ROB'S SHOUT - ANOTHER CARNIVAL ABOUT TO PASS INTO HISTORY: WORK COVER ISSUE NO CLOSER TO A SOLUTION

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, June 27, 2013

Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership and Group 1 winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO, workload permitting.

Yes, Another Winter Carnival is about to pass us and I think it’s a bit premature to call the winter carnival over after the Group 1 Tatts Tiara day as many do.

For mine, the Caloundra Cup meeting this Saturday is an important part of the Winter Racing Carnival and as such should be recognised as the meeting that brings down the curtain.

The Caloundra Cup and the Glasshouse along with the Guineas are feature races well worthy of Winter Carnival status.

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I am happy enough to say it has been a very successful carnival. The quality of the on-track action served up to the punters has been top class.

We have seen the expertise of leading conditioners from all over Australia and across the Tasman with some top quality gallopers, the skills of the leading jocks from around the nation going toe to toe with our local boys.

Yes, the visiting jocks may have won the honours but it helps when they are on the right cattle. The local jocks did a super job!

We have been reasonably fortunate with the weather although no one will forget the BTC Cup day when the track got smashed but, aside from that, the weather has in the main done the right thing by the racing crowds.

Mind you, what a horrible wet year it has been with basically rain affected tracks since last Christmas and this weekend again looks like being more of the same.

In fact, wet and miserable right through the next eight days is the forecast so further frustration if you have any non-wet trackers which I am sure is the case for many owners and trainers.

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Good news to come out of the carnival has to be the decision to rip up the track at headquarters and completely re-do it.

It is the state’s premier race track and deserves to be the best it can be.

It’s essential now that the Government and the administrators both at Racing Queensland and the Brisbane Racing Club get it right as it needs to be a show piece venue of which the industry can be proud.

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For many, the intensity barometer measure falls dramatically with the end of the carnival.

Certainly the quality of the races drops off and the general interest in racing decreases. It’s usually a time when jocks and, for that matter, trainers get the chance to take a break from the 24/7 grind which this industry can be at times.

It is still an important time in the industry as trainers look to work on the rising two-year-olds and get them moving through the system and working on their education and experience levels.

Those current two-year-olds who have needed more time now get the opportunity of doing some work with a view to perhaps racing in the upcoming early season three-year-old races.

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Of course, the racing schedule does not take a holiday so it’s business as usual.

The work conditions this time of year can be extreme at times with chilly mornings and plenty of lost days to flus and colds etc.

Not just to the staff but also the horses and word about is that it has already been a tough season for infections and viruses among the horse population!

I always believe that horses are creatures of habit but so too are we. It is not a bad thing for some normality to return after the hustle and bustle of the carnival.

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I have been quite satisfied with my own stables performances through the Carnival.

Sure, it bugs me that Buffering was unable to break through for a deserved Group 1 win but he tried his heart out and came home with a Group 2 win in the Victory, a brave second in the Straddie and a gutsy third in the 10,000.

Solzhenitsyn won the Lord Mayors cup and Fire Up Fifi collected a brace of Listed races. We won a few support races as well so overall it wasn’t a bad carnival on a personal level.

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I would again like to make a comment on the current work Cover issue.

I have read on other racing industry web sites that there is plenty of division between the ‘Fat Cat’ city trainers and the country trainers.

Not entirely sure what anybody is worried about to be honest?

All any trainer wants in this industry is for a fair and equitable system that makes everyone in the industry pay their appropriate share of the industry health insurance. Simple really.

If any trainer or group of trainers right across the state does not declare and pay the correct amount due by them an anomaly would exist with an unfair premium structure.

Is that what is in place now?

Everybody has their own opinion on that matter, but the bottom line, in my opinion, is why should a larger trainer doing the right thing be at such a disadvantage over the smaller employers in this state?

I want to pay my premium, just like the rest of the ‘City Fat Cats’ … but only my equal share of the industry staff risk! No more and no less.

They call us 'Fat Cats' from the city … why, because there are some who have reached a level of success higher than others? It is an industry open for anybody right across the state to race where they want to and with how many horses they choose to train.

Government legislature makes it a rule that work Cover is mandatory.

I wish I could independently insure my own staff. That is not possible, but I do not want to be paying an inflated premium possibly because there are some in this state who do not do the right thing.

Of course the vocal majority of small trainers do not want it changed.

They may have to pay more to participate in an industry which is not a hobby but a professional industry where anyone who races for industry money should be referred to as a professional.

I only started with half a dozen horses and have grown my business beyond that of those who choose to train only one or two or even a dozen horses.I admire the many, many trainers in this state who participate in racing for the pure love of the industry, but unfortunately times have changed.

In this new modern world there are responsibilities which have to be met and it is incumbent on the racing authorities to ensure that is met by everyone, right across the state, no matter how big or how small they are.

This industry is not a hobby, it is a business and people’s lives are at risk when working with racehorses and this risk needs to be shared by everyone in the racing industry, whatever the correct formula may be … and it needs to be one seen to be fair!

Contrary to the impression some might get from reading the above, I am only putting this argument into play once again in the hope of contributing to a better understanding of the situation.

I hope the new Queensland Racing Board does devote urgent attention to this matter as no one wants or needs division in an industry when we really need to be united and work together for the betterment of horse racing.

Cheers,

Robert

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