Picking a loser in power grab is easier than picking a winner

By Craig Young
April 25, 2005

The Sting

Thankfully, racing is a resilient beast. Through the ages it has been able to defy doomsayers and so it will again. But just how long it needs to recover from its latest bout of ill-health is worthy of a ratings-based betting market.

Tomorrow, those entrusted with racing's well-being are off to the NSW Supreme Court again. You have two of the most powerful race clubs in the country, the Australian Jockey Club and Sydney Turf Club, along with ThoroughVisioN, which it owns in partnership with the race clubs in Victoria. They are pitted against Racing NSW. What started as a broadcasting rights war between the national broadcaster, the Tabcorp-owned Sky Channel, and the upstart TVN has gone beyond that. This is about power - the power to do what the individuals deem to be in the best interests of racing.

Each will tell you it is doing what is right for racing. As stated here before, the winner is the legal profession. They'll get paid from the racing purse. That means racing will be worse off.

If you listen to the AJC's chief executive, Tony King, this power struggle is an all-or-nothing play.

He warns race clubs in NSW - and the rest of the country - to take note.

"If we lose, race clubs will become nothing more than catering companies for government-appointed racing authorities," he said at Randwick on Saturday.

How this debacle reached the Supreme Court is a blight on racing. Three days have been set aside in the Supreme Court with those at the racing coalface, those earning their livelihood, no doubt praying it is enough.

And there is a raging torrent descending on the track. Many a trainer is alarmed at Racing NSW's introduction of a ratings-based handicapping system running in conjunction with the reinstated class system. Racing NSW's edict also includes a spread of race weights.

If the mail is correct the latter has something to do with encouraging more apprentices into metropolitan racing. Why? Could it have something to do with Victorian hot shots Nicholas Ryan and Blake Shinn leading the premiership in Melbourne, where apprentices thrive?

These two displayed their ability when mixing it with the best on offer at the Sydney autumn carnival. Sure, there is a lack of quality young guns in Sydney but it has much to do with the strength of the riding crop. The harbour city prides itself on having the most competitive jockeys' room in the country.

You only have to look at the riding list. Anyway, the new handicapping with the class system is being ridiculed. The groundswell in the training ranks to a man says it won't work. It will force horses that have won to stay in their stable due to zooming up in the weights.

"It is ridiculous," trainer Grahame Begg told the The Form last Thursday. "The trainers were asked the last time we met with officials if we wanted such a system and we said no. We disagreed with them but they've gone ahead and implemented it without consultation with the participants again."

It doesn't sound like a ruling in the best interests of racing.

And Robbie Waterhouse is another unhappy with Racing NSW. All he wants to do is bet on Hong Kong racing.

Racing NSW has told him it's off limits. This, despite corporate bookmakers in the territories doing so, along with Michael Eskander in Victoria. No worries for them - just bet on anything and return zero to the relevant racing authorities.

Waterhouse will tell you he wants to pay his way. He'll also tell you it is about offering the punter a choice between the relevant TABs and fixed odds offered by bookmakers.

Then again, Waterhouse - if he is to be believed - is all about competition. He doesn't fear betting exchanges, corporate bagmen, TABs or rival bookmakers. He believes each should be allowed to hang its shingle on racetracks on raceday. Let the punter decide what's right and what's wrong.

Sure beats the Supreme Court.



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