FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - HARD TO BE CRITICAL OF A GOOD CONCEPT THAT TURNED INTO A RAGING SUCCESS

By John Schreck | Wednesday, January 6, 2016

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.

The Magic Millions race-day, in itself, is unique in that it seems to have its feet planted in two places ... that is, in tradition and modernity.

The tradition being that the races are conducted under the Rules of Racing and all that goes with that. On the other side of the fence, the modernity shows through in the manner in which stakes are raised and the eligibility of horses that are allowed to enter and to run.

It’s a relatively new way of attracting runners to a race and people to the racetrack.

The fact is that racing has to, from time to time, modernise itself ... as cricket has done. Cricket is revitalising itself all of the time. Golf, for example, is not and it is starting to wane in the interest it has generated.

So, I think the initiatives that the Magic Millions people have shown since about the middle eighties have been really outstanding. This is showing through these days with it being the richest race-day in the country and they are now selling up to 1000 horses at the January sale.

The whole thing has been a raging success and Mr Carl Waugh and his friends, who got it going back in the middle eighties, should be forever congratulated.

The first sale had about 200 horses and a lot of people thought it wouldn’t work. The first race was won by Snippets and five or six of the horses that ran in that race went on to run in the Golden Slipper Stakes ... so, right from day one, the event has been good and has got better.

And their success story is not just about two-year-olds. Every year the overall results achieved by sales graduates, two-year-olds and beyond, makes impressive reading.

Also, these days, once your horse is paid up after buying at the Magic Millions, the horse can go on running at Magic Millions races for many seasons.

And how good a fit is the sales week with the razzmatazz of the Gold Coast and the summer time enjoyment!

It’s a wonderful concept really and, in real terms, it is hard to be critical of it at all.

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Of course that doesn’t mean there are not people who are critical of the event.

I’ve even had people come up to me and say that the separate bonus Magic Millions is paying to women owners is discriminatory.

In some ways it might be that, but I think you can justify any discriminatory factor when you are trying to attract more women into the sport.

Afterall, fifty percent of the population are female. Not enough woman race horses and the bonus is one way of attracting interest from that fifty percent of the population.

The sceptics will say that all this means is that more horses will have women as registered owners without there being any way to actually monitor their actual involvement ... but, even if a little manipulation like that does go on, there is still bound to be some positive spinoff.

Again, it is an innovation and as I said right up front, without the sport reinventing itself in some way it is going to be in awful trouble.

Whatever percentage gain racing has through the woman’s bonus, it is a percentage gain the industry never had before ... so I think it is worth the risk of any criticism that might be levelled at it.

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It is a given fact that anything that is ‘innovative’ will meet with criticism by those who resist change.

Generally speaking, people in horseracing are ultra conservative and resistant to change and that is one of the failings of the sport.

Some are making inroads but there is still probably not enough innovative thoughts in the sport at this time and what people have to understand is that racing now has to take a few risks.

Racing Administrators have to take those risks. There is no longer any safe option.

When they do they are criticised but people should remember that there is always an upside and a downside to everything and successful business ‘weigh up that balance and move when it is to their advantage.

They do not simply reject the prospect of change out of hand.

There is a lesson in there for everybody.

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