09/05/13

Well what a week in racing we’ve had. It would be as funny as a tin of worms if it wasn’t so serious.

Down in Sydney A’s accused B of this and that. C sides with A but D refused to appear along with E but after talking to Z they somewhat interestingly change their mind and will now appear. G might kiss and make up with S if J’s info was initially embellished. Why doesn’t Chief Steward R just set up a “contender” boxing ring and shove them all in it – two at a time – and whoever is the last person standing is declared the winner.

Then earlier this week in Brisbane we had premiership winning trainer Rob Heathcote charged and being fined $500 by stewards for engaging in “conduct prejudicial to the image of racing” over a blog. That’s just more proof that one has to be extremely careful of wording when putting statements up publicly, something a professional webmaster like myself, or John Lingard from the Letsgohorseracing website has to constantly be on top of. In fact Heathcote being charged by stewards is exactly the reason I don’t have any forums or outside contributors on my websites. All that stuff is a minefield in the modern era, particularly in 2013, given the litigious society in which we live.

Having read what the media has since stated that Heathcote wrote in his blog, it’s my considered opinion that it’s little wonder he was charged by stewards, albeit I don’t agree with the miniscule associated fine of $500 that went with the charge. Have stewards now set a precedent Australia-wide and $500 is the new standard fine for engaging in “conduct prejudicial to the image of racing” for a first offence? That seems very little deterrent.

I would also think that Rob Heathcote’s banning the media will be little more than a flash in the pan and feel that I should have more knowledge on the subject than most. In his formative days as a trainer in Brisbane, Heathcote had to rely on people like myself to help his career along by writing stories on the stable runners, or on his apprentices – the likes of Stephen Wright or Allan Chau, etcetera. Several times Heathcote asked me if I’d help him out as many racing people do behind the scenes – and naturally I helped out when I could, as I try to help as many battlers out as possible. “Young Stevie (Wright) can’t get a ride. Would you be able to do a story on him”, were the sort of approaches made to me to help the stable out.

Some years on and today Rob Heathcote has become the Brisbane premiership winning trainer. Nowadays he doesn’t need Justracing to help him out – as success fuels a fire from many within the ranks of so called “mainstream media” and for some years he has had all of Sky Channel, RadioTAB and the newspapers helping his career along, sometimes I would have thought to the point of overkill. I have no objection to not being asked to help the stable out either, as I’d rather help “a battler” out, like the “Young Stevie” (Wright) who was a nice kid and was flat out getting a ride – even in the bush. Put simply Sky Channel, RadioTAB and the newspapers aren’t interested in the three-kilo kid that’s really struggling. They couldn’t care less about him or her – but I could.

I found it amazing that on RadioTAB just 48 hours ago – on Tuesday morning – anchor Stephen Hewlett advised the listening audience that Rob Heathcote had been asked for an interview and the radio station that has helped Heathcote out copious times in the past was told by Heathcote to “lose my number”.

The path of life has many twists and turns and whether it’s Rob Heathcote, myself, the sheila living over the road, the child in grade 1, or the widowed man in the local nursing home, we all at some point need to acknowledge that we need a close ally or two to help us out in time of need.

In a bizarre twist, I’m banned from appearing on RadioTAB interviews even though no one from the radio station has ever had the testicular development to advise me of that fact – and my grave sin was to apparently write some factual stories about Tattsbet – the entity that owns the particular radio station, the point being it’s in some ways a privilege – not a right – to appear on the obviously holier than thou radio station, where everything must be kept positive at all costs. I remember current leading rails bookmaker Lindsay Gallagher being flicked off the same radio station for merely having an opinion, yet I would have reasonably thought that if someone like Gallagher had spent 45 years at the coalface of the racing industry that he may well be qualified to speak on the subject.

I’m 57 years of age and haven’t lost my marbles yet and fancy I know exactly the way the world works. In fact I’d have to be as thick as a plank not to “get it” by this age. I don’t spend more than an occasional passing thought at being banned off RadioTAB because I have to look at the bigger picture. That “bigger picture” tells me that I should be eternally grateful for the wonderful help that RadioTAB and some of their people have been to me in the past via interviews. Without being arrogant, today I’m the biggest racing website owner in Australia from a numerical perspective, owning and operating four separate racing websites having daily content Monday to Friday inclusive – and I’m happy to acknowledge publicly that I have got to that point partly due to the exposure I gained in RadioTAB interviews.

