-hate relationship with punters. The horse seemed to lose a leg racing in Sydney before trainer Joe Pride added the blinkers and a couple of Schofield’s rides on the horse – one by his own admission – were very ordinary. In contrast he didn’t miss a beat on Saturday.

DAMIEN LANE, one of the best jockeys in the world, is another who has ridden shotgun with the whip rules during the Victorian Spring Carnival.

Back in September, Lane was suspended for 15 meetings for breaching the whip rules (using the persuader 10 times, five more than acceptable) when he rode Aeliana in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes. His suspension ended in early October.

It wasn’t the first time this year Lane had flirted with over-use of the whip. He suffered a two-week suspension and $10,000 fine after winning the Australian Oaks on star filly Treasurethe Moment.

The Victorian-based Lane was found to have struck Treasurethe Moment 10 times prior to the 100m, five more than permitted, while overall striking the filly 20 times, which stewards deemed excessive.

The previous weekend he was fined $750 for a similar offence aboard Belle Detelle in the Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes.

It seems the only way Stewards will get the message across to jockeys (who figure a fine and suspension weighs up against their percentage for winning a big race) is to relegate a winning horse in a big race and cop the consequences. If they don’t the animal liberationists will continue to take a ‘free hit’ at the expense of horse racing.

 

 

'UP YOURS' TO ON-COURSE RJC PUNTERS WANTING CUP DAY TAB BET 

FEW racing and media identities have contributed more to the industry in Central Queensland than Tony McMahon.

Although Tony hasn’t been in the best of health for some time, LGHR was pleased to see he was still writing ‘An Occasional Column’ and we’re sure Ray See who runs the popular Racing around Queensland Facebook Page won’t mind us republishing it:                

By Tony McMahon

AS we all know it is hard to win in this game. However, on Tuesday I encountered another form of losing which I must confess was to say the very least most unusual.

A lady (well I thought she was) asked me for my tip in the Melbourne Cup. ‘Half Yours’, to which she left me dumb-founded with her instant reply: Well ‘up yours’ too if that’s the way you feel, you rude bastard. ‘After all, I only asked you for a tip’.

It was a case of me being the loser despite tipping a winner. As is said, ‘that’s racing’ but I just had to share it with you as it is golden. What do you think?

Before I forget, some interesting reading in the Stewards’ Report from the Rockhampton Jockey Club race meeting on Tuesday. I am not needling you into reading it, but I think it will inject some interest into your day or night.

I rarely attend a RJC race meeting at Callaghan Park these days as I seem to be the ‘go to person’ for complaints. Believe me I get plenty. It’s sad as I’ve been involved professionally with racing in Rockhampton for 37 years and until the last three, Callaghan Park was my home away from home.

Anyhow what would I know? Without exaggerating, more times than not wherever I go in Rockhampton someone comes up to me and asks: ‘What’s going on over there (Callaghan Park)’ and believe me it is said in a derogatory manner.

On Melbourne Cup Day, Jean and I were invited to a private function by friends hosted by DCMotors in the Acton Stand and it was a credit to the firm and a delight to attend. No sooner had we gotten out of the Uber when a disgruntled friend and a very upset one at that outside the entrance gate came over to me.

It was about 11.45am: “Tony what’s wrong with this place. There is no-TAB terminal operating here today. I’m leaving and going straight over to a club. I can’t believe it,” he said, to which I replied “Neither can I”.

He was the first of quite a few people who sourced me out with similar tales of disappointment and disbelief about no tote on Melbourne Cup Day.

Actually, I book-ended the card as while waiting for another Uber to leave Callaghan Park at about 6pm at the same entrance gate another very disappointed friend also told me a similar tale of bewilderment and woe about the RJC having not catered for small, shall we say the little once a year punters and many bigger ones on Melbourne Cup Day with a TAB tote terminal or terminals being in operation. After-all, not everyone has a TAB betting account or a mobile phone, he rightly told me.

Naturally, on Wednesday I sought a written explanation from RJC CEO David Aldred and here is his reply:

“RJC is a TAB track and our service agreement is for our TAB race days only. Not non-TAB as you are aware Melbourne Cup Day is extremely busy TAB Australia wide.

We advertised the race day as a Non-TAB race meeting with bookmakers betting only and clients booking for functions were informed.

We had three bookmakers operating who seemed to service the clientele betting only on track well”.

Interesting David as I didn’t know the three bookies concerned offered trifecta’s, multiples, etc and they didn’t.

David, with due respect I didn’t come down in the last shower and I don’t swallow your explanation about the bookies servicing the punters’ needs well.

Look, in a former life when I was younger and not the victim of stress related seizures and was the full time Racing Writer (dubbed by the late Lizard Lisle as ‘Stirrer’) for The Morning Bulletin when it was in its enlarged print form I would have delighted in taking David Aldred and the RJC to task. I would have had a field day with them.

I will say this. I find David’s explanation very strange and difficult to comprehend.

Because firstly Mackay Turf Club, which also conducted a non-TAB Melbourne Cup Day race meeting on Tuesday, had five (5) TAB tote terminals in operation.

When I informed MTC Club CEO Jo Hynes about Rochampton having none he was stunned. “I can’t believe that Tony. On Melbourne Cup Day you have to cater for the punters”, he said.

Further north, Townsville Turf Club also had a Non-TAB meeting and it had a TAB terminal in operation.

Read on!

The Mackay Turf Club’s biggest sponsor is the Corporate Bookmakers firm Ladbrokes.

According to the Rockhampton Jockey Club’s website one of its major sponsors is the TAB, if not the major sponsor.

That’s right wasn’t Nash Rawiller the TAB Rockhampton Winter Racing Carnival Ambassador this year?

This makes David’s explanation all the more intriguing.

Given the litany of betting agencies available these days to punters, I would have thought the TAB would have certainly allowed for a terminal at Callaghan Park to operate on Cup day despite it being a non-TAB affair.

Surely it would not have cost the RJC an arm and a leg and no matter it would have been a worthy public relations exercise.

David, I am not a man of your talents but I would suggest given your explanation you negotiate a new service agreement with the TAB so as in future if you again schedule a non- TAB meeting on Melbourne Cup Day the RJC can have tote terminals in operation.

Furthermore, I can’t help but wonder did the RJC contact the TAB about installing a terminal for Cup Day.

I even wonder was TAB aware that the RJC, which they sponsor, did not provide TAB facilities on Tuesday.

It’s a safe bet TAB definitely knows now.

Then again what would I know having only been professionally employed in racing all up for about 56 years?

As I said last week in a column ‘credit where credit is due’ when David Aldred was the recipient. Actually, I thought he may have acknowledged that publicly but racing journalism has taught me you mainly only get reaction to perceived criticism.

Anyhow, again hats off to David for his duty of care on Tuesday when he stepped in to broadcast two races over the public address at Callaghan Park. Once again, a few folk on course asked me why David called them wondering if Russel Leonard, who was calling the card, had come down unwell and was sick.

I must confess I was curious too and sought a response from David. He was surprised that I enquired but as I explained as club CEO it was, I thought unique. “No”, David said Russell (Leonard) was not sick but I (he) just stepped in to give him a rest”. Very honourable David after all it would have been a daunting task for the experienced Leonard to call nine races housing 53 starters officially over 5.10 hours and that’s not taking into account the delay!

 

TAKE A BOW ROBBIE KATTER FOR DOING THE JOB OF RACING MP'S 

AT last, a high profile politician with the balls to weigh into a racing debate without having any ties with the Racing Minister, his Shadow or Racing Queensland, all of whom are being accused of only caring about the south-east corner.

Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter, blasted the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission and Racing Queensland over the newly-introduced Hot Weather Policy which he says shows the lack of grass roots knowledge the ‘rocket scientists’ in the south possess of outback racing.

His comments followed the decision which forced last Saturday’s meetings at Barcaldine to be brought forward to 10am and Cloncurry to 11am. Now Robbie needs to get his teeth around why over 20 horses had to be scratched at Cloncurry and it had nothing to do with the hot weather.

Despite plenty of advance knowledge on this RQ sat on their hands instead of transferring Cloncurry to Sunday which would have freed up jockeys from Barcaldine to ride at both meetings. They either don’t know or don’t care. Whatever, the sooner Racing Minister Tim Mander puts the cleaners through some of these ‘non-events’ calling the shots at RQ the better.

LGHR has been told a new Board cannot replace the Labor appointed one until the recommendations of the delayed Racing Review are released which we are assured will be before Christmas.

Robbie Katter is spot on when he says the Heat Policy is ‘another example of the south-east dictating to the bush.’ While the silence of all things racing is deadening from the LNP and Labor, at least the Katter Party is providing a voice for the bush.

“You don't meet too many trainers who run their horses to the death in the heat,” Katter said. “The system works pretty well how it is. Trainers will try to do the right thing by their horses. Applying the same rule of one-size-fits-all around Queensland based on heat is absolutely ridiculous.

“Ask anyone who grew up in Brisbane all their life and moves out to Mount Isa (about the difference in heat). You get used to it out here.

“The focus is always on the south-east and we're just an after-thought. All too often, we're trying to pick up the pieces and fight just to get some sense and reason back here."

As one cynic suggested, it might be time for outback clubs to start applying for grants to install light towers for night racing. Good luck there. The powers-that-be are more interested in spending $200mn of industry and taxpayer funds building a new grandstand for a privileged few thousand Members for their ‘mates’ at the Brisbane Racing Club.

 

AT THE CURRENT RATE APHRC WILL BE FLAT BROKE IN THREE YEARS 

HARNESS racing in Queensland continues to lose support by the day and the latest turnover figures haven’t helped those wanting to sell up Albion Park, relocate HQ’s to back-of-Burke and spend the proceeds on the gallops and dogs which are paying their way.

It has just been revealed that for the second successive year the Albion Park Harness Racing Club has posted an annual loss of $750,000.

As Archie Butterfly, who makes no secret of his love for the sport, reported: The real problem that the Creek faces is its revenue base earned from wagering turnover is falling while its costs keep rising.

On his website, peterprofit.com, ‘The Butterfly’ points out that the APHRC still has $2.3mn in the bank. Two years ago it had $4.1mn. At this rate the club will be broke in three years’ time.

Good luck if those running the show are counting on a turnover boost considering the lack of confidence punters have in the on-course product. Running an Interdominion might help but the chain around the neck of Albion Park racing rests with regular Saturday nights which anyone who follows the sport closely will claim is a ‘joke’.

Here’s hoping when the new Chairman of Stewards gets his feet under the table that he dispenses with the failure to address the problem by those policing the sport for decades now.

Good place to start will be a few inquiries into these alleged ‘boat races’ we keep hearing are held on a weekly basis, haul in some drivers who are regarded as ‘untouchable’ and fire the bloke out of a cannon who is still said to be running the show from the sidelines.

 

‘OUTBACK FIGURES DON’T SUPPORT HEAT POLICY IMPLEMENTATION’ 

AFTER reading about the implementation of the Adverse Weather Policy to be introduced in Queensland, our regular contributor GREG BLANCHARD of the GOLD COAST, decided to check all Stewards’ Reports for the Far North West Region this year. Here’s what he found:

‘THE majority of veterinary comments were on the poor performances of horses – most with no obvious abnormalities while some were lame.

The only thing remotely close to adverse weather was at Mt Isa on April 26 when Gulf of Sidra was reported to be ‘mildly dehydrated’ but a vet examination failed to identify any significant abnormality.

The worst of the vet reports for all Stewards’ Reports that I checked was at McKinlay on June 21 when Execute, which faltered after the winning post, was found to have suffered a significant near foreleg injury and had to be humanly euthanized.’

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER RESPONDS TO YOUR INTEGRITY CONCERNS 

WE recently put a series of readers' questions to QRIC Deputy Commissioner Kim Kelly and here are his responses – what a breath of fresh air after the ‘goose’ that drove the Integrity body into the ground before shooting himself in the foot.

