OF all the racing States in Australia, for some unknown reason QUEENSLAND is the hot-bed of rumor mongering and racetrack gossip – perhaps it’s the warmer climate. We will continue to air some of the ‘grievances’ and ‘inquiries’ received in dozens of e-mails to this web-site daily in a regular racing 'BELIEVE IT OR NOT' column.

The hottest topics to the e-mail box in the past week have seen a stunning new twist to the Baby Boom race inquiry; concerning allegations about what is happening in the betting ring on Brisbane race days; questions about the financial plight and enforced takeover of clubs throughout the state by Queensland Racing; and a number of other contentious issues.

A NEW TWIST TO THE CONTROVERSY – HOW DID BABY BOOM GET INTO THE FIELD?

A NEW twist has emerged to the Baby Boom race controversy at the Sunshine Coast which we have been made aware of that needs some quick investigating by the authorities.

In the past week the letsgohorseracing web-site has received alarming information that alleges Baby Boom was not originally entered for the race in question yet made the field despite the fact that there were no late nominations.

The allegations, which we have confirmed are legitimate, are contained in the following e-mail that we hope stewards will add to their Baby Boom inquiries.

‘FRIENDS of ours had a horse entered for the same race that Baby Boom was in at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, January 3.

Understandably they were keen to see what horses were opposed to their hopeful and quickly printed out a list when nominations closed.

There were over 20 entered and no late nominations were called for. To their surprise when the acceptances were declared there were two runners included that were not in the original list of nominations.

One of these horses was Baby Boom and when they checked out its form our friends were a shade devastated as they did not expect their horse to prove competitive against one that had such good credentials.

We all know what happened on that fateful day and they didn’t think much of what had occurred until the controversy erupted over the running of Baby Boom and the inquiry that followed.

This convinced our friends to take a closer look at the situation. They double checked their facts and cannot understand how these two horses got into the field when neither was entered nor were there any late entries.

We might add that the other horse was from a prominent stable that those close to the industry insist has had plenty of start over the years. We are not suggesting anything untoward here but would like to know how it got into the field as well.

Then we read a report where Racing NSW chief steward, Ray Murrihy, has launched an inquiry into security measures in place at Racing Information Services Australia, which is responsible for the compilation of race fields and form.

Mr Murrihy wants to know who has unauthorized access to the RISA system. In view of what happened in the Baby Boom race perhaps the Queensland stewards should become involved in that as well.

We would like to know if anyone at Queensland Racing has access to the RISA system. If not, who then was responsible for these two horses getting into a field when they were not even nominations or late entries and why was this not detected? – Name and address with-held but authenticated.

BOOKIE v BOOKIE – IT HELPS WHEN YOU’RE ARMED WITH INSIDE INFORMATION

WE have received several e-mails in recent months concerning the much-publicized plight of bookmakers working on local racing in the Brisbane ring but it seems there could be more to their diminishing numbers than has been revealed publicly.

This e-mail best covers the concerns being expressed and raises interesting questions about what Queensland Racing is doing to correct the situation.

‘WE keep hearing about the plight of the bookmakers betting at Brisbane meetings yet one would think they would earn a good living when you consider the bad winning records that favorites have at these meetings.

It seems the majority of these fielders are struggling to hold much money on Brisbane racing – even via the telephone service available to clients who no longer want to come to the track.

But adding to their woes they are being destroyed by runners for a couple of leading bookmakers who they allege have plenty of inside information that is proving to be spot on.

I know one good bookie who recently got hit for a bet of $1,000 on a favorite that saluted in an early race. How could he balance his book when he was only holding a few hundred dollars on the race at the time?

To make matters worse the bet was placed by an agent for a leading bookmaker fielding alongside him. He could tell the supposed punter to take a hike but that would only lead to a complaint being made to the betting supervisor and he would wind up in trouble with stewards for failing to bet to his required limit.

We have all heard these stories about the top bookie rumored to have a number of prominent jockeys on his speed dial. We all hope that isn’t true and that the same bookie doesn’t have the suggested long time friendship with a prominent Queensland Racing official.

Adding to the bookmakers’ woes is the fact that the betting supervisors are, in the eyes of many at the track, just there for a day out. They talk of one of them who spends more time at the food canteen than in the betting ring.

Come on Queensland Racing, get your act together before you lose every bookmaker except those suggested to be running the show, not to mention what little confidence punters have in betting on races in south-east Queensland.’ – Rob Black, Burpengary.

