THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - AMENDED RULE WILL HAVE LIMITED VALUE IN PRACTICE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, September 23, 2012

There are not many sports in the world where you have a situation where a competitor has to tell the ‘referee’ beforehand if he is going to employ a change of tactics and he must also say what those changes will be … and then that ‘referee’ goes and makes that news available to the opposition by having it broadcast over the public address system!

Some would say that isn’t fair.

But before you take up that argument, just be aware of the intent. We are talking about horse-racing here … so we are talking about an industry which has to continually work hard to protect the overall integrity of the sport so that punters can have confidence in the game.

From October 1, trainers will have to give stewards notification of any tactical changes thirty minutes prior to their race, so that the public can be dutifully informed. This is an amended law which now brings a timeframe for the notification into play.

No trainer with honest intentions will have concerns about the concept but, let’s face facts, it is unusual to say the least in a competitive environment which produces winners and losers.

This rule, in fact, sets racing apart in the modern world.

With the emergence of sports betting and its rapid growth of that industry, racing has lost its grip on the betting dollar even though sports teams can plot and plan behind doors at ‘closed’ training sessions, team selection can be withheld until the last minute and match tactics are for the players alone to know and implement at a chosen moment in the contest.

That lack of information hasn’t stopped punters putting their money down.

The intent of wanting to keep punters (read customers) fully informed is always admirable, even though racing is a different beast to the norm.

The number of variables in a race are such that any race plan can be compromised right from a horse’s first, slow step out of the gates to a myriad of ‘unforeseen’ circumstances that could cause a rider to alter his race plan … including the one that had been announced to the punters … so as to obey the one rule that stands above all others. The rider must give his horse every chance of winning the race.

So, while the intent of the new procedure cannot be questioned, chances are that the rule could create more problems than it solves.

Imagine punters being told a horse would be ridden back in the field and yet it takes off to the front because of the genuine circumstances which came to the fore in the running of the race (slow pace etc) and it wins racing contrary to the pattern that was announced. Take a guess what the reaction would be?

Most people accept that sportsmen, like those Manly players who feebly fumbled their way to a disastrous semi final defeat on Friday night, are not machines.

Well neither are jockeys or horses!

The general unpredictability of what they are going to do next is the game’s main draw-card. That’s why they call it gambling!

The new rule has a positive motive. It will please some and it will displease others. In essence though I would suggest it is simply a bit of window dressing … a case where a good idea in theory will have limited value in practice.

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