Here are the questions that LGHR had received from punters and stakeholders that we forwarded to QRIC with the answers from Kim Kelly:

In respect of your queries below, I can advise of the following: -

A week or so ago I received an email claiming there were only TWO STEWARDS on duty at a Sunshine Coast meeting and complaining that they were run off their feet. I didn’t believe it so I published nothing.

Today I received this one concerning a race meeting at Atherton:

‘Four (4) full time stewards to cover 27 horses in five races at a Sunday Atherton non-TAB meeting seems excessive to me, noting double time also available to those full-time employees………justified? I think not.’

MR KELLY: I can confirm that a review of the rostering of Stewards for the Sunshine Coast Turf Club race meetings conducted between 5 September 2025 and 26 September 2025 (ten (10) individual race meetings) revealed that seven (7) of the race meetings involved the rostering of five (5) Stewards to service the meeting, whilst the remaining three (3) race meetings were serviced by six (6) Stewards.

In respect of the two (2) race meetings conducted by the Atherton Jockey Club during the same period (27 September 2025 and 26 October 2025), I have been informed that on both occasions four (4) Stewards serviced the meetings.

Irrespective of the actual figures for any of the aforementioned race meetings QRIC has an obligation to ensure that all race meetings, irrespective of the code of racing, are adequately serviced by Stewards, Compliance Assurance Team members, Veterinarians, Sample Collection Officers and the various supporting departments within the organization to ensure that the integrity of racing, the welfare of animals, and the health and safety of riders and participants is not compromised.

Re: LGHR received several emails blaming QRIC for continuing a vendetta when it comes to swabbing against (a trainer) in Toowoomba while ignoring how horses (which are racing extremely well) from a Brisbane stable seem to escape the same attention.

MR KELLY: I have previously publicly stated, and reinforce here, that QRIC employs an ‘anywhere, anytime’ policy in respect of its sampling strategy. I can also extend that out to ‘anywhere, anytime, anyone’ as the sampling strategy shows no fear or favor to any person who is subject to the Rules of Racing. The racing industry and public can be assured that QRIC will employ any measure available to ensure the Rules are complied with and that a level playing field is enjoyed in all codes of racing conducted in Queensland.

 

TRAINERS WANTING STABLING AT EAGLE FARM, ‘JACK’ OF BRC ‘SNUB’ 

SEVERAL trainers have contacted LGHR highlighting what must be the worst-kept secret in south-east Queensland racing.

It involves trainer Jack Bruce being allocated the barn at Eagle Farm that has become available with Annabel and Rob Archibald cutting back on numbers.

One trainer commented: ‘Story goes Bruce plans to shut down his Sunshine Coast base.

WTF goes on at the BRC – honestly?

Why doesn’t Queensland biggest club give off-course trainers a chance to at least apply for these stables like when the B J Smith barn came up for rent?’

ANOTHER trainer wrote:

‘THERE won’t be any off-course stables left in a few years and the BRC certainly don’t seem to be worried about what happens to the trainers occupying those now.

Why wouldn’t they give a barn to someone off-course rather than a trainer who is already established and up and running - not on one but two racecourses?

It’s a joke and only supports the belief of some that the BRC is only interested in helping ‘certain’ trainers.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: LGHR is happy to publish a response from the BRC to the above criticism. Even if you got ‘Manuel’ to oversee a spin-doctoring response by ‘Big Ben’ Dorries in The Courier-Mail or on Racenet, stakeholders might get an idea of what is happening behind the scenes.  

 

 

FAST FORWARD A FEW DECADES & IT MIGHT BE MALE JOCKEYS MAKING NEWS WHEN THEY END MELBOURNE CUP DOMINATION OF LADY RIDERS 

JAMIE MELHAM became only the second female to ride the Melbourne Cup winner but as silly as it sounds in a few decades time it could well be a newsworthy event if a male was to salute in the big two-miler.

Such is the increasing involvement of women in racing that it’s only a matter of time before they dominate the riding ranks. In fact it is already happening in Brisbane where last season two outstanding young ladies fought out the jockeys’ premiership.

Michelle Payne broke the glass ceiling with her win on Prince of Penzance in the Melbourne Cup. A decade later she was the first lining up to congratulate Jamie Kah in not only emulating her feat but also becoming the first woman to ride the Caulfield – Melbourne Cup double.

Ironically, there was plenty of irony and some sadness behind her success on Half Yours, a horse bred by the late Col McKenna, who died a year ago, with the aim of winning a Jericho Cup, run in memory of the great Bill The Bastard of World War 1 legend.

So much for those who thought Half Yours was a doubt at the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup – the Jericho is over 4000m. Sadly McKenna never got to see the horse he bred win the big Cups double.

His wife Janice, who decided to cull the big number of horses Col had in work, consulted part-owner, trainer Ciaron Maher and decided to sell Half Yours. Calvin McEvoy, co-trainer and son of Tony, had his sights set on buying the five-year-old and it proved a career-defining decision.

Melham wore on her vest a badge belonging to her grandfather who died recently and those who believe in miracles insist he steered her safely along the rails, dodging the tiring Land Legend to snatch a runaway win from the Irish invader Goodie Two Shoes and the Maher-trained Middle Earth.

Whether it was a sour and sour result for Victoria’s leading trainer, being overhauled by the horse he once prepared for his mentor McKenna, the stable enjoyed a major consolation prize saddling up the trifecta in the $3 million Listed Big Dance at Randwick when Gringotts beat Vivy Air and Lugh, winning the race for the second successive year.

Champion trainer Chris Waller gang-tackled the Melbourne Cup but the best result for his stable came from River Of Stars which ran fourth. For the remainder it was a train-wreck. Stewards reported:

BUCKAROO: Slow to begin. Eased down from the 300m. A post-race endoscopy of Buckaroo detected a degree of internal exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage that may have affected the gelding's racing performance. A veterinary clearance will be required prior to racing again.

LAND LEGEND: Slow to begin. Raced keenly in the early stages when racing wide without cover. Near the 2000m was allowed to stride forward before obtaining the lead near the 1700m. Rider Joao Moreira explained after being fractious in the barriers, Land Legend over-raced through the early stages. Moreira added that despite his best efforts to ease in an endeavour to have the gelding settle, Land Legend continued to over-race and for this reason he allowed the gelding to stride forward. Moreira further added that Land Legend never settled at any stage and as a result weakened in the straight. A post-race veterinary examination did not reveal any significant findings. Stable representative Charlie Duckworth advised that Land Legend would now be spelled.

VALIANT KING: Rider Jye McNeil pleaded guilty to a charge of careless riding under the provisions of AR 131(a), in that near the 2600m he rode his mount in, resulting in Presage Nocturne (IRE) and Vauban (FR) racing unnecessarily tight for some distance. McNeil had his licence to ride in races suspended for 18 race meetings, with the period to commence on Friday 7 November 2025 and expire on Sunday 23 November 2025. Accordingly, McNeil will be able to return to ride on Monday 24 November 2025. In assessing penalty, account was taken of his guilty plea, good record, that it was a Group 1 event, the Feature Race Penalty Guidelines and that the incident was in the mid-range.

Stewards reported that German visitor PRESAGE NOCTURE, heavily-backed into favouritism for the Cup, raced in restricted room near the 2600m between Vauban and Valiant King (Jye McNeil) which shifted in. Rider Stephane Pasquier reported that his mount raced tight inside Valiant King in the early stages and he felt the horse did not appreciate racing in restricted room. Pasquier added he was of the view this was the primary reason Presage Nocturne did not finish its race off. A post-race veterinary examination did not reveal any significant findings.

 

BORN LOSER OR BORN TO LOVE A PUNT – LGHR IS NO MARK TWAIN BUT SPARE THE SELF INDULGENCE OF WHY TUESDAY IS SO SPECIAL 

MOST of us remember where we were at a time in our lives when something that shocked the world occurred. Older ones will never forget the day that Man Landed on the Moon or the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas.

For others it might be the tragic car cash in Paris that claimed the life of Princess Diana. Very few – old or young – will ever forget those horrifying images of terrorists flying passenger jets into the Twin Towers in New York.

For those of us who love horse racing have you ever stopped to think how and when you got involved and the circumstances surrounding that first time you had a bet or the first Melbourne Cup you can remember?

For some an experiment with the punt might have been at an early age like that first cigarette in the toilet cubicle at school. For those who enjoyed the exhilaration of watching a winner they had backed charge across the line for the first time it was probably a defining moment.

It set the scene for them to chase that elusive winner for the rest of their lives. For many of us punting on the horses has become a weekly ritual. For others it might just be an event restricted to special occasions, like the Melbourne Cup.

Whatever your choice I sincerely hope that the punt is a leisure pursuit you have grown to enjoy over the years – like I have – and not an addictive habit that has affected the way you and your family live. Having said that, you would arguably have to be very un-Australian not to have a bet on Tuesday.

For me that first punting experience was unforgettable. It occurred while I was at boarding school. My best mate’s older brother was a no-nonsense prefect and a champion athlete but he also secretly doubled as the SP bookie at Melbourne Cup time. Not that it was a great secret to some of the teachers who were known to have a bet with him.

I grew up in a family that frowned on gambling. I would tell my friends that my dad was a Captain in the Army. I bent the truth a bit – as he was actually in the Salvation Army. While I was at boarding school he and mum were overseas fighting the war against hunger and poverty in Third World countries. The closest they ever got to punting or punters was distributing copies of The War Cry in the local pub of a Friday night or standing outside the track after the last on a Saturday with a collection box in hand. To think that I would actually be betting on a horse, while still at school, would have horrified them.

On leaving school I pursued a career in newspaper journalism. Don’t ask me why but I blame it on watching too many Superman episodes as a kid – Clark Kent in the telephone box then flying around with Lois Lane under his arm really got to me. Pity I hadn't read the rules of sexual harassment as I got further down the track. No longer was it fair to put the hard word on the barmaid after footy training or try to up end the young female cadet on the carpet in the editor's office after the boss had retired for the day. Political correctness is such it pays not to even have a good perve these days. 

During my cadetship the ageing editor and owner of the newspaper where I worked in a large country town turned out to be a passionate follower of racing. He was a former war correspondent who loved nothing more these many years later than to take his old typewriter to the track every Saturday and cover the local races. We hadn't heard of computers or mobile phones in those days - not to mention race replays or SKY.

I was soon seconded to tag along and chase up the results and betting details for him. I met a lot of wonderful racing characters and it wasn’t long before his passion for a small punt soon rubbed off on me. My love affair with horse racing and the punt had begun.

Unfortunately, it was not greeted too warmly on the home front where my folks had grandiose ideas of me becoming a communications officer for the Salvation Army. I remember when Uncle Marty – a big jovial man who played in the Army band – came to join us for Christmas dinner one year. What he didn’t know is that I used to watch him every Sunday night – from the second floor window of the newspaper office where I worked. We would look down on the main street as the Salvation Army band marched proudly along. There was Uncle Marty in the back row beating the big drum with a greyhound bus right up his clacker and the driver high in the irons, slowed to a walk, as he waited impatiently to get back off the main street which led onto the Highway.

That Christmas dinner the topic somehow turned to the evils of gambling and mother – God bless her soul – mentioned how I was now writing stories on horse racing. After a dressing down on the evils of gambling I made the mistake of suggesting that the Salvos didn’t mind taking the last few coins from down on their luck punters as they left the track. It was the last time Uncle Marty ever came to Christmas dinner. Don’t get me wrong I will always admire the great work the Salvos do. They are absolute Saints to a lot of down and out families.

But that little discussion got me to thinking how could the son of two people so hugely religious and so strongly against horse racing and gambling grow to love the punt so much. It wasn’t as though I was falling over drunk and gambling away my pay packet every week or didn’t have any other leisure pursuits. In fact the majority of my spare time in my teenage and early working years was taken up playing sport. Unfortunately that suffered a major setback when I started working in a newspaper as it involved a lot of night and weekend work and I couldn’t train or participate in team sport as often as I wanted.

