FROM TURBULANCE TO CLEAR AIR AND THE POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IT MAKES TO THE FLIGHT-PLAN

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

It is time to confine another racing calendar year to the record books. Traditionally, this is a time for reflection as well as a time for an attempt at self-motivation to try and secure a more productive path into the new year.

There is plenty to talk about looking back. The magnificence of Winx … an Aussie victory in the Melbourne Cup … Glen Boss reasserting his status on the Australian scene … the Sydney v Melbourne snarl and arm wrestle contest … and so we could go on.

For Queensland though, I would suggest that the most pivotal, positive moment of the year related to a much-needed resolution to a very important matter which had been moving in a troublingly slow timeframe … and, in real terms, it had nothing to do with any on track performance.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the series of Ben Currie cases … and I am not here to judge either way … the protracted manner in which the litany of charges against the Toowoomba based trainer was handled took its toll on the industry with the rate of alarm accelerating every time a case stalled or its progress was delayed.

The toxic cloud generated … not by Ben Currie … but by a flawed judicial system formed very quickly and, as the winners and the charges kept coming for the Currie stable, discontent within the local industry became a debilitating disease for which the only cure was the finalising of the whole Currie matter … one way or the other … so that the industry could move on.

While some issues in some cases are still pending, a significant resolution was reached when Currie was ultimately disqualified for a lengthy period of time … a pivotal moment, again whatever the rights and wrongs of the verdict … that helped lift the cloud.

That decision moved the state’s racing psyche from a feeling of dread and despair, away from the turbulence, to a feeling of relief at now being able to fly in relatively clean air, semi-refreshed and ready to go again … and the difference in the attitude of stakeholders out at the track has been pronounced from that moment.

And while the Currie cases might have been the masthead, the top-billing of a woeful system, the were many other cases where the handling fell into the unsatisfactory category … so, make no mistake, this story is not about Ben Currie.

It is about a system long overdue for an overhaul.

The fact that the Currie cases held such a negative, high profile standing over such a long period of time and that the stresses and strains of the back and forth, snail like progress of proceedings in those particular matters impacted negatively on the industry is basically beyond dispute.

So, looking back, that pivotal moment has a lesson ingrained in it.

The Racing Minister has to recognise racing’s judicial system for what it is and change it to what it should be.

Why would anybody allow such a toxic scenario to ever occur again?

Looking forward, there is at least some positivity now, buoyed by several bold Racing Queensland initiatives, making the approach into 2020 a bigger and brighter prospect than anyone would have thought possible nine months ago.

Long may it last!

I wish everybody the very best for the New Year.

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