THE WEDNESDAY WHINGE has a new look but won’t be dispensing with the theme and focus on the THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY side of what is happening in racing. The Whinge will continue to provide an opportunity for The Cynics to Have Their Say. Thanks again for your support for the most read column on this website and one of the most read on racing websites in the country. Our popularity continues to grow despite the bagging it cops from some high profile officials, especially in Queensland, who cannot cope with constructive criticism of any kind. We encourage supporters – and critics – to continue to contribute but plan to restrict the Whinge to less than 10 of the best items each week. Our message to those who continually bag us is simple: IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU READ, THEN DON’T REVISIT THE WHINGE.

PLEAS FOR PETER MOODY NOT TO BE LOST TO RACING INDUSTRY FOREVER

WE received several emails on the decision by champion trainer PETER MOODY (pictured in a Herald Sun cartoon) to quit racing but decided, as most basically said the same thing, to run just this one which hopefully gets the message across:

GRAHAM TURNBULL of MELBOURNE writes:

‘HAVING watched the emotional farewell of Peter Moody from the training ranks in Australia, one can only hope that he is not lost to the industry forever.

His Group 1 win at Moonee Valley last Thursday night was a fairytale finish to a brilliant career – but I suspect we will see him back training in a year or two – albeit on a smaller scale.

It would be a waste of his ‘real’ talents if Moods wound up running a pub even if he would no doubt make a success of a career change. I for one believe he could make a nice living on the public speaking circuit. Those who have listened to him at racing functions say he is sensational.

But the industry should never lose someone of his ability and talent. In some way racing needs to ensure than when the dust settles on his six month sabbatical there is an opportunity for Peter Moody to return to racing.

EDITOR’S NOTE: AS we aren’t likely to make too much mention of PETER MOODY in the coming months in the WEDNESDAY WHINGE unless he makes a surprise comeback decision, we decided to bow out on the topic with two views on his departure from two very different media outlets – the MELBOURNE AGE and Hong Kong-based website THE RACING BITCH:

‘MOODY DEPARTURE ECHOED THE DEMISE OF SHAKESPEARE’S THANE OF CAWDOR’

IN a feature story in THE AGE, MICHAEL LYNCH wrote:

PETER Moody's departure from the Australian training ranks – perhaps forever, perhaps not – carried echoes of the demise of Shakespeare's Thane of Cawdor.

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it," was how the death of the treacherous earl was reported in the tragedy Macbeth as confirmation of his repentance on the scaffold before his execution was relayed to the Scottish nobles.

Moody's punishment in the high-profile cobalt case in which he has been embroiled for over a year was a six-month suspension – not quite a death sentence but for a racehorse trainer something that probably seems close.

But it could be said of him too that nothing in his training life became him like the leaving of it too after he saddled a Group 1 winner on the last night of his career. When Flamberge held on to win the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley by the narrowest of margins from Holler, emotions overflowed as an era came to an end.

The Queenslander has always presented a bluff figure in the mounting yard, a hail fellow, well met sort of bloke; rough and ready at times, pensive and reflective at others. 

He insists that he is now done and dusted and that he won't be coming back, having hinted several times in the past that he did not see himself as a trainer for the rest of his life. 

Others are not so sure and are betting that the lure of the turf will prove too strong once he has served his suspension. Only time will tell on that.

He could be excused his moments of bittersweet joy on Thursday as he celebrated his gelding's triumph in a race that had provided him with an earlier career highlight, when his wonder mare, Black Caviar, had made her last appearance in Victoria three years ago a winning one in the William Reid. 

It was to be the second-last triumph in an extraordinary 25-race unbeaten career that Moody's name will forever be synonymous with as she was retired a month later at an emotional press conference at Moody's Caulfield stables following her triumph in the T.J. Smith Stakes at Sydney's autumn carnival in 2013.

In his remarks following the William Reid, Moody hinted at a truth that will always hang over him following his conviction for unintentionally administering one of his gallopers, Lidari, with excessive levels of cobalt in 2014.