WELL the mystery of my love affair with horse racing was finally solved early one fateful Sunday morning when I was in my early 20s, half asleep and hungover. I was awoken by a telephone call and the woman on the other end of the line said: “Is that you John? It’s your mum calling.”

Now I knew it wasn’t mum – she and dad were off on some mission in Africa. My first thought was that this was a practical joke from one of my mates. “I didn’t know they had phone boxes in the jungle,” I replied. She missed the point and went on to ask if I had been to church that morning and if I had been raised a Catholic. “Woo there, hold the phone old girl, what are you talking about?” Minutes later I was to realize that the folks who brought me up and I called ‘mum and dad’ had actually adopted me. Pity they forgot to mention it. On the other end of the phone was in fact the person who had given birth to me. She went on to explain that there hadn’t been a day in the 20 years since that she had not thought of me but legislation had only recently been introduced that allowed her to track me down. Pity those same legislators in their wisdom didn’t think to give me a bit of warning of the bombshell that lay ahead.

FROM the half hour conversation that followed – and the numerous intimate chats we subsequently had – I came to believe that I wasn’t the ‘born loser’ that the Salvationists were ready to suggest but in fact I had been born to punt. It turned out my conception was the result of a roll in the hay in a barn behind a bush dance held after a picnic race meeting that my mother had attended with her parents when she was home on holidays from boarding school. She was the daughter of a high profile sheep cocky and prominent member of that political party that I wouldn’t vote for to this day if my life depended on it. Back then, an almost 16-year-old daughter having a baby was frowned upon. But being Catholic, an abortion was out of the question – thank the Lord for that – and I was adopted out to a family that I have to say gave me everything a child could ever want and more love than one could ever imagine. They also - when finally confronted - had an understandable explanation for not telling me about my past.

BUT back to why I feel I was born to be a punter. It turned out that my mum’s parents raced horses – the reason for their attendance at the picnic meeting that fateful weekend. The guy who did the deed was in fact a cowboy and amateur jockey who had come to town to ride at both the rodeo and the races. Her parents no doubt felt it was a pity he didn’t refrain from completing a ‘riding hat-trick’ at least on that occasion. But from my point of view, whatever success that cowboy-cum-jockey enjoyed, I am forever grateful that he at least rode one winner – with all due respects to the problems it created for my mother’s pristine family. For me the phone call on that Sunday morning provided more answers than questions. At last I knew why I loved the races – or convinced myself that I did – a pleasure that I have pursued for my entire life and will continue to do until the day I die.

IT also explains why MELBOURNE CUP week has become my favourite. With all due respects to The Everest and what it has achieved bringing a lost generation back to the track, the iconic Flemington two-miler will always be the race that stops the nation. It’s arguably Australia’s only genuine, unaffected folk carnival. It’s a day when the richest and the poorest are drawn together by the flimsy excuse of a horse race.

It’s a day of extraordinary good humour, helped along by old-fashioned larrikinism and new-fashioned exhibitionism. It’s a day for toffs and show-offs, for winners and losers and, sadly, for many at the track just another reason to get drunk.

One of the ironies of the Cup is that many of the 100,000 or more who converge on Flemington on Tuesday won’t see much of the big race. For them, it will be little more than the roar that accompanies ‘They’re Off,’ a flash of colours as the big field thunders by, the buzz that builds to a crescendo, and at the end, the million dollar question: ‘Who won?’

The great American writer Mark Twain visited Australia in the late 1800s, while on a world-wide lecture tour. He was realistic and humorous in his appraisal, but also, on the whole, quite flattering.

Twain arrived in Victoria at the time of the Melbourne Cup, and here are his observations at the time:

‘It is the Melbourne Cup that brings this multitude together. Their clothes have been ordered long ago, at unlimited cost, and without bounds as to beauty and magnificence, and have been kept in concealment until now, for unto this day are they consecrated.

And so the grandstands make a brilliant and wonderful spectacle, a delirium of colour, a vision of beauty. The champagne flows, everybody is vivacious, excited and happy – everybody bets, and gloves and fortunes change hands right along, all the time.

Day after day the races go on, and the fun and the excitement are kept at white heat. And when each day is done, the people dance all night so as to be fresh for the races in the morning.

And at the end of the great week the swarms secure lodgings and transportation for next year, then flock away to their remote homes and count their gains and losses, and order next year’s Cup clothes, and then lie down and sleep for two weeks, and get up sorry to reflect that a whole year must be put in somehow or other before they can be wholly happy again.

The Melbourne Cup is the Australasian National Day. It would be difficult to overstate its importance. It overshadows all other holidays and specialized days of whatever sort in that congeries of colonies.

Overshadows them? I might almost say it blots them out. Each of them gets attention, but not everybody’s. Each of them evokes interest, but not everybody’s. Each of them rouses enthusiasm, but not everybody’s. In each case a part of the attention, interest, and enthusiasm is a matter of habit and custom, and another part of it is official and perfunctory.

Cup Day and Cup Day only, commands an attention, an interest, and an enthusiasm which are universal – and spontaneous, not perfunctory. Cup Day is supreme, it has no rival.

I can call to mind no specialized annual day, in any country, which can be named by that large name – supreme. I can call to mind no specialized annual day, in any country, whose approach fires the whole land with a conflagration of conversation and preparation and anticipation and jubilation. No day save this one; but this one does it.’

Who can argue that little has changed in more than a Century since Mark Twain penned those wonderful words?

 

EXAMINE BIG PICTURE BEFORE LISTENING TO THESE PINOCCHIO'S 

WITH plenty of corporate bookies and the TAB’s bleating how Derby Day produced their worst results in recent memory we decided to have a look at the collective results to see just how bad it was.

Their worst results at Randwick were AUTUMN GLOW, JIMMYS STAR & WOOTTON VERNI but surely they saw that trio coming.

Macdonald elected to ride at Randwick rather than Derby Day which was a ‘dead giveaway’ (but they still offered a special $4 about the unbeaten Waller runner in the Golden Eagle).

JIMMYS STAR was easily the best performance of the beaten brigade behind Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising in The Everest. WOOTTON VERNI was coming off a Coongy Cup win in the Rosehill Gold Cup where the one tipped to test him, Maison Louis, went like a mule.

But let’s have a closer look at the support races in Sydney.

Lovewillcomelater $21 got the protest in the Hi-Way, one of the rank outsiders Bravissima won the next at $41, Sonofdec the Midway at $21, then Black Run at $13, Pokerjack at $21 and Midnight Dynamite the last at $8.50 (where the two heavily-backed runners Golden Straand $2.2 finished out of a place & Polyglot $2.9 was eased out of the race on the home turn). Sure it was a bad day for the bookies - NOT!

Then on Derby Day at Flemington Mark Zahra had a party, grabbing the spotlight from JMac at Randwick with four winners and a Group 1 double on the heavily-backed Godolphin owned TENTYRIS in the Coolmore and OBSERVOR in the Victorian Derby.

Granted, this was a black day for the bookies in the support races as well starting with Sheza Alibi in the Vanity and odds-on Getta Good Feeling in the Wakeful.

The only results they really had were the defeat of Regal Award at odds-on in the Carbine Club and the win of New York Lustre at $9.50 in the last, the Ichiban Sprint.

BUT if you want to look elsewhere just cop the results that were served up in Adelaide where the form was almost impossible to follow as the State labelled the 'hottest' in racing by punters lived up to its reputation. 

After Guru Warrior got home at $1.5 in the first at Morphettville, here’s what was served up to long-suffering punters who have no respect for their money and continue to bet in SA.

Grinzinger Champ $12, Aitch D’Amico $21, Bolt By $31, Mr George $41, Hot Statement $16, Thunder Shoc $14 & Mystic Wonder $18. They have to be kidding!

Plenty of losses on the big southern states races would have been recouped in ‘crow-eater’ territory where warning signs should be telegraphed by corporate bookies and the TAB that: ‘BETTING ON SA RACING IS A WEALTH HAZARD’.

Not that anyone was feeling sorry for the corporates after some of the big pros – and the smaller punters – cleaned them up in Sydney and Melbourne on Saturday but there’s still three days of the Flemington carnival to go so standby for those traditional boilovers that occur every year.

 

SURELY RACING REVIEW WON’T RECOMMEND ANOTHER ‘FREE RIDE’ FOR EVER INCREASING NUMBER OF PARASITE CORPORATE BOOKIES 

THE countdown has begun to ‘party time’ in racing  - that’s Melbourne Cup week – when once-a-year punters try their luck but sadly guarantees a major boost in profits for the already-fattened coffers of the Corporate Bookmakers.

As the number of these ‘fleas’ continues to balloon out of control, sadly with the support of the Government and racing authorities (many of whom are jumping into bed with the big ones sponsorship wise), the smaller bookies who served the country well for so long are being forced out of business – not to mention the affect it is having on the TAB which provides the bulk of prizemoney for the industry to exist.

Now the ‘big’ bludgers want a reduction in the Point of Consumption Tax they now have to pay and LGHR understands that is one of the reasons for the delay in releasing the recommendations of the Racing Review in Queensland.

The mail is strong that the Review has recommended a decrease of the POC in Queensland from 20 to 15 per cent. Fortunately, some Government MPs are not comfortable with this – hopefully sanity will prevail and the Corporates will continue to pay their way at the higher rate.

Ever since Queensland went to a 20 per cent POCT in December 2022, the major corporate bookmakers, with the exception of Tabcorp, have been rallying for a revision back to 15 per cent.

The consensus was that the push to 20 per cent, which had been accompanied by a change in the Racing Queensland funding model, had gone too far. As per the popular concept of the Laffer Curve, taxation had begun to disincentivise consumption, and the net result was a negative.

As pointed out by The Straight recently: The Queensland Treasury has maintained bullish projections as to the ongoing growth of wagering and betting taxes, but the feedback from bookmakers and the racing industry is that this is not realistic.

They have pointed to the ACT, where POCT sits at a national high of 25 per cent. As turnover has plummeted, the Government there now collects less tax now than when the tax rate was at 20 per cent. That suits those who might want to tax gambling out of existence, but is not good for Government coffers.

But in a complex eco-system like wagering, the Laffer Curve is arguably too simplistic. It assumes the sole disincentive to consumption is the cost of taxation, and does not account for other external factors, like the broader cost of living crisis.

Laffer also points to the fact that a lowering of the POC tax rate would mean an automatic rise in turnover. But in documents seen by The Straight, leading bookmakers are not predicting that a possible drop in Queensland’s POCT rate will necessarily see a revival in turnover. Even if it did, it is likely to be only in the realms of a five per cent jump, not enough to offset the circa $70 million less revenue at the lower tax rate.

A GOVERNMENT ACCEPTING LESS TAX REVENUE DUMB AS DOG SHIT? 

THAT poses the question what Government would sign on to getting less tax revenue? – hopefully not Queensland which faces a raft of budgetary challenges, hospitals, schools and hosting an Olympics in seven years.

As it already passes on 80 per cent of POCT revenue to the racing industry, the Queensland Government currently receives about $57 million in net tax receipts from this source. Should it want to retain that guarantee, then it may be that Racing Queensland needs to take a smaller slice of a smaller pie.

Again, RQ is hardly equipped to take a $70 million haircut off its existing operational costs, so it would need to look to secure funding from elsewhere.

The other lever it has at its disposal is race field fees – what it charges the bookmakers to bet on its product. The current net rate on that is 2.2 per cent for the major operators, which generated circa $132 million a year for RQ in its most recent annual report.

While increasing race field fees to cover POCT shortfalls would appear to be the wagering equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul, it would achieve one significant thing.

It would allow the racing body to have greater control over the elasticity of pricing. It could opt to alter its pricing structure to incentivise turnover and promotion, without relying on the Government risking a greater share of POCT receipts.

The lever would now be back in the hands of the regulator, which could then adjust pricing according to demand. It would also, according to projections, see race fields return as the primary source of industry funding again.

It’s an approach with some drawbacks, and could adversely impact smaller bookmakers, but it has some key supporters in the wagering and racing game - those who don't give a stuff if the family-owned operators who served the country well for so long are forced out of business.

