SKY Racing's blackout on Victorian thoroughbred racing has resulted in a surge in betting on the rival harness and greyhound racing codes as the absence of vision on the primary driver for Australian wagering drags into a sixth week.
ADAM PENGILLY reports for FAIRFAX MEDIA that with Racing Victoria and Tabcorp, which boasts Sky Racing as its broadcasting arm, still yet to broker a new agreement on the return of Victorian racing to Sky's wall-to-wall channel, industry insiders are lamenting the stream of punters migrating to harness and greyhound racing.
CHAMPION trainer Peter Moody has been charged by Racing Victoria stewards over Lidari's cobalt positive last Spring.
RACING.COM reports that Moody met RV stewards on Friday morning and he was issued three alternative charges after Lidari returned a swab above the legal cobalt threshold of 200 micrograms per litre of urine following his second placing in the Turnbull Stakes on October 4.
RACING NSW stewards on Thursday outlined a total of 52 charges against six individuals relating to the sport's growing cobalt scandal.
JAMES POLSON reports for FAIRFAX MEDIA that Rosehill trainer Sam Kavanagh bore the brunt of them, with 24 charges relating to British import Midsummer Sun, which was alleged to have abnormal levels of cobalt following his Gosford Gold Cup win in January, as well as incidents relating to other horses including Ceda Miss, Palazzo Pubblico, Centre Pivot and Spinning Diamond.
RACING Victoria believes a broadcast rights deal with Seven West Media can be at least as lucrative as a contract with Tabcorp's Sky Racing and that it can survive Tabcorp turning off Victorian horse racing vision on Sky from Monday onwards.
JOHN STENSHOLT & PATRICK BARTLEY report for FAIRFAX MEDIA that internal fiscal modelling prepared by Racing Victoria show it making a net profit of several million dollars in the first year of a mooted deal with Seven on the broadcast deal alone, from about $16 million of revenue, including advertising on a new racing free-to-air channel and income from corporate bookmakers paying to show racing vision on their websites.
RACING NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy will review the evidence from the Midsummer Sun cobalt inquiry in the next week but it appears certain there will be further charges.
CHRIS ROOTS reports in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD that suspended trainer Sam Kavanagh is facing eight charges from Midsummer Sun and race-day treatments of two other horses, but he has not been asked to respond to them as yet.
SENIOR personnel at the Flemington Equine Clinic have denied threatening trainer Sam Kavanagh with bankruptcy if he named the company as the source of a cobalt product.
AAP reports that co-owner Dr Tom Brennan and the manager of the practice, Aaron Corby, have appeared before a Racing NSW stewards’ inquiry on Tuesday into an elevated cobalt level found in a swab taken from the Kavanagh-trained Midsummer Sun after he won the Gosford Gold Cup in January.
Read more: EQUINE CLINIC DENIES SERIOUS 'THREAT' TO COBALT TRAINER
A GROUP of respected horse veterinarians from around Australia are dismayed at the direction the cobalt debate has taken.
PATRICK BARTLEY REPORTS in THE AGE that they have contacted Fairfax Media to express their deep concerns over the misuse of cobalt and their fears of animal welfare. They contend that some sections of the racing media have allowed the Victorian trainers whose horses returned high cobalt readings to criticise Racing Victoria officials, even to the point of suggesting "entrapment".
A PIT full of dead greyhounds near Bundaberg and racehorse carcasses at Mt Magnificent in South Australia. A piglet and possums strapped to dog lures in southern Queensland and at Tooradin. An outlawed electric “jigger’’ found on the track at Mornington.
And investigations in many states into a natural salt called cobalt that, when used in illegal doses, can — allegedly — make horses run faster and might even kill them.
Horses are whipped to win, and to the outside world the three racing codes are blurred into one colossal bad look.
But maybe it’s the bad look before things get better; that the vigilance of stewards and administrators to go hard without fear or favour in all three versions of the one sport — racing animals for sport and gambling — will lead to a relatively trusted and prosperous era. Australian Trainers’ Association president Robbie Griffiths thinks so.
“Maybe this is the big broom,’’ he told MATTHEW STEWART of the HERALD SUN.
Read more: LIVE BAITING, GRAVEYARDS, COBALT & JIGGERS - BAD LOOK
RACING under lights will commence at Victoria’s newest racecourse, Pakenham Racing Club’s (PRC) Racing.com Park, in early 2016 following a $5 million funding boost announced today by the Victorian State Government.
In a coup for the PRC and the wider Victorian thoroughbred racing industry, installation of a new $12 million track lighting system will commence by June 2015 thanks to a joint investment from the Government, Racing Victoria (RV), Country Racing Victoria (CRV) and PRC.
RACING Victoria (RV) has today released its 2015-16 racing calendar which will feature 557 race meetings across the state from 1 August to 31 July.
The 2015-16 program has been determined by RV following a collaborative process with Clubs and stakeholders which saw feedback considered from a draft of the race dates circulated in December 2014.
