OBE UNPLUGGED - RACING'S FALL FROM MAINSTREAM RECOGNITION. IT NEEDS TO RE-ESTABLISH ITS PROFILE!

By Mark Oberhardt | Monday, November 26, 2012

Mark Oberhardt has been a racing and sports reporter for 40 years. He has written racing for the Courier Mail, Brisbane Telegraph, Sydney Sunday Telegraph, Sportsman, Australian Associated Press, etc. He has also written many sports columns including the Courier Mail’s The Ear. Mark has also been a regular on RadioTAB for 20 years. Mark’s personal blog, Obe Unplugged, will appear every Monday on HRO.

I KNOW trainer Rob Heathcote is a co-columnist on this website but I am not playing up to him when I say he gets far less credit than he deserves.

It was rammed home last Wednesday when Heathcote had four winners at Doomben without causing so much as a ripple in the mainstream media.

To make it clear what an effort it was I can remember only four other trainers achieving the feat in Brisbane in the past 50 years. Bruce McLachlan and Alan Bailey have each trained five winners in a day, Ray Croxford four and Jim Atkins four.

Now I might have missed a few but I can't find anyone else who can remember a trainer with a quartet in Brisbane.

In other words it is a massive achievement.

Unfortunately, it shows just how far racing has fallen as a mainstream sport when Heathcote's effort didn't rate back page news or even a mention on TV sport.

Heathcote is great for racing and is always very media friendly. He realises just how important it is to get the sport before the general public.

In fact Heathcote is a great story himself.

I can remember when he first started training thinking he would be around for a few years and then follow many out of the sport. But the self-taught Heathcote has made all of his critics eat their words and he is undoubtedly not only Queensland's top trainer but also among the elite in Australia.

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It has been written a million times, but racing probably has itself to blame for the drop off in publicity outside carnival time. By publicity I mean positive publicity as the sport can still generate headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The sport has been so fragmented and, in particular in Queensland, so volatile that it has been impossible to present a united front.

The result is the industry has been steamrolled by those who want to use its product for
their own purposes.

Racing officials of yester-year were caught short by the interest in off-course betting. The betting interest in racing remains strong but the human interest side is virtually ignored apart from the occasional carnival.

I mean look at Heathcote's four wins last Wednesday and there were four great individual stories in each.

At least Tegan Harrison's George Moore like ride to win on Endless Shadow was worth a nod. Harrison came from last on the fence at the home turn to score a great win along the rails.

Heathcote should be a household name but unfortunately, that is far from reality.

Many believe I am living in the past and I suppose that is fair enough. But other sports from the football codes to tennis and golf seem to be able to get human interest type publicity.

I can remember a few years ago attending a think tank to get rugby union more profile.

Perhaps we could do the same for racing. I am sure there are plenty with ideas who could help!

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On a different subject and I got the usual response to last week's blog about country race clubs running their Cup meetings on Sundays.

I mean usual because about 50 percent thought it was a great idea while the other half said it would never work.

Those in favour said it would help lift the profile of country racing and give everyone a chance to attend the race meetings. They also agreed it would help with TAB turnover and attract a higher standard of jockeys.

Those against said it would be too expensive, punters liked to have Sundays off, and local jockeys should not have to give up rides on big race days for visitors.

To be frank, I can see no problems with Sunday cup meetings. As we said last week it works fine in Victoria, NSW and South Australia. But to be a success it would need the full support of all concerned.

It was interesting to recently speak with a few people from Tasmania. It is Australia's smallest state but in recent years it has tried more than a few different things - Sunday racing, Wedesday night racing, etc.

It appears to be working with Tasmania getting a higher profile Australia wide.

A case again of who dares wins!

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