"It's not the ideal circumstances to finish your career with a little bit of murky water there – let's not kid ourselves – but to take that Group 1 home tonight is pretty special," he said.

His conviction means that Moody's reputation will always carry an asterisk and that he will be regarded as a flawed hero, as his comments tacitly acknowledge.

He has a point when he is critical of how long Racing Victoria took to see his case through – 15 months – and it is undoubtedly true that the saga took a toll on Moody and his family and may well have soured his appetite for the industry.

In the end due process did work: the case was made, Moody's argument that he did not cheat deliberately but that Lidari was administered excess amounts of a substance containing cobalt through lax work practices and a staff member's oversight was accepted. To that extent he actually "won" his battle, receiving not the mandatory three-year sentence that some of his now former colleagues are facing but a 12-month ban with six suspended.

Did the fact that stewards signalled an intent to appeal the verdict have an impact on his decision? 

It may well have, as might the difficulties involved in transferring horses to other trainers or making arrangements to keep them as part of his business until he returned. In the end he decided to go rather than hang around.

Moody has had a lot of support from within the industry during this saga, which is understandable given his success and popularity. The impact he made as he rose like a comet in the Victorian racing firmament before flaming out in such spectacular fashion on Thursday was enormous.

This was no blueblood scion of racing royalty building on a dynastic inheritance. 

Moody was a battler from the bush made good, a young lad from a tough background who learned his trade in rough and ready fashion on Queensland outback tracks before refining his skills in the big-city stables of legends such as Tommy Smith and Colin Hayes.

His first big winner in Melbourne was Amalfi in the Victoria Derby in 2001, and from then on a steady stream of winners, culminating in the top class mares Typhoon Tracy and Black Caviar, flowed from his stables.

Like Tommy Woodcock and Phar Lap, TJ Smith and Tulloch and Lee Freedman and Makybe Diva, Moody will always be associated with Black Caviar, a filly whose remarkable career he masterminded with sensitivity, patience and care.

Whatever his faults – and having been convicted, he has to do his time – racing owes Moody a debt to the way he supervised Black Caviar, particularly the way he handled the demands of an insatiable media and promoted the sport to the mainstream in a way it rarely has been since.

Given that he has admitted he is not particularly a fan of management processes, administration and the business side of running a top racing stable, if he ever does come back it is to be hoped he can find some sort of set-up that allows him to concentrate solely on preparing and conditioning the horses – leaving the number crunching, form filling and medication supervision to others who will be accountable.

 

‘RACING NEEDS A SABATICAL FROM MOODY – AND SPARE US THE WAILING WALL’

THE widely-read RACING BITCH, out of HONG KONG, wrote:

IF Australian racing’s underclass had its way they’d declare a national day of mourning to commemorate Pater Moody’s decision to take his bat and ball and leave the oval.

The reason for his “hissy fit”, it appears from reading the many interviews and opinion pieces, was twofold – he found it difficult to comply with the transitional arrangements for his caretaker trainer of choice David Brideoake to move into his stables, and, perhaps, Brideoake himself may have baulked at the inconveniences and challenges presented in the interim arrangements.

A combination of fatigue and the difficulty in copping the umpire’s decision combined to make the about-face a fait accompli. His vapid press conference, which, supposedly, was intended to shed some sort of light into his about-face to quit racing, gave the impression that he had lapsed back into the Peter Moody of old.

Gone was the smidgin of statesmanship he showed after his lenient 12 month suspension, with six of it suspended. If he’d copped it on the chin, and, as he explicitly stated post the penalty hearing, he would have been back in full flight at his Caulfield stables in time to tackle the Melbourne spring carnival.

But no, “Moods” changed his mind, which he was perfectly entitled to do. Peter and his family had endured 15 months of stress and reputational damage during an unacceptably long delay by Racing Victoria in bringing charges before their Racing Disciplinary Board. No rational individual would question the impact which the delay has had on Peter Moody and his family, and, particularly, the end result, which absolved him of any intent in the reasons why Lidari tested positive to cobalt.

