FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: TRAINER'S REPORTING PROCEDURES TO STEWARDS UNDER SOME SCRUTINY

By John Schreck | Monday, August 22, 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 emerging reports last week of surgery to the champion mare Winx, some four months after the fact, has raised eyebrows and posed certain questions.

What horse health issues should be reported by trainers and should such reports have a strict timeframe attached to them to be meaningful?

It is difficult to know where to start and stop with regard to the levels of public disclosure of the various treatments that racehorses receive.

As a general principle though, if a horse is subject to some sort of surgery or procedure that might affect its performance in the future or if the problem being corrected might have affected its performance in the past ... well then, I think, as a matter of transparency, that sort of information should be made available to the public.

Afterall, racing is a gambling business. People are gambling on a horse’s performance so anything that can impact on that performance should be divulged to stewards who would then pass it on.

There is a general rule that makes trainers obliged to supply general information to stewards.

The latest episode, in which nobody broke any rule, suggests that it might be a prudent time for the responsibilities implied in the rule to be tightened to allow a clearer understanding of what needs to be reported and, perhaps more particularly, when it needs to be reported for it to serve its best purpose.

That would have to be done ‘within reason’ and in a well thought out manner though, remembering that you would be looking to improve the rule, not overcomplicate it!

*************************************************************************************************

I have been asked a direct question about my views on jumps racing so let me give you a direct answer.

And no, I’m not going to bring up animal welfare issues. In fact I am going to put animal welfare issues aside completely because I base my views on whether jumps racing is a viable business proposition for the racing industry ... and I’m sorry to say, these days, it is not!

I know I will upset the jumps people by saying that, but it can’t be sustained for very much longer, in my view, as a business proposition. I stress again, I am talking about it as a business proposition ... putting all else aside.

It is simply not a necessary part of the Australian racing scene anymore.

It used to be in the past.

When I first worked at the VRC ... on Melbourne Cup day the day would start with the Cup Hurdle and then three or four races later there was the Cup Steeple Chase. It was a big thing.

The Australian Steeple Chase used to be run at Caulfield. The AV Hiskens was run at Moonee Valley. The contribution of the cross country racing and hurdle racing was significant.

There were all sorts of big jumps racing but a lot of that ended because it was no longer viable from a business point of view ... and now it is withering on the vine.

Horseracing is a business and it has to do its best to sustain itself across the board and I don’t think that jumps racing is able to do that anymore.

Having said that, I do have obvious concern for the people and horses involved in this in declining aspect of the sport, but that is another story.

I was asked the question of what I think about jumps racing and I have answered by putting forward with what I genuinely believe to be the realistic position of jumps racing at this time.

*************************************************************************************************

In the last two weeks I spent some time in Mount Isa at the annual rodeo.

I was very impressed by what I saw.

Anybody who has some spare time in the second week in August in future should keep the Mount Isa rodeo well in mind.