IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer, TERRY BUTTS, looks at the good, the bad and the ugly side of the Mackay Cup meeting last Saturday.
Butts also reports on the success of Mackay trainer which was nothing short of incredible at the two-day Oak annual.
Here is the Butts column:
TERRIFIC CROWD LET DOWN BY CLUB ON BEST MACKAY CUP DAY IN AGES
LOCALS claim it was the best attended Mackay Cup day in ages.
The car park was chockers long before the first and so were the bars and betting outlets.
Ooralea was certainly a Crowded House. And many of the racegoers were young and dressed to the hilt.
As in years gone, they parked all along Peak Downs Highway which runs off Nebo Road, the section of the Bruce Highway after which that famous galloper of yesteryear was named.
So named because his trainer Dick Roden was born and bred on Nebo Road which of course is the main thoroughfare into the once -thriving sugar city.
But I digress.
It is no secret the Mackay region has been ravaged by the downturn in coal production over the past two years, and the place that once boasted the best economy of any city of comparative size in Australia, has been well and truly in the doldrums.
As one local wag described it: ‘You would swear they have put Valium in the town water supply.’
MACKAY CLUB DOING LITTLE TO DISPENSE WITH ITS ‘BASKET CASE’ IMAGE
RACING too has suffered as a consequence, and the club has been described by one senior past member of Racing Queensland as a “basket case”.
The Mackay Turf club once had a bank balance that was the envy of all clubs in the state. It is $300,000 in the red and showing little or no signs of recovery.
But it is hard to find sympathy for its plight. Past committees and poor decision making are blamed for the demise of the Mackay Turf Club, of which there have been three CEOs in two years.
There have been missed opportunities too. Like snubbing Mackay Beach Horse Racing carnival that has become one of the state’s foremost attractions attracting thousands of tourists and millions of dollars each year.
And the latest catastrophe to handball the Cup Calcutta last week to entrepreneurs who elected to hold it at a downtown girlie bar much to the disgust of the general racing public and Turf Club members who stayed away in droves.
It was the subject of local radio talkback during the week at which the CEO made a feeble, certainly not convincing, explanation as to why the club didn’t conduct its own Calcutta in its own entertainment precinct. It is a no brainer.
Simply a lost opportunity to at least help improve the debt level.
July is the month that Racing Queensland is (or was) to hand the club back to the committee after one year of administering affairs from Deagon.
WHERE THE NEW POWERS-THAT-BE FROM RQ AT MACKAY FOR CUP DAY?
ONE wonders if any of the current RQ decision makers were at Ooralea on Saturday – and if not, why not?
They might have seen first-hand the debacle in the Members’ Bar where after race three only those with the correct money could purchase a drink, so I am told by a club member who was present.
The bar tender, he says told him she was given $27 in change including just 11 one dollar coins. She soon ran out of change – so was forced to demand the correct money to supply the drinks.
Imagine that when they were four deep at the bar. Worse, there were reports of other outlets around the course simply running out of stock very early in the day.
The crowd obviously was far greater than the club expected. And for that there can be a degree of forgiveness.
But it was the handling of public transport, parking and most of all taxis that will probably ensure the club won’t be getting a crowd anywhere that size again unless an apology is forthcoming and a vow it won’t happen again.
In the absence of buses and the demand for cabs grew beyond their patience, punters and well-dressed racegoers began jumping the queue and headed for the highway.
I spoke to one Atherton visitor who took one look at the queue after the last and decided to join the growing line of queue jumpers.
He flagged down a cab waving a $50 note. The driver quickly pulled over and delivered his fare to the Shamrock hotel (3km ride) where the $50 note suddenly became $20.
“But it was money well spent – we would have been waiting for hours.” he said.
“There was just no crowd control for taxis whatsoever.”
CUP WON BY THE HORSE WITH THE QUIRK NAME –HOLDONTOYAHORSES
THE Cup was won by the local with the quirky name of Holdontoyahorses, trained to the minute by veteran Russell Adair. a former jockey back in the 1980s and a trainer with an enviable strike rate.
He doesn’t have many horses these days, content to agist several for outsiders at his picturesque Baker’s Creek farm. But he sure knows how to get his horses to fire and to have them spot on for the day.
Brisbane visitor Danagaze was well backed but after drawing the outside barrier never really had a good run and the owners after the race decided to retire him. He is 10 years old next month and he has been left in the care of Merrin Rogers, daughter of late, great Plugger Rogers, a famous racing personality from Gargett (actually the birth place of George Moore) in the lush Pioneer Valley.
