MY CALL: THE RELEASE OF THE 2019-20 RACE MEETING DATES MAKES VERY INTERESTING READING

By David Fowler | Tuesday, April 2, 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.

An interesting test of turnover will come out of six Thursday twilight meetings at Doomben in January and February next year.

This is one of the more intriguing observations from the release of the 2019-20 thoroughbred race dates.

This brace of twilight cards could be the catalyst for a larger number of meets in this time zone, maybe even extending into the night.

After all, the prospect of night racing at Doomben is not exactly a well kept secret.

But the "interesting" aspect in respect of turnover is the virtual swap of North Queensland Thursday meets to Wednesday day with Doomben going to the Thursday twilight timeslot.

Will the combined total of turnover exceed the current model?

If these dates are considered "final", it does create two disturbing observations.

Firstly, track infrastructure projects for Gold Coast and Ipswich are considered essential (budgeted in Gold Coast's case) yet the published dates show no reprieve for either club.

In other words, they are slated to race monthly for the 2019-20 period.

Secondly, much was made of converting non TAB fixtures to TAB yet you can literally count on one hand where this has been effected (Longreach, Innisfail, Emerald and Barcaldine).

It would seem the Toowoomba Club has moved out of the Winter Carnival fold.

There is no stand-alone fixture next April yet they have secured metropolitan status on September 21 this year.

Could this become the new home for the Weetwood and Toowoomba Cup?

Significantly, it would coincide with the traditional Carnival of Flowers on the Darling Downs.

Sunshine Coast will be the greatest servant to the industry in terms of workload with 68 meetings programmed for the next racing season.

And they are consolidating their Friday timeslot with 20 dates (13 night and 7 twilight).

I've long argued for metropolitan racing and public holidays to renew their vows so it was pleasing to see the Queens Birthday, New Years Day and Easter Monday racedates being scheduled for Doomben.

Melbourne Cup day returns to Eagle Farm this year as will the 2020 Queensland Oaks card.

And the Tattersalls Club have broken long tradition by abandoning their July date and taking up a slot on September 7.

David Fowler