CHANGES TO THE GRAFTON JULY CARNIVAL WILL BE BENEFICIAL TO BOTH THE CLUB AND THE PARTICIPANTS

By Michael Beattie | Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The Clarence River Jockey Club July Carnival at Grafton may still be a little over four weeks away but, as always, horses are already being singled out as carnival prospects by trainers with particular races being targeted by connections. Importantly this year, they have to take into consideration the fact that the format of the 2019 Carnival has changed from previous years. Here, the Clarence River Jockey Club CEO Michael Beattie, who will provide HRO readers with a series of informed articles leading into and during the carnival, clarifies just how the changes came about and what advantage they bring for both the club and participants.

The Carnival takes a different shape this year with Westlawn Day moving from its traditional Thursday date to the previous Sunday (June 30).

This was something that was really forced upon the club because last year, for the first time in many years, the Westlawn Thursday fell outside of the New South Wales school holidays.

We were aware that was going to be an issue for the club. We probably estimated that we would have a downturn of around thirty percent. We were prepared for that … but, unfortunately, we were wrong.

It was a downturn of nearly fifty percent and it was relatively clear to both the club and the sponsors that if we were to continue to run Westlawn Day on the Thursday, without the support of the school holidays, then what had become traditionally a family day was going to whither on the vine.

So, we made a very quick decision after the carnival last year to apply to Racing NSW to move Westlawn Day back to the previous Sunday. We were fortunate that, even though the dates had been done for this year, they were prepared to see the benefits to racing in general by moving the date.

So, as a consequence of that, the carnival now takes the shape of racing Sunday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

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The added advantage of moving Westlawn Day back to the previous Sunday is that it enables those horses who are running in the John Carlton Cup (looking to head to the Ramornie) and the Grafton Cup Prelude (looking to head for the Grafton Cup) on Westlawn Day … well, they now have an additional four days recovery time.

That is more suitable from a racing perspective.

It also allows the Club to move the Guineas Prelude and run that on Westlawn day and the two-year-old race (which over the last few years has become a prelude to the big two-year-old race on Cup Day) is also contested then … with the same longer, more suitable recovery time for those looking to back up later in the carnival.

So, as I said, from a racing perspective we think it is an absolute no-brainer.

It should be something that the trainers should really relish.

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And one more thing.

I think it will give the club and trainers another advantage.

With that longer turnaround we may be able to convert the number of horses racing on Westlawn Day who race again during the carnival by maybe up to sixty percent.

If our predictions are right there … and it is hard to be scientific about it … but, if they are close to being right, that will translate into roughly an extra thirty runners for the carnival out of the same horse pool.

That’s got to be good thing.

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*Date to diarise

Sunday June 30: Westlawn Grafton Cup Prelude Day
Sunday 7 July: Grafton Toyota Sth Grafton Cup Day
Wednesday 10 July: Grafton District Services Club Ramornie Hcp Day
Thursday 11 July: Grafton Cup Day
Sunday 14 July: Maclean Cup Day

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