FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: TROUBLE IN TOWNSVILLE

By John Schreck | Thursday, November 17, 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 conflict currently being experienced by the Townsville Turf Club is very unfortunate.

The resignation of all members of the club’s committee following a directive from Racing Queensland which they found to be unacceptable has left the club in chaos.

As a general principle I have always been of the view that racing control is at its best when it is decentralised ... that is when it is left to its local devices.

If that is the situation the local people will encourage others to give of their time to keep the sport going and rally the local community to support their efforts ... whereas, if it is entirely administered from outside, locals seem to be less keen to give of their time and support.

That, to me, has always been a very important ingredient to racing outside of the big cities.

Of course Townsville could be called a big centre but, as I said it is always preferable to have as much local involvement as possible because that is where you are most likely to find the passion and enthusiasm you are looking for to drive the sport in any particular area.

I don’t know the full details of the communication between Racing Queensland and the Townsville Turf Club so I can’t comment other than in general terms not specific to the situation in Townsville, but it is my belief that a controlling body should only need to get involved in race club business or apply pressure on a race club in drastic circumstances.

The sport will have great difficulty if situations like this arise too often because the sport is under such pressure from other forms of gambling.

It simply is not in a position to deal with too many distractions of this type. I don’t think so anyhow.

For racing to move forward everybody has to be pulling the rope the same way. There has to be some unanimity along the way ... and I now that is easier said than done ... but otherwise racing is opening itself up to possible damaging outcomes which would be better not to experience ... such as this unfortunate, troubled situation in Townsville.

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The Townsville issue has once again raised the general debate about the value to racing of outside consultants.

Over the years I’ve seen high paid consultants come in and work on things and go away ... and nothing much seems to change.

Then a couple of years later more consultants are brought in.

You have got to wonder about the worth of all that, I’m sorry to say.

I have said many times that, with regard to racing stewards for example, they need to be audited from time to time to see that they don’t slip into ruts and that sort of thing ... but that is very different to bringing external consultants in to tell you how to run the business.

Given the history of cost involved and outcomes achieved when using this strategy, it is hardly surprising that the expensive, outside consultant option is seldom welcomed with open arms by racing stakeholders and customers.

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Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that Racing Queensland is just stumbling from crisis to crisis.

It is not just the racing arm that is having its difficulties. Its integrity arm, now a totally separate division, is also floundering with its own internal problems with QRIC’s director of Stewarding and Licencing being stood down on full pay pending an internal investigation into a matter prior to the start of the QRIC in July.

The person in question was appointed to the position, went on leave, returned and was then stood down on full pay ... meaning that office has yet to produce anything of note in terms of productivity while still contributing to the substantial costs involved in running the QRIC operation.

I feel for the participants ... and, the way things are going now in Queensland.

I just can’t see where the light at the end of the tunnel is going to come from.

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HRO comment:

In order to get some idea of what the cost can be for use of external consultants, accountants, administrators etc ... it has recently been revealed that the Queensland government paid KPMG $784,353 supposedly to lead a turnaround in Racing Queensland's economic position.

"The engagement was initially for a period of three months, from 1 June to 1 September 2015, and this continued through a subsequent extension to 31 March 2016," Racing Minister Grace Grace said.

Entrenched in Racing Queensland’s proposal for the Townsville Turf Club, as has been reported, is a similar arrangement whereby a Special Purpose Administrator would be appointed to manage the Townsville Turf Club for twelve weeks at an estimated cost of between $150 000 and $200 000.

Those figures have not been confirmed, but whatever they are the scary part is, as we all found out the hard way with the KPMG arrangement, such a tenure can easily be extended for a much longer period of time without any recourse ... with associated blow out costs.

What was it John Schreck said: ‘Over the years I’ve seen high paid consultants come in and work on things and go away ... and nothing much seems to change.

"Then a couple of years later more consultants are brought in.’

Clearly it is a point well made!