MY CALL: WHY IS THERE SUCH A LONG WAIT FOR CORRECT WEIGHT? HAS COMPLACENCY SET IN?

By David Fowler | Tuesday, November 27, 2018

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

Correct weight is being declared too slowly on numerous south-east Queensland thoroughbred races.

I’ve drawn this conclusion after a month-long survey of the race meetings I broadcast.

The data has a consistent thread of a correct weight declaration of eight and sometimes up to 10 minutes after a race starts within a minute of advertised start time.

The post-race procedure has no twists or turns.

A confirmation of the first four placings and then the jockey’s weight of those placings should ensure an immediate correct weight result.

And clearly this should happen in a shorter window of eight to ten minutes

The only variance is if a jockey wants to look at the video replay with a view to a protest and if a protest then proceeds.

Why is this an issue, you ask?

Turnover on the available betting product is paramount and a key component of this is to “turnover” the money as efficiently as possible.

When you read efficiently, read speedily.

Many punters’ modus operandi is to bet on the next race, whatever code or state.

Whether that’s a good or bad thing is not the argument.

After backing a winner or at least realising a return, the growing frustration of watching minute after minute tick by with “interim” flashing is not satisfactory.

How can the unsatisfactory become satisfactory?

Jockeys often spend too much time in post-race discussion with owners and trainers when their first task at hand should be an immediate path to the weigh-in.

And they’re not totally to blame as the practice hasn’t been policed enough.

Complacency has set in.

I’m not saying the jockeys’ post race analysis should be eradicated but it should be prioritised.

A reasonable question to ask is does the Doomben chief steward wait to declare correct weight until he arrives back at his designated area which is a minute from the weight-in.

A reasonable question to ask is the correct weight signal immediately semaphored after the green light from the chief steward.

It might be a minute here or a minute there but these “minutes” are vital in the betting process.

Waiting eight to 10 minutes for a payout is not good enough.

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