09/12/14

Last Saturday was the first Saturday of the implementation of the new and stupid track rating system that the Einsteins at the Australian Racing Board came up with and I must say that I thought it was ironic that the very person who spoke to the media about the new system – and the highest paid Chief Steward in Australia, Racing New South Wales Chief Steward, Ray Murrihy, was the first one to sign off on an incorrect track rating on his stewards report.

Late last week Murrihy had gone to lengths to tell the world that the numbers one to 10 stayed the same in respect of track ratings and that it was just the front part that changed – with dead becoming soft – and all the other allied excitement that comes with change.

And after last Saturday’s Rosehill meeting I must say that it’s no wonder that males are confused and are leaping to their death in ever increasing numbers, as the Rosehill track last Saturday between when final scratchings were taken and when the last race was run, had no fewer than five track rating changes. At scratching deadline time it was a heavy 8. That was upgraded before the first race to a soft 7. After one race had been run it was upgraded to a soft 6. It remained that way for four races (Races 2 to 5 inclusive), then it was upgraded further to a soft 5 for Races 6 and 7. Then heavy rain fell at the track and it was downgraded to a heavy 8 for the last race.

From a punting perspective, it’s just ridiculous – as punters betting into Quadrella legs and so on, have no remote clue as to what the track rating is likely to be before any particular race. At the extraordinary rate that Rosehill must dry out, according to stewards officiating at last Saturday’s meeting, God forbid if the track is ever a good 3 on a race morning at scratching deadline time, with a fine and 35-degree maximum day ahead, as we’ll probably have to call the meeting off, given that the track will dry out so fast that it will break the horses down. It always amazes me with tracks how they can go from a heavy 8 to a soft 5 in about 7 hours, yet if they start as a good 3 they rarely get any drier. It’s so stupid that it defies basic commonsense. Then again I guess there’s not a lot of that commodity called “commonsense” in thoroughbred racing.

The other disturbing aspect of the plethora of track ratings in Sydney last Saturday was that punters are being misled by some betting entities that fail to show the upgrades and/or downgrades on a race-to-race basis on their website. One large entity was showing the Rosehill track as a heavy 8 before Race 7 when in fact it was officially a soft 5. That is grossly misleading conduct as punters betting with the entity via the Internet are possibly backing horses suited to heavy tracks when the track was in fact rated as dead under the old scale that they would be familiar with. I will monitor that aspect closely in future and publicly name and shame these entities on my website as the deception is not on. I fully realize last Saturday was what I would call “particularly ridiculous” with five track rating changes on the one day, but nevertheless some of these large betting outlets don’t even have a half-hearted attempt at keeping their supposed “valued clients” up to date.

And Sydney wasn’t the only place to have problems last Saturday. In Brisbane the Weather Bureau showed yet again how totally useless they are in our society. They must surely be about the only business that can get things so wrong so often – yet they get to keep their jobs. In a race morning interview with RadioTAB anchor Steve Hewlett, some bloke from the Weather Bureau, probably a “senior forecaster” predicted so much rain was going to hit Brisbane that even ducks may drown. From memory he said up to “150mm” might fall in Brisbane on Saturday. After he made that statement I could just close my eyes and envisage a heavy track at best for Doomben, but accepted an even worse scenario that Doomben might in fact lose the meeting and that Doomben would be possibly floating past New Caledonia the next day. The passage of time proved that the massive rain event didn’t occur over Doomben last Saturday, meaning horses could run fairly handy overall time from early in the day, proof personified that the Weather Bureau are another totally useless entity. I fancy now every time they see a cloud form they issue a “severe weather warning” from Cairns to Coolangatta that “heavy rain and large hail” may happen. It’s a bit like tipping racehorses – if you have a guess often enough – by the law of average occasionally you’ll get one right.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s a full wrap-up of the Goondiwindi meeting last Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au David Clarkson pens an interesting story on racing in his home country of England, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Victorian racing is perused.