MY CALL - SRIKANDI FOR QLD HORSE OF THE YEAR. PRIZEMONEY SHOULD REMAIN BALLOTING BENCHMARK

By David Fowler | Tuesday, June 23, 2015

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

Srikandi surely must be voted Queensland Thoroughbred Horse Of The Year.

“It must go to a local,” I hear you shriek. And maybe there’s a rule that says it must.

But stubbornly sticking by that with no obvious or genuine contender to put up is simply an affront to Srikandi’s marvellous Carnival deeds.

Srikandi won the Group 1 Stradbroke and Tatts Tiara and the Group 2 Victory Stakes and is the “veteran” of 13 starts.

To rule her out would make a joke of the whole concept.

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I’ve argued exhaustively that career prizemoney must remain the benchmark for feature race balloting.

The situation has been flattered this year by those who yearn for ratings to be the number one decider or even prizemoney earned in the last year or two.

Ratings can be subjective and vary from state to state. A dollar earned is universal, paying on performance not potential.

When betting markets and hype dictate a field’s outcome, you’re in dangerous territory.

The process is under review at Racing Queensland and I won’t be surprised if the “ratings bandwagon” gets its way.

It will be the poorer for that decision if it does.

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I led the charge that Lumosty was the next rising star. Well, we saw what happened there.

Some were forgiving of the biased Gold Coast track on the weekend.

I wasn’t.

This “no go zone” along the rail and close to it has hovered like a storm cloud over the Gold Coast for too long.

It’s beyond the pale when jockeys immediately steer to a centre line position on straightening with rivals following.

There is clearly the potential for a bottleneck situation behind the leaders while those who vainly stick to the fence suddenly realise the error of their ways.

Maybe there needs to be more racing against the rails rather than consistently racing at positions wider.

They save the rail for feature race days. Pity no-one is using it.

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Racing Retro’s Richard Freedman made a point that Damian Browne was somewhat unfashionable in the saddle when discussing Dothraki’s win last Saturday.

I just shake my head.

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I’ll be mightily surprised if prizemoney cuts to thoroughbred racing don’t happen sooner than later.

Watch this space.

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