THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - DELIVERY TIMEFRAME IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE DELIVERY ITSELF

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 10, 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

And so we wait.

The allocation of funds identifying the beneficiaries and amounts they will receive from the much vaunted wagering deal struck between Racing Queensland and Tatts is still to be announced and, to put it mildly … the natives are getting restless.

Then there is the revamp of the racetrack and surrounding facilities at Eagle Farm racecourse. The question of when Eagle Farm shuts down as a training centre … as opposed to a racing centre … hinges on the awarding of a tunnel tender for construction work at the track.

There is still no news on that leaving the trainers, already surrounded by the uncertainty that change can bring, in limbo.

Arguments from racing’s hierarchy justifying the drawn-out timeframe in both instances, irrespective of the acknowledged difficulties inherent in the particular processors involved, are wearing thin.

Of course due diligence and wanting ‘to get it right’ are solid virtues. But so is making decisions timeously. If they don’t get that right they run the risk of turning an opportunity to get stakeholders on their side into a means of alienating possible allies.

‘It will happen,’ is an all-encompassing argument put forward by the decision-makers to placate stakeholders but it is a viewpoint which has an open ended slant to it which gives no definitive comfort to those waiting for action.

The racing industry in Queensland, so often fragmented, was at least at one over a long period of time in calling for extra funding and for the long overdue overhaul of the Eagle Farm track. Yet now it has been given the green light for both projects it seems semi-paralysed by its change to good fortune.

Whether the current impasse is assessed in terms of its impact on the level of the financial rewards on offer for owners, trainers and jockeys or whether it is assessed in terms of its impact on the schedule of the Eagle Farm track and in-field upgrade, every passing day is critical particularly, as one person stated, ‘for those looking to come out the other end.’

This is not Rome. There is no Nero (at least I don’t think there is). Certainly nobody should have time to play the fiddle until these matters are truly up to speed!

This situation can, and certainly is due, to be turned around relatively quickly now and, when it is, these current delays will happily disappear into history leaving hardly a blemish.

But it will take action to get there which, as we all already knew and have been reminded of yet again, speaks much louder than words.

And so we wait for action to replace rhetoric.

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On a positive note, significant changes to the QTIS scheme with regard to improved returns to investors were announced this week.

The changes will come into force on August 1, 2015 and they boast added incentives for owners and breeders to have their horses QTIS registered.

While some will invariably pick holes in the new QTIS set-up, anything that brings added value to any sector of the industry is a positive and this new QTIS development clearly falls into that category.

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