One day anytime soon I expect that Rob Heathcote will surely realise that it’s people like myself, RadioTAB, Sky Channel and the newspaper journalists and racing website proprietors that helped no end to get him where he is today. Granted he has to have some measure of ability in his chosen profession to take a racehorse and turn it into a winner, but he has to understand that he gets some horses given to him because people like myself, or a newspaper journalist, or a Sky Channel interviewer, or a radio anchor do a story or an interview on either him, or a stable runner – and if the person reading the article, listening to the interview, or watching the television show is suitably impressed, then he is some chance of training a horse for that particular person down the track.

In life it is said “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Let me say publicly that I’ve been used, abused, had my car smashed by a shopping trolley at Eagle Farm whilst attending the races there, had threads sent to me about what has been written on racing forums labelling me as about the worst person in the industry – and all the rest of it. Could I care less about what “they” think or say? No I couldn’t – because we live in a democracy, so everyone is entitled to have their opinion as long as it’s not defamatory, and secondly “they” are welcome to start up their own racing website in competition to me and show everyone how good they are, but I repeat one should always watch exactly how they word things.

Rob Heathcote won’t continue to be the premiership trainer without horses. He must understand that “the media” helped get him where he is today, therefore – on the balance of probability – he needs the media to help him out to maximize his future goals and aspirations. What’s going to happen if his horse Buffering wins a Group 1 on Saturday at Eagle Farm? Is he going to “do a Jack Denham” and tell respected media identities like Larry Olsen on Sky Channel, or Wayne Wilson in the enclosure, who dare to ask him questions post race something like “go to hell I’m over you media blokes”? Jack Denham grew up in an era when trainers didn’t need the media. Jack Denham only needed his wife to keep the house and his son Allan to help him out in the stables – and he had no problem getting by in life. Jack Denham could set a horse up for a good old fashioned plonk. Times have changed. There are no longer 60 or 80 bookmakers at a Saturday metropolitan race meeting, in fact you can nearly count the number that are there on one hand, so the “good old fashioned plonk” is pretty much a thing of the past.

Jack Denham’s banning of the media from his life for many years was somewhat understandable as he blamed what a journalist once wrote in a newspaper for his defiant stance, but for the life of me I can’t work out why Heathcote has placed a blanket ban on the media. What for? He was personally responsible for what was written in his blog. The bloke from The Courier Mail, Racenet, or Justracing didn’t write it. Therefore the buck surely stops with him, the writer – the same as the buck stops with me for anything that is written here on any of my four websites. I can’t blame my wife, granddaughter, or the bloke who writes for the Melbourneracing website if the proverbial hits the fan over what I publicly put up.

In the 15-round contest that is life, sometimes the fighter will walk straight into a left hook that he didn’t see coming. That left hook may flatten him momentarily and send him to the canvas. The tough get up off the canvas, dust themselves off – and actually go on and win the fight. It’s only when the fighter is counted out by the referee that he’s beaten.

It’s no great secret that Rob Heathcote and I are no longer close. Each respects what the other does and say “Hello” should we happen to walk past each other at a race meeting. That’s fine, there’s no rule to say he has to like me, but just to show that I’m a true professional, I still put his winning race photos up on the website – for that’s the only fair and mature way to approach the situation. I helped him out in his formative years and I’ll hand out some free advice in his darkest hour even though he’s old enough to make up his own mind. “Let’s get up off the canvas before the ref gets to eight or you can’t be the victor. We all say and do things on the spur of the moment that we all live to regret. After all – to err is human, but we simply have no option but to learn from our mistakes and move on. And in any event, the only time in life you really have to worry about is if you, or someone close to you, got diagnosed five minutes ago with a terminal disease – then there’s a real cause for hurt and concern. Apart from that, any other speed bumps we hit along the path of life – well we just have to build a bridge and get over it.”

Just on nine years ago when we were much closer than we are today – and The Courier Mail, RadioTAB and Sky Channel weren’t taking any great notice of him, I penned this story called “26 hours in the life of Rob Heathcote”. It even made my 2006 published book as a selected story I personally decided to put in that book. Rob Heathcote had a bad hair day back then too, the same as he had last Monday at a stewards enquiry, but I did my bit to get him through that one too – and he wasn’t even at fault in that one. That rather sad article that I penned to help him out can be read HERE.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the second montage of photos from the Gold Coast last Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au I look at harness racing news for NSW, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Victorian news is featured.