THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - DUAL LICENCEES. THIS CAN'T BE THE END OF THE STORY
By Graham Potter | Sunday, December 11, 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.
Michelle Payne must have felt like a pin-ball in recent times ... the problem being that there was no pin-ball wizard at the controls.
Buffeted around from one corner to the next, scoring points or being shut out altogether, you could well sympathise with the dual licensee’s thoughts that her situation made no sense at all.
Victoria allows and fully acknowledges dual jockey / trainer licensees. New South Wales doesn’t allow them at all while Queensland allows them in some regions and not in others.
So when Payne (a dual license holder in Victoria) applied for a visiting jockey’s license in New South Wales the application was summarily dismissed ... but that decision began a groundswell of opinion about the absurdity of the situation.
Payne then applied to Queensland and QRIC, under pressure, ultimately approved her visiting jockey’s license for Magic Millions day.
While that clearly was the sensible outcome it cannot be the end of the story.
QRIC’s ‘backflip’ decision not only embarrassingly flew in the face of the previous stance taken by one of their own senior officials but it contradicted the relevant rule of racing as it stands in Queensland at the moment.
This begs an obvious question. Is the Payne case and exception to the rule or will Queensland now be looking for the necessary rule change to bring some sanity back to the situation?
It would be nice to see somebody being proactive instead of reactive for a change.
Racing New South Wales also has something to answer.
They have taken a strict stance against dual licensees on the basis that is an existing rule that they are not prepared to bend.
That could almost have been acceptable argument had it not been tinged with a touch of hypocrisy given that it was New South Wales who flouted an accepted international racing agreement by granted Chris Munce a riding license before he had completed a world-wide suspension after his Hong Kong misadventure.
So I wouldn’t be getting too precious about their stance if I was them.
It’s not rocket science.
One rule for all states regarding dual licensees would be logical and it would allow racing to progress with one less self-inflicted roadblock.
And wouldn’t we all like that!
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HRO COMMENTS:
The New South Wales stance on this issue is all the more difficult to understand because, of all the major racing precincts in the country, they have been the most progressive in recent years and the most competent in dealing with the necessary changes that the industry demands at this time.
Racing NSW have taken initiatives to help build their brand, they have created incentives and brought in regular across the board prize-money increases to make their product more attractive to stakeholders ... which is all very much to their credit.
So why they would miss a beat on something that, on the surface at least, looks easy to rectify without doing any damage in any direction, is both surprising and disappointing.
*For the record, a dual licensee has won a Group 1 race in Sydney
... but that success came as a trainer and not a rider.
That win came in the 1977 Epsom, a race won by Raffindale.
The English import had moved to the stables of Adelaide jockey Dave Whitney. Whitney, a dual licensee, rode the horse in its first five starts in Adelaide but when Raffindale’s schedule took him to Victoria and New South Wales, where dual licenses were not permitted, John Letts took over in the saddle and the team went on to score an end to end win in the Epsom, making it two big feature race wins in a row following his victory in the Marlboro Cup at Caulfield.
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