By our weekly columnist MATT NICHOLLS
WHEN historians look back at the demise of racing in Queensland, they can dig up this column and say that administrators were well and truly warned.
Much of the blame lies with the brains trust at Deagon and their unwillingness to make changes or take control of the calendar.
There were nine, yes N-I-N-E, thoroughbred meetings staged in Queensland on Saturday. Yet on Sunday, there was just one – at the Sunshine Coast – and there are no programs scheduled on Monday or Tuesday.
The result of Saturday’s atrocious scheduling is that poor old Moranbah had just four jockeys for its five-race card (Tom Orr, pictured above, was one of them), and Mount Isa Race Club had just six jockeys for one of its major meetings of the year – the Mount Isa Cup.
Down the road at Longreach, which took on the meeting transferred from Barcaldine (more on that below), there were nine jockeys for what was the region’s final Battle of the Bush heat, meaning that three horses missed out on a chance to qualify.
The next time I read about a jockey shortage in Queensland, I’ll spew up.
We don’t have a jockey shortage in this state. On Saturday, across the nine venues in Queensland, there were 135 individual jockeys who rode horses.
We have a scheduling problem.
Even eliminating about 15 visiting jockeys who rode at Eagle Farm, we have a plethora of hoops capable of riding in races.
The calendar for 2026-27 is now available on the Racing Queensland website, and it seems that the boffins at headquarters have hit copy/paste on next season’s program. It beggars belief.
This year, Queensland staged its first Good Friday program at Mount Isa, which was a rescheduled meeting to replace the washed-out Boulia card from Easter Saturday.
By all measures, it was a success. However, next year, there is no Good Friday racing scheduled on the Queensland calendar at all.
Instead, Boulia is down to race on Easter Saturday, one of 10 venues to race that day.
There won’t be enough jockeys, and bookies would happily give you even money that Boulia won’t be able to race. No doubt Mount Isa will get the call-up again, and the club will do its bit to save a meeting for the local industry.
Which is why Saturday’s scheduling needs a bit more scrutiny.
There are a handful of clubs in this state that do quite a bit of heavy lifting for the industry outside of the main centres. Why aren’t those clubs rewarded with better programming to maximise horse numbers, jockey numbers, and attendance for their major meetings?
I would be insulted if I were Mount Isa Race Club president Jay Morris.
As an industry, we look at regions and the calendar like it’s 1996 and not 2026. Times have changed, and we haven’t adjusted.
As a reminder, there were 135 jockeys who took rides on Saturday in Queensland, yet Moranbah could only get four hoops. Meanwhile, the Gold Coast had 31 jockeys for its run-of-the-mill program (where the biggest field had 12 runners) and Toowoomba had 22 jockeys for its night program (the biggest field had 13 runners).
Do I blame jockeys for not travelling? Absolutely not.
Why go all the way to Mount Isa or Moranbah when you’re only going to get a handful of rides?
The programming needs to be smarter and more efficient. There should be seven or eight races on Mount Isa Cup day, and at least six on a modern non-TAB program in remote areas.
Increasing the riding fee from $265 to $400 at non-TAB programs would be another practical way to encourage jockeys to make the journey.
The status quo certainly isn’t working, although I suspect there are plenty inside Racing Queensland who are happy to see meetings fall over as they try to cut costs.
We have a saying for it in the bush: rationalisation by stealth.
