THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS; READING THE SIGNS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, October 21, 2012

To some extent racing has always been something of a numbers game … how much money to stake on the punt, what price is good value, what weight is your fancy carrying, what number barrier draw has it got etc etc.

Intrinsic in all that is another very important number namely field sizes.

Low numbers here, quite simply, are bad for the racing industry primarily because of the fact that, for the most part, they translate into an unattractive option for punters whose investment level is the most telling vital sign regarding the health of the industry.

The current trend of small fields throughout all of the venues in Queensland, while understandable up to a point given the general downturn in the economy, is therefore quite disturbing.

Like everywhere else, Corbould Park is not immune from this current malaise. It gets its turn today where only fifty-three horses (before scratching) are scheduled to go out onto the track over a seven race card.

The problem is multi-faceted but, on its most simple level, it relates to finding the correct balance between the overall horse population and the number of races they are expected to fill. An overlay on that is race programming, ie where ideally the type of races available are weighted according to the different classes of horses in training, and of course, the optimum incentive to run must be there … prize-money!

In this latter regard provincial clubs like the Sunshine Coast are up against it.

Today, the seven race winners at Corbould Park will go home with a collective total of $48 100, useful enough for that group of winner owners to help pay training fees and vet bills, but hardly anything more than that. The place-getters get scraps.

Already reduced to seven races from its customary eight race card, the first race today has probably only been carded because trainer Steven O’dea accepted with two runners taking the field up to a total of six. Had he declined to race his runners against each other, the race might well have fallen away.

Get the picture.

Life is tough for racing in general and it is even tougher for individual race-clubs to keep the show on the road.

The Sunshine Coast Turf Club (SCTC) is fortunate in some respects. The club is a community orientated business and it enjoys the support of the local community both through its 100 Club, where sponsors and the race-club aspirations meet in harmony, and through its family-based clientele who come out to enjoy the facilities on race-day.

They generally have glorious weather and Brisbane’s Premiership winner trainer and jockey, Robert Heathcote and Chris Munce, make the trip to the coast on a regular basis to add their weight to the level of participation.

But the bigger picture is not so bright. As stated, the SCTC is not alone in this darkening landscape, but that does not make their plight any less severe.

There is no way to sugar-coat it. The bottom line is that if things continue on their current path, only the strongest clubs will be left standing.

How many?

We are back to numbers game again. If they don’t add up someone is getting it wrong.

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