While it might be argued that delays in preparing briefs and hearing charges are no different in civil jurisdictions, and unacceptably so, if there is a backlog of cases awaiting to be heard in racing, then it is of racing’s own doing.

In this instance, there can be no excuses for a well-resourced Racing Victoria to offer up any lame excuses for the delays. It was Monty Pythonesque and as goofy as The Ministry Of Silly Walks.

His public utterances also demonstrated that Moody had failed thus far to let go of his self-styled martyrdom. The contradictions abound.

On the one hand, he says that, “the position my business is in is nobody else’s fault, no one else to blame”. And then, soon after, “If anything the practices within my workplace mightn’t have been up to scratch and they might have been a bit lax and that cost me. But is that enough to take a person’s livelihood away from them? I think my record, my averages, my strike rate, the performances of my horses have been ultra consistent”.

Lax work practices, not up to scratch? Really? Does he seriously expect, what appears to be from the reported evidence, a virtually shambolic stable operation with little, if any directions and accountability, to be excused because of who he is and what he has achieved? Because he is a VIT- Very Important Trainer?

For heaven’s sake, the bloody horse tested positive and way over the generous threshold limit for cobalt – a sinister prohibited substance, which, according to the Board’s finding, appeared to have been contributed to by the work practices in one of Australia’s leading stables overseen by one of Australia’s premier trainers.

And let’s never, ever hear again, the tiresome and illogical line that “I really struggle to comprehend how this issue has been blown out of all proportion”. And who, Peter, blew this out of proportion?

Remember the radio and television interviews on your mate ShaneO’s radio program and racing.com where mutual self-indulgent cries for sympathy were downright nauseating? And how these were picked up and given further oxygen by sections of a sycophantic racing media driven by cheap headlines and dramatization of a scandal which, had Moody kept his trap shut and demonstrated some dignity under pressure, would have avoided “an issue being blown out of all proportion”?

Last Thursday night’s Moonee Valley race meeting saw the closure of the first chapter of Peter Moody’s training career in an extraordinary fashion when his gritty multiple Group One sprinter Flamberge farewelled his career with victory by the barest of margins in a Group One Sprint.

Ironically, Flamberge is owned by long-time stable client and current Racing Victoria Chairman David Moodie – a particularly potent irony given the governing body he chairs was responsible for laying the charges and prosecuting them.

At least, the integrity of the Board and the governing body has not been tarnished, a point which seems to have, we suspect, deliberately escaped the reporting and analysis by sections of the rapacious racing media.

That said, the biggest decision Peter Moody must make before his inevitable return to racing is quite simply if he wants to concentrate on what he does best – train racehorses. His foray into racing politics and taking on “city hall” has been disastrous. Someone needs to counsel him that he lacks the tactical nous to get involved in areas where he is completely out of his league. Hearing the outbreak of grief from his social media cheer squad may embolden him. But if anything, racing needs a sabbatical from Peter Moody.

It’s pretty obvious that Peter Moody will resume training at some point in time. It might be sooner than later when his suspension expires. The drama queens in the media and on social media resembled the tragics making their annual pilgrimage to the wailing wall in the old city of Jerusalem with their faux outpouring of grief at what ultimately was no one else’s fault but Moody’s.

It might be premature to speculate on when and under which guise Moody’s second coming will eventuate. It would surprise no one if he were to take on a private training role for a major racing and breeding operation – particularly one with an established infrastructure which would prevent any “lax work practices” from derailing his training career mark 2.

 

DO BUFFERING & ‘MOODS’ DESERVE TO BE THERE WITH ‘BOB THE BUILDER’?

DOUG LANG of HENDRA sent this email:

‘IT is hard to believe that neither Buffering nor Peter Moody have been elevated to Hall of Fame status in Queensland.

