FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - RUDDERLESS QUEENSLAND A REAL CONCERN FOR THE ENTIRE RACING INDUSTRY

By John Schreck | Wednesday, December 9, 2015

John Schreck, a former Chief Steward in both Sydney and Hong Kong, has seen both the colourful and the dark sides of racing. His wealth of experience and his deep knowledge of racing matters across the board is unquestioned and the reputation he built as a racing ‘lawman’ remains firmly entrenched in racing’s history. Shreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

What is happening in Queensland racing at the moment is obviously of concern to the industry everywhere.

Racing administrators should only reduce prize-money as an absolute last resort. There must be ways to finance the sport without doing that otherwise it is a clear indication that things are in big, big trouble.

Queensland racing is rudderless ... and has been for some time ... and there are serious points that need to be addressed.

For starters, when a captain of the ship is finally appointed, they must split the administration of the three codes.

In my view a combined board simply does not work.

Combined Boards have not worked anywhere and such a system will not work in Queensland.

Also, when other decisions are being made regarding integrity matters, it has been floated by some that in Queensland the Stewards should be completely divorced from the administration of the sport.

If the new Minister goes down this track get ready for plenty of problems.

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I know the new Racing Minister, who only came into the job a couple of days ago, has publically stated that she doesn’t know anything about the sport ... but I don’t think that matters at all as long as she gathers around her, well intentioned people who have a good understanding of the sport and takes the right advice.

She herself doesn’t have to be a racing expert. The people who assist and advise her have to be.

She has the power to gather people around her who will best assist her and successfully achieving that is very important.

In doing that she has to be very aware of the fact that racing is a very, very selfish business and that she needs to have people assisting her with the best interests of the sport in mind and not those running their own personal agenda.

The classic example of someone coming into racing to manage it who wasn’t a racing person was Brian Beattie, who at one time was Chief Executive of the Victoria Racing Club.

He proved to be an outstanding racing administrator, even though he started off basically behind scratch in terms of his knowledge of the sport, but he was passionate, he sought the right advice from the right people ... and Victoria has never looked back.

So it absolutely can be done.

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The other thing concerning me in Queensland at the moment is the team racing concept of the Jockey’s Origin Series.

I am vehemently opposed to team racing.

Racing has always been based on the principle that your horse is faster than mine or my horse is faster than yours and we put money down to decide the issue.

Racing is not a team sport and the programme they are running in Queensland at the moment is team racing.

It’s state versus state and, while I’m not suggesting that any corruption will flow from that, I am merely expressing my strong view that that is not what horse racing is about.

It shouldn’t be promoted. In my view it is damaging the basic principle of the sport.

There is no future for team racing.

None at all.

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We all know that horseracing is a selfish and sometime brutal business but, even in that general context, the snubbing of Michelle Payne at Randwick last Saturday was very disappointing.

The history making, Melbourne Cup winning jockey walked around the racecourse all day and nobody would give her a ride.

The owners, trainers and racing administrators in New South Wales ought to be hanging their heads.

It was shameful.

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