FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - IT IS EASY TO CRITICISE BUT IT IS DIFFICULT TO PUT A TIME-FRAME ON JUSTICE

By John Schreck | Thursday, December 17, 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.

Within the racing industry plenty of criticism has been levelled at Racing Victoria regarding the time it is taking to bring the cobalt cases to a conclusion.

I would support those who have been critical of the time taken, but there are reasons for it.

Racing stewards over the years have worked as accusers, prosecutors and judges, which is self-evidently wrong. It is a fundamental principle of common law that no person can be a judge in his own cause.

I would say that if the validity of stewards decisions concerning disciplinary charges were to go before the courts of this country for the first time today, I think there is little doubt that the courts would unhesitatingly hold that these decisions of stewards were invalid, because they did infringe the fundamental common law that a person who charged another person with an offence or breach of rule cannot sit in judgement on that charge.

It is for these reasons that Racing Victoria moved to bring in the system they have in place today.

At the time I wholeheartedly supported the decision to make that change ... but the problem for them has been the length of time it has taken to reach finality with many charges and the cost involved.

What happens is that the stewards have become gatherers of the evidence. They then create a brief and prosecute the case where appropriate before an independent tribunal as happens in many countries in the world, including New Zealand and the UK ... and one of these days it will happen throughout the Australian racing scene.

It is an obvious point but it has taken a long time to get to this stage.

So, in levelling criticism at Racing Victoria, I would ask followers of the sport to keep in mind that there are very valid reasons for some delays ... some delays!

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Having said that, nobody wants any case to drag on for over twelve months.

For the most part, quick justice is good justice because then everybody knows what is happening and they can get on with their lives ... and that is how it should be pursued as much as the parameters stated above will allow.

A bit of blame can be apportioned to both sides for unnecessary delays.

The stewards could be stricter in enforcing dates of hearings. It should be when the hearing is in a position to proceed and not when it is convenient for the person who is charged to appear, as has happened in some cases.

On the other side, the system is often played by the person charged or their lawyers. Once authorities allow a delay then they sometimes find all sorts of reasons to continue the delays.

If that aspect of the procedure is allowed to run rampant, it will take forever to get things done.

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Interesting to see what comes out of the Rally for Racing Queensland gathering that took place at Doomben.

Do I think there is any future in these sort of ‘protest’ meetings?

I’m inclined to say ‘yes’ and ‘no” ... which I know is like having a bit each way ... but there is a mix of things in play here which means you need to give each different situation careful consideration.

For example, I spoke previously about the jockey’s helmets issue and, from what I can understand, the protest that they raised has been very successful.

But let’s think about the situation at Racing Queensland for a minute.

You can say to them, pull your socks up and increase stake money, but it is difficult to pull your socks up if you haven’t got any on.

You can have all of the protests meeting you like, but if they have no socks to pull up, how are they going to do it?

Another way of putting it is ... Racing Queensland hasn’t got any money.

They are basically broke, so it is a very different situation to jockeys deciding whether they were going to wear a new helmet or not.

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But again, as I’ve said before, the last thing that any racing jurisdiction should do it cut stakes money. That just gives everybody the feeling that they are broke.

You would think, even in dire times, there would be ways of reducing expenditure without reducing stake-money ... which brings us directly back to the way the industry is being managed in Queensland now and how it needs to be managed before you will see any improvement in its situation.

First of all they’ve got to have a Board. That’s as simple a starting point you can get.

Then they’ve got to have a Chief Executive who’s got their heart in the game, not somebody who is merely there on temporary basis before he moves on.

Whether the new Racing Minister gets to understand that in the short term and jumps in to do something about it or not is the crux of the immediate future of racing in Queensland ... protests meetings or not!