The Queensland POCT situation is a test case for the rest of Australia, particularly New South Wales. The long-term Tabcorp-NSW agreement is up for discussion with Peter V’landys and Gillion McLachlan said to be leading the charge. A Government POCT rise is said to be off the agenda in any reform.

Why then would Queensland want to ‘go it alone’. Corporates are already accused of ‘cheating the current tax system’ by taking out multiple licenses – in some cases up to 10 under different trading names. By splitting turnover across shell companies, they stay under the $15 million ‘start-up’ concession cap, minimising POCT and turnover tax liability.

And to add insult to injury these parasite corporates want bonus bets excluded from POCT. These are the incentives they offer every week to ‘mug’ punters who loose offering them ‘free bonus bets’ on some occasions with strings attached.

Collectively, these groups are turning over tens or even hundreds of millions while still enjoying the same concessions designed for genuine small operators. The cost to racing is huge: Millions in lost tax that should have been reinvested into prizemoney, infrastructure, and integrity.

If the recommendations of the Racing Review have been delayed because there is indecision amongst Government MPs, here’s hoping Racing Minister Tim Mander and Review Chairman Matt McGrath fall on their swords where any reduction in POCT is concerned. But don't hold your breath!

 

RQ ‘ROCKET-SCIENTISTS’ CONFRONTED BY BUSH EMBARRASSMENT 

ANOTHER indication of how dumb some of these ‘rocket-scientists’ running Racing Queensland are has been evidence by an alarming situation in the outback this weekend.

It’s hard to believe that there are no jockeys available to ride an unbelievable 22 horses at the Cloncurry meeting on Saturday. Last weekend over a dozen had to be scratched at Richmond because there were no riders.

Instead of looking after the rich getting richer Corporate Bookies and reducing the tax they have to pay, the Racing Review should have focused more on this problem. But it’s outback racing so who gives a stuff if the owners pay to have their horses trained and these can’t start because there are no jockeys?

Some who would know have told us that scheduling needs to be better and these outback clubs need to push away from Saturdays. But how many people would they attract to the track midweek. There still has to be some give and take.

Here’s a free tip for the bike-riding CEO of RQ who apparently didn’t want to talk about the new heat policy for bush racing.

Move Cloncurry to Sunday. That way you can pick up plenty of jockeys already in the outback to ride at the Barcadine meeting on Saturday.

Then again there probably aren’t enough days left for the brains trust at RQ to sit down and have several meetings (over a dozen cups of coffee and scones) to discuss this and decide what to do.

The sooner there’s a shake-up at RQ and a few of the ‘First Lieutenants’ of the CEO are fired out of a canon the better. Take a tip Racing Minister if this doesn’t happen the good ship RQ Titanic will sink sooner than expected.

 

NEW HEAT POLICY TAKING CONTROL OF OUTBACK RACING AWAY FROM LOCAL CLUBS & PLACING IT IN HANDS OF SE QLD OFFICIALS 

THE Outback racing industry is up in arms over a change in heat policy that is taking control away from local clubs and placing it in the hands of south-east Queensland officials.

MATT NICHOLLS reports for NORTH WEST WEEKLY on concerns that an already-reduced racing season will be shortened as a result of the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission’s (QRIC) new Adverse Weather Policy, which could be ratified as soon as Friday afternoon.

This is despite expert claims that horses rarely suffer from heat-related stress at Outback race meetings.

In fact, Mount Isa-born-and-bred veterinarian Katelyn Thompson, who has been the on-course vet at Buchanan Park for the past eight years, told North West Weekly: “I have never had to clinically treat a horse for heat stress.”

Last Saturday, meetings at Richmond and Isisford were forced to be staged between 11am and 1pm, while this Saturday’s meetings at Cloncurry and Barcaldine will also be shifted to avoid extreme temperatures (both are forecast to be 40 degrees Celsius).

The Barcaldine Racing Club was made to start at 10am, while a decision on the Cloncurry and District Race Club's starting time was not confirmed at the time of writing.

With Racing Queensland putting pressure on clubs to draw crowds to prevent the reduction of race meetings in 2026 and beyond, both the Cloncurry and Barcaldine clubs, as well as other industry leaders, believe the heat policy is going too far.

“It just becomes a COVID meeting if you start at 10am,” said Cloncurry and District Race Club president Luke Daniels of racing without crowds.

“I work out here every day and it starts to sting a bit if it gets over 45 or 46 degrees, but no one is that worried if it’s 41 or 42.

“They want to push these races through quickly but they’d be better off spacing them out to give the jockeys more time to recover between races.

“The horses are usually OK.”

North West Weekly understands that a meeting will be held between QRIC and Racing Queensland on Friday to rubber-stamp the new policy.

No industry representatives were going to be present until enquiries made by this masthead resulted in two Country Racing Panel members getting an invitation to dial in.

North West panel representative Dan Ballard and Central West counterpart Gary Peoples will now be invited to have their say.

But the new policy is virtually a done deal, according to QRIC deputy commissioner Kim Kelly.

In an extensive interview, he confirmed that the new policy would likely be implemented within days.

“I would expect that toward tomorrow (Friday) or in the early part of next week that we'd have something ready to be put up on the website and ready to be digested by industry and by the public,” Kelly said.

RACING QUEENSLAND DECLINED TO BE INTERVIEWED 

RACING Queensland declined to put up a representative to be interviewed.

In a statement, the Deagon-based body said: “Racing Queensland is presently providing input into the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission’s updated Adverse Weather Policy. Programming adjustments made as a result of adverse weather are done with both participant and animal welfare at the forefront.”

Barcaldine Racing Club resident Willie Chandler was less than impressed with being dictated to by south-east officials.

“These decisions are being made by someone in Brisbane with no idea,” he said on Thursday morning.

“I spoke to Racing Queensland on Monday and said there might be an issue with the heat and it was decided we would start at 12 and punch through and finish before 2 o’clock.

“That was ticked off by RQ and, within an hour, we had been ordered by QRIC to start at 10am.”

The problem for Barcaldine is that the Qantas flight lands at 11.15 on Saturday mornings. Booked on the plane were two jockeys and the club’s veterinarian.

The vet has since had to find a seat on an overnight bus to return to Barcaldine, while the two jockeys will fly into Emerald tomorrow (Friday) and drive out for the meeting.

“The people on the ground should be able to make these decisions,” Chandler said.

“No one wants to put horses or jockeys at risk. But we live and work in these conditions. It’ll be hot on Saturday, but it won’t be dangerous.”

Now starting at 10am, with the last of the card to be run at noon, Barcaldine Racing Club will no longer charge a gate fee on Saturday.

“If this was your one-off race meeting, you've just got obliterated,” Chandler said.

“To me, this is all about chest pumping from Brisbane – ‘we will tell you what to do and when you need to do it’.

“We’ve been racing in the heat for 100 years and we know what we are doing. We might as well only race for six months of the year if you can’t race during the day when it gets a bit hot.”

Retired champion bush jockey Dan Ballard is on the Mount Isa Race Club committee and is the North West delegate on the Country Racing Panel.

"Where is the data? What is driving these decisions? I'm not aware of any horses succumbing to heat stress," he said.

"If we're going to be completely risk-averse, we might as well not race.

"This should be a data-driven discussion, not an emotionally-driven discussion."

Ballard said the panel was not asked to provide input into the new Adverse Weather Policy.

“There’s a lack of pragmatism with the current policy,” he said.

“As it stands, you’re required to have two vets when the heat policy is enforced. It’s difficult to adequately describe how impractical that is out here.

“We have two vet surgeries (in Mount Isa) and they alternate weekend call-outs so they don’t burn out.

“There’s probably only four or five vets in the postcode."

Ballard said he was “really proud” of the North West clubs who had been flexible and willing to change programs as a result of the current policy.

“Not only to host them, but to do things to abate concerns about heat,” he said of the measures taken by clubs to make conditions better for horses and jockeys.

“If changes aren’t made (to the policy), we’re going to be dealing with a six-month racing calendar.

“The current policy is very difficult to navigate.”

Dr Thompson said she was not approached for feedback in regards to changes to QRIC’s policy.

However, she believed there was no risk to horses from racing in the Outback’s high temperatures due to the low humidity.

“I can count on one hand the horses I’ve seen suffer from heat stress,” she said.

“I have never had to clinically treat a horse for heat stress.

“Horses are stabled in these conditions, worked in these conditions and are acclimatised to these conditions.

“I don't think the heat is the major factor – humidity is more of a factor.

“It’s rare to see high humidity out here. We might get to 38 degrees and 10 per cent (humidity). I’d be more concerned about the heat in Townsville.”

Wyandra/Cunnamulla trainer Alistair Webb is making the six-hour trip to Barcaldine on Saturday with just one horse – the in-form Mon Pierre – who is trying to earn a place in the Country Stampede Final at Doomben in December.

His jockey Matthew Gray was originally supposed to fly in on Saturday, but had to make alternative plans to get there when the meeting was shifted.

Webb believes the Outback racing scene will fall away if bush clubs are forced to race outside of regular hours.

“I think it's dumb,” he said of the 10am start.

“Clubs have got to survive. The other day, Charleville started early and finished at 2pm and everyone went home … the club lost money.

“What's the difference between 10am and 2pm? Even at 10 it’s pretty bloody hot.

“If they get their way, we’re only going to race from April to September.”

 

GRACE GRACE GIVEN FREE SHOT BEFORE CCC INVESTIGATES ‘MATES’ 

 THE big question that stakeholders want answered is whether Grace Grace will do her job as Shadow Minister for Racing and ask in Parliament this week why the Government is yet to release the recommendations of its much-publicised Racing Review.

With the ‘goat-riders’ in disarray over whether taxpayers and the industry should fully fund a new grandstand at Eagle Farm for a privileged few thousands Members, surely Ms Grace isn’t too close to the Brisbane Racing Club to want to rock the boat.

While the industry awaits the outcome of this predicament – and whether funds from the sale of Albion Park will be used to finance up to $200mn needed to replace the condemned John Power stand, there is action at the station at the Crime and Corruption Commission.

It seems they are about to do the job that the Government and Racing Queensland refused to and investigate the cloud hanging over the Brisbane Racing Club Board which was the subject of some contentious questioning at the recent AGM. For some reason the mainstream racing media, specifically News Ltd has failed to cover this big story and their rival Fairfax was refused permission to attend the AGM.

LGHR can confirm that the matter is now in the hands of the CCC, a five-member Board which is headed by Bruce Barbour who was reappointed as Chairperson after the LNP regained Government.

A Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee monitors and reviews the performance of the CCC includes seven MP’s and is chaired by Mark Furner, the Member for Ferny Grove. From a racing’s perspective it includes Ray Stevens, the Member for Mermaid Beach and Glenn Butcher, the Member for Gladstone, both of whom have good knowledge of the industry.

Stevens, in particular, is a former Director of the Gold Coast Turf Club and in the opinion of many (LGHR included) should at one stage of his long political career been Racing Minister. His support for colleague John Paul Langbroek (what was he thinking) in an LNP leadership spill won by Tim Nicholls reportedly cost him the factional numbers needed to be Racing Minister.

Interestingly, Stevens is an ally of Racing Minister Tim Mander – caught in the crossfire over the Eagle Farm grandstand funding largely because of the ‘dark cloud’ hanging over the BRC Board operations in recent years, while Nicholls is one of those MP's ‘in bed’ with Queensland’s leading club because it is bang smack in the middle of his electorate.

Thank God we have an independent body like the CCC and this overseeing Parliamentary Crime and Corruption and Committee which was recommended and established in the wake of the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

But back to the original point of this story and the last thing Racing Minister Mander needs at this time is interrogation in Parliament about why the surprise delay has occurred to the release of recommendations of the Racing Review.

Grace Grace has been given a ‘free hit’. Surely she is not influenced to such a degree by the BRC Board and its former Chairman (as many believe) that as Shadow Ministed refuses to do her job and ask the questions that the industry and stakeholders want answered.

