27/03/14

After recent events which I have personally witnessed, Racing Queensland, the governing body of the sport in Queensland really needs to employ a “secret shopper” style of person to randomly visit race clubs under their jurisdiction and see that things are being done correctly and that licensee’s interests are being protected.

Today I can exclusively advise that a lot of apathy has beset security at the thoroughbred meetings in this State.

Over recent months, Justracing has had no problem whatsoever having unauthorised and unlicensed persons enter areas that those “unauthorised and unlicensed persons” aren’t supposed to be in. I took my wife along to have a witness in all cases as it’s always handy to hang around with someone you can trust implicitly, as it’s been my experience in life that “bad fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree”. Through what we have seen, the livelihoods of owners, trainers and jockeys are being severely compromised because if a positive drug test was to happen from an unscrupulous person being in the enclosure after a race, the repercussions for the trainer could obviously be devastating as he or she could lose their livelihood over such an incident.

There was of course the famous case of champion pacer Smoken Up testing positive after winning the 2011 Inter Dominion. The pacer’s trainer/driver, Lance Justice, in an interview that I heard after the horse tested positive said he felt that due to the large number of people who were in the enclosure after the race that someone could have wiped DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide) on his horse. DMSO’s rapid absorption means that a post race swab would test positive to that substance.

In the Smoken Up case Lance Justice told one newspaper “Not only have I never treated Smoken Up with DMSO, it’s never been near him. I hate the drug. It stinks. It makes me physically sick”.

Highly respected harness writer Michael Guerin writing in the New ZealandHerald on 19/12/12 wrote, “His trainer Lance Justice swears he never used the drug and a subsequent Judicial Control Authority panel believed him but the DMSO was in Smoken Up’s system. They lost the appeal and then sought a judicial review in the High Court”. The High Court ruling in part said, “While nothing I have seen suggests intentional breach by Mr Justice, (of DMSO use) my preference would have been to refer the matter back to the tribunal for reconsideration”. It’s history now that Smoken Up had the race taken off him with Themightyquinn promoted to first, which cost the owners of Smoken Up $400,000 in winning prizemoney.

So that it’s not ancient history, as recently as yesterday at the Eagle Farm meeting, Justracing was able to test out security at that venue by having an unauthorised and unlicensed person walk into an area they weren’t entitled to be. I accept that it was a mid-week meeting and it was rainy weather, but breaching security wasn’t difficult and any unscrupulous person would have had no problem whatsoever getting right next to licensees, or to the first five placegetters after a race.

Justracing recently did a security audit on one particular TAB race club in South East Queensland and was totally gobsmacked that anybody could walk anywhere in that racetrack’s enclosure area and no one asked a solitary question.

At another particular club I could have walked into the jockeys room and assaulted five or 10 jockeys before anyone twigged what was going on. In fact walking into the enclosure to be up close and personal with the horses was as easy as falling of a log. Security at that particular South East Queensland TAB track was so pathetic that it planted the seed in my mind to start doing my own audit of venues.

It seems amazing to me that good and decent people’s livelihoods can be put on the line by an unscrupulous person, but the industry itself simply doesn’t even look after its own licensees. It is surely part of the mission statement of both individual race clubs and Racing Queensland, that licensees and their horses can be protected at all times after they enter a racetrack?

I can fully accept that there has probably been a decline in racetrack security as some race clubs look at reducing overheads, but security of the horses and the humans putting on the show for the public has to be of paramount importance.

Even signs like happened at Eagle Farm yesterday (pictured above) are totally useless as it’s not rocket science to know that a security person needs to be on that gate 100% of the time. If he needs a toilet break, then another security officer has to cover his absence.

What is happening at some thoroughbred racetracks in South East Queensland – and I’m sure the problem is not restricted to this corner of the State – is probably happening all over Australia and it seems to me that no one really cares.

Well I respectfully suggest in the litigious society in which we live, that all hell will break loose if a horse tests positive to a prohibited substance, a jockey or trainer is physically harmed at a race meeting, through the total apathy of the race club concerned to be incapable of restricting admittance to certain areas.

It would seem extraordinary to me that security are worried about a person smoking a cigarette away from the designated area, or wandering around a racecourse with a stubbie, yet I have no problem taking an unlicensed person to a racetrack and he can wander around licensees and horses without a solitary question being asked.

Being the fair person that I am, I won’t name and shame individual race clubs here today outside of Eagle Farm yesterday, but they are the premier thoroughbred race club in the State and therefore should lead by example, so I’ll give Racing Queensland and the race clubs that know they are doing the wrong thing, the one-off opportunity to fix security at their racetracks before I send in anonymous people to see if proper procedures are being adhered to in the future.

Racing Queensland really should be all over this topic, because they should have anonymous people who are employed to go into race clubs as “secret shoppers” type people and report back to them as to serious rule breaches like I’ve personally seen in recent times. It should not be up to websites like mine, to break the story – Racing Queensland run the show, therefore race clubs and security thereon are part of their responsibility.

A sample of photos taken yesterday at Eagle Farm are included in the montage on my www.brisbaneracing.com.au website today.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s some photos of the lack of security at Eagle Farm yesterday as well as photos from their race meeting last Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s the story on the breeding of the quinella pair in the Hong Kong Derby, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls looks at the new faces on Sky Channel which include Amelia Oberhardt, the daughter of respected long time Brisbane journalist and RadioTAB identity – Mark Oberhardt.