WILL THE IPSWICH TURF CLUB MAKE A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION TO LIFT THE BAN ON JUSTRACING FROM THEIR HALLOWED ENCLOSURE IN 2015

By on 31/12/2014 at 7:33 am
Filled in: Archive, Greyhound Racing, Harness Racing
31/12/14 The pathetic and grossly disrespectful way which I have been treated via being banned from the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure on Friday 28 November 2014, should serve as an ominous warning to the harness and greyhound codes - that at no point in the future should they have anything to do with the Ipswich Turf Club. Thinking aloud, the Ipswich Turf Club should go out of their way to ensure that my visit to their race club is as pleasant as possible, as after all it is they that are blessed to have Australia’s largest racing website owner living within 10 minutes of their racetrack after having originally moved to Ipswich on transfer in the National Bank at age 21 over 38 years ago – and having lived in the Ipswich area ever since. In fact I put a proposal to the Ipswich Turf Club to put them on the Internet, probably about 12 to 14 years ago, when an innovative CEO Barry Hinton was in charge of the Ipswich Turf Club and that proposal was accepted by the committee – and the committee of that day contained current Chairman Wayne Patch, current Treasurer Liam Tansey and current committeeman Dan Bowden. Sadly under current CEO Brett Kitching, the Ipswich Turf Club website of today is little more than a joke, with incorrect information and no one on the committee obviously ever bothers looking at it, or they would see it’s just not up-to-date and accurate. Unfortunately for the Ipswich Turf Club, I only instigated the work to allow the club to be placed on the Internet and haven’t been assisting with their website since, as once it was up and running it was the club’s responsibility what content they wanted on it. So you can take it as read that the current Chairman Wayne Patch, current Treasurer Liam Tansey and current committeeman Dan Bowden – and myself - go back at least 12 to 14 years. In fact Wayne Patch is the State Manager for Sunbus and I put Sunbus on the Internet at the same time. If you aren’t familiar with the name Sunbus, they are, as the name implies, a bus company. The name Sunbus has been in the news for many years, as it was a Sunbus bus that keep going past Daniel Morcombe at a Sunshine Coast bus stop, soon before he was abducted – and subsequently sadly murdered – all those years ago. Liam Tansey, the Treasurer of the Ipswich Turf Club is an accountant with his own practice in Ipswich and I first had a business relationship with him about 30 years ago and as at today he is the accountant of my daughter and her business, not that he would necessarily know her surname nowadays. Dan Bowden has owned the Marburg Hotel for many years and to the best of my knowledge leases it out now. I don’t recall he and I knowing each other before the Ipswich Turf Club was put on the Internet “12 or 14 years ago”, but I understand he has some health issues currently. His son Matt worked for me at the Ipswich Greyhound Club in the kennels when I was Secretary/Manager there for a period of time over a decade ago. So how this current Ipswich enclosure fiasco can degenerate to the point where it is currently, is what I would call “absolutely and utterly pathetic”, as certain people at the Ipswich Turf Club obviously don’t like the fact that I can photograph and report on how poor security has been at their enclosure a couple of times that I’ve brought the problem to public account during 2014. The current CEO of the Ipswich Turf Club, Brett Kitching, is also President of the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, so I would have reasonably thought that he, above all Ipswich business people, should make sure that every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed at the business that he is CEO of. In fact when you come to think of it, it’s strange that Brett Kitching hasn’t invited me to address the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce and tell them all about Justracing, which is surely one of the business success stories of Ipswich, given I’m Australia’s biggest racing website owner (numerically), launched the first thoroughbred sectional times service in Australia – and today have clients of that sectional times service in six countries. I wonder how many Ipswich based businesses started off as nothing but through sheer guts and determination are the biggest in their field nationally – and have clients in six countries? Not many I’d think. When I discussed the matter of my being banned from the Ipswich enclosure face-to-face with Brett Kitching at the Ipswich meeting on Wednesday 17 December in an amicable conversation, he told me that he’d spoken to Racing Queensland and they had advised him that my media accreditation was such that I was not allowed to be in a racecourse enclosure. Whoever told him that would have to have two - as they couldn’t possibly get that silly playing with one. Both the front and reverse of my Racing Queensland media pass are displayed today on the www.brisbaneracing.com.au website for the whole world – including Brett Kitching – to see. And in any event - how come no Ipswich Turf Club official in the previous decade had ever raised the point with me? Asked when we spoke on 17/12/14 as to 1) when the decision was made to ban me from the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure and 2) by whom, Brett Kitching said the decision was made “just before the (2014) Ipswich Cup”. Asked did he make the decision, or did the committee make the decision, he replied “a bit of both”. The Queensland Racing Media