08/12/15
As mentioned in yesterday’s website story, last Sunday was another glaring example of how in racing in Queensland we for far too long have seemingly had the mentality of “the blind leading the blind, helped by the unwilling and assisted by the unknowing” after a TAB thoroughbred meeting was programmed for Kilcoy last Sunday, whilst another TAB thoroughbred meeting was happening just up the road at Caloundra. For those website visitors that aren’t aware, the two thoroughbred tracks are only 73 kilometres apart. And I fancy last Sunday isn’t the first time that such a stupid scenario has unfolded.
In the case of the Kilcoy meeting last Sunday it came with a twist, namely it was a dual-code meeting, so six thoroughbred races were programmed along with three harness events and the TABs around Australia bet on all nine races.
The concept of a dual-code meeting is terrific, but in my opinion the way it’s done currently is what I’d call “pathetic and needs fixing”. The obvious ideal place to stage a dual-code meeting at any time in the past would be Albion Park in Brisbane as both the harness and greyhound racing industries are headquartered there. I’ve already written a story on how that day could happen. Again it would take me about five minutes to organize the day, but the two clubs that are there presently – the Albion Park Harness Racing Club and the Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club – obviously have been unable to get that hardly momentous feat off the ground in recent years, even though it should be an annual event, given they have both shared the Albion Park facility for well over two decades – the 22nd anniversary of greyhound racing at Albion Park was on 11/2/15. For the record, the story I wrote entitled “Albion Park disgrace that no dual code meeting has been held at the venue for just over 20 years” on how easy it was to achieve that feat, way back in 19/9/13, can be read on this thread:
https://www.justracing.com.au/index.php?news_page=32&artid=4399&catid=52
Interestingly the Chairman of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club, David Fowler, on his Monday morning RadioTAB show stated yesterday that it was time for the three codes to work together. That idea is wonderful in theory but putting it into practice – given all the personalities and egos that are involved – would be like trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube blindfolded, whilst getting attacked by a colony of fire ants, but in any event I look forward to David Fowler’s implementation of my idea from some years ago. Former sacked Racing Queensland Chairman Kevin Dixon and his fellow sacked All Codes Board members had years whilst in office to stage a dual-code meeting at Albion Park and by making it say a family fun day they could have packed the joint out, but they failed to get the concept off the ground.
Anyway back to the Kilcoy circus from last Sunday and running the three harness races during the thoroughbred meeting would help showcase that particular sport to the on-track attendees at Kilcoy on the day. The way it was done last Sunday, the three harness events were run so early that half the population was still in bed, which ultimately meant that the whole thing was simply an exercise in futility. The way it was done it looked more to an outsider looking in, that it was a case of “let’s get the trots out of the way so that we can have some thoroughbred races”.
In any event, I didn’t attend the Kilcoy dual-code meeting, so I can’t comment on the merit or otherwise of the crowd size, but irrespective of the crowd size, the TAB hold on the day was nothing short of what I’d call “utterly pathetic”.
Naturally Justracing will be the only media entity that would bother researching the Ubet TAB turnover at the end of the day’s racing – and reporting on same – so below is a list of the “utterly pathetic” win pool that related to each of the nine dual-code races at Kilcoy.
RACE
UBET WIN POOL HOLD
Trot R1
1242
Trot R2
2243
Trot R3
2246
T/Bred R1
6085
T/Bred R2
8185
T/Bred R3
9771
T/Bred R4
15866
T/Bred R5
7799
T/Bred R6
11780
TOTAL
65217
So as you can see from the aforesaid across nine Kilcoy races, the Ubet win pool hold totalled an “utterly pathetic” $65,217 which equates to an average hold per race of a paltry $7,246 meaning one wouldn’t even have to have the IQ of a meat ant to conclude “Houston we have a problem”.
And the meeting was given plenty of free plugs on RadioTAB that interviewed the Kilcoy Club President, Con Searle, from memory, some six days out from the event.
As a matter of interest, the trot Treble hold on the Kilcoy meeting was just $343. And things didn’t get much better later in the day as the Treble hold at the thoroughbred meeting at Kilcoy was a measly $4,432 – whilst the Quadrella hold was a paltry $7,055.
So whilst all and sundry are advising what’s wrong with the racing industry in Queensland and blaming governments and having no Board at present and so on and so forth, Boards in the past have had ample opportunity to introduce Monday and Tuesday thoroughbred meetings in Queensland but no past Board has been able to achieve the feat, which I’d call “just basic common sense”.
To show how redundant Queensland is in this regard, yesterday Victoria had a thoroughbred meeting at Terang. Most people wouldn’t even know if Terang is north, south, east or west of Melbourne. But in any event at Terang they had 10 races yesterday with acceptances of, in race order – 12, 15, 12, 12, 17, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 16. And calls wise, all 10 races were only what I’d call “crap” as there were more Maidens at Terang than you’d find at a nunnery – in fact five of the 10 races were Maidens, but that didn’t stop the desperate and dateless betting on the meeting. The other five races were three lowly “Rating 58” events, along with a “Benchmark 64” and a “Benchmark 70”.
Here is the Ubet TAB pari-mutuel win pool hold on those 10 Terang races:
RACE
HOLD
1
9608
2
9622
3
10722
4
11633
5
14847
6
16745
7
19638
8
20867
9
26583
10
25366
TOTAL
165,631
So as you can see from the aforesaid, across the 10 races the total pari-mutuel win pool hold was $165,631 which is an average of $16,563 per race and that’s well over double the $7,246 average from nine dual-code races at Kilcoy last Sunday and it’s $6,649 average more per race that the $9,914 average tote hold per race for just the six Kilcoy thoroughbred races.
And New South Wales also had a TAB thoroughbred meeting yesterday and it was at Taree where they conducted eight races with acceptance numbers of, in race order – 7, 8, 9, 9, 15, 13, 13 and 15.
Here is the Ubet pari-mutuel win pool hold on each of those 8 Taree races:
RACE
HOLD
1
5578
2
7593
3
9674
4
9738
5
15471
6
18477
7
18775
8
22723
TOTAL
108,029
So on this Taree meeting the total win pool was $108,029 which equates to an average of $13,503 per race, which is again way over Kilcoy’s $7,246 per race for nine races and well over the $9,914 average on the six thoroughbred Kilcoy races.
For the record both Victoria and New South Wales each have a thoroughbred meeting today. The eight-race Victorian meeting is at Wangaratta and in race order it has attracted acceptors numbering 11, 16, 12, 18, 10, 12, 13,and 14. The New South Wales meeting is at Orange and consists of eight races and in race order the acceptance numbers are 16, 8, 13, 15, 14, 12, 12 and 10.
So can you now see what I’ve been preaching for a decade about Monday and Tuesday Queensland thoroughbred meetings needing to happen is 100% accurate? I can see – you can surely see it – Blind Freddie carrying a white cane in one hand and holding a Labrador in the other hand can see it, yet no one in authority in the joint in that same decade can see it. Surely having no Monday and Tuesday thoroughbred race meetings is part of the reason that we are in the mess we are in today in the Queensland racing industry? In fact I would say that, “We have failed miserably to do anything constructive to ensure we maximise Ubet turnover, so if we can’t help ourselves, why should anyone else help us?”
Over the next two days I’ll advise more reasons why in the racing industry Queensland is so pathetically behind other States.
Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au Bernard Kenny, who can bob up anywhere around the world penning a story for this website, writes an interesting piece on Valor Farm at Texas in America.