27/08/14
As I wrote on this website, on Thursday of last week, in respect of the new Racing Queensland prizemoney distribution re the three codes, “It wouldn’t matter whether you ran Racing Queensland, the local fish and chip shop, or these four racing websites – it’s impossible to keep everybody happy all of the time”.
And so it came to pass that I received several phone calls over that particular story from thoroughbred trainers based in South-East Queensland, who all thought they were being harshly treated by Racing Queensland not giving them the same starter subsidies that apply if they race their horses in New South Wales, but more particularly just over the border at tracks like Murwillumbah, Ballina, Casino and Lismore.
Whilst I can see their point of view, I don’t feel for one moment that the trainers that are domiciled in South-East Queensland are hard done by in that regard – and in fact given the sheer size of the State of Queensland, allied with the fact Queensland has about 100 thoroughbred racetracks and about 60% of Australia’s country racetracks, I feel that as the financial position of Racing Queensland hopefully improves into the future, that if “appearance money”, “starter subsidy”, call it what you like, was to be paid, it’s not the trainer domiciled in South-East Queensland that needs help, but the ones domiciled far from the madding crowd in country areas that are in dire need of some assistance.
I fully accept country non-TAB racing does absolutely nothing in terms of giving a significant financial return to the thoroughbred industry, but it does keep many licensees (trainers and jockeys) in employment and it’s also an important fabric of the society where these race meetings are conducted, simply through the social interaction that it engenders come race day. Naturally it is also vitally important because the country non-TAB meetings keep many thoroughbreds alive and racing and those same horses obviously wouldn’t have a future if there was no country racing.
So what I decided to do – to demonstrate to the South East Queensland thoroughbred trainers who contacted me over my story just how well off they are – was to look at last weekend’s thoroughbred race meetings conducted across the State at Queensland and conduct some research on same. So last Saturday we raced at TAB meetings at Doomben, Townsville and Toowoomba and non-TAB meetings at Camooweal, Charleville, Dingo, Gympie, Longreach and Talwood. The meeting set down for the Gold Coast was abandoned due to rain.
Let’s have a look to see if the trainers who really need “appearance money” for their horses are those travelling from say the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast or Brisbane to Murwillumbah to race, or the country trainers domiciled in these far flung areas.
To that end, here are some of the distances that trainers travelled to these country non-TAB meetings last Saturday. The undermentioned distances and timeframes for travelling that distance were obtained through either Google or from the distancesfrom.com website. Please also note the time allowed for travelling in the undermentioned examples is only approximate – and may be longer depending on “road conditions, diversions, weather conditions, traffic, etcetera”.
Recently Mt Isa trainers like Jay Morris campaigned their horses like Outstandingly in Townsville for the Cleveland Bay Handicap and Townsville Cup meetings. The distance between Mt Isa and Townsville, one way, is 904 kilometres and the travelling time in a passenger car, not a horse float, or horse transport vehicle, which will be considerably longer, is 9 hours 59 minutes one way.
Last Saturday here’s a list of some trainers distances to attend a race meeting:
TRAINER
TRAVEL FROM
DISTANCE
(klms)
TIME
(in passenger car)
Jarrad Wehlow
Rockhampton to Gympie
467
5 hr 28 min
Raymond West
Rockhampton to Gympie
467
5 hr 28 min
Nicholas Mannion
Rockhampton to Gympie
467
5 hr 28 min
Denis Schultz
Gladstone to Gympie
364
4 hr 10 min
John Blinco
Chinchilla to Gympie
268
3 hr 41 min
Gary Teal
Toowoomba to Charleville
620
7 hr 19 min
Mark Goodwin
Chinchilla to Charleville
454
5 hr 10 min
Sheree McEwan
Goondiwindi to Charleville
590
7 hr 16 min
Charlie Prow
Blackall to Charleville
301
3 hr 21 min
Bevan Johnson
Longreach to Charleville
515
5 hr 35 min
Pat W Webster
St George to Charleville
388
4 hr 25 min
John Manzelmann
Mackay to Dingo
356
4 hr 33 min
Rodney Hay
Taroom to Dingo
309
3 hr 34 min
Ray Hermann
Winton to Longreach
179
2 hr 1 min
David Rewald
Blackall to Longreach
213
2 hr 16 min
So when it’s understood that those are times and distances that are to travel just one way, it really highlights the expenses from simply fuel alone that these country trainers face.
And when Racing Queensland started to carve up the prizemoney pie, they were hardly going to fix the whole industry in one fell swoop, so what they announced last week was step one in the process.
If one is going to renovate a house you can’t renovate every room on one day. There has to be a starting point and a finishing point. Hopefully one day in the near future country trainers can get some assistance to help them with their travel costs just to go to a day at a track like Dingo where they raced for paltry prizemoney of $3,650 for first, $1,100 for second, $550 and $200 for fourth last Saturday.
