07/10/15
Over the 18 years that this website has been functioning, I’ve constantly used constructive arguments to slam racing administrators. Yet 18 years on and they obviously aren’t getting any brighter. And because of all the passive and patronizing racing media in Australia that detest writing any “ballsy stories” to try to improve it, or bring industry problems to public account, probably through fear of retribution, the thoroughbred racing industry just plods along with its head conveniently buried in the sand, with all this warm and fuzzy positive rot surrounding it, when in reality the industry has major problems.
I just shake my head at some of the rot that happens, yet the silence on the topic in racing media is deafening. These alleged “journalists” see no evil, hear no evil, and don’t like to speak any evil, or they could be out of a job. No such problems here, where it should be compulsory for racing administrators to visit daily to read, if only to get a reality check as to where the industry is actually at.
So it’s not ancient history, let’s just go back just one day – to yesterday – a day so recent that some racing administrators may be capable of casting their memory back that far.
It’s simply a fact of life that the thoroughbred and harness racing industries have wanted to desperately disassociate themselves from the greyhound industry – pretty much since February this year when the negative Four Corners story on greyhound racing was aired. In fact there are even allegations around the traps that people connected with the other two codes of racing are financially assisting with the funding of anti-greyhound billboards in the hope that greyhound racing will be dealt a terminal blow by such negative publicity. But both the thoroughbred and harness code, along with the government of Australia which taxes the gambling dollar in TABs, better hope like hell that greyhound racing continues to thrive in this country, or it is long odds-on that the three codes of the racing industry are in big strife. And God knows where a government, of any political persuasion, would find a reliable and wonderful replacement revenue stream, like currently exists from TAB turnover on greyhound racing, to put millions of dollars into their coffers.
Listed below is the Ubet schedule of race meetings across the three codes that were set down for decision yesterday. I’ve listed each code’s meetings and the number of races that were run as TAB events at that particular venue. Blind Freddie, holding a white cane in one hand and a Labrador in the other, can see the pivotal role that greyhound racing plays in the Australian racing industry. In fact only for greyhound racing, the Australian TAB holds yesterday, across the three codes would have been little more than a joke, particularly after the Kilmore thoroughbred meeting in Victoria was officially abandoned.
Here’s the list of day and night meetings covered by Ubet yesterday across the three codes:
CODE
VENUE
NO OF RACES
TOTAL RACES RUN PER CODE
THOROUGHBRED
Nowra
8
Kilmore
8 (abandoned)
Brighton
8
Maisons-Laffitte
8
Vaal
10
Catterick Bridge
8
Portland Meadows
4
Bordeaux-Le Bouscat
6
Leicester
7
Tipperary
7
68 races = 25.47%
HARNESS
Albion Park
7
Menangle
10
Shepparton
8
Gloucester Park
8
Hagmyren
10
Northfield Park
12
Yonkers
12
67 races = 25.09%
GREYHOUNDS
Ipswich
10
Gosford
11
Warragul
12
Townsville
10
Lismore
10
Horsham
12
Gawler
11
Goulburn
10
Mandurah
12
Geelong
12
Devonport
10
Addington
12
132 races = 49.44%
So from the aforesaid schedule of meetings across the three codes, here’s the percentage of Australian race meetings that contributed to their code:
CODE
NUMBER OF AUST MEETINGS VERSUS ALL MEETINGS BET ON
PERCENTAGE
THOROUGHBRED
1 of 9
11.11%
HARNESS
4 of 7
57.14%
GREYHOUNDS
11 of 12
91.66%
That aforesaid table shows what any fair minded person would call “the extraordinary contribution” that Australian based greyhound meetings are making to TAB holds in this country.
The Australian thoroughbred industry has no idea what it’s doing, by not even having a thoroughbred meeting being run in Queensland on a Monday or Tuesday, a point I alluded to yet again, as recently as yesterday on this website.
And if you walked into any TAB around Australia and randomly asked 100 punters from 20 different TAB outlets, the question, “In what country are the racetracks of Catterick Bridge, Portland Meadows and Hagmyren and what code, or codes, race there,” I sincerely doubt if you would find one of the 100 interviewees who knew the correct answer to the question.
So instead of each of the two codes of thoroughbred and harness racing wanting to divorce themselves from the greyhound code, my suggestion is that both codes better “hope like hell that the greyhound code and its associated booming TAB turnover keeps happening for many years to come, because any reduction in greyhound meetings and/or associated TAB turnover would simply have a devastating effect on both the thoroughbred and harness code”.
Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the second montage of photos from Doomben last Saturday. On both www.sydneyracing.com.auand www.melbourneracing.com.au there’s a breeding story.