WE HAVE TO MAKE CERTAIN THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN

By Peter Boyce | Friday, June 2, 2017

Well respected racing identity Peter Boyce is the Chairman of the Sunshine Coast Turf Club. He is also a member of the Racing Advisory Board and a racehorse owner. His experience and reputation as a fair minded administrator means his opinion carries weight and he certainly pulls no punches here, as he delivers his assessment of the Eagle Farm track controversy.

There was plenty of evidence leading up to Saturday that the Eagle Farm surface was never going to cope with the race-day.

Statements to that effect were coming from participants who had first-hand experience of the track. Some officials chose to be blind to those statements, but when you have got people in your own back yard who say to you, ‘now listen your track is not good enough,’ it is not a good enough response to say, ‘well, the jockeys say it is safe enough to ride on.’

And let’s be clear, with regard to the source of those statements we are not talking about rabble-rousers here. We are talking about people with a genuine interest in proceedings because it is their livelihood.

We are also talking about a spectacle. We are talking about Brisbane racing being the centre of national attention. It’s our peak period and if there was the risk of the track situation ‘going off,’ it needed to be acknowledged early that there was a major problem, as against saying, oh well look ... the jockey’s say it is still safe!

Safe, by the way, is a word that is not defined in that sense. Is it safe simply because they get around the track or might you ask if it is safe if the horse come back with sand matted all over its face, all over its bridle ... and horses comes back ‘heaving’ with some of them not even able to maintain a gallop to the line.

Is that safe?

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For all of this, even as late as Monday, the Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) was still fighting to have racing continue at Eagle Farm for the remainder of the carnival.

Now, in part at least, you have to have some sympathy for their reason for doing that. When you run a club there are only certain days ... I call them ‘big lick’ days ... where you make a profit and you need to maximise the returns on those days because there are so many days when you run at a loss.

So you do need to have those good days and the BRC was desperate to hold on to that, but racing is not just about one feature.

Racing is about product. If you don’t manage the product, you soon won’t have the right horses or the right tracks. The spectacle will suffer accordingly and then you won’t have anybody coming to watch the races.

I watched the first race on Saturday. Like most people I was wondering why the track was a Heavy 8 given that we had good weather for the week leading into race-day ... and then you get the leading jockey coming back and saying it is not Heavy 8, it is more like a Heavy 20!

That is a PR disaster right there ... even before you reference other equally non-complimentary quotes.

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The real problem is that if you segregate and look at just one aspect of the business and are prepared to run the risk with other aspects, then that’s where you run into trouble.

You rather have got to say, well ... how do I get the desired product?

The obvious point is to have a good track and a quality of horses and racing that brings people to the track. You’ll certainly bring lots of people ... and probably more than some would expect ... if that product is right.

Now weigh that up against simply bringing in a crowd because it is a feature day, prioritising that aspect and segregating it from all else.

Put on a bad show and you will have a large percentage of that crowd walking away at the end of the day saying, how bad was that?

They won’t come back.

And there were also people there on Saturday who thought the fare put on bordered on animal cruelty ... because some horses were pulling up distressed.

Whatever your view on that, it was not a good look ... and it all could have been avoided.

The Sunshine Coast Turf Club, as a club, was prepared the take the transferred meetings to try and help out because we are all part of a large industry that needs to succeed. We would only have asked to cover our costs and the profits would go to the BRC.

I accept that the BRC didn’t want to move the meeting ... and that was a big decision ... but we were prepared to do that because we are either in this swim together, or we are not.

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It is true to say that there are more important things for a race club than just having a race meeting.

Clubs have got to make money ... that is very true. But is that a holistic approach? That’s the point.

Today at the Sunshine Coast it is Ladies Oaks Day ... and I will be the first to say to you, for us this is a huge day. It goes Ladies Oaks Day, Caloundra Cup, Melbourne Cup and the Summer Cup.

Those are the days we make money and so I understand why the BRC are jealously guarding their big days, so don’t get me wrong, but if Eagle Farm’s problems arose on Saturday for the first time I would have had a lot more sympathy for them.

But they didn’t.

We had sensible people telling them for months that track is no good ... and it is in that loss of time where the problem lies. It is easy for us to sit back and say this now, but these facts (undeniable facts) were known to the BRC ... yet the BRC seemingly didn’t want to make the necessary decision.

The reality is that if the decision was made two months ago they wouldn’t have been up for any losses because everything would then have been pre-planned ... and the racing industry would have moved on.

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So, for the moment Eagle Farm has been left stranded.

The problem the BRC has now is that the situation is so bad that if it is not fixed now there will be enormous trouble. So, in seeking to rectify the problem, there can be no short cuts, no cutting corners ... it has to be done properly.

You have a look at Toowoomba. Toowoomba is a great example really. They were bleeding really badly when we had to close their track. With hindsight now they can look back and say, as tough as it was, that was the best thing that happened to us because we learnt our lessons along the way and our track is good now.

The point there is that those who have an attitude which is open to learning will improve their lot. On the other hand there are those who are destined to fail because they have an ‘I know better’ attitude which abruptly dismisses all well intentioned and informed feedback.

They will fail because they will never learn.

Suddenly they will be in a corner and, when that happens, their attitude shifts to one of indignation ... such as, how dare they do this to us!

Again, that response is no help to anybody.

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The fact that Racing Queensland brought the Eagle Farm situation to a head is another indictment on the club.

It was the club that needed to take the reins but, with it wavering, Racing Queensland stepped in.

Therein lies a possible direct pointer to a more positive future.

Racing needs leaders in the industry who are capable of making hard decisions ... and it has to be hoped that, out of this current turmoil, true leaders will emerge.

The one thing about racing people is that they are all pretty resilient because they have to deal with lots of difficulties.

They are also optimistic, on most days anyway, otherwise they would not be here and if their industry is given true direction and managed competently, they will support those efforts one hundred percent.

It is true that it is a terrible state of affairs that we find ourselves in at the moment but it is what it is and we just have to deal with it. It is a simple, recurring fact of life that people do move on and that is what racing has to do now.

But it has to move on with a plan and the plan in the first instance has to be whatever money has to be thrown at Eagle Farm, let’s make certain it is thrown at it and let’s make certain we get it absolutely right this time.

After a year’s frustration, nothing less will do.

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