MICHAEL BEATTIE'S GRAFTON CARNIVAL REPORT CARD

By Michael Beattie | Monday, July 15, 2019

The Clarence River Jockey Club has just finished hosting another successful Grafton July Carnival. Here, exclusive to HRO, Club CEO Michael Beattie runs an eye over each day of the five feature days of racing as gives his personal overview of the fifteen days in which the racing spotlight shone brightly on the Jacaranda City. This is his Grafton July Carnival Report Card

Let’s start at the beginning.

I thought the transition of Westlawn Day from the Thursday to the Sunday, eleven days out from the Cup, was an absolute success. We had nine races. We had a very big crowd, getting back to what we would normally expect to get on a Westlawn Day.

We ran four prelude races that day … a Prelude for the Ramornie, the Cup, the Guineas and the two-year-old race … and each of those Prelude winners went through and then contested those major races.

So, I think the trainers have indicated to us from that level of support that programming certainly worked.

***************************************************************************************************

On to South Grafton Cup Day … again a terrific day’s racing … nine races.

It was just a real pity we got that storm midway through race-day. It certainly did make the track deteriorate on that day and that probably put a little bit of fear into some trainers looking to accept on Ramornie and Grafton Cup Day.

All in all, though, the day was good. The crowd was very healthy considering the weather conditions and I thought that was pretty much a positive as well.

**************************************************************************************************

Ramornie Day … I was obviously disappointed with the scratchings that came through in the Guineas.

We had an all but full field at acceptance time and then a number of scratchings came out of the race and we were left with nine runners.

Look, there might have been a bit of a programming matter there that we can have a look at. We had another 1600m race on that day. I think we can play around with the way that we program that day. The change will be subtle, but I think it will ensure the longevity of the Guineas.

Given that we have just thrown a significant amount of prize-money increase at that, I think it is important that we do that.

From a racing perspective, you couldn’t be happier than to have two of the long-term supporters of the carnival in Toby Edmonds and Brett Cavanagh fight out the finish of the Ramornie with Havasay and Star Boy.

They both bring significant teams here every year and, whilst it is great to see anybody win a feature race, from our perspective it is really pleasing to see those people who have been supporting us for a long time get away with the major spoils.

The interesting thing about that from my perspective, moving forward, is that Brett Cavanagh has said for some time that he thinks Star boy is a genuine Kosciuszko horse. He has made no secret of it. That’s is where he would hope that the horse ends up this year.

Now, I have said publically and privately that I think the Ramornie is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to showcase your horse moving into the Kosciuszko. It is the best sprint in country New South Wales and the best country horses race in it.

Star Boy was the first New South horse home … the first country New South Wakes horse home. Gee, I’d love to see him win the Kosciuszko like Belflyer did last year.

That would really stamp the Ramornie as the go-to race for all of those promising horses looking to the future.

**************************************************************************************************

The Cup, from my personal perspective, was a wonderful result.

I went to New Zealand, not specifically to see Tony Pike but to certainly promote the Carnival at the Ready To Run Sales last November. I had a long chat with Tony Pike about the sort of horse that I thought was suited to bring to the carnival.

At the end of that chat his exact words to me were, ‘I’ve got just the horse.

He didn’t name Scared Day in that conversation but the conversation worked around an up and coming horse that would get in well at the weights and not be tired at the end of the Brisbane Carnival and be able to come here.

The horse that did follow on the conversation we had last year was Sacred Day and I’ve got to say I got a real buzz with that horse winning and I know that Tony spoke about our conversation post-race.

That was a great result as far as we are concerned. It was pleasing that we did have two New Zealand horses in the race … the Caloundra Cup winner also came down for the Cup.

The interesting thing moving forward with Cup is that race goes from a $160 000 race to a $200 000 race next year. I think there will be a number of New Zealand horses that will come and compete in the Brisbane Carnival and then I would like to think that there will be a bigger contingent of those who will make the trip to Grafton after that.

The Kirby … the last race on Grafton Cup day … produced yet another sensational battle between some of the best sprinters in New South Wales.

That race goes to a $75 000 race next year and that will just breath new life again into what is already a great race. That is going to turn it into something special. I’ll be looking forward to that race next year.

***************************************************************************************************

The Maclean Cup Day – the was a really good contingent of people here from the lower river. We are the Clarence River Jockey Club after all. We are not the Grafton Race Club.

Maclean is a very important town on this river system and to see this particular race meeting so well supported by all of those people was absolutely marvellous as far as I was concerned.

The racing was very good. Our 3000m racehorses came from as far away as Sydney to compete so that’s a winner.

The Maclean Cup was down a little bit on numbers. Again, I can see a possible slight change to the program in the lead up to the Maclean Cup where we think we can make it a little bit better.

***************************************************************************************************

All in all, if you were asking me to say how I would rate the Carnival taking everything into consideration, I’d probably sit it at about nine out of ten.

There are a few things we need to fix. We are not going to put our head in the sand. We are going to go ahead and fix them.

Look, I came back from Asia to run this club seven years ago and I said at the time that I believed we had to go back to the future.

What I meant by that, very simply, was that I knew what this club had done well in the seventies, eighties and nineties. We needed to get back to that winning formula.

We needed to get back to it. We got back to it very quickly.

Our crowds have stabilized. We have days where they up slightly … some days where they are down slightly, but across the last five years our crowds are just about the same.

Now, in an industry which has seen a significant reduction in crowd numbers I think that is something to be reasonably satisfied with … but, you know, at the end of the day, I’m like anybody who promotes any event … I want to get more people, not less.

I want to see it get better and that’s what we will be working on between now and next year’s carnival.

More articles