With all due respects to former RQ Chairman, Bob Bentley, who was controversially appointed to the Hall of Fame, do his achievements outweigh those of Buffering and Moody?

Politics aside, in those responsible do not include Buffering and Moody in the next list of Hall of Fame inclusions then something is horribly wrong in racing in Queensland.

Both have achieved far more than some worthy horses and trainers who are already in the Hall of Fame. Moody ended his training career – some might say temporarily – with Group 1 win No 52 at Moonee Valley last Thursday night and no-one needs reminding of his deeds with Black Caviar. Importantly, during his entire career he never lost touch with his roots in outback Queensland.

Buffering took his success story to new heights with a win in the Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai at the weekend. The Rob Heathcote trained superstar has now won seven Group Ones and is the only Australian sprinter, other than Black Caviar, to earn more than $7 million in stakes.

Come on Racing Queensland, do the right thing by these two homegrown champions and elevate them to Hall of Fame status in their home State.’

 

‘DOES COST OF INTEGRITY UNIT OUTWEIGH SALARIES CURRENTLY BEING PAID?’

BARRY EMERSON of TOWNSVILLE sent this contribution:

‘INSTEAD of whining about the new Racing Integrity Bill that looks certain to be defeated in the House this month, the critics should be asking some questions about the salary packages being paid to some of those currently policing racing in Queensland.

Having been privy to a copy of the pay packets doing the rounds behind the scenes in the industry might I say I am gob-smacked at the amount being paid, especially to Acting Head of Integrity, Jamie Dart, who we rarely seem to hear much from these days.

I am told that there is a misconception that the Racing Unity Group is against a change in the way Integrity is run and the establishment of an Integrity Unit under the guidance of Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett.

My information is that the QRUG are only concerned about the cost and who will be paying and that although Racing Minister Grace Grace has intimated the Government will pick up the bill she refuses to say for how long that will occur.

Whilst no price should be placed on integrity in gambling sports like racing, such is the financial state of affairs that if it is going to be an imposition on the industry and affect prizemoney which has already been cut then there needs to be clarity on the issue, which is all the QRUG is asking for.

As for the continued delays to appointment of a new Board, could it be that the chosen one for the Chairman’s position has rejected the role on the basis he is concerned that the appointment could be short-lived if Labor loses Government.

Once again politics wins out in racing in Queensland. Some of the supposed high profile names being suggested for Board appointments are farcical as is the list of suggested front-runners for the CEO’s position. And to think they dispensed with the services of Darren Condon – even though one of his appointments at RQ in lawyer Sam Adams is seen as a move in the right direction to fill the role until a permanent CEO is found – hopefully by the end of the decade.’    

 

‘SKY CHANNEL COVERAGE GETTING WORSE – IF YOU ARE A QUEENSLANDER’

BOB PERKINS of BRISBANE writes:

‘THE SKY Channel coverage situation continues to degenerate into a bigger farce for the stay at-home punter.

NSW gets the red carpet treatment and Queensland continues to be treated second rate.

Races that should attract coverage on the primary channels are relegated to that awful SKY 2 and then we have split screens with the local product sharing the billing with trots races carrying next to no turnover from shitter’s ditch across the swamp.

SKY will always use the excuse of delays at the start mean relegation and with such a heavy schedule it is impossible to satisfy everyone. They don’t seem to have any problem ensuring the needs of Racing NSW are put first.

If you happen to be a follower of Hong Kong racing then don’t count on any special treatment despite the size of the holds now that there is co-mingling of the pools. They will play second fiddle to everything from the opening of a racing out-house at some goat rooter venue in outback NSW to a dog race from the backblocks of nowhere where the tote hold is zilch.

SKY sits alongside UBET as the two big flops of racing in Australia. Try as they might, in the eyes of the punters nothing will change that rating. Racing.com (Channel 78) makes SKY look second rate and those wanting value for their punting dollar will always turn their back on UBET and look to the bigger interstate TABs or the corporate bookmakers.’

