FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: WAGERING OPERATORS AND THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL 'MINIMUM BET' RULE

By John Schreck | Wednesday, March 1, 2017

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. Schreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

The minimum bet rule, applied in New South Wales and Victoria but not in Queensland, has fast become a bone of contention in the Sunshine State.

This is one rule that should be same all around the country and I really can’t understand why it is not a national rule or why Queensland has rejected the New South Wales and Victorian model.

If the punters can’t get set for a certain amount in Queensland you don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know they will go where they can get set for that amount.

Queensland is already under pressure with more and more trainers taking their horses down to New South Wales (particularly the northern rivers area) where they can race for better prize-money ... so why Queensland would continue with a betting rule which is almost certain to have punters follow the trainers’ lead and take their money south is difficult to understand.

It is true that there is not as much ‘mug money’ around as there used to be so that is a fact that bookmakers are entitled to take into account, but the thing about something like minimum bets is that it is really not a matter for the bookmakers. It is a matter for the authorities and, in my view, they should enforce that authority on the bookmakers.

If the bookmakers can’t cope with that ... well then, like in any other business, they will wither and die.

This discrepancy in prize money has impacted negatively on field sizes in South East Queensland and punters going elsewhere will impact negatively on turnover so that is certainly not a position any racing precinct would want to be in.

I have seen no reasons given for Queensland not implementing a minimum bet rule in keeping with that of New South Wales and Victoria except one reported comment attributed to a ‘Racing Queensland spokesman’ who said that they ‘agreed with the Governments view that it (the minimum bet issue) was not a key priority.’

Given the consequences of their ‘non action’ in terms of the minimum bet rule, it would be illuminating if the racing fraternity as a whole could be told what those key priorities might be.

If the downward spiral in general and the contributing factors to that decline in particular are not seriously addressed soon, there will come a day when the balance sheets are so bad that people will then have to sit down and take notice.

Costs will blow out. Revenue will go down ... and if that situation is not turned around there can be no good outcome.

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There is not much left to say about Winx’s actual race performances that has not been said already, but there was another moment on Saturday, away from the race action, which caught my attention.

When Winx went onto the track and Bowman dropped over her neck to sort of hack to the barrier, there was nearly a loop in the rein which showed just how relaxed the horse was.

I thought that was fascinating. Obviously she is one of those very good horses who is very happy at home and who saves all of her energy for the competition.

I’ve seen some good horses that take two people to lead them around and they can’t get to the barrier without being led by the clerk of the course and all this sort of stuff ... but Winx is clearly is just a very happy horse and she could not have been more relaxed.

I really think horses are just incredible and that was just great to see.

The other thing to come out of the race for me was the dreadful run of Hartnell. I know he had a hard run but he was entitled to close off the race a bit better than he did.

It has been drummed into me over the years that you always forgive a horse one bad run ... so don’t be surprised if Hartnell really fires up next time.

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The Sydney Autumn Carnival was launched yesterday.

Eighteen Group 1’s, forty-eight Black Type races and $33 million in prize-money ... it is obviously a massive event.

With the Sydney Carnival though, once again, even with its lucrative prize-money, it has been established just how difficult it is to get northern hemisphere horses to come to the southern hemisphere coming out of their winter.

For all of the year’s I’ve been involved it has been just about impossible to do so.

That basic logistic ‘roadblock’ is never going to change ... meaning it is always going to be difficult to achieve.

Obviously that is one of the things they have got in mind with The Everest by putting that race in the Spring when they will have some chance of getting international horses here as they have done in Melbourne for years.

The Carnival will also include the twenty-fifth anniversary of Randwick becoming ‘Royal Randwick’ ... a designation that was rubber-stamped / endorsed by the Queen.

My hope is that the weather is favourable for the Carnival.

Often in the Sydney Easter time the weather can be very funny and it doesn’t matter how many Black Type races there are or how much stake money you have, unless the weather is with you it very difficult to make a success of a race meeting.