 

QRIC NEEDS TO EXPLAIN WHY THEY DID DEAL WITH JIGGER TRAINER 

AND on the subject of the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (which many want dismantled or combined with a Control Body), it is once again under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Rather than LGHR try to explain, here’s a story by Archie Butterfly on his must-read, subscriber only website, www.peterprofit.com, today:

‘IT was revealed on Wednesday in the Racing Appeals Panel that the QRIC had cut a deal with trainer Todd Austin to reduce his disqualification (from five to three years) over the Birdsville incident involving shocking a horse with jolts of electricity from a jigger.

The question that must be answered by the QRIC is why?

Protecting the welfare of racing animals is one of the QRIC’s primary purposes, part of the very reason for its existence.

How is doing deals to reduce the sentence of a person found guilty of involvement in delivering electric shocks to a horse with a hand held device compatible with the purpose?

It does not seem to be at all.

A public explanation by the Integrity Commission is required!

 

QRIC WILL SURVIVE BUT AT WHAT PRICE TO INTEGRITY OF SPORT? 

AS the industry waits for the results of the Government-ordered Review into the Queensland Racing Industry to be announced, one thing’s for sure.

The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission will thankfully survive in some form but hopefully talk of stewards coming under the same arm as administration does not happen.

It’s fine for the ‘bean counters’ to insist that QRIC costs less but WHAT PRICE INTEGRITY? And we’ve all seen in the past what happens when control boards and their chairmen have influence over what happens in the policing of racing.

There has been a turnaround of confidence – it’s still got a long way to go – since the arrival of Kim Kelly, the internationally experienced steward who is now a Deputy Commissioner of Steward.

The departure of the ‘dead wood’ that was causing QRIC to spiral to the stage where it was regarded as a standing joke, with poor stewarding policies and accusations that it was no longer a level playing field, had to happen.

WORRYING SIGNS POLICING QLD RACING A CONCERN TO PUNTERS 

BUT from a punters’ perspective there are still some worrying signs. LGHR welcomes a response to the following from QRIC or Kim Kelly but here are some concerning emails that we have received.

A couple of weeks ago we were told that only two stewards were in control of a TAB meeting at the Sunshine Coast. We didn’t publish concerns raised believing it couldn’t have been possible.

After last weekend we received this email from a respected, long-time follower of racing in North Queensland:

‘FOUR full-time stewards to cover 27 horses in five races at a Sunday Atherton Non-TAB meeting seems excessive to me, noting double-time also available to those full-time employees………justified? I think not.’

Then from a more concerning integrity perspective these concerns were raised by several punters and stakeholders:

'WHY is QRIC continuing to focus on a prominent stable in Toowoomba while turning a blind eye to another in Brisbane? Surely the favouritism that once occurred does not still exist?’

 

QRIC NEEDS TO INVESTIGATE SERIOUS CONCERNS AT BARCALDINE 

THEN there was the situation raised this week by Archie Butterfly on his must-read subscriber only site, www.peterprofit.com which read:

‘WE continue to receive information that unlicensed trainer Todd Austin is preparing at least seven horses at the Barcaldine track, and that he is doing it out of a car so he is not visible and can drive off undetected if by chance the Stewards unexpectedly arrive during trackwork hours.

Those that know say that Austin is doing this with the express knowledge of the Barcaldine Racing Club, whose President Will Chandler has raced a lot of horse and won a lot of races with Todd Austin as his trainer, not that we are saying there is any relationship between these things.

You may have noticed that we called Austin unlicensed rather than disqualified.

That is because our mail is that Austin’s term of disqualification has been reduced by QCAT (although no decision in the matter has yet been published) and has now expired.

Austin’s hearing listed for Friday at the Racing Appeals Panel is reportedly his appeal against the decision of Stewards to refuse his application made after the reduced period of disqualification ended.

The decision of the appeals panel in this matter is likely to become an important precedent case when it comes to any future licensing applications made by (Victorian) Darren Weir and co after their disqualifications finish, so it is vitally important that all material facts are put before the Stewards, including the alleged matter of Austin training horses in breach of the Rules.

Questions need to be asked of the Barcaldine Race Club as to whether Todd Austin is/has been training horses at their track, for if he has been it potentially jeopardizes the club’s license and exposes the committee and the club to having legal action brought against them in the event that there is an incident causing damage or loss involving an unlicensed and uninsured trainer.

As we have repeatedly raised, the location and status of a number of horses that have been transferred out of the Brett Cavanough stable to person or persons unknown also needs to be established.

The two matters are linked, for these are at least some of the horses that Todd Austin is alleged to be training at the Barcaldine track.

There is no smoke without fire.

QRIC need to send the troops out to Barcaldine to douse the flames.

 

KELLY CAN’T CORRECT PROBLEMS WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND BACK

THE above issues raise concerns about the ability of some high profile QRIC Stewards and therein lies a major problem for Deputy Commissioner Kim Kelly.

The buck should stop with the Chief Steward Josh Adams but few punters have much confidence in the job he is doing. As one wrote:

‘WHEN was the last time Adams conducted a running and handling inquiry involving a high profile trainer or jockey? Anyone who follows racing in south-east Queensland knows it isn’t that squeaky clean. A close look at the connections of some of the leading jockeys would be a good place to start. And on the subject of stable raids, do they even occur anymore? One struggles to imagine Mr Adams doing any fence jumping. For starters he would need a leg-up.’

And this one from the north:

‘LGHR knows the worth of the Chief Steward in the Far North having watched his career rocket under the then leadership of the good doctor Bob Mason and his namesake who was QRIC Commissioner. Week in, week out, we see integrity disasters in the north but this bloke continues to survive. Then we have the ‘red hots’ where nothing seems to have changed if you listen to the punters. Did that new Chief Steward ever arrive because if he did the more things change the more they stay the same.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: The problem is that no half-decent steward is prepared to relocate to Queensland while the current cloud hangs over QRIC and policing of the industry here. If the cost-cutting means a reduction in stewarding, swabbing and stable raids, then they might as well close the joint down. The trots is a basket case, the dogs are battling the animal liberationists circling like vultures and Kim Kelly is being forced to try and clean the joint up with one hand tied behind his back. If the light at the end of the tunnel relies on the recommendations of the Racing Review, the punters are stuffed!

JUST ANOTHER ‘SUCK UP & SURVIVE DAY’ AT FANTASY ISLAND RACES

HERE’S something we heard that apparently happened at the Doomben races last Saturday that won’t surprise those who know the individuals involved:

A prominent racing scribe, with a close association to the Brisbane Racing Club, was doing his weekly lap of leap-frog with Manuel – the media jack-of-all-trades at Headquarters.

After spotting a thorn-in-the-side for his ‘mates’ running the State’s leading club enjoying a day out at the races, the media man grew a spine that he lacks in most he writes.

He sauntered up to the guy who has dared to put the officials they call ‘Buckets’ (because he’s bailing out the water from a sinking ship) and ‘Bails’ (the one who supposedly would like to switch jobs from one sport to another).

‘Would you like a chip?’ the scribe (with a short memory) condescendingly asks the old-timer who once allowed him and his daughter to free-load for a brief holiday at their stud on the Downs.

“When are you going to write something about when the recommendations of the Racing Review are going to finally be released to the industry?” was the reply.

The scribe quickly burred up: “I don’t talk orders from you when it comes to writing my stories!”

That prompted the thought from the Member that the BRC loves to hate: ‘Well who do you take them from?’

In next to no time our spineless scribe scampered back for a ‘well done boy pat on the head’ from his mentor Manuel. And as a big jet flew overhead on its trajectory into nearby Brisbane Airport someone heard him say: ‘D’Plane Boss, d’Plane!’

HOOFNOTE: For those too young to remember "D'Plane boss, d'plane!" was a famous catchphrase from the 1970s-80s TV series Fantasy Island, spoken by the character Tattoo (they could remake another version based on what is happening in racing in Brisbane these days).

 

‘COULD NEVER HAPPEN IN OZ RACING DUE TO LACK OF TAB ACCESS’ 

PETER MAIR, from SYDNEY, another of our regular contributors, weighs into the debate involving insiders with a betting edge. He writes:

...betting edge for insiders?....no way.

Class-action allegations over US betting edge for insiders

https://thestraight.com.au/class-action-allegations-over-us-betting-edge-for-insiders/

This would not happen here ------ no one would be permitted to have special access to a TAB hotline to place big, complex, syndicate bets before the jump. The jump would never be delayed!

Our betting stewards, reviewing betting activity on rough results, routinely find any evidence of insider 'edges' and prosecute the participants to the full extent of the law.

............... CCTV records, of punters in TAB agencies placing big cash-bets on unexpected winners, are routinely scrutinised,  very closely, by Stewards for follow up action on participant connections to be explored.

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY SIDE OF COX PLATE DAY THROUGH THE EYES OF PUNTERS WITH A LITTLE SELF INDULGENCE FROM LGHR

THE GOOD

WALLER ESCAPES HERO TO VILLIAN BY A NOSE 

THERE was a nose – some might say a sneeze by jockey Mark Zahra – between champion trainer Chris Waller going from hero to villain in last Saturday’s Cox Plate at The Valley.

Punters, accustomed to Waller favorites getting beaten by roughie stablemates held their collective breaths as Via Sistina got the photo verdict over Buckaroo in the $6mn G1 WFA classic.

Like him or not, Waller stage-managed another Group 1 success – it was the second successive year Via Sistina had won the Cox Plate – timing the champion mare’s preparation to the minute.

Waller did not have her ‘pinned down’ until the day of the big race. But it’s par for the course for his ‘stars’ to have ‘warm-ups’ in lead-up races to be primed for the Grand Final. His media ‘spin doctors’ refer to it as a 'training regime'. We call it 'practice runs'. The stewards call it 'best left alone'.

The close result reignited what LGHR has maintained for so long. With over 2000 Corporate Bookmakers in this country now – the majority of them arguably parasites when it comes to caring for their clients – surely some can offer a price for those wanting a ‘bracket bet’ for stablemates from big stables.

In the 38 contenders chasing a Melbourne Cup start next Tuesday, Waller has eight and Ciaron Maher five. The best of Waller’s chances, according to the markets, are Valiant King $7, Buckaroo $8 and River Of Stars $15.

 

HERE’S HOPING MAHER STABLE PAID THE ZAHRA FINE 

CIARON Maher might be hoping on a miracle to win the Melbourne Cup with one of his roughies but barring bad luck has a great chance in Saturday’s Victoria Derby.

The win by Observor in the Gold Vase at the Valley last Saturday was quite outstanding considering the margin he could have won by.

Mark Zahra earnt the wrath of stewards easing down on Observor to a casual stroll across the line ensuring the Godolphin-owned colt did not exert too much energy.

That cost Zahra a fine and caused some angst among margin bettors considering Observor could have won by up to five lengths.

The Stewards’ Report read:

RIDER Mark Zahra was fined $1500 under the provisions of AR 131(b) for failing to ride his mount out to the end of the race.

Don’t underestimate the effort of runner-up Providence which stormed home after being held-up until passing the 300m mark. He gets out to a more suitable trip in the Derby and don’t forget Chris Waller doesn’t have them ‘spot on’ until the Grand Final.

 

THE BAD

AFTER SATURDAY IT SHOULD BE RENAMED ‘HOARSES’ NOT ‘HORSES’ 

FAIRFAX Media got it right when they wrote:

HALL of Fame singer Daryl Braithwaite, champion jockey Hugh Bowman and a host of party-pooper security guards triple dead-heated for the least-inspiring performances of Cox Plate day.

Bowman has won four Cox Plates and ridden more than a 100 Group 1’s but had a ‘shocker’ on Aeliana. He drove her straight into a speed trap, poking along the rails and into the rear end of a tiring Light Infantry Man – which on paper, looked to be one of the slowest horses in the race.

Sometimes the difference between champ and chump in a post-race analysis is a split-second gap. Had one opened for Bowman, allowing Aeliana to burst through to fight out the finish, he would have been lauded as a genius.