 

ANOTHER BLAST FOR LACK OF ON-COURSE INTEGRETY IN QUEENSLAND

AS I am not a punter – you might be surprised to learn a TRAINER – I would ask that my identity be withheld. Whatever happened to the level playing field in racing in Queensland?

‘THIS is the first time I have dropped a line to the Whinge but I was so infuriated by the performances of a couple of favorites at one of the TAB meetings in Queensland over the Easter weekend that I had to let off some steam.

For legal reasons I won’t mention the venue or the stewards’ panel who – in my opinion after reading their report – must have been asleep at the wheel. Punters might as well have had the Easter Bunny in charge of integrity on the day in question.

Bookies were obviously on the ball. Two favorites that looked good things drifted from odds-on to black figures. The defeat of one simply went through to the keeper while questions were asked about the other. To say the latter was a shade unlucky would be an understatement but the explanation of the jockey was, as usual, accepted.

Talk about stewarding staff being overpaid in Queensland. They should put a broom through the lot and introduce a new Integrity Unit that is prepared to step up to the plate and make some unpopular decisions.

By the way when was the last major inquiry opened by Allan Reardon since he returned from Victoria amid much pomp and ceremony then became Chairman of Stewards at RQ?

You might have noticed I didn’t bother asking any questions about the performance of Jamie Dart since he became Acting Head of Integrity but if the circular doing the rounds about what both of these guys get paid is anywhere near right it is little wonder RQ is going down the gurgler finance wise.’

 

FOR THOSE WHO  WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO A TIPPING SERVICE

MARTY DUGGAN of BRISBANE writes (and we won’t be embarrassed taking a bow for this one):

‘YOU probably well regard this email as too self indulgent to run but I hope you will consider doing so.

My mates and I have subscribed to plenty of tipping services over the years – some of them Queensland based and run by top bookmakers and top jockeys which cost us plenty and were most of the time pretty useless.

We have tried the big interstate tipsters, who we are told are really retired jockeys hiding behind non-de-plumes, and they are even worse. Someone did say that jockeys are the worst judges when it comes to tipping winners.

These days we joined forces and subscribe to two services – that offered by Phil Purser at justracing and your late mail at letsgohorseracing. These are vastly different in their approach but can we say great value for money.

Over the Easter weekend we managed to back a $26 winner and a $16 winner in Melbourne, both suggested bets on the LGHR Late Mail, along with collecting a four figure quadrella.

Whilst you emphasis there are ‘no get rich guarantees’ with you service, let me say that even allowing for the bad weeks overall as a value for money service, both yours and Phil’s are the best in the business and we encourage punters to take advantage of them.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: THANKS for the rap Marty. You are only as good as your last set of tips and we have our black days too. But while we’re on the business of giving the LGHR Late Mail a plug, we are currently offering 13 months subscription for our annual price which makes it one of the cheapest in the land, especially with The Championships in Sydney and the Queensland Winter Carnival coming up and the challenge of racing on the new track at Eagle Farm. I also know how much hard work Phil puts into his service and cannot recommend it highly enough either.

 

NO 'SILKS & SADDLES' THIS WEEK BECAUSE 'BUTTSY' WAS IN HOSPITAL

EDITOR'S NOTE: WE have had several inquiries concerning the absence of the popular "SILKS & SADDLES' column, which we run each week courtesy of the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER.

TERRY BUTTS, the Townsville-based journalist and racehorse trainer, who writes 'S & S', took ill over the Easter long weekend and was hospitalized.

Therefore we were unable to run the column this week. 'Buttsy' spent the long weekend in the Townsville General Hospital but dodged surgery and was in a much better frame of mind getting back to his old self when we spoke with him on Monday.

 

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the above e-mails should not be interpreted as those of JOHN LINGARD, the owner-editor of the letsgohorseracing web-site. That is why he has added an ‘EDITOR’S NOTE’. Every endeavor is made to verify the authenticity of contributors. We welcome any reasonable and constructive responses from parties or individuals.