IS COUNTRY RACING GETTING ITS FAIR SHARE OF THE SPOILS?

THE following article has been printed courtesy of the North Queensland Register and Terry Butts from his weekly column, Silks and Saddles:

TUCKED away in the middle of Queensland Racing chairman Bob Bentley’s annual report delivered at the AGM of Queensland Racing Limited is ‘a little known fact that more Queenslanders attend a race meeting annually than a game of rugby league’.

Now, I am sure you would agree that is a highly significant statistic, and on investigation I learnt that the figures were actually sourced through the Australian Bureau of Statistics, giving more credibility to the claim.

Shame the ABC and other broadcasters didn’t latch on to the same fact, for if you are out of range of Radio TAB and Sky you simply don’t get a race broadcast.

The ABC gave racing away in favor of football many years ago. It went off the air without a whimper of protest and left many racing fans in the bush without their traditional Saturday afternoon enjoyment.

To many a lifestyle, it was a great, unforgiveable shame brought about by a changing of the guard at the ABC, and history has probably shown it be to a retrograde step.

It would be interesting to know just how many new listeners were gained at the expense of those of the outback.

I remember in the 1970s we (the Aussies) would congregate in Hong Kong on a Saturday (usually the old Carlton on Tai Po Road) to listen to the races and the Melbourne football on Radio Australia.

We even had a contact with Qantas, which would collect the discarded newspapers on the Friday night flight into Honkers so we could have form guides.

Great days! But I digress. The fact that more people attend race meetings than rugby league (and motor racing) is a great indictment for the industry.

And remember, we have a brain dead bureaucracy that bars those under-18s from attending the big race days. It’s okay for the kids to get high at the rugby venues and the rev-head ravers to carry on like a pork chop.

And it’s okay to carry on at Flemington on Cup day. But not at the major race days at Townsville, Cairns or even Home Hill.

And yes, we have the same Minister, whatever his name is, in charge of licensing and racing. Can you believe it?

But back to the magic stat that the ABC continues to ignore - the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports 500,000 Queenslanders attend a race meeting every year – slightly more than league, and motor sports (366,00) AFL (228,000) and rugby union (188,000).

There are no figures for A League football – (that attracts ABC Radio coverage) but you can expect it to be well down the list – below basketball in fact, which is not even rated.

Racing in Queensland employs more than 29,000 people – more than the electricity, gas and water sector in this State and just below communications (33,000).

The direct expenditure impact of the racing industry in Queensland is $855.5 million and it is the largest contributor to the cultural and recreational services sector.

And now this – the racing industry contributes $1.55 billion towards the Gross State Product, of which Thoroughbred Racing is responsible for 79 per cent, trotting 11 per cent and greyhounds 10 per cent.

And the total net wagering revenue for last year was in excess of $328 million (from a turnover of $2036mn), of which the racing industry received $128m that was split among the three codes.

The figures might look impressive. But is racing, particularly country racing, getting its fair share of the spoils?