MY CALL - EXHIBITION WEDNESDAY IS RIGHT UP THERE AS ONE OF MY TOP RACE-DAYS
By David Fowler | Tuesday, August 14, 2012
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.
I'm often asked what is my favorite day as a race broadcaster … and it's a no brainer!
Stradbroke day for all the understandable reasons. It's clearly gold.
Yet the silver is shared. Melbourne Cup day and tomorrow's Bundaberg Five Exhibition Wednesday meet are the next most enjoying.
Many of you will shake your heads as to why they rate above Derby day, 10,000 day, Magic Millions etc etc. Because they're at Eagle Farm and they've got loads of ATMOSPHERE.
Despite its age, Eagle Farm is still a glorious racetrack and its age and tradition is what make it so special.
And like anyone who is fond of the past, I fell in love with it as a kid, sitting on the top level of the John Power grandstand in the seventies when big crowds were totally expected, week in and week out.
Eagle Farm doesn't play host to those whopping attendances anymore except on the days I've mentioned.
And, casting a different view from the wowser, I think tomorrow's day for the younger group is great concept.
It was a commercial masterstroke by the QTC and now BRC and good luck to them in seeking revenues to bolster the bottom line. It's called good business.
And it's not just a "p...up" like many want you to believe. Sure there a thousands of young people who will hop on the drink for an event that lasts four hours.
What's wrong with that? And, just as surely, some will be off their head by day's or night's end. Is this something unusual?
We should appreciate that such big numbers are attracted to an event that is based on a race-meeting. What would the attendance figure be at the same location with no races on?
They dress up well, make up a team of 10 and 20, find their spots, and settle in for a good day out.
And a moment before I shout "racing" in the first event, I just think it's these numbers that Vince Curry and Keith Noud used to broadcast to regularly in those decades past.
Tomorrow it's me. I'm a lucky man.
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Tomorrow is one day I always hope my tipping hat is on right.
I don't know how many people south of 25 have asked for the mobile number for tips for the Ekka meeting. So many of them have a bet as well as having a drink.
Anyway if the tips are average either (a) they'll forget and/or (b) try and find the broadcast box at Eagle Farm to give me a serve.
Good luck in your travels!
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Speaking of the past, The Courier Mail's tribute to 50 years of off-course TAB betting in Queensland was a ripper.
A lift-out well worth keeping.
One snippet of information jogged an old memory and made me chuckle as well.
I can recall as a kid in the seventies horses racing under the name of "Anthony Dare".
This was the "nom de plume" for the Queensland TAB chairman Albert Sakzewski.
Entirely condoned then … and I don't have any beef with the practice.
Fast forward to now and can you imagine it happening in the politically correct zone we live in? Hardly!
And for those who keep pushing the turnover bandwagon, imagine their horror to read betting once closed before the jump and you couldn't collect your Saturday winnings until Monday.
Times have certainly changed.
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I get cranky with racing administrators who put the blinkers on, when required, and say alleged corruption in racing is a "beat up" or "media hype".
Sadly, many of them just wouldn't know it but their title gives them a voice.
Racing has tried to keep a lid on its underbelly for some time.
In saying all that, I had to agree with much of the critique of last Monday's Four Corners program on the racing industry.
Its biggest mistake was that it couldn't maintain a central theme. It drifted from Les Samba to Dan Nikolic to Jim Cassidy and then back again.
This lack of cohesion was portrayed against a backdrop of racing's past indiscretions.
In the end what was the bottom line? What was the point of the whole story?
Don't get me wrong there was plenty of common-sense spoken and trails that should be followed, but it lacked a killer punch.
And can I ask one question? Why was there such a sinister tone around Dan Nikolic's ride on Smoking Aces? It won!
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RUMOUR FILE: Was that John Nikolic, Dan's brother, at the Racing Queensland bunker the day after the Four Corners report?
Until next week
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