SILKS & SADDLES,’ the widely-read column of respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER this week reports on growing industry concerns about the continuing loss of appeals by Racing Queensland stewards.
He highlights the dismal financial performance of the Mackay Turf Club since the sacking of secretary-manager Joe Hynes; comments on the emergence of quarter horse racing in the North and looks toward the latest of the north’s country Cups at Innisfail on Saturday.
Here is his column:
STEWARDS RECORD AT APPEAL LEVEL AN EMBARRASSMENT FOR QLD RACING
QUEENSLAND racing’s judiciary continued its harrowing (and surely frustrating) record last week when stewards lost both cases involving the high profile jockeys Chris Whiteley and Larry Cassidy.
In the case of Whiteley the stewards decided not to proceed. This was after the jockey produced veterinary evidence that indicated the mount on which he was charged was seriously unsound.
The inquiry, after three adjournments, mind you, was finalized last Thursday when Whiteley, not unexpectedly, was cleared.
Surely if a steward watched a race and suspected something untoward he would request an immediate veterinary examination. That’s a fundamental procedure or certainly was in the old Cooper days at least.
But this wasn’t done in Mackay the day Whiteley rode the short-priced favorite Red Story.
In fact Whiteley was cleared by stewards to leave the Mackay racecourse without a mention of his ride on the horse. You might only wonder what might have occurred in the intervening period, for the jockey was contacted by a steward at the airport by mobile phone and ‘asked a few questions’ before boarding his plane.
Whiteley says he first new of an adjourned enquiry when he read the Stewards’ Report the next day.
The ‘inquiry’ was adjourned, said the report, to take evidence from the trainer. Then it was adjourned again for another week to obtain betting evidence.
Just how many stewards were involved now in this inquiry is a question you well might ask.
And then three weeks after the race he was charged with three counts of not giving the horse its best chance. In other words he ‘gave it a run’ or more bluntly he ‘pulled it up’.
Quite obviously you don’t need to pull a horse up if it is going around with a fractured splint bone. And that’s exactly what an x-ray, taken only two weeks before the race, clearly revealed.
But really, should it have been the responsibility of the jockey to produce that evidence?
No doubt he is glad he did.
He also knows damn well he might have won the battle this time – but perhaps not the war!
We will watch with interest.
THIS APPEAL HEARING WAS NO ‘KANGAROO COURT’ FOR LITTLE HOPALONG
BUT it was the other decision that surely must have got up the noses of the stewards.
They were pretty confident they had reached the right decision on Larry Cassidy for his ride on the short- priced favorite Trump, at Doomben three weeks ago. They had outed him for three months.
But his legal rep. Barry Taylor, well versed in matters of racing, was able to create enough doubt in the minds of the panel last Thursday for them to uphold the appeal.
Stewards have copped an awful flogging at QCAT hearings over the year but these two matters were lost even before they had reached that level.
And that must hurt.
MACKAY TURF CLUB ‘IN THE SOUP’ SINCE ‘DUMB’ SACKING OF JOE HYNES
TALK about hurt – the Mackay Turf Club held its AGM recently and reported a loss for the second successive year. The loss of $214,370 followed the previous year’s deficit of $134,244.
And apparently it would have been a lot more had they not received a reputed $100,000 payment from SKY Channel...
BUT what the members might not know is that the losses coincided with the departure (actually he was unceremoniously sacked) of previous secretary-manager Joe Hynes.
This column has previously declared the sacking of Hynes was probably the dumbest act perpetrated by a race club and or Racing Queensland this decade.
During his 10 year service the MTC declared an operating profit every year. When Hynes left there was close to $1m in the bank.
Today, after the club hands over $600,000 for its share of the $7.4 million redevelopment currently underway at Ooralea, there won’t be a lot of change left in the till.
In fact you’d have to wonder whether there would be any racing at all on this once-famous track if RQ hadn’t come along and well, taken over under the guise of equity sharing.
RUMORS OF ORGANIZED QUARTER HORSE RACING GROWING STRONGER
MEANWHILE out west the rumors of organized quarter horse racing for the bush tracks gets stronger and stronger.
No doubt encouraged by the success of Normanton where quarter horse racing is now all the rage, there’s a concerted move by the some of the old NQRA bush clubs to follow suit.
“It is not if…but when,” an old racing identity from out Richmond way told me at the Cluden meeting last week.
LAST OF THE BIG COUNTRY CUPS AND ‘BILLY THE KID’ MAY BE THERE
IT is the last of the big country Cups meetings on Saturday with Innisfail staging their annuals.
Innisfail, once a three-day carnival with 30-odd bookies and horses from all over the state is now reduced to a one-day affair.
But it is still a Big Day out and usually attracts many of the old time residents including its favorite son Billy Slater.
No doubt the old rivals Damasqui and the local star Our Private Jet will dominate the Cup as they did at Gordonvale and at Atherton in most recent starts.
But it’s not just the racing at Pearse Park that gets them in – it’s the big party after the last. No doubt they will be rocking in the ring (and rolling wherever) again this Saturday night!
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..
