THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - WAITING FOR A CHANGE OF ATTITUDE THAT IS LONG OVERDUE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 21, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

One of the problems with one racing season beginning the day after the previous season has ended is that there is no time for administrators to sit back and truly, single-mindedly focus on past performance and identify areas that need improvement and then act on those findings.

Sure, that general assessment does take place to a degree on an on-going basis but that occurs, not in isolation, but amidst the hurly burly of day to day management which, as we all know, provides its own set of serious, time consuming challenges.

While a number of items on any proposed improvement wish list come with a price tag that would intimidate the bean counters, there are other areas in which important improvement can be achieved just by a change of attitude.

I’ll give you two examples.

Firstly, while I accept that for authorities to put out press releases which tend to favour the bright side of a situation, sometimes arguably at the expense of the real truth, is a common practise in all walks of life, in racing, with all of its difficulties, that is a practise of little value.

When a release says, for example, that the new Eagle Farm track needs just another two weeks and then authorities are confident it will provide a good racing surface, as was the case back in May, that is a report fraught with danger.

Why not rather say the Eagle Farm track is not yet ready for action as anticipated and that information will be updated after two weeks.

Easy and truthful with no false promises.

Racing participants are not stupid and the more they are fed information that proves to be questionable the less they will believe the content of future press releases.

So authorities at management level, be it state or club, should stop the ‘spin.’

When they do so I think they will be surprised at the greater amount of support they will receive from participants.

It all comes down to creating a level of mutual respect ... and that costs nothing!

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Secondly, as with participants, punters are not stupid. In fact the modern day punter is perhaps better informed than ever before and, as such, he or she will have opinions ... or will point out aspects about racing in general, or about their race-day experience in particular, about which they are unhappy.

For too long there has been a climate, or at very least a strong perception, of management not treating punters in a manner in which a customer should be entitled.

‘Whinging punters’ ... ‘talking from their pocket’... are common enough phrases often used to deflect punter input.

Well here is some breaking news.

The regular punters on the ground are the ones best placed to be able to tell authorities whether they are running a smooth, successful operation or not, so why wouldn’t you listen to them, even if only one out of ten of their offerings actually leads to allowing racing to refine its performance for the better ... ... and guess what?

Again it will cost nothing.

This two-pronged change in management attitude ... towards participants and punters ... is well overdue.

True, participants and punters will also have to change their attitude but that shift has to work from the top down.

It is a new season. We all want to do better.

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I have mentioned two humble points to help plot that route.

There are others. We have to start somewhere ... but, I would suggest most importantly of all, the new board and the new CEO of Racing Queensland need to make that time to sit back and single-mindedly focus on past performance and identify areas that need improvement and then act on those findings.

Because if they asked anybody out in the trenches they will realise very quickly that, particularly in the areas mentioned above, racing can ill afford to serve up more of the same.