OBE UNPLUGGED - RACING QUEENSLAND'S NEW DRAFT RACING FIXTURE SCHEDULE MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Mark Oberhardt | Monday, January 21, 2013

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 now know what it feels like to be one of those rich kids who got everything they wished for at Christmas.

I have to support just about every idea put forward by Racing Queensland in a proposal to TAB clubs last week. Regular readers of this column would realise in the past six months in Horse Racing Only and in other publications I have suggested 90 percent of them.

For those who have missed the news RQ has taken some bold steps to try to overcome the prize-money shortage and problems with the closure of Toowoomba for the building of a new grass track.

A draft racing schedule has been sent to TAB clubs to race less and in the process boost prize-money.

The proposal is for 14 meetings to be cut from the TAB circuit which in turn would free up prize-money to boost the remaining meetings. I know it has rightly been described as robbing Peter to pay Paul but in the end what else could be done without a massive injection of funds from the government. And we know that is not happening in a state with unemployment at an Australian high!

Toowoomba's Clifford Park will have construction work for the return to turf track racing which means it will lose 21 meetings. It starts from July and was a smart move as the proposed idea of meetings on the inner grass raised plenty of issues.

Caloundra will step into the action and take Saturday twilight meetings from July to January. It will give a better idea of how punters accept Saturday night racing.

There is a theory that Toowoomba's field and TAB turnover haven't suffered because of the cushion track but rather because of Saturday night racing. This Sunshine Coast trial should show us who is correct.

There will also be five Friday night meetings at Caloundra to coincide with Melbourne's Moonee Valley races. The big problem with Caloundra Friday nights has been Sky's addiction to showing dogs and trots on their main channel and relegating Caloundra Fridays to Sky 2.

Perhaps the new look TVN could fill the breach.

**********************************************************************************************

The other big news is that TAB meetings on Sunday will be at various south-east Queensland tracks including Toowoomba, Dalby and Gatton as well as Townsville and Cairns in north Queensland.

I think it can only be a success and I have made it very clear I believe many country Cups meetings should be TAB events on Sundays. Again the new look schedule will give us an idea of whether I am correct or not.

It was also interesting to see a club like Kilcoy returned to the TAB circuit. I see no problems with that because Kilcoy and Beaudesert were once very popular TAB tracks.

Sure, they are not Flemington or Randwick but no one ever said they were. Hopefully, other punters will agree and having something a bit different three or four times a year will be a boost.

*********************************************************************************************

The other burning issue in racing circles is the appointment of the board members to oversee the sport in the state.

The government has announced a three man panel to make a couple of those appointments. It is hard for me to be impartial in the selections as I have been a long time supporter of candidates such as Bill Andrews, Greg Hallam and Kevin Dixon, but I hope whoever gets the gigs will represent the entire state.

Queensland is unusual because of its size. Let’s face it we have more race clubs than any other state spread over a huge area. It presents genuine logistical problems which have to be met by whoever rules the roost.

For all that they are not insurmountable problems. I am sure even a city based official would be aware of that and act accordingly.

**********************************************************************************************

Finally, it was interesting to see 11 women riders at Ipswich last Friday.

There were a couple of very interesting stories in the southern press last week about the number of women riders in racing. For instance 17 of the 22 apprentices in South Australia are women.

You can bet in the next 10 years, we won't be far behind.

All of which brings me to ask why we must persist with the title "Ms" before woman riders's names in the form guides?

It is insulting and demeaning when women in racing are not recognised in their own right as being top trainers and jockeys, but are rather spoken spoken about as top women trainers or top women jockeys.

Until next time, good punting.

Mark Oberhardt