THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - TRELOAR'S DECISION SENDS AN UNAMBIGIOUS MESSAGE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 6, 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

The decision by leading Sunshine Coast trainer Len Treloar to pull the plug on his training business came as a shock, but no surprise.

If that sounds Irish to you let me explain.

The shock element was short-lived. In fact the only reason it even existed was because the news came out of left field. The trainer himself might have been considering his move for the past couple of months, but seemingly few outside of Treloar knew of the option he was weighing up.

Hence, with no hint of what as to come, there was that brief shock element when Treloar’s horses were not out on the training track earlier this week and the news filtered through of the stables immediate closure.

But, in almost the very next moment, there was no surprise.

When he returned to Australia after a seven year stint in Singapore Treloar was never going to be content with merely making up the training numbers in the state.

He set goals and in a short space of time he won the Sunshine Coast Trainers’ Premiership. He then readjusted his sights, targeted better stock and aimed at success in the Metropolitan arena … which, it can be argued, he has duly achieved as he currently sits in the top ten on the Brisbane Trainers’ Premiership.

But those statistics only tell half a story.

The essential barometer for any business comes in the form of ‘return on investment’ and for Treloar, even with that documented success behind him, the current figures and future projections clearly did not add up to an acceptable level.

Treloar is on record as saying, “The costs here for rental, staff, superannuation, race day fees, and the like are too high to be compensated by the prize-money level. I rent 32 boxes at Caloundra which roughly costs me $10,000 a month. I am about $120,000 behind a year before I even get started by training here. The return here just isn’t up to correcting that difference.”

So, no, the decision was no surprise.

And therein lies the difficulty facing every trainer in Queensland.

The costs are too high and the returns are too low … and here I am talking about Queensland itself not wanting to make no comparison with Southern states.

That comparison serves no purpose because we simply cannot match those states in the foreseeable future so we need to stop crying about that and concentrate on making our racing the best it can possibly be for the stakeholders who support it.

But to get to that point it is quite clear two fronts need to be worked on.

The returns have to be raised and the costs have to be lowered.

The former might arrive in part with Queensland Racing’s latest windfall. As for the latter … do we seriously need to have some of the most expensive stabling in the country? And where else can administrators help to take some pressure off trainers.

There is a strong message in Treloar’s words and actions that is totally unambiguous.

It comes from a man who is astute and nobody’s fool.

I suggest it needs to be heard!

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