THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: LESSONS LEARNT ALL-ROUND AS RACING TAKES A NEW DIRECTION

By Graham Potter | Friday, November 2, 2018

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.

The positive outcome of the negotiation between the State Government and the Racing Alliance last week showed just what can be achieved when an industry is united and harnesses its power.

But the challenge for the Racing Alliance does not end there.

Of course, there will be other matters to deal with in terms of their on-going interaction with Government but arguably the most important issue right now for the Racing Alliance is to keep the internal harmony of stakeholders, from all sectors of the industry, intact and ensure that the toxic fragmentation that so pervaded the industry for many years is confined to the past.

If they can do that … having now also got the government’s attention … it will be onwards and upwards from here.

Racing Queensland Chairman Steve Wilson, speaking at the Toowoomba race meeting on Wednesday, put the new found understanding between the State Government and racing into perspective.

“When we actually sat down with Government we were able to show just how important racing is,” said Wilson.

“There are 109 towns in Queensland who put on races. We are creating communities in all of those towns and, when it was explained that this just isn’t a grab for people in top hats and that the Queensland model is not all about the high end of town but has as much to do with battlers as it has to do with millionaires, it is fair to say the Government understood our position.

“There are 43 000 participants in racing in Queensland. It makes a $1.2 billion contribution to the economy. The Government is very aware of the importance of racing. They get it. They are totally on side.”

“It should also be noted that the Government made the point to us that they were very pleased with the unity within racing’s ranks because it showed that we, from our side, were intent on getting our own house in order,” continued Wilson.

“It is so important. This is one of our messages back to the industry … that we have to have unity. If people run off and one person rings one member, somebody else complains about another body you end up fighting amongst yourselves.

“If there is a lack of unity in the industry, the industry won’t make progress. We’ve got unity now and that has to be the on-going message. We’ve made good progress and that is what we want to achieve at Racing Queensland and we have the commitment to continue on with it," concluded Wilson.

There is still a lot of water to go under the bridge before full confidence is restored to racing in Queensland but, importantly, the turnaround has started.

It might even have crossed a watershed moment.

The Government, both in attitude and action, will always be a telling factor in the well-being of the racing industry and that looks to have improved on both fronts, but recent events have showed that racing stakeholders equally hold much of their destiny in their own hands.

It seems like lessons have been learnt all-round.

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