MONEY FOR A FIREWORKS DISPLAY BUT NONE FOR RACING. THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE

02/01/13

If the Queensland racing industry wants to see how it is seriously under the whip, it realistically needs to look no further than last Sunday’s Murwillumbah meeting to see the serious uphill and non-competitive environment the Queensland industry finds itself in.

The ability of the New South Wales thoroughbred racing to pay prizemoney back to tenth – to pay “appearance money” to the horses that finish eleventh inclusive, or further back, is a situation that really needs addressing immediately by Racing Queensland.

What I’ve done below is set out the facts as to what happens at a typical Sunday meeting at Caloundra versus a typical Sunday meeting at anywhere in New South Wales. As the New South Wales meeting last Sunday to complement the Caloundra fixture was conducted at Murwillumbah those two meetings are compared below.

Relevant details of last Sunday’s CALOUNDRA meeting were:

1. Eight races were run in total.

2. Six of the eight races were $10,000 total prizemoney races and two of the eight races were $12,000 total prizemoney.

3. One race of the eight had a QTIS bonus on it and that was Race 3, a 3YO Maiden Plate, which had a $10,000 QTIS bonus attached. The QTIS $10,000 bonus was to be distributed as first $7,000 – second $2,000 – and third $1,000.

4. The total prizemoney at the Caloundra meeting, excluding the QTIS bonus, was therefore $84,000 consisting of 6 x $10,000 and 2 x $12,000 races.

5. The available QTIS bonus totalled $10,000.

6. The $10,000 total prizemoney race was broken up as first ($6,500), second ($2,000), third $1,000) and fourth ($500).

7. The $12,000 total prizemoney race was broken up as first ($7,800), second ($2,400), third ($1,200) and fourth ($600).

8. The class of races run at this Caloundra meeting were, in race order, Class 1, Maiden, Maiden, Class 4, Class 2, Maiden, Benchmark 85 and Class 1.

9. At Caloundra if your horse runs fifth to last inclusive you get paid nil prizemoney and nil appearance money.

Now let’s look at relevant MURWILLUMBAH details for last Sunday.

1. Seven races were run in total.

2. All Murwillumbah races were worth $15,000 in total prizemoney.

3. All Murwillumbah races carried a $5,000 BOBS bonus.

4. Therefore the total prizemoney available at the Murwillumbah meeting was $105,000 (7 x $15,000).

5. The available BOB’s bonuses at this meeting totalled $35,000 (7 x $5,000).

6. The $15,000 prizemoney per race was broken up thus: $8,200 (first), $2,900 (second), $1,425 (third) $675 (fourth), $425 (fifth) and $275 (sixth to tenth inclusive).

7. If more than 10 horses ran, the horses that ran eleventh to last inclusive all received a $200 “starter subsidy”, or “appearance money”, as it’s referred to in some official Racing New South Wales text.

8. The class of races on the seven event card were, in race order, a 2YO SW+P, Maiden 3YO+, Maiden SW, Class 1, B/M 60, B/M 60 and a Class 2 Plate.

Whilst some Queensland based horses were scratched from the Murwillumbah meeting due to wide barriers, etcetera, the list of Queensland domiciled horses that started at the Murwillumbah meeting were:

 

RACE

HORSE

TRAINER

STABLES

1

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

4

4

4

5

5

5

6

6

6

6

6

7

7

7

7

7

Cannyzing

The Fighting Irish

Bronco

Devil’s Praise

Shelovestorocket

Road to Malta

Seth

Fortunate Fury

On The Bid

More Than Money

Perfect Cube

McNeice

Ty Seeker

Thrillers

Feeling Naughty

Non Dimenticar

Raunchy’s Warrior

Oriental Grace

Cuban

Flippin Marvellous

Dashing Dunlop

Go The Blaze

Roussos Destiny

My Mirage

Marc The Magpie

H Norman

P Barron

M Palmer

K Purdy

R Bradshaw

K Doughty

N Doyle

J Gleeson

R Simonetta

M Eggleston

K Doughty

K Purdy

T Whittington

M Brosnan

J Morrisey

K Hickmott

M Wilson

T Whittington

G Schwenke

L Maudsley

M Brosnan

M Eggleston

K Hickmott

K Hickmott

M Lakey

G/Coast

G/Coast

B/desert

G/Coast

S/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

S/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

G/Coast

B/desert

G/Coast

G/Coast

Warwick

B/desert

G/Coast

G/Coast

B/desert

B/desert

Deagon

 

 

So in conclusion I can make the following observations –

 

1. Murwillumbah had seven races on the day and Caloundra had eight.

2. Murwillumbah’s total prizemoney on the day was $105,000 off seven races – yet Caloundra’s was only $84,000 ($21,000 less) off eight races.

3. Murwillumbah had $35,000 of incentive bonuses available for their races via BOBS – Caloundra had $10,000 via QTIS.

4. At Murwillumbah every horse that started at the meeting was guaranteed to earn at least $200 even if he or she ran further back than tenth. At Caloundra no horse that finished fifth inclusive or further back earned a solitary dollar.

 

So at the end of the day Racing Queensland can talk of prizemoney increases and all the rest of it, but the simple nuts and bolts of it is that a Caloundra Sunday TAB thoroughbred meeting cannot remotely compete with a northern New South Wales TAB meeting – in this case the Murwillumbah card from last Sunday. Without an immediate multi-million dollar injection from the LNP government, Queensland Racing will never – in either the short term or the long term – be competitive in the marketplace in paying either overall and/or unplaced prizemoney and our owners and trainers will have no alternative but to head over the border to get a fair go. How bizarre is it that a Caloundra trainer can put two horses on his or her horse float and drive one kilometre to a race meeting at his or her local track and if the two horses run ninth he or she gets nothing. Yet drive those same two horses in that same horse float to Murwillumbah and run two ninths and he or she gets $550 (2x$275 unplaced prizemoney). One way he or she at least gets paid some remuneration for their labour – the other way they are surely on a one way ticket to oblivion. And don’t get me wrong – that current situation isn’t Racing Queensland Chairman Kevin Dixon or his Board’s fault, but the problem is so bad that it requires urgent State government intervention to fix. Surely to Christ there is something in the Queensland government coffers to help racing out, given how well the State government does from racing? We’ve got massive mining development happening all over the State of Queensland and the cupboard is supposedly bare, yet the New South Wales government just handed out $6 million (in words that’s six million) to have a stupid New Year’s fireworks display on Sydney Harbour, yet I would have reasonably thought that there were far more meaningful ways to spend that sort of money within our society. The Queensland government no doubt contributed financially in a major way to the millions spent on the Brisbane River fireworks display on New Year’s Eve. Now if a “fireworks display” is a worthy cause – well why isn’t racing? After all didn’t taxes from racing help pay for the fireworks display? I just shake my head.

 

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there is the second montage of photos from Doomben last Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au David Clarkson pens Part 4 of his interesting series looking back at 2012, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Brian Russell looks at the top stallion who was almost put down because of his bad legs when he was born and there’s an interesting photo there of a foal that my wife and I bred that was born with shocking legs – but he was okay in the end.

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