FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - RESPECTING PETER MOODY'S DECISION BUT HOPING FOR A CHANGE OF HEART

By John Schreck | Wednesday, March 23, 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.

My view on Peter Moody’s decision to leave racing is one of disappointment.

Over the years Moody has established that he is a very good man with racehorses and I thought that up until this recent problem he has, generally speaking, been very good for the sport.

When Black Caviar was top of the tree I know he went out of his way to promote racing. I know he even went to harness racing meetings in Victoria, amongst many other places, as a guest of honour to fly the flag to promote the sport.

I respect his reasons for making this decision at this time, but I would hope he will have a rethink along the way.

Six months is not a long time and I would hope he would have that rethink and return to the sport around about spring time going better than ever.

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Just as there are two camps ... for and against ... in the Moody story, that difference is also in evidence with regard the steward’s handling of the situation.

Stewards have been in the situation of ‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t’ for as long as I can remember.

It is a very difficult and thankless job.

When I used to go to work as a racing steward I knew every day that the decisions I made would be a mistake in the eyes of a great many people.

Some people are supportive of what you do but, generally speaking, some people think you have done the wrong thing whatever you do.

That’s just the way it is. As a steward you have to learn to live with that.

Good racing stewards take absolutely no notice at all of what is printed in the media or posted on social media when carrying out their job. They stay professional and do the job as required.

When they are away from work though it is not always possible... well I didn’t find it possible ... to empty all of that stuff out of your head, but the key is staying focused and professional when on the job so that you are not affected by any outside influences.

It is a very, very lonely and difficult job.

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The news that the proposed new Racing Integrity Bill in Queensland (which would have taken ‘Integrity’ out of racing’s hands) was referred back to the Racing Minister by a Parliamentary Committee means that it is still floating around without resolution.

As far as racing’s needs in the integrity department is concerned, I think people involved in structuring that department should stand back every now and again and look at racing people and acknowledge that people in the sport, generally speaking, are hard-working, decent people.

Training stables work seven days a week, three-hundred-and sixty-five days a year and these hard working people usually go about their work in a very honest way ... desperately trying to get their hands on a good horse.

Few of them ever do.

It is the same with jockeys ... the great majority of them go to the track rain, hail or shine day after day ... again trying to get onto a reasonably good horse to make a good living.

Very few of them do.

The majority of these participants, from those earning well to the battlers, would not do anything to harm racing. They are doing it for the love of the game and they , like everybody else, wouldn’t want cheats in involved in it.

So I don’t know about these people who want to set up great, big expensive integrity units. I mean we are not dealing with terrorists, for goodness sake. We are dealing generally with a percentage number in the high nineties of hard working men and woman who provide clean racing.

Integrity in racing is obviously very important and, as I’ve said before, of course there will be cheats in racing as there is across society ... but the control of racing, including integrity, needs to stay under racing’s banner and racing needs to be run by racing people who understand the sport and the problems that confront racing people every day.

That is why Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the CEO in Hong Kong, is such a good administrator because he truly likes the sport. He goes to the races when he is on holidays because that is what he genuinely likes. Being that involved means he knows what going on, as any good administrator should!

The bottom line is horse racing can never be lily-white. There always has been and always will be shades of grey about the sport.

Those who really understand the sport accept that and live with it!