WHEN ONE NOMINATION JUST DOESN'T CUT IT

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, February 16, 2022

There was something wrong somewhere.

The nominations for the Ipswich meeting this Sunday included a QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap over 1350m worth $26 000 with QTIS bonus’s also available to eligible horses.

At the close of nominations there was only one entry … Tantalum from trainer Ian Livingstone. Nominations were then extended and, after the extended nominations deadline had closed, the amount of nominations had doubled … to two … with Les Kelly throwing in the first-timer Carlie Eksplodes into the race.

It’s not as complicated at it might seem at first glance.

While some might point a finger at racing connections, who so often complain about their perceived lack of prize-money in Queensland, apparently thumbing their noise at a possible payday, more realistically, it was a simple race programming issue that had led to race being removed from Sunday’s card at Ipswich.

Trainer Les Ross. known locally as the king of the QTIS two-year-old scene … an arena he dominated in Queensland in recent seasons,, confirmed the core view that the race’s profile was its own worst enemy.

“It’s the distance … 1350m. It’s too far for the majority of two-year-olds,” said Ross.

“I don’t know why they put those races on. If they programmed two-year-old races from 800m to 1100m they’ll get the fields. There are not enough two-year-olds for that sort of race. They are mostly sprinters.”

It’s that simple according to one who should know.

Backing Ross’s judgement is the fact that the three QTIS Two-Year-Old races programmed at Doomben on Wednesday (over 1110m), at Ipswich on Thursday (over 800m) and at the Sunshine Coast (over 1000m) on Saturday, received ten nominations, nine nominations and fourteen nominations respectively.

Not exactly oversubscribed, but good enough.

It is never good to lose a race from a scheduled program.

There is some consolation though if the reason for the race’s demise is clearly apparent so that data can be incorporated in future race programming strategy.

That would appear to be the case here.