‘CLUBS WERE IN A SOUND FINANCIAL POSITION UNTIL QRL CAME ALONG’

THERE has been a long list of e-mails in the wake of revelations that the Townsville Turf Club is the latest Queensland club to fall on tough financial times. In fact it's broke.

Some blame club officials for the current crisis but the majority raise the question that is best contained in the e-mail that we have selected to run on this issue.

‘HAS anyone stopped to consider that all these clubs – like Townsville – were in a sound financial position until Queensland Racing, as we now know it, came along?

Why is it so you may ask? Is it poor management by club officials or take-over by stealth – a combined effort of Bob the Builder and the Queensland Government?

Those of us who have been around long enough to watch racing progress in Queensland for so many years cannot believe how it has stagnated since the Labor Government allowed Bentley to stage a virtual takeover of industry assets.

Let’s just look at the current situation. Major clubs that either rely on Queensland Racing for survival, are in a joint venture arrangement, or simply kowtow to the Bentley regime now include: Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Ipswich.

That leaves us with the merged Eagle Farm – Doomben entity and the Gold Coast. Queensland Racing and the Brisbane Racing Club have been shaping up for that big fight for so long that everyone now realizes that neither is prepared to do more than fire a shot across the others’ bow – that’s probably how officials of each would prefer it.

But spare a thought for the directors of the Gold Coast Turf Club – the only ones in Queensland with the balls to take Bentley and his crew on. They are about to be put to the sword by every-one from the State Government to Magic Millions using Builder Bob and the QR Board as their battering ram.

Of course the reward for Bob and the Boys will be a five-year term on the new integrated three code board being legislated by the Queensland Government and Racing Minister Lawlor without any public disclosure or general industry consultation whatsoever.

Racing in Queensland resembles what you would expect in Russia or Uganda. – Don Kingston – Townsville.

SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE CONTROVERSIAL WHIP RULE

THE decision by the Australian Racing Board not to change the controversial whip rule despite threats of court action from connections of horses beaten in close finishes in feature races prompted this e-mail:

‘I read with interest your article on the ARB’s decision to maintain the present whip rule for the time being.

It is a problem that appears to have divided the industry for ALL THE WRONG REASONS.

‘Mr Bentley and his fellow Board members are stuck between a rock and a hard place over the wording of the rule in an endeavor to accommodate all concerned.

‘There are the old ‘Mick Dittman’ style of riding supporters. There are the RSPCA ‘do-gooders’ and everyone in between.

We have the situation in Victoria where it would appear the APPEALS BOARD, chaired by a JUDGE, considers the penalties set out by the Board for breaching the rules are PENALTIES THAT DO NOT FIT THE CRIME. As a result the stewards are obliged to follow precedents set by the appeals body and copy plenty of ‘stick’ as a result.

On the other hand you have the NSW system whereby everyone is put up against the wall and suspended – questionable legal procedures being followed. In other words you get a ‘wack’ regardless of the seriousness of the crime. It may well be the way to go but they have had over 60 suspensions against NIL in Victoria. Is it safer to ride in NSW or Victoria?

I would like to know the records for both states for careless riding charges during the period that the new rule has been introduced. Has the suspensions in NSW reduced the careless riding offences? The same question could be asked about Victoria – have they varied at all?

I would also like to know if a court would deal with a ‘poor’ man who hit his wife 10 times any differently to a ‘multi’ who did the same. In other words would a court of law see any difference in a horse being wacked 10 times in a Maiden or in a Group One? – Vic Tyndale – Redcliffe.

RACING POLITICS RUNS DEEP IN QUEENSLAND – EVEN IN THE MEDIA

IT seems that politics in racing in Queensland are not entirely restricted to the track or the club directors and Board rooms of those administering the industry.

We have received a couple of letters in recent times concerning the racing media, which we were reluctant to run, but have decided to give this one some space.

‘WHAT is going on with the racing media in Queensland? Do you have to be part of the ‘click’ to survive and how much control is there on what those trying to do a good job are permitted to write or broadcast?

I am a great fan of a former top jockey who has made the successful transition to racing writer in Gary Legg. But stories are filtering back to the track that he is not getting a fair go under changes that have been made at Queensland Newspapers.

Now I would hope that these stories are incorrect but we are told that Legg was forced to join the Turf Section of The Courier-Mail against his will under a staff merger that involved journalists from The Sunday Mail.

