THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - AN OPTIMIST'S WISH-LIST FOR CHANGE IN RACING'S MAKEUP

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 4, 2015

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.

So the page has turned to a new calendar year. Where to now for racing in Queensland?

Put quite simply, two points of issue, one legislative and one entrenched at grass roots level, need to be addressed with genuine intent and focused energy if racing is to be well served in these important areas in the future.

The first point is that the ruling body of racing in the state needs to be an entirely independent body completely separate from State Government. In other words it should be a non-political entity.

‘Not possible’, you might say. A naïve thought … maybe, but few can argue the point that hitching racing’s coat-tails onto the back of any particular political party’s bandwagon, that is sure to crash and burn sometime in the future, is as misguided a strategy as any.

Then, when one party crashes, racing will have a new set of appointees to Racing Queensland Board positions and we’ll go through the whole sequence all over again with the one sure difference that policies and plans of the previous regime … how I dislike that word … will be changed or turned around to the bemusement of those caught in the crossfire of confusion.

No wonder it sometimes seems that racing takes one step forward and two steps back.

Of course racing authorities have to work with the sitting government and the better that relationship is the better for racing, but it has to be a professional relationship first and foremost. Political power plays and favours should not even qualify for a place in the field.

Racing needs continuity and solid strategy not an interrupted journey subject to political whim. Sure, the makeup of the board members will need to change on occasions, but it should not be by political decree!

So, how does racing achieve an independent board and, once there, how does racing set in place a means to actively evaluate that board’s performance in meeting the goals of the industry?

Well, that’s all part of the challenge.

Red tape and people with specific agendas possibly already have an edge in trying to make that ‘mission impossible’ but, to continue with a policy that doesn’t work is a blatant, foolish exercise.

Which brings me to the second point of issue.

George Bush famously said, “You are either with us, or against us.”

Well racing suffers from the same debilitating philosophy as, sadly, often when someone says that in racing, they are not siding with racing against the ‘outside’ world, but rather are talking about their own little patch of turf within the industry.

Racing’s fragmented make-up in which different sectors of the industry arguably brand themselves and their requirements separate to the industry at large and, at times, push only their own agendas to the detriment of the greater cause, is quite astounding.

The ugly fact is much of this blinkered interaction seemingly comes courtesy of some very personal differences which, like the political power plays and egos, should have no place in the game.

It’s time for everybody to toughen up and restrict the damage they bring on themselves.

A free and independent racing board and more harmony within the industry?

No?

Well, I’ll try and stay hopeful. Afterall, if the racing game wasn’t filled by optimists it wouldn’t exist.

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