MY CALL - AN OPPORTUNITY TOO GOOD TO MISS

By David Fowler | Tuesday, October 29, 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.

Today I ask a favour of Racing Queensland.

Don't consign the wonderful Spring Carnival triumphs for Queensland to a dusty history archive or be used as a six paragraph press release.

Collect these moments and shout out loud!

Buffering's trainer Rob Heathcote hit the nail on the head when he said it's time to start "blowing our trumpets". Not his but the state's.

Liam Birchley expressed similar sentiments in a broad-ranging interview with me on Radio Tab's Monday Experts this week.

"It was the same with State Of Origin for years. We didn't believe in ourselves. Many of our horses will hold their own interstate," he said.

I applauded RQ's "We Run As One" marketing campaign a few months ago. But it's primarily a local thing.

An ideal opportunity presents itself to assemble a 30 second commercial with race footage and post-race celebrations of the Melbourne triumphs

Air it on Sky, TVN and free-to-air media. This will be money well spent.

So often marketing and promotion is contrived. This time a great story has fallen at the feet of RQ's door and if they don't use it in some tangible way, they're derelict in their duty.

A flashy advertisement signalling our success might just seek out a potential owner or prompt an interstate one to send a horse or two north of the border.

And let's face it, the good story mightn't be over yet.

Please RQ, don't waste it.

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The "racing snobs" were out in force after Shamus Award won the Cox Plate.

Forget the exhilaration of the trainer, jockey and connections. No, deliver some mealy mouthed diatribe about the embarrassment of a maiden being allowed to start in a Cox Plate.

Change the conditons! Reduce the field size! Move it away from Moonee Valley!

Fanciful thoughts from some of the twits on twitter and some in the mainstream media, for that matter.

Negativity right on cue and an argument flawed to boot.

The maiden WON. If it has tailed off at 100/1 they might have had some armoury in their tirade but instead Shamus Award went all the way and was well backed by many an educated gambler.

The Courier-Mail's Nathan Exelby offered a more balanced view on Monday Experts when he described himself as a "racing tragic" and disappointed headline act Atalantic Jewel was wiped out on Tuesday.

Sure we always salivate over a true weight-for-age contest and the Cox Plate has delivered that in spades over the years.

But you can't manufacture racing. It presents itself and if this is a "sleeper’s year", so be it. But don't rush into judgement until we see Shamus Award in another campaign.

Really, it's all semantics. Shamus Award was a maiden but he was also one of the country's best three-year-olds, hence his inclusion in the field.

The "maiden" tag has really got some with their knickers in a knot.

I'm sure if they stumped up some cash and one day had a three-year-old maiden good enough to run in a Cox Plate, they would decline based on their high faluting principles preached over the past few days.

Wouldn't they?

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Close but no cigar.

Our feature race tips have included Caulfield Cup runner-up Dandino and Cox Plate third Fiorente.

Money lost, nothing lost, confidence lost, everything lost.

I have followed Savvy Nature closely in his seven start career and he'll win the Victoria Derby.

I'll concede Complacent will be a worthy rival but he has better runs when he has beaten Savvy Nature in Sydney.

The 2500m at Flemington is tailor-made for John O'Shea's three-year-old and his Moonee Valley win was a perfect lead up.

Until next week.

David Fowler