Most of us saw that as a positive move. We haven’t forgotten the day Gary went in to bat in The Sunday Mail for the industry stakeholders declaring Eagle Farm at the time a ‘goat track.’ It was a story that needed to be written but there was no way the de facto QTC media manager was going to let that happen at The Courier-Mail.

We are told there are some officials at the now merged BRC who have never forgiven Legg for that story – funny how they forget all the positive and good stories but tend to remember forever the one that got up their noses.

Now surely Gary isn’t paying the price for that misdemeanor still. We hear he writes plenty of stories but many never see the light of day in the turf pages of The Courier-Mail. Thank goodness he doesn’t answer to the same people at The Sunday Mail where we look forward to his fine racing journalism that is lacking elsewhere these days.

I might also mention that The Courier-Mail saw fit to make redundant some members of their Turf Section in recent times and that included Gary Keep who did such a wonderful job for so long on harness racing. All we get these days is a propaganda column written by a director of the Albion Park club. How likely is that to contain any constructive criticism?

Now let’s turn our attention to the politics over at RADIO TAB where we are told Stephen Hewlett gets more than his share of the rough end of the pineapple.

Hewlett, surrounded by what most of us consider a bunch of clowns, breaks more racing news in this country than most, outside of Sky Channel’s Andrew Bensley. But it seems that over the years he must have stepped on the wrong toes. It couldn't be a QR Board member, could it?

We are told that he recently ran a story concerning plans by Queensland’s leading race-caller Wayne Wilson to retire in August. It was in a popular column that Hewlett writes for the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The story had already been broken elsewhere but apparently Hewlett was hauled over the coals because this hadn’t been officially announced by UNiTAB or more to the point run exclusively by Bart Sinclair in The Courier-Mail as he was on holidays. How farcical is that?

Hewlett was also dumped from the popular Punters Club that he ran so successfully at Doomben for many years – contributing his earnings into the pool. The story goes that the BRC wanted those in the media that were more supportive of the Eagle Farm – Doomben merger rewarded for their efforts.

If politics in the racing media are so bad that you have to be careful to say only what people want to hear then you will wind up with no-talent bums compering shows that should be working as DJs on bush radio stations – sound familiar?’ – Fred from Marburg.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THESE TRACKS AT THE SUNSHINE COAST?

NOW no ‘Believe It Or Not’ column on Queensland Racing would be complete without a regular bleat about the Cushion Tracks and rest assured the e-mails are still rolling in.

Here’s one that addresses a more current and concerning problem on the Sunshine Coast:

‘THIS situation at the Sunshine Coast with the constant transferring of meetings from the grass to the Cushion Track has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

When officials decided on the Tuesday that the Sunshine Coast meeting planned for the grass last Sunday needed to be switched to the Cushion, a few of us said ‘hold the phone!’

We considered the fact that there was a cyclone out there somewhere in the Pacific that was heading the way of the east coast of Australia by the weekend and thought well maybe they are being correctly cautious.

Then again had the cyclone crossed the coast somewhere near Caloundra they wouldn’t have been able to race even on the Cushion Track. And let’s face it the path that these cyclones take once they near land-fall is pretty hard to predict at the best of times.

But what Queensland Racing would have us believe was that as far out as Tuesday they could declare the grass track at the Sunshine Coast would be unsafe for racing the following Sunday. They rabitted on about all the rain that had been received up there.

It’s always been an area that attracts a lot of rain but before the installation of the Cushion Track would they have dared to call a grass meeting off that early. I doubt it. To make matters worse they raced on a Good Track in Brisbane on Saturday and the sun was shining when they went around on the Cushion at the Sunshine Coast a day later.

I am told that one of several meetings transferred in recent weeks was done so after only a minor reading of rain in the gauge at the track. It appears the order has gone out just to use the Cushion Track as often as possible.

For some reason now it’s not only the lights on the grass track they don’t want to use, it’s the grass track as well. Some bright spark at QR obviously saw how many scratching there were when the meetings were transferred from the grass and decided to avoid the embarrassment by starting out on the cushion, albeit for last Sunday.

I am sounding like a worn out record but the majority of owners and trainers prefer not to race on Cushion Tracks and any punter who respects his money won’t bet on these meetings. Just have a look at the turnover compared to meetings on the grass.’ – Alan Green, Sunshine Coast.