THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - THE CHIEF STEWARD SELECTION PROCESS STIRS LIVELY DEBATE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 19, 2014

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

Racing Queensland’s decision to extend the deadline for applications for the position of Chief Racing Steward does not auger well for those whose applications met the original deadline.

That is not to say they are out of the game at all, but when Racing Queensland’s CEO is saying that a high level of steward has already applied for the job but “we felt that because we advertised during the holidays it would be better to extend the application period until the end of the month", it doesn’t exactly rubber-stamp the confidence in those applications already on the table.

In these circumstances, you could arguably be forgiven for believing that Racing Queensland either didn’t receive an application which the express expertise they were looking for or else didn’t receive an application which carried the name they were hoping for.

And there is no shock / horror in that!

Successful business’s leave as little as possible to chance. Head-hunting the best candidate is a favourite past-time of proactive business’s looking to improve and upgrade their brand and so having a wish-list for somebody to fill any high profile position is not a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that Racing Queensland is in the head-hunting business … I really don’t know if they are or not … but perhaps they should be!

The core question then would come down the effectiveness of the judgement of those making the call as to who is the best candidate to go after and what it will take to convince him or her to take the appropriate interest in the job.

And that’s where, if I wanted to play Devil’s Advocate, I could take slight issue with the extension of the deadline.

An implication can be read into the CEO’s statement, “because we advertised during the holidays it would be better to extend the application period until the end of the month.”

The implication quite simply is that some highly qualified person might have missed the advert or the deadline.

Now anybody in racing knows that news circulating within racing circles moves fast enough to be able to race Sebastian Vettel down the main straight. So, when the job became available, it wouldn’t have taken long for every interested person to become aware of the option … that is unless the search moved outside racing. For the position of Chief Steward … I think not!

So, if any prospective candidate did not apply then, they either weren’t in a position to apply (which they might be able to rearrange with the extended deadline), they weren’t interested enough to apply at that time (interest can be rekindled) or they simply needed more incentive before applying (more incentive always helps).

I could surmise all day on this particular question and still not find the correct answer, but the extended deadline certainly does stir lively debate.

The bottom line is the importance of the position of Chief Steward should not be underestimated.

Neither should the importance of the pending decision with regard to the new appointment.

All in racing are hoping that the wait will be worthwhile.

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