MY CALL: FRUSTRATION AT ABORTED OR DELAYED INFRASTUCTURE PLANS. WHEN WILL IT ALL END?
By David Fowler | Tuesday, March 19, 2019
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.
I understand the frustrations of clubs, whatever the code, and their aborted or delayed infrastructure plans.
The most recently reported was Aquis Park Gold Coast's situation regarding the makeover of training tracks and the installation of lights.
The Ipswich Turf Club has also been the victim of infrastructure stop start tactics over more than a decade,
The Albion Park harness/greyhound complex and its tenant clubs has been in a state of flux for more than a decade.
The plight of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club and the Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club was revealed to a broader audience at the recently convened Queensland Racing Forum.
It raised more than a few eyebrows from the assembled thoroughbred community,
As an Albion Park Harness Racing Club committeeman of 16 years and chairman since 2014, I'm in the "boxseat" to chronicle events of the past decade between the club and the respective controlling bodies.
I believe these events are of sufficient interest to the racing community, if only to highlight the disappointing chain of events.
They will either erase rumours or confirm same as fact.
Opinion is for yours to form.
You be the judge.
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THE Russ Hinze stand, opened in 1983, was rendered unsafe in 2008, closed in June and was demolished in the second half of that year,
The complex at the time was owned by the harness and greyhound controlling bodies with the two metropolitan clubs (APHRC and BGRC) as their tenants.
Discussions had begun between all parties with a plan to refurbish the facility.
These discussions were ultimately parked when the three codes were merged as "Racing Queensland" in 2010 with harness racing somewhat reluctantly agreeing to the tri-code setup.
Significantly, the Albion Park complex then became the property of the new Racing Queensland rather than an asset of the harness and greyhound codes.
Just as significant at this point was harness racing's insistence of the long term future of Albion Park as a racing complex.
No sooner was this agreed to by then RQ chair Bob Bentley, he and his Board performed the ultimate backflip announcing a plan to sell or redevelop Albion Park and establish a dual harness/greyhound complex at Deagon.
Understandably, harness racing reacted strongly to this "double cross" and ultimately took legal action against Racing Queensland and Bob Bentley, eventually settling the matter out of court.
Central to this was a court order that Racing Queensland build a new grandstand at Albion Park to the value of $14 million.
This was effected late in 2012 with the Newman Coalition Government now in power and Kevin Dixon at the Racing Queensland helm.
Disappointingly, this administration dragged the chain. Hindsight now tells us their lethargy was the catalyst to the current predicament
It was not until mid 2014 (20 months after the court order) that discussions began between Racing Queensland and the tenant clubs about the costs and design of the grandstand.
Finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Yet the next series of events are akin to "a good punter out of luck"
The grandstand business case was submitted by RQ to Treasury in late 2014 yet gathered dust as the Government went into caretaker mode in the lead-up to the January 2015 state election,
History tells us the "bolter" got up and the Labor Party assumed power. The business case was now dustier by the day.
The Albion Park Harness Racing Club regularly met with Racing Queensland to have the grandstand court order enforced but to no avail.
And there was no appetite from the Labor state government to assist the club's cause.
The club then made the toughest of decisions, as a last resort, to take Racing Queensland to court to have the court order of a new grandstand legally enforced.
That was in late 2016 and a decision not taken lightly. Only a few months later Racing Queensland announced their policy to vacate harness and greyhound racing from the Albion Park Raceway with a view to sale and/or redevelopment of the complex.
The club now found itself in an unenviable position of fighting a battle on two fronts, firstly in litigation with Racing Queensland to enforce the court order of the grandstand construction and secondly to defend the right to keep harness racing at Albion Park.
This scenario has now played out for nearly two years.
In fairness to both parties, it must be acknowledged that the club has said it will carefully consider any alternative that Racing Queensland puts on the table.
And preliminary discussions have begun on that front.
These are only the nuts and bolts to this decade long story but are correct in detail.
There are back stories and twists and turns that time and space don't allow me to expand on today.
Yet I believe today's column demonstrates sufficiently the disappointing hand the Albion Park Harness Racing Club has been dealt by several control body administrations.
And, by association, the harness racing industry as well.
The backdrop to all of this is a rotten sub standard facility embarrassing the Queensland harness and greyhound codes at a national level, not to mention the slow burn of the clubs' commercial models.
The question begs, when...and where...will it end?
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