DOWN IN NUMBERS, BUT THE BIRDSVILLE RACES SPIRIT IS SURE TO PREVAIL

By Graham Potter | Thursday, September 5, 2024

It is one of the few race meetings that is generally prefaced by the word ‘iconic’, but such is the legend and the historical standing of the Birdsville Races that the adjective ‘iconic’ is pretty much spot on.

It is far more than horseracing, of course. In fact, for some, it might be hard to differentiate just which is the sideshow these days ... the races or the host of other, on-going, off-track activities around which the Birdsville Races had long cemented its brand, but, in essence, it all comes down each year to honouring the legacy of the event by making the current edition as much fun for the visitors as possible.

That aspect of it tends to take care of itself.

Racing on the other hand, is a more precise beast. The Birdsville Club needs to have trainers bring their horses and jockeys make themselves available to takes rides ... but, when the location is pretty much an isolated one in relative terms, that is no easy task, meaning that each year the club has had offer travel and other incentives to trainers and jockeys to help sway their decision in favour of making the trip.

And seemingly each year that objective becomes harder to achieve.

The card tomorrow, the first day of the two-day Birdsville races event, has six races, which ... at the time of writing ... is set to be contested by a total of twenty-eight horses ... four, four horse races and two six horse races. These horses are supplied by ten trainers.

Last year, the meeting on day one featured forty-six runners ... which translates into just under a forty percent drop off in runner numbers this year while, on the trainer front, last year those forty-six runners were sent out by seventeen trainers ... which translates into a forty-one percent drop off in trainer participation for tomorrow’s meeting.

This trend continues into Saturday, Birdsville Cup day, where forty-seven runners currently stand their ground for the seven race card. The Cup meeting last year had sixty-one runners.

There were 22 trainers involved in the 2023 Cup meeting. In 2024, there are only fourteen, with more than half of the 2023 contingent (12 trainers) not returning. Four trainers who were not there last year do make the trip this year.

The downward trend in essential numbers is absolutely nobody in racing’s fault or any fault of the Birdsville’s community.

As most people in any profession have found, the pressures of the current economic climate have not so subtly rearranged what people can afford and what they can’t ... and, by implication, what they can afford to do and what they can’t ... like travel with horses to Birdsville.

Throw in the factor of the shortage of stable staff (time away has to be covered) ... you can find adverts for these positions placed throughout the country almost every day ... and the fact that trainers, realistically, would only be taking suitable horses to Birdsville capable of paying their way ... and the equation just gets more difficult, making the current downturn situation totally understandable.

Just how things will play out in the future remains to be seen. That will be a story for another time.

For now though, things are what you make them and the immediate aim by all involved is to make the 2024 edition of the occasion of Birdsville races as good as any that have gone before in the events long and proud history ... and you wouldn’t bet against them.

Chances are, when the reviews from the thousands of visitors who will make the trip this year, are in, even with the actual racing numbers down and the concerns associated with that, Birdsville will have scored another resounding success.

Such is the spirit of Birdsville races.