FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: STEWARDS FLYING HIGH AS THEY BRING A NEW SURVEILLANCE OPTION INTO PLAY

By John Schreck | Thursday, December 15, 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.

In an interesting development, Greyhound Racing Victoria and Harness Racing Victoria are turning to the use of drones for surveillance so far as any infringements of the rules might be concerned in relation to training tracks.

There have been examples of disqualified people working on out of town training tracks and that sort of thing.

Of course, if stewards drive up in a car they are gone ... so the introduction of drones, not only in that but in many other respects, brings an entirely different aspect to surveillance operation.

There are also all sorts of sophisticated things being used now in relation to telecommunications surveillance and that sort of thing, all of which goes to underline just how rapidly the work of stipendiary stewards is changing.

Their work is justifiably and logically becoming so much more sophisticated than it was in the past, an advancement which is absolutely necessary to keep pace with modern times.

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Some of the steward’s work, because of its investigative nature, cannot be granted full disclosure to the public.

For example, in Queensland two senior officials in the stewarding department have been stood. The official notification of their suspension from duties came with the statement that no further comment will be issued at this time.

Now, in general, I am great believer in transparency in racing. I think it is very important but, having said that, on unresolved matters, such the investigation into these two officials, there is no good reason for the general public to be made aware of every twist and turn the investigation is taking.

I stress that transparency is important, but sometimes some situations have to be handled in-camera.

And hopefully the public understand that.

I chaired a lot of steward’s enquiries over the years, some of which I closed down to members of the media and was highly criticised for doing so, but to have those enquiries open to the press would have generated terrific headlines which would not necessarily have been fair to those people giving evidence before us.

Sometimes allegations are made which subsequently cannot be substantiated. At the times the allegations are made it would be a big story but at the time it is found to be unsubstantiated it probably generates a couple of paragraphs at the bottom of page thirty-three ... if that!

So, for officials, the transparency aspect is very a catch-22 situation but in lots of cases, such as those described here, I would be inclined to err on the side of conservatism and to err on the side of fairness and live with the criticism that will inevitably flow from closing down access to specific information.

That doesn’t mean that these matters should not be dealt with promptly in order to not only to bring the matter to a swift resolution but also to minimise the time during which speculation and rumour can come into play with its often damaging effect even if it far removed from the truth.

But that’s another story.

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It was interesting seeing Michael Rodd’s view on his ‘old school’ apprenticeship (in a feature article on HRO).

I know it was quite difficult for apprentices coming through in my time. They worked hard for long hours ... but I really don’t think it did them harm.

Quinton, Michael Rodd, Zac Purton, Roy Higgins, Geoffrey Lane, who currently works as a steward down at the Gold Coast ... all came through the old system, worked long hours and sometimes had Saturday night off to go to the movies.

That was about it.

Now, the kids of today wouldn’t put up with that but it didn’t hurt most of those who came through the ‘old school’ system.

Development of their character was as big a part of things then as teaching riding skills and they grew up into decent citizens all of those men.

As I’ve said before, time moves on and things change and racing, like everything else, has to change with it.

It is just good to see that somebody like Michael Rodd appreciates his background and, as it was with many others before him, it is to his credit that he put the advantages that the ‘old school’ apprenticeship system gave him to such good use.