Sadly, he had a lap full of horse and nowhere to go. Aeliana finished a disappointing sixth behind Via Sistina and will be sent to the paddock for a spell.

As for Braithwaite, his iconic Moonee Valley anthem Horses should have been renamed “Hoarses” on Saturday after the ageing singer struggled to hit the high notes – more the pity for the 76-year-old who has helped make Cox Plate day such a special event.

Then to the security guards who misread the moment by confiscating post-race souvenirs, including pot plants and a massive length of running rail, from excited fans as they departed the closing track. It’s not like Moonee Valley Race Club are going to need these things any more, the place is about to be demolished.

 

SHINN HAD ONE OF THOSE DAYS THAT JOCKEYS PREFER TO FORGET

SPEAKING of bad days at the office, champion jockey Blake Shinn had an afternoon he would rather forget.

The four-time Scobie Breasley Medal winner was expected to be a major player in the Cox Plate on Queenslander Antino, but the pair never fired a shot, finishing seven lengths last.

A post-race vet check did not reveal any issues, so Racing Victoria Stewards asked Shinn and trainer Tony Gollan to explain Antino’s substandard performance – neither had an answer.

Shinn said the gelding never travelled comfortably during the race, while Golan said Antino had worked well during the week in what had been a faultless preparation.

He told Stewards the horse would now undergo a thorough veterinary examination. Let’s hope he can bounce back and take part in Flemington’s Champions Day.

It was a similar story for Shinn in the Group 2 McEwen Stakes. He finished second last on $1.80 favourite Charm Stone, and once again had no explanation for the disappointing performance – nor could the post-race vet.

The mare looked to be cruising outside leader and eventual winner Jigsaw but punctured once they hit the straight. Co-trainer Mick Kent Jnr said Charm Stone would now undergo a more thorough vet check.

 

THE UGLY

‘HE’S DONE IT ONCE, DIDN'T NEED TO SEE IT AGAIN’, THEY’RE KIDDING! 

THERE were three major talking points at Cox Plate Day which the mainstream racing media were seen in the role of apologist more so than caring to delve too deeply into.

One was the reason behind the absence of Yulong Investments billionaire owner Yuesheng Zhang not being at Moonee Valley to see his great mare Via Sistina win the Cox Plate for the second successive year.

Not too many were wearing the Yulong excuse that: ‘He’s done it once. He doesn’t need to see it again.’

The rumour mill was in overdrive with stories about visa, passports and even a connection to a major story in China involving the Agriculture Minister who is in ‘it’ up to his eye-balls and could face the death-penalty.

THEN we had the rumour merchants in over-drive with absurd reasons why the Queenslander Antino lost a leg in the Cox Plate. Even allowing for the improvement of Via Sistina, the Tony Gollan trained galloper lost eight lengths in the space of a fortnight.

It is imperative that Stewards and the Gollan stable come up with an excuse for the poor performance or the rumours will simply gain momentum. It can’t just be put down to ‘one of those things in racing’ or every horse has an ‘off-day’.

 

CHINESE WHISPERS INVOLVING BIG STABLE IN  FINANCIAL STRIFE 

AND finally the Chinese whispers involving a major training establishment hitting a massive financial hurdle can’t stay under wraps for much longer.

Story goes this involves debt in the multi millions that could see another big stable declared bankrupt unless a rescue package magically appears overnight. It would be a massive blow to Australian racing.

The stable concerned has relied on the support of a major backer with massive interests overseas and in Australia but surprisingly those at the coalface say there is no likely life-line on the horizon.

 

HOW COULD A HORSE WITH CHAMPION QUALITIES LIKE ANTINO PERFORM SO BADLY & LOSE AN AMAZING 8 LENS ON VIA SISTINA? 

RIDICULOUS rumours will gain momentum until the biggest mystery of the Victorian Spring Carnival is solved.

The spotlight is not only on the Melbourne stewards but also champion trainer Tony Gollan to provide a reason for Antino’s dismal performance in the Cox Plate.

Those blaming a lack of security for the defeat of the Queenslander are either talking through their pockets, having nothing better to do with their time but create mischief and are showing a lack of respect for Gollan, who is one of the best in the business.

The question still remains:

How could Antino (close 2^nd) perform so badly after sitting wide and beating the reigning champion Via Sistina (closing 3^rd) home in the G1 Turnbull at Flemington? The turnaround in the Cox Plate was an unbelievable eight lengths with Antino running last after tailing the field the entire trip.

Here’s what the Valley Stewards’ reported:

ANTINO: Slow to begin. Rider Blake Shinn explained that the gelding never travelled comfortably and came under pressure from the 800m, failed to run on and he was at a loss to explain the performance. Shinn added that in his opinion there may be something amiss with the gelding. A post-race veterinary examination did not reveal any significant findings. Trainer Tony Gollan explained that Antino had worked well and the gelding has had a faultless preparation leading into (the) race. Gollan added that Antino would now undergo a thorough veterinary examination upon return to the stables, the results of which he will forward to Stewards. Stewards will follow up with the stable.

It was no suprise to most that Via Sistina would improve sufficiently to beat Antino and defend her Cox Plate crown – but certainly not in that manner.

Trainer Chris Waller did not have her ‘pinned down’ until the day of the big race. But there was no way any form expert – let alone the stable who expected Antino to win – would have imagined him going so badly.

In the case of Waller it’s par for the course for his ‘stars’ to have ‘warm-ups’ in lead-up races to be primed for the big one. They call it 'training regime'. We call it 'practice runs'. The stewards call it 'best left alone'. 

So what is the answer to the biggest mystery of the spring (so far):

Antino might not have won at the Valley but was proven in top company prior to Saturday – running third to Pride Of Jenni and Mr Brightside in the G2 Feehan last spring.

It wasn’t as though Antino isn’t proven at weight-for-age – winning the G1 Doomben Cup in a cakewalk in the winter.

Aninto’s latest flop was in the G1 Hong Kong Mile last December when he finished sixth to Voyage Bubble and was immediately spelled.

This was a horse that simply didn’t want to go when Blake Shinn asked him to improve at the half mile. He raced like a Maiden. So what went wrong?

Just putting it down to one of those things in racing isn’t good enough. There has to be a reason. The punters want to know and more importantly Tony Gollan and his owners will no doubt lose sleep worrying until they get to the bottom of it.

Here’s hoping it’s nothing serious and that Antino finds his best form and returns for another crack at a major Australian carnival after a spell.  

 

YULONG DISPELS CHINESE WHISPERS – ZHANG 'DIDN'T NEED TO SEE VIA SISTINA WIN ANOTHER COX PLATE - IT'S NOT A VISA ISSUE!

RACING giant Yulong Investments have taken the unusual step of sending a text message to Australian racing connections to dismiss rumours about billionaire Chinese owner Yuesheng Zhang’s absence from Saturday’s Cox Plate meeting.

The man behind mega racing operation Yulong Investments was not at Moonee Valley to watch his Cox Plate favourite Via Sistina successfully defend her crown.

DANNY RUSSELL & ANDREW WU report for FAIRFAX MEDIA that concerns had been raised in racing circles this week that Zhang could not secure an Australian visa in time to make it to Melbourne to watch the race.

But Yulong confirmed to FAIRFAX on Friday morning that the organisation’s general manager, Jun Zhang, who is the owner’s son-in-law, had sent a text to several people in the breeding industry this week to dispel the concerns.

“I just wanted to take a moment to address the recent rumours about Yulong – they’re completely untrue,” Jun wrote.

“Thank you all for your concern and support. I’m sorry this kind of talk has been circulating and causing some unnecessary distraction.

“Let’s stay focused on what really matters which is enjoying the racing season and continuing the great work we’re all doing together. Really appreciate everyone’s effort and commitment to Yulong.”

Yulong is a massive racing and breeding industry that operates out of Nagambie.

The operation’s horses race with several leading trainers across Australia such as Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher and the Hayes family’s Lindsay Park.

At a Cox Plate launch earlier this month, Yulong chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said it had been phenomenal for his boss to be trackside to witness Via Sistina’s record-breaking romp last year.

“He obviously isn’t here all the time, but to be here, among the atmosphere and the closeness of the Cox Plate, and for her to win the way she did, it was a very, very special moment for him,” Fairgray said.

“I’m sure he’ll remember that for the rest of his life.

 “I’ve been with Mr Zhang since 2018, and he can’t speak English, but he’s gone from someone who’s quite shy and reserved to now making so many friends within the racing industry here in Australia and worldwide, and he absolutely loves it and the thrill of it.

“And, you know, knowledge wise, he would be up there with anybody here in Australia, with knowing what’s going on around the world and here in Australia and the industry.”

Fairgray gave no indication of any impending drama when he explained earlier this week why Zhang, the owner of last year’s Cox Plate winner Via Sistina, would not be at Mooney Valley for Saturday’s race.

“He’s already seen a Cox Plate win – he’s done it once, he doesn’t need to see it again,” Fairgray said.

HOW CAN REVIEW RECOMMENDATION FOR PUBLIC FUNDED MEMBERS ONLY GRANDSTAND PROCEED WHILE DARK CLOUD HANGS OVER BRC? 

 IF you are to believe significant scuttlebutt emanating from Government circles, Racing Minister Tim Mander is caught between a rock and a hard place as the industry impatiently awaits release of the Racing Review recommendations.

Story goes one of the major recommendations would see the LNP Government spending up to $200 million of taxpayer dollars or valuable industry funds to replace the condemned Eagle Farm grandstand that is currently for the exclusive use of a few thousand privileged Club Members.

Stakeholders are calling for several assurances:

• That no return from the sale of Albion Park harness racing headquarters is used to pay for a grandstand at Eagle Farm.
• That the Brisbane Racing Club show-cause to the industry and taxpayers of Queensland why they should not pay for the new stand out of their own funds or at best be part-funded to replace a grandstand that has been condemned.
• If the Government and the industry pay for the replacement to the John Power stand that the BRC is required to convert it for public use as well and not exclusively for a privileged few thousand Members and their guests.

The real predicament for the Government and the Racing Minister rests with the cloud hanging over the BRC Board – before and after its Annual General Meeting last week with those close to the coalface suggesting that the release of the Racing Review recommendations was deliberately postponed pending its outcome.

Despite a ‘censorship’ of coverage by the mainstream racing media, especially The Courier-Mail, of what happened behind closed doors at the AGM (and a refusal by the BRC to allow Fairfax to attend), recordings of proceedings have done the rounds and there are growing concerns that the minutes of the previous AGM were railroaded through by a small majority when there was a consensus of opinion that these were not a true reflection of the financial records of the Club with important information omitted.

Some of those at the AGM say new Chairman Richard Morrison and his ‘First Lieutenants’ did a good job at shutting down discussion on contentious questioning from disgruntled Member Wally Gleeson and have been accused of failing to treat his probing of governance and integrity issues within the BRC with the respect it deserved. The AGM wounded the BRC but they got through the day but the industry may not have heard the last of the controversy yet.

NEVILLE BELL to the AGM – ‘I FEEL LIKE THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’ 

GLEESON – and his supporters (a number that has grown even further since the AGM) – were determined to seek answers about the sale of what is now used as a display unit in one of the high rise complexes adjacent to the Eagle Farm track. Their insistence on answers eventually led to former BRC Chairman Neville Bell rising to his feet to address the meeting and describing himself as ‘the elephant in the room’.

It was explained that the unit in question was put up for sale and anyone could have bought it. A company associated with Mr Bell turned out to be the eventual buyer. There was confusion over who sold the unit but it was eventually ascertained – with the help of a search that had been undertaken by Wally Gleeson – that the BRC sold the unit to a company associated with then Chairman Bell and that he had rented it back to Mirvac for an annual income starting at $50,000 (a private business deal that he was entitled to undertake). Gleeson and others wanted to know why the sale had not been recorded in the Finances of the Club and consequently to Members in the Minutes of any AGM since it occurred, reportedly in 2022.

