BROWNIE'S BLOG: THE RIGHT TIME AND OPPORTUNITY FOR QUEENSLAND RACING TO GET ON THE FRONT FOOT

By Damian Browne | Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Brownie’s Blog is the weekly blog of multiple Group 1 winning jockey Damian Browne. As the major racing fixtures down south come to an end Brownie reinforces the view that summer is the time for racing in Queensland to step up and earn its place in the sun and that it looks set to make the most of the opportunity. This is Brownie’s Blog – exclusive to HRO.

Vow and Declare’s Melbourne Cup win and trainer Danny O’Brien’s post-race praise of the benefits of participating in the Queensland Winter Carnival has once again highlighted the residual positives for horses having a trip to Queensland in the winter.

I guess it is like humans when they go away on holiday. It is a working holiday for the horses but they get a bit of sun on their back and can enjoy nice weather while getting away from the colder climate down south at that time of the year. A change of scenery can be a great freshen up as well.

I think the horses appreciate it. They seem to glow when they come here and there definitely seems to be an advantage to be gained in all of that and trainers are starting to recognise that more and more.

It is probably fair to say that, years ago, most trainers from down south would think of sending their second stringers up here for carnival time. Now the likes of Chris Waller, Peter and Paul Snowden and Godolphin seem to send even their good ones up early in their careers.

It obviously just brings them forward. It gets them adapted to travelling … so the strategy has got multiple benefits and it would be no surprise if more trainers were to follow the trend.

There is also a spin-off from that namely that the growing influence of the Queensland Winter Carnival on Southern Carnivals … and we can name many top horses who have seemingly benefited from their time here … means it presents Racing Queensland with a great marketing opportunity to promote its product.

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And it is now a good time for Racing Queensland to market its product with, amongst the other progressive steps that have been taken , the recent announcement of the Winter Carnival prize-money increases which will lift prize money for the three main two-year-old races of the 2020 Winter Carnival to $2.25 million for what will now be known as the Future Champions Series.

It wasn’t always so. It would have been very hard to market racing in Queensland a couple of years ago. Now, at least, we have got a few apples to bite into.

It has been well documented the hard times that racing in Queensland has gone through in the last few years so it great to see that we are heading along the right track … on a number of fronts … and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

In truth, a couple of years ago we couldn’t see the light and the problem was there didn’t really look to be a way of getting out of the situation we were in then … but there have been gradual signs of positivity and that was what everybody wanted to see.

Everybody in racing wants to see our industry blossom. That is everybody’s hope. If you’ve got that light at the end of the tunnel it is a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning and you can about your work in a far friendlier environment because people are starting to act positively and say positive things again.

It makes a difference.

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Of course, before our main Winter Carnival we have a feast of summer racing to get through.

I think Racing Queensland have done a great job in putting the Summer Carnival together.

There is $20 million total prize money on offer over five weeks of summer racing action … that’s a $1.2 million increase on last year. There are new races, six wildcard Magic Millions slots up for grabs, the massive Magic Millions Day itself, the Jockeys’ State Of Origin Series … just to mention a few of the concepts that Racing Queensland has put into play to hold everybody’s interest.

In the past, summer was our mini-carnival but it is getting bigger and bigger now. Every week there seems to be something that peaks people’s interest and that is what we need … something happening every week for people to read about in the newspapers or watch on television and I think Racing Queensland has got that right.

People will always say we can do better but we are getting there slowly and there is no doubt we have plenty to look forward to in the coming months.

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