THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - SHOOTING INCIDENT COULD BACKFIRE ON THE PERPETRATORS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 1, 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.

When bullets fired from a semi-automatic weapon thudded into the front door of the private residence of Terry Bailey, Racing Victoria’s Chief Steward, they arguably did more damage to the perpetrators than they did to the intended victim.

Whether last Sunday night’s shooting was an act of a deranged individual or that of a more sinister, calculating group with vicious intent, the harrowing experience suffered by the Bailey family and the surrounding neighbours is set to have a significant fallout within the industry.

The fact is that part of that fallout is ultimately likely to lead to new measures being put in place which will enable authorities with more power and resources to combat and curtail the activities of those intent on corrupting the system.

The simple assessment of why this incident occurred is twofold.

If Bailey has been targeted in this manner because he is leading the task force against corruption in racing in Victoria, he, his team and his tactics have obviously become a major thorn in the side of those with less savoury agendas.

The second part of the premise is less palatable. If Sunday’s shooting response is more than personal and relates specifically to Bailey’s anti-corruption mission, it underlines, in stark terms, the level of evil intent inherent in the makeup of Bailey’s opposing forces and the very real expanded danger confronting those charged with upholding the law.

In one sense, the shooting has turned a battle into a war ... or at least it should.

To call it a wake-up call might be unflattering to authorities, but the essence of the argument now, once and for all, is for law enforcement agencies and racing stewards to combine their resources, share information and commit, unequivocally, to work together to go as far as they can to put an end to illegal and unwanted practises that threaten the racing industry.

Bailey is a trooper. He has shouldered the events of this last week with an unshaken resolve to do what he has to do and he has suddenly found that he has an army of support rallying around him, from all over the world and from all sectors of racing.

As distasteful as this particular episode has been, there are signs that it can have positive long term consequences for the racing industry in terms of defining a more clinical strategy to meet the challenge of dispensing with the radical wrong-doers and their associates in the game.

For obvious reasons the current focus of attention is on Victoria but all other racing precincts have also been put on notice and the onus is now clearly on them as well to re-evaluate their methods and procedures when dealing with the dark side of the industry.

Expect the fight from racing’s side to take on a new urgency and a heightened intensity because one episode of the ‘Bailey shooting’ kind is already one episode too many.

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