FROM genius to gingerbread man, Ben Currie has ridden shotgun with controversy most of his brief – and at times brilliant – racing career. But there’s one thing the one-time young gun trainer can’t do.
That’s be in two places at the one time. And the scuttlebutt that LGHR suspects caused the late scratchings of a truck-load of horses from the Dalby Cup meeting on Sunday seems to have misfired.
The team from the Kristie Clark-Peoples stable caught the attention of stewards when they reportedly were stabled overnight at the premises once operated by retired trainer Mark Currie in Toowoomba before heading to Dalby the next morning.
The Tommy Drums were beating the wrong message when it was suggested that the horses were in the temporary care of Ben Currie, the Racing Manager for Clarke-Peoples or his dad ‘Boof’. But those imagining all sorts of things were happening behind the scenes on race eve have wound up with egg on their faces.
LGHR can reliably report that Ben Currie was interestate – he and his partner left last Thursday for a week in Melbourne when he attended the NFL match involving two American gridiron sides before a packed audience at the MCG on Friday morning. His parents, Mark and Donna, were also absent for the weekend caring for Ben’s children on the Sunshine Coast. There was no Currie presence when the Clark-Peoples team overnighted at their stables in Toowoomba.
Nevertheless, the team was scratched from the big meeting in Dalby and it would seem that an oversight in advising the Stewards of their whereabouts on Saturday night was a breach of the Rules of Racing, which incidentally is unintentionally broken many times each week by trainers travelling horses from stables to venues intra or interstate.
The rumor mill was in overdrive when the horses were scratched without reason just prior to deadline time on Sunday. Spare a thought for the connections, many of whom were on their way to Dalby to watch their charges race, only to find their journey was in vain.
Of course the suggestion was that ‘something’ had happened to the horses in Toowoomba or that the Clark-Peoples stable had a positive swab. It was far from the truth as the Stewards’ Report which was finally published on the RQ website late on Monday morning was to reveal.
Surely much of the scuttlebutt could have been avoided by Chief Steward Josh Adams, or his representative at Dalby, simply advising the racing media of this on Sunday. But unfortunately, we are told, it was the boss’s day off and it had to wait until Monday when he returned to work.
Here’s the report that was finally made public late this (Monday) morning:
STEWARDS opened and adjourned an inquiry into the stabling of runners engaged at today’s (Sunday) Dalby meeting for trainer Kristie Clark-Peoples. After Stewards attended a property in Toowoomba on race morning, it was identified that BROOKLYN DAISY, DECORATIVE, LUPINE and ULUWATU had not been stabled in accordance with AR296(4). Stewards interviewed trainer Clark-Peoples in relation to the matter and following this Stewards withdrew all runners engaged at 8:59am. The inquiry has been adjourned to a date and time to be fixed.
LGHR and BEN CURRIE have had our differences on several occasions but this is one time that we believe he is being unfairly condemned by critics who didn’t know what they were talking about. It was impossible for him to be in Melbourne and Toowoomba at the same time and his father Mark couldn’t be on the Downs when he was on baby-sitting duties at the Sunny Coast.
As for Kristie Clark-Peoples she still has to face an inquiry and it seems that she has breached the Rules in failing to notify the Toowoomba stabling of these horses which happens almost every day of the week when trainers are travelling to other venues. She seems to be ‘guilty by association’ in the eyes of some and deserves a fair go.
Her stable had a big team of horses in at three venues on Saturday (Doomben, Gold Coast and Toowoomba) and at Dalby on Sunday. She had already been fined for failing to scratch two horses that got a start when these were emergencies. Sadly, our take on this is that Ben’s past ‘bad boy’ reputation has rubbed off on her stable since many former Currie-trained horses found a new home there.
Ben has served his time and the Appeals Body has ruled that he is entitled to work as a Racing Manager for Clark-Peoples who has known him since he was a lad. She knew the associated problems her stable had inherited in this process but was prepared to give him another chance.
It’s a shame that some of her fellow trainers don’t afford her the same. And it’s also about time that the Sunshine Coast Turf Club did the right thing (by the racing industry) and rented her a block of empty stables which they are refusing to do as her team grows above 50.
Kristie has laid down the law to Ben about what is expected of him. There are those who say that where he was once disliked because of his ‘attitude’ that as a young family man he has changed.
Time will tell but after lengthy stints on the sidelines he deserves the chance to try and regain the confidence of Stewards and a second chance from rival stables as he chases his long-time goal of reviving the career he once had as one of the best trainers in Queensland.
EDITOR’S NOTE: IT’S time for Chairman Josh Adams to put an end to this speculation that is engulfing the Clark-Peoples stable over an alleged positive swab. The rumor is damaging for her and the industry. It’s either right or wrong. She knows nothing of it. Time to deny or declare what is going on Mr Adams.