Then there was the situation where questions were asked by Gleeson about the resignation of former Property & Asset Manager (Jeff Kahler) but no details of what payout he received and if there was an ex gratia payment made to him by the Board were forthcoming. Gleeson and the AGM were told that Kayler, like former CEO Partridge, ‘received what he was entitled to’ – end of story.

RQ CEO CAUGHT IN CROSS FIRE AMID CALLS FOR CCC INTERVENTION 

THERE are now calls for this whole messy affair to be referred by Racing Queensland or the Government to the CCC (Crime & Corruption Commission) with RQ CEO Lachlan Murray caught in the crossfire.

As sad as it sounds LNP Racing Minister Mander is seen to have an unusual ally in all of this in his Labor predecessor Grace Grace who won’t be asking him any touchy questions in the House about this situation. Believe it or not, after a year in office the new Government has yet to replace the RQ Board that she appointed.

Chairman Steve Wilson, who is known to be close to Ms Grace, has resigned but isn’t due to depart RQ until the end of this month. That has raised questions whether he should have any influence of whether RQ or CEO Murray forwards the matter to the CCC after witnessing first-hand what happened at the AGM. No doubt they will rely on legal advice.

More importantly, the question is being asked whether the Government can release the Racing Review recommendations, especially those pertaining to the BRC (eg a new Eagle Farm grandstand) if, as expected, the CCC soon opens an investigation into aspects of the AGM and other issues whether the matter is referred to them by RQ or other concerned individuals.

Don’t let anyone tell you that this isn’t an issue with the potential to cause major embarrassment for racing in Queensland and the relatively new Government. The Murdoch Media will not be able to sweep it under the carpet forever.

STAKEHOLDERS WANT ANSWERS FROM CM ABOUT ALLEGED COVER-UP

QUESTIONS are already being asked why the state’s leading newspaper has refused for over a year to write a word on what is one of the biggest stories in Queensland racing.

One would hope it has nothing to do with an alleged close relationship between an Editorial high-roller at the CM and a prominent Board Member and a visit to last year's Everest meeting. 

Surely there isn’t enough ‘free-loading at special race days’, front row tickets to the Broncos and Lions, not to mention crickets tests at the Gabba, to influence whether stories that might reflect badly on ‘mates’ are run by the C-M, the circulation of which has been spiralling downward for years.

WHAT LGHR does know about what has happened behind the scenes at the leading ‘fish and chips wrapper’ will blow your socks off.

An investigative journalist from The Courier-Mail tried to write a story about the controversy surrounding the BRC, seeking information over who owns units in the complexes there, why a former CEO left and had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement along with several other issues.

WHY DID THAT COURIER-MAIL STORY NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY? 

LGHR understands that after the journalist concerned (who we don't know and have never spoken to) planned to send a series of probing questions to Racing Minister Mander, Racing Queensland and Brisbane Racing Club, he/she received a ‘please explain’ from an Editor. It begs the question if the questions were allowed to be sent and if these were did one of the recipients speak with an Editor and why? We all know a media organisation, run by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, would never try to influence what a journalist writes. Their journalistic ethics would never allow that to happen – anyone who watches SKY NEWS would testify to that. 

One of the questions drafted for Tim Mander was:

WHAT specific responsibilities or obligations fell upon you as Minister prior to the launch of the Racing Review in March 2025, particularly in ensuring that governance and integrity concerns within the racing industry were addressed?

Mander was also asked why serious concerns raised with him were not referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Questions proposed for the C-M investigative journo to RQ included:

WHY did RQ assert that it lacked the statutory powers to investigate governance and financial complaints involving the BRC? And why did RQ – a public unit of administration – not refer these concerns to the CCC and ASIC.

Questions planned to be raised with the BRC (which for legal reasons we are not prepared to  elaborate on) sought a response to concerns being raised about unit ownership, alleged conflicts of interest and whether any of this was connected with the sudden resignation of a CEO.

Whether any of the above trio recieved or provided answers to the questions, we don’t know. Perhaps (here’s hoping this is not the case) they didn’t bother responding in the knowledge that the story was going nowhere.

LGHR makes no allegations against the BRC, its Board or former Chairman Neville Bell but in the interests of stakeholders and transparency promised by the Racing Minister under the new Government one would think information would have been more forthcoming than it was at the recent AGM. We have published our series of stories on this issue because the mainstream racing media refuses to do their job which is not only inexplicable but also shameful.

Two other issues that are even more concerning to many are:

• This matter not being discussed by the Parliament largely because former Racing Minister Grace Grace is seen to be too close to members of the BRC Board and the former Chairman so she isn’t going to raise it. And, rather than do his job and ask some questions of Ms Grace about the BRC, Minister Mander for some inexplicable reason doesn’t want to get involved when he should be making mileage out of what started under a Labor Government. Stakeholders want to know why?
• The disgraceful failure of the Murdoch Media to cover this issue will eventually be addressed. There needs to be an explanation from the Editor, especially now that news has leaked of an investigative journalist facing internal C-M roadblocks in attempts to write a story about it. If it’s for legal reasons then say so, but surely something should be written on this newsworthy issue. Until it is, the industry will continue to accuse the C-M of being in bed with some at the BRC and of a cover-up which will provide some nice fodder when the Press Council and Media Watch hear about it in the near future if that hasn’t already happened. And how long will it take for one of the ‘real’ heavy-hitters in the Australian media to step up to the plate with an expose on national television?

Standby for some real fireworks folks!

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY SIDE OF CAULFIELD CUP DAY – PLENTY HAVE THEIR SAY & A LITTLE SELF INDULGENCE FROM LGHR

THE GOOD

LGHR: THE Caulfield Cup has traditionally proved the best guide to finding the winner of the big two miler in November and last Saturday’s addition should prove no exception.

We felt there were three runners to emerge from the race as genuine Melbourne Cup hopes and that has been reflected in the prices of Half Yours, Presage Nocturne and Valiant King.

Winner Half Yours has not won beyond the 2400m of the Caulfield Cup and has copped a 2kg penalty, Presage Nocturne, which ran 4^th, won the G3 Prix De Barbeville over 3000m at Longchamp in April and UK import Valiant King was an eye-catching 4^th after winning the G3 Bart Cummings at Fleminton over 2420m (the furtherest he has won over).

The performances of this trio have been reflected in their Melbourne Cup prices: Half Yours is now equal favorite with Al Riffa at $6 after $26 was bet in early markets. Presage Nocturne has firmed from $34 to $9 Valiant King $101 (before he won the Bart Cummings) to $7.

Trained by Chris Waller, Valiant King is a stablemate River Of Stars, raced by Yu Long Investments, which ran his best race since coming to Australia when second to Half Yours at $91 in the Caulfield Cup. He has won up to 2900m in the Listed Chester Stakes in the UK in 2022. He is $34 to $15 for the Melbourne Cup.

Equal favorite for the big race on the first Tuesday in November, Al Riffa, is trained for Coolmore by Irishman Joseph O’Brien. He has won at G1 level and amassed almost $3mn in prizemoney. His latest win was in the Irish St Leger over 2820m at The Curragh.

Plenty of water to flow under the bridge yet but at this stage we’re leaning to a Waller win with Valiant King with a healthy respect for the ‘Frog’ Presage Nocturne.

JAMIE MELHAM, after becoming the first lady jockey to win the Caulfield Cup and hoping to replicate what Michelle Payne achieved on Prince of Penzance, is hoping to complete the big CUPS double on HALF YOURS:

Melham was overcome with emotion as the reality of her win in the 149-year history of the Cup sank in. She paid tribute to father-and-son training duo Tony and Calvin McEvoy, as well as her great mate and mentor, the late Colin McKenna..

Melham, 29, even paid homage to trailblazer and friend Michelle Payne by toying with the Melbourne Cup winning jockey’s famous quote: “Everyone else can get stuffed [who] think women aren’t strong enough, ’cause we just beat the world.”

But Melham, who changed her name from Kah after tying the knot with jockey husband Ben earlier this year, warned that her version was not fit for public consumption.

“What I want to say can’t go on camera,” Melham said with fierce determination. “I would say, ‘they can all get …’, and it would start with an f.”

Melham admitted she was abnormally anxious in the lead up to the Cup. “I have never been [that] stressed before” – knowing she was on the race favourite that would ultimately deliver her 18th, and greatest, Group 1 victory.

Her former mentor and loyal backer Col McKenna, who died during last year’s Spring Carnival, remains closest to her heart. “After the ride, when I pulled up, I looked up and I had asked him, ‘Make sure you open a gap for me’, and he did,” she said. “He would be proud. If he was here still, and he didn’t own it, he would still be proud.”

 “Just saying ‘Caulfield Cup’ is going to make me cry. I’ve had an incredible career and ridden 17 Group 1’s now, but that major has obviously eluded me, and I just wanted to get one. But now I want maybe three more, maybe a Melbourne Cup. This horse is going to run the trip out.”

Incredibly, McKenna had bred Half Yours, who was trained by Ciaron Maher before being sold to the McEvoy’s after the popular Warrnambool owner’s death.

THE BAD 

PETER MAIR, a regular contributor from SYDNEY, was keen to debate STATE v STATE – RACING ONE MAD:

IN a two-horse race, Racing Victoria finished second on Saturday.

Against the odds, the Victorian Spring Carnival is being stolen, sidelined by Racing NSW.

 The time-honoured Caulfield Cup meeting has lost caste. As for epitaphs, 'more than half ours' sums up the way this turf war is unfolding.

The RVL show moves on to Cox Plate Day with reasonable prospects bar, possibly, having three-year-old’s contest the first four races – improbably ranked as 'Black Type'.

The night-before gamble with the track continues, the Friday night program featuring a G2 race over 2600m but otherwise more mid-week fare -- five BM70's, a BM80 and a VOBIS 1500. Why would you do it?

Everest Day is now Racing NSW's one-day-wonder, flagship. With more than most of the 'crowd' drawn from the youngster demographic, one wonders what is going on besides the racing. RNSW's coming Saturday meeting, without a crowd, will about hold its own with RVL.

On the bright side, perhaps captured by the international outbreak of peace talks, there was a more conciliatory tone from RNSW in the war declared on the ATC:

“At this stage, we’ve only given them a show-cause notice to tell us how they’re going to improve, and then we’ll sit down with them in the next couple of weeks to go through it,” …...... “the [ATC] club will make a fortune” from Everest day revenue, including its percentage of betting turnover. “.........the way it’s structured, any bets internationally, they get direct, so that will make one to two million,” he said. “...... they never had the Everest before. We pay for the race, but any revenues go to them. All the ticket sales, international rights, digital rights, go to the ATC, so the Everest has been a windfall for them.”

The good humour of the day continued – possibly even a little more over the top:

“We’ll probably do the [having spectators in the] infield for next year, and we’ll plan to put another level on the Winx Stand.”

For the older demographic – it is just not the same, is it?’

LGHR received a couple of emails asking if we felt the result of the CAULFIELD CUP would have been different had ADELAIDE RIVER not taken charge of jockey Jordan Childs.

In our opinion HALF YOURS was a ‘handicapping certainty’ and barring bad luck would have won anyway. Stewards have thrown the book at the Kris Lees-trained galloper. Here’s what they reported:

ADELAIDE RIVER: When questioned, rider Jordan Childs stated it had been the intention to settle in a handy position. Childs explained Adelaide River raced keenly through the early stages, however when challenged by Plymouth near the 1600m, the gelding commenced to over-race.

Childs added that Adelaide River continued to over-race from the 1400m where he allowed his mount to stride in an attempt to assist the gelding to race more tractably. Childs added that after obtaining the lead, Adelaide River then commenced to hang out from the 1200m and as a result raced wider on the course than intended. Trainer Kris Lees confirmed the nature of the instructions were to settle in a handy position.

A post‑race veterinary examination revealed cardiac arrhythmia. Lees was advised as this was the second time Adelaide River has suffered cardiac arrhythmia, the gelding must not start in a race, official trial, or jump-out until the Stewards have received a satisfactory report from a qualified veterinary surgeon with specialist qualifications in equine medicine which includes the results of: (a) echocardiography performed by that veterinarian at rest; (b) electrocardiography (ECG) performed by that veterinarian at rest and at exercise and (c) any other examination that that veterinarian requests.