I went through the entire list of trainers above and the two that had to travel the farthest was a dead-heat between Gary Teal from Postmans Ridge, which is at the base of the Toowoomba Range and Sheree McEwan from Goondiwindi. Both raced at Charleville last Saturday. Gary, who is 59YO, has been licensed since he was 21. He comes from a racing family advising, “My father Bill passed away four years ago and he was also a racehorse trainer. In the 1970’s Dad and I would travel from Dalby to the Gold Coast to race andwe used to reckon back then, after rebates, that it cost us about 50 cents to travel all that way”. Gary who told me that he has “10 in work at Postmans Ridge where I’ve trained for 8 years”, spoke to me at length from Charleville on Monday night and he confirmed that “the trip from Postmans Ridge to Charleville was 672 kilometres and that it took over seven hours to get here”. Gary added he has “six horses with me in Charleville tonight, along with a strapper and a jockey James Geppert from Queanbeyan and we are on our way to the Birdsville two-day Carnival. We race at Betoota next Saturday (30/8/14), then the two-day Birdsville meeting the following Friday and Saturday (5/9/14 and 6/9/14), then the Saturday after that we race at Bedourie(13/9/14)”.
Gary Teal explained that “Mate I’ve raced on 65 tracks around Queensland and I can tell you that the little fellas (trainers) like me can’t keep up with the costs”. I asked him to explain the plight of trainers racing in country Queensland and he said “well we drove out here to race at Charleville last Saturday week, but the meeting was called off, so we had to stay a week until they raced last Saturday. There was no use going back home as we are on our way to Birdsville. So we had to stay in Charleville for the week, so all up that’s cost me about $1,500 as there are three of us (Gary, a strapper and a jockey) and there’s six horses to feed. And I have to buy feed to take with me ahead to Betoota. Expenses get you. Like all the nominations for Betoota next Saturday and the Birdsville two-day Carnival close tomorrow morning at 11am, so tomorrow (yesterday) will be expensive as we have to double nominate horses. For instance if I arrive in Birdsville with a Maiden horse that’s racing on the Friday, I have to make sure he’s nominated in another race on the Saturday – as well as a Maiden – so he can start each day. But I don’t know when noms close what class he’ll be eligible for on the second day, so I have to nominate that horse in multiple races as really I need him to be able to race both days for the chance to win prizemoney. Nominations cost $44 per horse per race so say I nominate him for a Maiden and a Class 1 on the Saturday (in case he wins his Maiden on the Friday) that costs me $88. Birdsville club are good. They pay you a $90 rebate each horse each start, so trainers really need to start their horses each day to get the rebate to help offset the costs. Betoota will do something to help trainers out this Saturday. They’ll probably give us about $50 per starter” (to offset the $44 nomination fee).
Gary Teal ran a second with his horse, 7/1 chance Desert Playboy last Saturday at Charleville in the Benchmark 55 race, which was worth the pretty stock-standard $6,000 in total prizemoney and I asked him to break down what the owner got to keep from that second placing. Gary explained, “Desert Playboy earned $1,200 for running second and from that $1,200 there’s a starters fee of $195 to deduct. Only first, second and third pay the starters fee. Then the trainer gets 10%, so that’s another $120, then the jockey gets 5%, so that’s another $60, so after starters fee, trainer and jockey, the owner loses $375 of his $1,200 – so the owner gets to keep $825. I’m lucky I’ve got a good owner, but owners can’t afford to race horses out here. And don’t get me wrong. They all love their horses and the racing, but the costs bugger you. Soon only the rich will be able to afford to sustain the losses”.
In conclusion, let me say that I have never spoken to, or met, Gary Teal prior to penning this story and furthermore advise that no country trainer approached me to write the story, however it is my considered opinion that it’s the country trainers of Queensland, not those domiciled in the South-East Queensland corner, who are the ones that need the help in the first instance, in the next round of financial incentive increases by Racing Queensland towards the thoroughbred industry, by way of some sort of reimbursement of travelling costs to attend race meetings. Some South-East Queensland trainers have long been complaining that they are hard done by having to travel a short distance on a four-lane highway between say the Gold Coast and Murwillumbah to get a $275 rebate if they run in the first 10 to help pay expenses, but when one looks at just one typical case of a trainer like Gary Teal plying his trade, travelling around country Queensland, trying to keep his team earning their way so that they have a future in country racing, there’s surely not a man or woman born that doesn’t now have a greater appreciation of the plight of these country trainers driving long distances?
Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the story on the former Gold Coast trained mare that has thrown a topliner in South Africa, as well as the heads up on the Aussie and Irish battle over the jumps in South Australia today and next Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s the story on the broodmare that took the fatal snake bite for her 10-week old son. She’s sadly now dead, but he’s now grown up to be a talented sprinter, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Victorian racing is perused.