A spate of wet weather forced the abandonment of the Eagle Farm meeting last Saturday - and that is noboby's fault, but why the hell wasn't the Toowoomba twilight meeting moved forward to the Eagle Farm timeslot at short notice? Don't say it wasn't possible, because I prove in this article that it was.

There is no doubt that the abandonment of last Saturday’s Eagle Farm meeting has cost racing a lot of money in terms of both lost betting turnover and prizemoney distribution to owners, trainers and jockeys.

A quick look at the prizemoney that was on offer at the meeting shows that in the eight races that were lost, three had total prizemoney of $50,000, four had total prizemoney of $45,000 and the main race, the Tattersall’s Members’ Cup, carried $75,000 in prizemoney - making the total that was available on the day a healthy $405,000.

It is history now that the Eagle Farm meeting was called off with the track surface deemed to be unsafe, soon after 6.30am on race morning. No problems there, as I wouldn’t have raced a horse on that particular day at Eagle Farm myself. In any event we are into March and the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival is just around the corner, so why would we need the racetrack looking like a rice paddy in downtown Vietnam, only weeks out from that? In short, that is in no-one’s best interests, as we don’t want any dramas with either the Eagle Farm or Doomben course proper at any time, let alone during our once a year showcase opportunity.

I admit that what happened after Eagle Farm got called off last Saturday totally amazed me however, as the industry all collectively sat around on its hands and did nothing different to assist the lost turnover on the day from Eagle Farm not being able to race.

At the same time that the Eagle Farm meeting was called off, the Gold Coast track had gone from a “heavy 8” to a “heavy 9”, so that meeting was on the verge of being called off also.

Still no bells were ringing in the corridors of power in the State of Queensland. Sure Mother Nature can be real bossy sometimes, but that is the way life is. So if we’re definitely losing one race meeting (Eagle Farm) and possibly going to lose another (Gold Coast) and we knew all of that prior to 7am on Saturday morning, why didn’t Queensland Racing move swiftly to change the Saturday twilight Toowoomba cushion track meeting to the Eagle Farm timeslot? Imagine the TAB revenue difference that would have occurred through simply doing that? And don’t think for one minute that it was logistically impossible, as it would have been as easy as falling off a log. Why is that? Well put simply, the vast majority of horses that race at the cushion track at a Toowoomba twilight meeting are from Toowoomba, so they didn’t even have to travel there. Announcements on RadioTAB on Saturday morning every 15 or 20 minutes could have alerted trainers, jockeys and owners to the change – and Queensland Racing staff could have been quickly seconded to start ringing trainers from outlying areas that had horses nominated. 99% of licensees within Queensland Racing’s jurisdiction have a mobile phone contact number, so in 2010 it’s not real hard to get hold of people and as licensees they should be on call for the governing body at all times anyway, so that if something like I propose was to happen, people can be quickly informed.

To prove my point, here is the number of acceptors at the Toowoomba cushion meeting last Saturday evening that were trained at the track.

To add further credence to transferring the twilight meeting to the Eagle Farm timeslot, no horse that had accepted for Toowoomba had to travel an outlandish distance to get to the meeting. In Race 1 the three horses that weren’t from Toowoomba, were trained at Warwick, Doomben and Beaudesert. In Race 2 the six that were trained away from Toowoomba were domiciled at nearby Gatton and Oakey (one each) and Deagon (1), Sunshine Coast (2) and Gympie (1). In Race 3 the five that had to travel to the meeting had to come from the nearby centres of Clifton and Dalby (one each) as well as from Deagon, Doomben and the Gold Coast – and so on and so forth – so as you can clearly see, it wasn’t exactly rocket science to be able to get the horses there on time.

In terms of jockeys that had taken mounts at both venues – namely the Gold Coast and Toowoomba, they would have to be replaced at one venue, but who’d care about that aspect – as that wouldn’t change turnover, in fact it may have increased turnover as a Brisbane jockey who obviously now didn’t have to ride at Eagle Farm, with no meeting on, could have trekked to Toowoomba and taken replacement rides.

So the logistics of the quick change for Toowoomba from a twilight meeting to the main meeting were very easy to put in place, albeit a representative of the Board of Queensland Racing, along with one from each of Unitab and Sky Channel would have had to have a few minute phone conference just to ratify it all. As a gesture of goodwill, Queensland Racing could have even doubled the prizemoney at the Toowoomba meeting, for the “inconvenience” they’d caused in benefiting the industry overall, as in essence they’d saved $405,000 in prizemoney by losing the Eagle Farm meeting.

To have a look at how some quick thinking would have helped TAB turnover immeasurably I now compare the Unitab holds for Saturday 27/2/10 at the Eagle Farm meeting, where rain downgraded the track rating late in the day – with the Toowoomba cushion track holds from last Saturday night.

The Eagle Farm holds for Saturday 27/2/10 were as follows:

On top of these holds the Extra Double held $32,373, the Quadrella held $479,967, the Treble hold was $120,339 whilst the Daily Double held $38,268 - making the grand total hold for the meeting $4,616,536.

The Toowoomba cushion track holds from last Saturday night were:

On top of the aforesaid figures for Toowoomba the Quadrella held $13,776 – the treble $14,868 – the Extra Double $3,920 – and the Daily Double $3,636 making a grand total of $716,847.

There is no question that the Toowoomba twilight hold of $680,647 plus other exotics holds as noted, would have jumped significantly had it been moved forward to take up the Eagle Farm timeslot.

So I have concluded the following:

1)      All trainers could have had ample notification to get their horses to a rescheduled cushion track meeting.

2)      The Eagle Farm timeslots that were vacated by that lost meeting could have been taken over by Toowoomba.

3)      Queensland Racing could have doubled all Toowoomba cushion track prizemoney to cater for any inconvenience caused. I can’t recall licensees burring up over an increase in prizemoney in the past.

4)      Jockeys with commitments at both the Gold Coast and Toowoomba could have chosen which venue they wanted to ride at – and be replaced at the other.

5)      The Toowoomba bookmakers who field at that meeting had no other meeting to attend that day, so again they have mobile phones to allow contact at short notice.

My proposal would have been both viable and also the saving grace of the day in terms of TAB holds, particularly given the fact that the last three Melbourne races had to be called off also, so many punters were hanging out to have a bet on something – anything would have done.

Therefore next time a Brisbane Saturday metropolitan meeting abandonment occurs, or is at least imminent – in this particular case as far out as 48 hours before the scheduled meeting - I’d sincerely hope that everyone is far more organised to be able to change tack at short notice and have the Toowoomba twilight meeting moved forward, to the vacated Brisbane timeslot for the betterment of the industry overall.