MICHAEL BEATTIE'S NORTHERN RIVERS NOTEBOOK

By Michael Beattie | Friday, September 13, 2019

The Northern Rivers Notebook is the personal blog of the well-respected racing administrator Michael Beattie who is the CEO of the Clarence River Jockey Club and the Secretary of the Northern Rivers Racing Association. The Northern Rivers Notebook is exclusive to HRO and will appear on a monthly basis with Michael cataloguing his overview of racing in the Northern Rivers jurisdiction of New South Wales Racing as we move through the season. Here Michael looks back at August, the first month of the new season. This is The Northern Rivers Notebook.

The Jockeys Reunion, held at Grafton on August 31, was absolutely fantastic.

The idea was simply taken off the back of the enormous success … especially on social media … of the Sydney Jockey Reunion held at Randwick on August 3.

I thought it was a great concept but, importantly, I thought we had to recognise our country jockeys in a way that could allow those who wouldn’t have considered making their way to Sydney to be able to attend this reunion.

Most former country jockeys at some stage would have made the trip to Grafton during their careers because of our Carnival and therefore would have some link to the club.

Given that we only had around about three-and-a-half weeks to advise people that it was on, I really couldn’t have been happier with the turnout.

We had about fifty former jockeys here from all over the region and, as was pointed out at our presentation, amongst the jockeys who were there, we had a winning representative of every feature race in the Northern Rivers. Winners of all of those feature races were actually present at the reunion which I thought was really, really fantastic.

Added to that, as a little bonus, a country club at a Saturday race meeting had two Melbourne Cup winning jockeys here in Peter Cook and Scott Seamer.

The day had a really good feel about it and I am really glad we did it. I think it is a good thing for racing. The CRJC is certainly the biggest club in this region and sometimes you just have to do what big clubs should do. It literally took the Board sixty seconds to approve the idea and it was a big success.

There is absolutely no doubt it will become an annual event.

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The Coffs Harbours Cup kicked off the Northern Rivers feature race schedule for the season.

The thing that really excites me about the future of the Coffs Harbour Cup is the fact that they have really lifted their program now they have come back to one major day of racing with the secondary meeting on the Saturday.

They ran four Open company races out of eight on Cup day and they got very, very competitive fields in all of those races despite the fact that, in real terms, you are playing in the smallest pool … there are less Open company horses than anything else. I think that is a marvellous credit to the club and I think it is wonderful that the Coffs Harbour Cup is picking up in that regard.

I went to the meeting. They have a bit of an advantage over Grafton in that their demographic is a younger crowd. It is also slightly different to Grafton because that demographic brings more of a part atmosphere.

That is not a bad thing because the future of racing obviously lies with the younger demographic and if those people are coming to the races … as they were at Coffs Harbour … then you need to be fairly happy about things.

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The next Cup day in line was the Casino Cup run on Saturday, August 10.

Again, not a bad meeting but it was a very cold day.

I do feel sorry for Casino. They are in a very difficult position as to where their Cup sits at the moment. They have tried every trick, that I know, to have a successful day, but they either get poor weather or a clash against the local rugby league.

It was a great day’s racing and the Club is doing a wonderful job, but I think it has yet all to gel together for them. It is certainly not for any want of trying … and one day it will all gel for them.

The positives are there.

Somebody hit the nail on the head when they said a couple of days after the Casino Cup if they had said five years ago that Kris Lees would win the Casino Cup, they would have been called mad … and they would have.

And yet here we are … and it was great to see a New South Wales premier trainer supporting another country cup.

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Therein lies a bit of a secret to success for the Northern Rivers Clubs.

While clubs on the Northern Rivers are able to attract the leading trainers, they will also attract the leading riders.

It becomes imperative on those riders to maintain their position with the leading stables and the reality of the position is most are not going to maintain their positions if they get too picky … in other words if they are choosing what meetings they do and don’t attend.

There are exceptions to every rule but, in general, that is the state of play.

That is one of the reasons why racing in the Northern Rivers has improved dramatically in the last five or six years. Toby Edmonds comes down on a regular basis. Kris Lees has set up his satellite stable on the Gold Coast under Mel Eggleston so he can near the action.

It is all positive stuff because all of a sudden people who once wouldn’t look at our race-meetings are saying … Kris Lees has got runners at Grafton or wherever … so they start to look at the meeting and get to know the horses racing in the area.

Then there will be a meeting those horses from the bigger stables aren’t participating and yet those new punters have been introduced to the product and so they stay with us.

That is the roll-on effect which trainers like Lees and Edmonds have which is a good thing for racing.

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The Murwillumbah Cup and Newmarket took place on August 23.

I keep saying I am one of the last historians of the Northern Rivers Racing Association so I can tell you that while everybody thinks that this is a new concept with the Murwillumbah Cup being run towards the end of winter rather than what had become its date in June for probably the last fifteen or sixteen years … this, in fact, is the old, original date for the Murwillumbah Cup.

They were always around as a lead in to the Ballina Cup but Murwillumbah decided that the June meeting wasn’t working for them. It was either wet or cold or both … and they decided to move it into August.

I think it has been a fantastic move for them. They also played around with the distance of the Cup. It is probably working for them. I’m a bit of traditionalist. I like long Cup races … but we won’t go there. That’s about a bias that I hold.

I went out for the day. It was a fantastic day. The crowd was really good.

I think the Murwillumbah Cup will enjoy growth and continue to grow. It might even become more and more important in the overall structure.

We just have to decide how we can get horses through from the Coffs Harbour, Casino and Murwillumbah Cups to the Lismore Cup … because of the Ballina Cup changing its date and moving to January.

That is something we can work on in terms of programming. We will get there.

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So, the first month of the 2019/20 season is in the record books.

It has been a very difficult month for all clubs because of the continuing drought which is a big issue … particularly in terms of clubs trying to produce good racing surfaces.

All things considered though it has also been a very positive month because the Northern Rivers clubs, collectively, have done a really good job in extremely trying circumstances … the problem being that there is still no sign of rain and we are not going to have things any easier in certain respects until we get rain.

That aside, the outlook for Northern Rivers racing remains extremely positive.

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