THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - THE SUNSHINE COAST TURF CLUB SAVES THE DAY ... AGAIN!

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 30, 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.

Let’s agree at the outset … being a racetrack manager is a difficult and, at times, thankless job.

The manager has to plan his staff’s work schedule around often fickle weather conditions which are out of his control.

By the very nature of that equation he is not going to get a one hundred percent pass mark one hundred percent of the time and when he doesn’t, even if he has done a tremendous job under the circumstances, he suddenly falls prey to all who would criticise the state of the going on that day.

Seldom are track managers ever praised when they do the job well.

So let’s make an exception here and give praise where praise is due.

Grand Slam winning jockey Chris Munce prompted this line of thinking when I spoke to him at the Sunshine Coast meeting last Sunday. Munce said, “I don’t know why they don’t utilise this track more. It’s the best track in Queensland.”

Just four days later Munce was granted his wish when, on the back of racing on a troublesome surface at Ipswich on Wednesday, which incensed some riders, Racing Queensland (RQ) put out a press release moving the December 3 meeting from Ipswich to the Sunshine Coast.

Not for the first time the Sunshine Coast Turf club was saving the day.

The fact that they are continually able to play this support role to such aplomb is a credit to track manager Murray Weeding and his staff and they certainly deserve a pat on the back for their efforts … not just for their overall success, but for their individual victories, as per a very recent example.

How many tracks do you think would have been able to race had they received 70mm of rainfall in the twenty-four hour period prior to a meeting as the Sunshine Coast did on Friday?

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RQ, in its press release stated the decision to move next week’s meeting came ‘in the wake of drought-like conditions in the South East corner.’

Playing the drought card was ill-advised. It tried to over-simplify a far more complex problem at the Ipswich track and hence it was not given credence in too many quarters.

The press release then went on to say, ‘Caloundra had received more rainfall recently and with a high volume of racing on the Ipswich surface, the decision was made to move the meeting. We wanted to give the track an opportunity to rejuvenate given its recent workload.’

If anyone wants to talk about workload, spare a thought for Weeding and his team.

In November the Sunshine Coast raced eight times (including a Friday / Sunday back-up). By comparison, Ipswich raced on only four occasions.

In December the Sunshine Coast is scheduled to again host eight meetings (this time including two Friday / Sunday back-ups). Doomben, Ipswich and Toowoomba will only hold half that number of meetings (four) while the Gold Coast will see action on three occasions.

So there can be no question as to who the workhorse of Queensland racing is at this particular time.

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Sadly though, the resilience of the Sunshine Coast track is the exception to the rule and the overall track wear-and-tear situation in South East Queensland remains more than a worry.

Racing would all love to find the ultimate solution but as long as we continue to have such a high volume of racing with the tracks getting little respite, you would expect little will change moving forward … and that would obviously include getting the Sunshine Coast to help out when needed!

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