There is a long history of association between Laurie Mayfield-Smith, the trainer of Danaze and the Rogers family.
Plugger was a real character. And the story of him buying his first Mercedes Benz on a trip to Brisbane 30 odd years ago is legend. He saw it on display and strolled into the showroom and said to a somewhat disinterested salesman, who probably thought he had another “tyre-kicker” to contend with:
“How much for that car, mate – and I want to pay by cheque and drive it away now?”
The salesman just looked at him and then said bluntly: “Doesn’t matter – you can’t afford it” and carried on reading the paper.
“Here, ring this number,” said Plugger to the salesman who was by now on the verge of calling police or the ambulance or both.
But finally he did, and the bank manager in Mackay said: “Yeah, he can write a cheque, as long as it’s not for more than million.”
Plugger drove all the way home in his new Benz.
It happened more than 30 years ago when three million was the equivalent to more than $12mn today.
DAPH ‘N’ ALF COVERING ALMOST AS MUCH TERRITORY AS BURKE AND WILLS
THE Newmarket on Thursday was won by Daph ‘n’Alf (aka Bourke and Wills) who recovered remarkably from his unplaced effort in the Rockhampton Newmarket a week earlier to blitz the Mackay field in spite of a remarkable betting drift.
Prior to his Rocky failure the much travelled sprinter had gone from Atherton to Bundamba where he was a close second in the Eye Liner to Smokin’ Joe.
In a week the horse had travelled an incredible 2800km in the back of Greg Wehlow’s trailer float.
And he hasn’t returned home to the Tablelands yet. The horse left Ooralea in the care of Rocky based Jared Wehlow and after a little deserved R ‘n’R he will be set for city assignments before returning, no doubt for the Cleveland Bay in Townsville at the end of September.
Another highlight of the Mackay meeting was the win of Mt Isa flyer Marina Sands which was also a remarkable drifter in betting from $6 to $14. His new trainer Johnny O’Sing (who put the polish on Our Boy Malarchi) was full of confidence before the race.
“Wally Welburn rode him in a gallop during the week and said the last time he rode horse that went like him – it won a Group race in Brisbane”
And Adrian Coome, sidelined after the Rocky Cup fall. declared him a “certainty next start” after his first-up third at the Callaghan Park carnival.
And he was so right.
His likely clash in the Cleveland Bay with Daph is eagerly anticipated.
MANZELMANN GOT MORE THAN HIS SHARE OF COMPENSATION AT OAK PARK
A notable absentee from the Mackay meeting was leading local trainer John Manzelmann who elected to take a truck load of horses to Oak Park.
And it proved a most fortuitous decision with his runners at the famous two day meeting in the Gulf earning over $36,000 in prizemoney.
They came from near and far and the racing and the partying was in keeping with past Oak Park meetings. Unique is hardly the word.
Less impressed however is the veteran jockey Frankie Edwards who pulled up stumps and drove home after taking a fall in the second race on the first day. He had nine rides over the two days but when Blue Danube dropped him at the 700m – the party was over for the Townsville based hoop who is nursing some painful lower back problems and bruising.
It was in the same spot that Graham Kliese came to grief last year and both agree – the track is bloody hard. More stones than sand, they reckon.
But the surface wasn’t responsible for this mishap.
The saddle slipped.
While Frank is wrapped up in bandages, Cairns owner Rob Koch is celebrating in Hong Kong after three winners in two venues over the weekend.
His two year old Neveson won at Mackay and at Oak Park, Stieg and Erebus won enough in prizemoney to ensure a Business Class return ticket home Honkers for the owner and No 1 client for the Fred Weiland stable.
SEPTEMBER RE-OPENING FOR CLUDEN DESPITE RUMORS TO CONTRARY
THE latest on the Cluden track is, in spite of persistent rumours to the contrary, on target for a September opening – the Cup to be run on the last Saturday of that month. That’s straight from the horse’s mouth.
And you might wonder, now that Government has given the go ahead for the Eagle Farm project that the Minister might act favourably to Townsville’s request for a desperately needed stable block to coincide with the new track. It just makes so much sense to construct stables in tandem with the current project.
COLUMN COURTESY OF TERRY BUTTS AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, one of Australia's leading rural newspapers.
TERRY BUTTS can be contacted by e-mailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
