MY CALL - PROPOSAL FOR A TWELVE RACE CARD IS UNLIKELY TO FIND A GROUNDSWELL OF STAKEHOLDER SUPPORT
By David Fowler | Tuesday, February 9, 2016
David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.
Are 12 race cards a desired option for Queensland racing?
The implementation of day/night split cards of 12 races was one of the more interesting developments to emerge from the 2016/17 race draft.
Not that there are a huge number of them but I can’t see a groundswell of stakeholder support developing.
Trainers, jockeys and strappers don’t want to be getting home at 9 or 10 o’clock after setting out around lunchtime.
There is also jockey’s concentration levels to consider.
Is he or she as sharp at 2pm as they are, at say, 8pm?
And I’m not convinced a 12 race card equates to a huge boost in turnover, particularly when the back half falls into an average betting night which Wednesday is?
Full marks for initiative but I can’t see them being a raging success.
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Consolidation of the 2016/17 calendar has been a move in the right direction.
You can’t go far wrong putting your best product on your best days.
The lion’s share of Wednesday/Saturday racing is back to metropolitan Eagle Farm and Doomben while Ipswich always provided a good return in the Friday timeslot.
Add the reintroduction of Tuesday racing and more buoyant turnover figures for 2016/17 are likely after two clumsy financial periods.
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A bouquet to Racing Queensland for reversing the cushion track “ban”.
It mightn’t be the preferred surface of many but it’s better than no surface at all.
Stakeholders got the opportunity to race on Friday night and Sunday afternoon at Sunshine Coast which otherwise would have been raceless with no back-up track.
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A brickbat to Racing Queensland for dispensing with a betting supervisor and the sending of on-track prices at North Queensland meets.
And now it’s being trialled for a month in south-east Queensland.
On track betting activity will be a secret to those outside of the track unless there is a metropolitan Sydney or Melbourne meet
There is no doubt it will have a detrimental effect on Tab turnover and to a lesser degree, integrity.
Who thinks these things up?
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Congratulations to Graham Rewald on his recent award for service to the Queensland racing industry.
Graham has been the President of the Dawson Jockey Club since 2004 and was a premier winning trainer.
Racing has certainly stayed in the family as all five sons of Graham and wife Rae became jockeys.
Graham’s award was an integral part of the Coastline BMW Summer Racing Carnival at the Sunshine Coast last month.
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We recently lost steward and former jockey Graham Ireland after battling a long illness.
What maybe not as well known is that Sid Fisher, also a former jockey cum steward, passed at 86 last October.
“Bronco” Webb and Shirley Petty are others to have joined the “racetrack in the sky”.
My condolences to their families and friends
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