FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK: BRISBANE'S TIME IN THE SUN TAINTED BY STORMY EAGLE FARM TRACK CONTROVERSY

By John Schreck | Thursday, June 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 way the track raced at Eagle Farm on Saturday was disappointing to the club, disappointing to participants and disappointing to punters.

It was very poor ... and it drew all the more criticism because the national racing focus was on Brisbane on Saturday.

It was prime time for the Brisbane Racing Club ... it was meant to be their time in the sun ... and it would be something of an understatement to say it didn’t work out well.

Over a long period of time working as a stipendiary steward ... because it was the way I was taught early on ... I did all that I could to stay out of other people’s business. That is to say I thought the judge knew more about judging than me. Trainers knew more about training horses than I did. Jockeys knew more about riding them than I did and racecourse managers knew more about racetracks than I did.

I always had a philosophy of every man to his trade and therefore, as much as possible, I refrained from interfering in other aspects of the sport unless it was absolutely necessary.

Given what has transpired at Eagle Farm, some people have clearly found it necessary to get involved in the minute with severe criticism of the track.

Justified or not, it is sad when it comes down to what basically can be termed ‘in-fighting’ because there are really no winners in such a situation, least of all racing itself.

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Clearly the Eagle Farm track was not satisfactory.

In good races they usually finish in a heap. You generally have a good quality field of competitive horses and that is why, more often than not, the bulk of the field finishes in a cluster.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case at Eagle Farm last Saturday and, regrettably, it made for a rather poor spectacle.

In those circumstances you can certainly allow and give great credibility to the participants and punters concerns associated with horses being strung out to such a marked degree ... and by far the greatest concern has to be the negative effect such a scenario has on racing product itself.

If you are selling a car or a house or whatever, the product you are displaying has to be of a certain standard to hold attention ... and racing is no different. If the racing product that is presented to people is not of a satisfactory standard the people will go away.

I say again, the product has to be of a certain acceptable standard and it would seem, on the face of it (and I write from a distance), that sadly wasn’t the case at Eagle Farm last Saturday.

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The switch of venue from Eagle Farm to Doomben for the remainder of the Brisbane Carnival will be difficult for trainers who have set their horses for the Eagle Farm races.

At this end of the day that move will arguably suit some horses and disadvantage others but that is the situation now and everybody has to adapt to it as best they can.

Personally, I think the fellow that manages the Doomben racetrack should be put up on the tallest building there is in Brisbane and everybody should acknowledge the good job he is doing in difficult circumstances.

It must be very difficult to keep Doomben going through all of this and we all have just got to hope with the workload it is getting now that it doesn’t also get into a state of disrepair.

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With big decisions having now been made to alter the racing schedule, the bigger question still remains.
What happens next to Eagle Farm?

That is going to be a big concern for the Brisbane Racing Club ... and, no doubt, a costly one.

If the decision is that they have to start again, or whatever remedial work might be undertaken, that could be money that owners will not be able to compete for and that is going to have an on-going effect, surely!

So, it is very important what happens next.

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Blake Shinn is off to America to join the stable of Group 1 winning trainer Wesley Ward in Chicago.

Without doubt all international riding experience is very valuable and I’m sure Blake will learn a lot, from his stint there.

He will be impressed with Arlington. It is a very exciting place. He may not be quite so impressed with Chicago itself, but the Arlington racetrack is a very special place and it will be a wonderful experience for him.

Blake presents himself very well. If he can adapt himself to the style of riding over there ... that is to jump and run with not too much whip use ... and conduct himself as I know he will, it will all be very positive.

I am sure Blake will fly the flag well over there.

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It was also confirmed this week that John O’Shea has been allocated boxes at Randwick.

John O’Shea is a racehorse trainer through and through and, after leaving Godolphin, it was a fair bet that he wouldn’t be away from training for long.

He would suffer from withdrawal symptoms if he couldn’t be at the track early in the morning, so it is no real surprise to see him back.

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Racing NSW Stewards have concluded an inquiry into the riding tactics adopted by jockey Glyn Schofield on Up ‘n’ Rolling in Race 6 at Canterbury Park on 17 April 2017.

The outcome that they would not proceed with action against him was an interesting one.

I didn’t see the film but I must say I was impressed with the written reasons the stewards gave for not proceeding with the case against Schofield. (Incidentally, the Stewards patrol film of the race in question with a voice-over by Chairman of Stewards, Marc Van Gestel has been made available on the Racing NSW website).

Riders make errors of judgement every day and the rule that it was thought Schofield might have been charged under (AR 135(b) was never designed to simply penalise someone who should have gone left when they went right.

Part of the stewards explanation stressed this point. They stated, ‘the Stewards were mindful that the interpretation an application of the relevant rule, AR 135(b) does not seek to punish a mere error of judgment unless it is an unreasonable one.’

Obviously Schofield might have zigged when he could have zagged but that does not necessarily mean that he should be penalised or anybody else in the future should be penalised in similar circumstances, as stated in the relevant rule.

It is a point well worth remembering.

I applaud the stewards for the way in which they resolved the matter and their detailed explanation of how they arrived at their decision.

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