MY CALL - STRATHAYR TRACK PROVIDES FOOD FOR THOUGHT AS WET WEATHER FORCES A SHIFT IN MINDSET

By David Fowler | Tuesday, March 5, 2013

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.

"A race meeting has never been lost to wet weather on a Strathayr track".

It's an impressive catch cry from the company and a timely one considering the current patch of wet weather we've experienced.

Moonee Valley and Hong Kong are the two big name tracks that boast Strathayr, a commercially put together turf surface, and Mackay enjoys one as well.

Should Eagle Farm or Doomben become Strathayr? It's food for thought particularly with Eagle Farm undergoing a revamp later this year.

Racing campaigns and training routines have been thrown into disarray not to mention a yawning gap in turnover from the lost meetings.

And this is a problem that regularly haunts Queensland in the summer months as fellow columnist Mark Oberhardt pointed out this week.

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Racing's top brass need lost meetings like a hole in the head.

There is already drama afoot with Queensland thoroughbred meetings not performing as well as they should in terms of the big T … turnover.

And it's not a once off as several months of stats don't paint a pretty picture.

The less than impressive figures stand uncomfortably alongside an industry not flushed with rivers of cash.

Pray for sunny skies!

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You've got to go into bat for your team sometimes.

The howls and shrieks that followed Greg Miles' call of the third at Flemington were tough to digest.

Unaware of the background, I thought Greg had called the wrong horse the winner, a broadcaster's worst misdemeanour.

I was later to discover he had got the photo wrong by a short half head.

There'll be no casting of stones from fellow race-callers as it is a common trick of the trade.

Greg Miles sets the benchmark for Australian broadcasters and a photo slip-up is not going to diminish his ability one iota.

The flipside is that Aussie punters enjoy the best and expect the best and the higher up the totem pole, the more that is expected of you.

But some of those forum's participants are just fair dinkum narks.

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The naming of the three codes racing boards is expected this week.

Maybe in a day or two.

There's been so much dialogue on who will and who won't, I'm surprised a corporate hasn't been framing markets.

There will be few surprises and despite what some might say, the "final fields" look pretty right.

Until next week.

David Fowler