Following acceptance by the Stewards of the above report, they may grant written permission for the horse to be nominated for and participate in an official trial or jump-out. The gelding must not be nominated for a race unless: (a) it trials to the satisfaction of the Stewards in an official trial or jump-out, of at least 1000 metres; and (b) a qualified veterinary surgeon provides a satisfactory post-trial report that includes the results of cardiac auscultation within 15 minutes of completion of the official trial or jump-out.

 Following a satisfactory trial or jump-out which only Stewards or veterinarians officiate at, and upon receiving the satisfactory post-trial veterinary report referred to above, the Stewards may grant written permission for Adelaide River (IRE) to be nominated for and participate in a race.

THE UGLY 

DOUG J of MELBOURNE has his say on the clash of the Caulfield Cup and The Everest:

‘Just wanted to have my two bob’s worth after listening to all this racing media crap out of Sydney after The Everest and how it made Caulfield Cup day look second rate.

These guys and gals in Harbour City certainly look at things through rose-coloured glasses. Sure they had just over 50,000 at The Everest and reportedly most of them were 26 and under.

But how many of them even had a bet or were just there to party, get pissed and hopefully get laid? At least the Caulfield Cup crowd – unlike Melbourne Cup on most occasions – were more racing enthusiasts than part-goers.

Apparently it was that bad in the ‘mosh pit’ at Randwick that this ‘lost generation’ of racegoers were relieving themselves on the ground beside the track because there were insufficient port-a-loo’s to accommodate their needs.

Even Ricard Callander, a great spin-doctor for all things V’landys and Sydney racing, wrote in his column:

‘THE ATC got almost everything right on Saturday at Randwick for The Everest day but the lack of and positioning of Portaloo's was way off the mark and close to cruelty. I saw one chap wet his pants as he stood in the line for over half an hour.

I asked him why he was still in the line, "By the time I get to the front I reckon I'll need another one".

RICKY K of MELBOURNE writes:

‘CAN you believe that Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys has indicated that Sir Deleus – banned from racing during the Melbourne Spring Carnival due to veterinary concerns – may be permitted to run in Sydney?

PVL has highlighted different veterinary protocols in NSW to Victoria and says Racing NSW will stand by the recommendation of their Chief Vet after examing the horse that was one of the favorites for the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.

If Sir Deleus gets the all-clear and bobs up in a nice race for five-year-olds in Sydney soon, here’s hoping he just wins. Because if the horse, heaven forbid it doesn’t, happens to breakdown in running and cause chaos, Racing NSW will open the door to all sorts of litigation.’

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY SIDE OF THE EVEREST DAY – PLENTY WANT TO HAVE THEIR SAY WITH SOME SELF INDULGENCE FROM LGHR 

THE GOOD 

LGHR: Whilst we don’t like the ‘slot’ race concept or the absurd amount of money involved which restricts involvement to multi-millionaires or the companies they operate, there is one thing about The Everest that cannot be denied.

The foresight of Racing NSW CEO Peter V’Landys – like him or not – has brought a lost generation back to the track. SKY reported 70 per cent of the 50,000-plus crowd were 26 or younger. But whether they were there to party or punt is debatable.

Sydney racing officials should build a monument for the Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising and move heaven and earth to ensure he returns to defend his Everest title next year. He alone ensured this was much more than just a ‘hyped’ Group 1 sprint for absurd prizemoney for the best sprinters in the land.

PETER V’LANDYS: ‘You wouldn’t write the script much better. The atmosphere that The Everest meeting generates, people just can’t describe it. There were people there who have been throughout the world, and they were still in awe of Tthe Everest. Even the Hong Kong people couldn’t believe it.”

The Racing NSW boss said there was room for growth next year at Randwick, which was at capacity on Saturday. Hospitality included the new Base Camp VIP area, which V’landys said Racing NSW spent $9 million to create.

MARK G of BRISBANE makes a good point: ‘THE combined block-busters of The Everest and Caulfield Cup now threatens to overtake VRC Derby Day as the biggest in Australian racing. Whatever, it is good for the sport which is racing so many challenges.’

GARY J of MELBOURNE writes: ‘KA YING RISING proved he is the best sprinter in the world but the big winner on the day was David Hayes quick to admit it was the most memorable moment in his remarkable training career and also the toughest 10 days of his life.’

THE BAD 

LGHR: IF Sydney racing wants to attract more internationals to The Everest and their other big races, they need to ensure that training and quarantine centres provided meet every need of these star attractions.

The ability to swim at his home base of Sha Tin has been credited as one of the secrets to the success story of Kai Ying Rising. This wasn’t available at Canterbury with trainer David Hayes admitting ‘fitness’ was the concern after the horse didn’t trial as well as some expected.

Even after the win champion jockey Zac Purton admitted the Hong Kong superstar ‘wasn’t at his best’ but was quick to add ‘it was still good enough to beat them today.’

The fact that a redeveloped Randwick can accommodate only 50,000 racegoers on big days is also disappointing. Something needs to be done to correct that as The Everest continues to grow in popularity.

PETER V’LANDYS: “The most important thing for us is always the weather because that’s one thing you can’t control, but it was perfect (on Saturday). And having the tickets sold out almost two weeks before helps because you can plan on the day to provide more customer service, which the ATC did.”

But he admitted the problem of not being able to accommodate thousands more who wanted to attend needed to be addressed urgently. “We have to talk to the ATC, but the in-field in the old days used to be used and there’s no reason why we can’t put in an up-market area in there.

“We’ve got no space left on the other side unless we extend the Winx Stand. When we built it, we engineered it so you could put extra floors on. But, we fund it, so anything that happens, we pay for it. We’ll probably do the [having spectators in the] infield for next year, and we’ll plan to put another level on the Winx Stand.”

NOT everyone agreed with the ‘red carpet’ treatment afforded KA YING RISING:

Even before the big race was run ‘LARRY THE LOSER’ (we haven’t heard from him in ages) chimed in with this assessment:

‘WHY does some foreign so-called superstar get extra special preferential treatment?

Surely there are plenty of owners / trainers who slog it out day in day out in this country to try and win races on a level playing field that would like to have one of their flighty charges sitting out the back in a quiet stall, probably listening to soft classical music, rather than being tied up with the commoner's waiting for their time to compete.

Obviously, the Rules of Racing allow this to happen, and I get it that it's The Everest, but it just doesn't sit well with me. 

PS: NOT having a bet in the race and the nasty side of me hopes that it gets rolled. Good for ‘racing theatre’ though. Everyone has an opinion, including me.’

JEFF from BRISBANE had a side-swipe at the high profile ‘tipsters’ and form analysts:

‘CAN you believe how many of our leading tipsters and form analysts jumped off the best sprinter in the world Ka Ying Rising and recommended that we find something else to back in The Everest?

‘The Hong Kong horse was the highest laid on Betfair and when they jumped you could have got better than $2 despite the fact on the Chinese tote he was long odds-on. Imagine what the Hong Kong punters would have done to our precious corporates had they bet locally.

‘We were told he wasn’t fit, hadn’t trialled well, was terrible value, was racing on a different surface to Sha Tin where he had beaten nothing and wouldn’t be able to withstand the might of the powerful Waller stable which had three starters.

Some of the blame also lies at the feet of LGHR, who told us if the real Ka Ying Rising turned up he would just win but added the proviso that rather take odds-on the favorite it was better value and a safer bet to back Joliestar each-way, which ran fourth. Thanks a million’.’

BEVERLEY J of SYDNEY, who admits she likes a drink and a punt in moderation, poses an interesting question:

‘HOW much did the ‘plebs’ (through the gate race-day customers) have to pay for beer and spirits on Everest Day at Randwick?

It wouldn’t have been cheap and by the look of the crowd come Sweet Caroline time gallons had already been consumed. How many of them had a punt or even knew one of the horses that were lining up for the big race?

Sorry Mr V’Landys but that’s not returning a lost generation to the track – it’s just a reason for a big party and piss-up in a concert-like mosh pit beside the track. Many were more a hindrance to the horses – a la that disgraceful booing of the Hong Kong champ on his way to the barrier.

One could argue that everything was done to beat the superstar visitor. The expected storm didn’t arrive but the track was watered (more to the advantage of the locals than the favorite), he wasn’t provided with a swim facility which was vitally needed for his preparation (as happens in Hong Kong) and heaven forbid this wasn’t another big race that resulted in a Waller-thon result.

When I saw that blond-haired turf scribe standing beside David Hayes – getting his nose in front of the SKY cameras after the race – I wondered just who was holding Chris Waller’s hand?’   

THE UGLY 

LGHR: The percentage of drunken ferals among the crowd who tried to upset Ka Ying Rising by booing him from the time Zac Purton jumped aboard until he paraded down the straight on the way to the barriers was simply unacceptable.

Someone needs to educate them that racing is different to a footy game or the cricket where you boo your rivals. It was the one downside to a great event and Purton admitted it surprised him and never in his riding career had he experienced such bad behavior from a crowd before.

It reminded LGHR of the time when the great Silent Witness won a Hong Kong Sprint on International Day at Sha Tin. He was up against a Japanese superstar and the visitors had arrived in force. They filled almost a grandstand madly waving their national flag.

When their hopeful (I can’t remember his name) dashed clear on straightening the Japs went wild, then out of the pack emerged Silent Witness and gave him windburn.

As the Hong Kong crowd went bezerk, the visitors were silenced until the winner was paraded in front of them and they showed their appreciation of his performance. There was no booing before or after.

HENRY W of SYDNEY wasn’t as nice to that section of the crowd who showed a lack of Aussie sportsmanship:

‘SHAME on those drunken idiots – and they got hundreds of others to follow – who booed Ka Ying Rising and jockey Zac Purton trying to upset the visitor on his way to the start of The Everest.

They couldn’t even put their ‘booze’ down for a few minutes to stumble through the words of Sweet Caroline Sucks. You can boo at the footy or the cricket but at the races it’s a ‘no-no’. Focus on getting pissed and laid you ferals.’

MERV the MAD PUNTERS from BRISBANE (a regular contributor) wasted no time with his backhander:

‘ONCE again Richie Callander showed us what a bad judge he is. Stick to ‘spin doctoring’ Chris Waller old mate instead of trying to pick winners.

In case you missed it, here’s part of what the opinionated big Rich had to say in his column last week:

IN racing and punting, sitting on the fence means nothing to anyone so here it is, Ka Ying Rising can't win the $20 million The TAB Everest on Saturday.

Full stop. It's that simple.

Before the Hong Kong champ stepped out in a barrier trial at Randwick last Tuesday, I thought The Everest was his and the rest were running for second. But a week later, I reckon his odds-on quote is doing punters a favour and it's making the market for the others.

Forget the fake news that floated around over the weekend suggesting the Hong Kong superstar was injured or off his feed. There'll be no excuses come Saturday. His trainer David Hayes has declared his sprinting superstar fit and ready to go.

Now, David Hayes is a legendary trainer but he's even better at handling the media and delivering a few beauties. Hayes was chest-pumping about his champ running 38 seconds at Canterbury on Monday morning. A few of you reading this would go close to that!

His best line came when discussing Ka Ying Rising's recent trial.

"The two he trialled against the other morning, Joliestar and Angel Capital they'll have to find eight or nine lengths, as we were going just as easy as them in the trial, so I think we have them covered."

Hahahahahahahaha — one of your best, Hayesy.

For the media, Hayes maintained a brave face following the trial, but Ka Ying Rising looked well below what most expected. Can he get him spot on for Saturday? That's the million-dollar question.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: What makes racing so great is that we all have an opinion – just like you MERV! Good on Richie for expressing his – even if he was wrong. Let’s not forget his final say on the issue:

‘WIN, lose, or draw, Ka Ying Rising's trip Down Under for The Everest has been the biggest thing to happen to Sydney racing since Winx's farewell.’

That was so right!