Association, of which I am a member (QRMA), was advised of my being asked to leave the Ipswich enclosure with no reason being tendered, via an email to all members early the following morning, 29/11/14. Subsequent to my email, QRMA President, Nathan Exelby, confirmed with me that he’d spoken to Racing Queensland CEO Darren Condon at the Doomben meeting on the same day my email was sent - 29/11/14. Condon then was going to ring Kitching on the matter and come back to Nathan Exelby. Unfortunately after 13 full days (29/11/14 to 12/12/14) when Condon hadn’t fulfilled his offer to ring Kitching and report back to Exelby, I advised the QRMA by email that I reckoned that Darren Condon was “totally useless to the cause” of mediation in the matter - and that I’d resolve the problem myself. So the media accreditation that I have, as per the photographs on the Brisbaneracing website today, obviously allows me into the 100-odd thoroughbred race clubs in Queensland, except for the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure. Kitching in our face-to-face conversation on 17/12/14 then added other reasons like I’d photographed their course proper at 6am, but that is simply just red herring nonsense, as remember he’d told me earlier that the decision had been made to ban me from the enclosure
31/12/14 The pathetic and grossly disrespectful way which I have been treated via being banned from the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure on Friday 28 November 2014, should serve as an ominous warning to the harness and greyhound codes – that at no point in the future should they have anything to do with the Ipswich Turf Club. Thinking aloud, the Ipswich Turf Club should go out of their way to ensure that my visit to their race club is as pleasant as possible, as after all it is they that are blessed to have Australia’s largest racing website owner living within 10 minutes of their racetrack after having originally moved to Ipswich on transfer in the National Bank at age 21 over 38 years ago – and having lived in the Ipswich area ever since. In fact I put a proposal to the Ipswich Turf Club to put them on the Internet, probably about 12 to 14 years ago, when an innovative CEO Barry Hinton was in charge of the Ipswich Turf Club and that proposal was accepted by the committee – and the committee of that day contained current Chairman Wayne Patch, current Treasurer Liam Tansey and current committeeman Dan Bowden. Sadly under current CEO Brett Kitching, the Ipswich Turf Club website of today is little more than a joke, with incorrect information and no one on the committee obviously ever bothers looking at it, or they would see it’s just not up-to-date and accurate. Unfortunately for the Ipswich Turf Club, I only instigated the work to allow the club to be placed on the Internet and haven’t been assisting with their website since, as once it was up and running it was the club’s responsibility what content they wanted on it. So you can take it as read that the current Chairman Wayne Patch, current Treasurer Liam Tansey and current committeeman Dan Bowden – and myself – go back at least 12 to 14 years. In fact Wayne Patch is the State Manager for Sunbus and I put Sunbus on the Internet at the same time. If you aren’t familiar with the name Sunbus, they are, as the name implies, a bus company. The name Sunbus has been in the news for many years, as it was a Sunbus bus that keep going past Daniel Morcombe at a Sunshine Coast bus stop, soon before he was abducted – and subsequently sadly murdered – all those years ago. Liam Tansey, the Treasurer of the Ipswich Turf Club is an accountant with his own practice in Ipswich and I first had a business relationship with him about 30 years ago and as at today he is the accountant of my daughter and her business, not that he would necessarily know her surname nowadays. Dan Bowden has owned the Marburg Hotel for many years and to the best of my knowledge leases it out now. I don’t recall he and I knowing each other before the Ipswich Turf Club was put on the Internet “12 or 14 years ago”, but I understand he has some health issues currently. His son Matt worked for me at the Ipswich Greyhound Club in the kennels when I was Secretary/Manager there for a period of time over a decade ago. So how this current Ipswich enclosure fiasco can degenerate to the point where it is currently, is what I would call “absolutely and utterly pathetic”, as certain people at the Ipswich Turf Club obviously don’t like the fact that I can photograph and report on how poor security has been at their enclosure a couple of times that I’ve brought the problem to public account during 2014. The current CEO of the Ipswich Turf Club, Brett Kitching, is also President of the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, so I would have reasonably thought that he, above all Ipswich business people, should make sure that every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed at the business that he is CEO of. In fact when you come to think of it, it’s strange that Brett Kitching hasn’t invited me to address the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce and tell them all about Justracing, which is surely one of the business success stories of Ipswich, given I’m Australia’s biggest racing website owner (numerically), launched the first thoroughbred sectional times service in Australia – and today have clients of that sectional times service in six countries. I wonder how many Ipswich based businesses started off as nothing but through sheer guts and determination are the biggest in their field nationally – and have clients in six countries? Not many I’d think. When I discussed the matter of my being banned from the Ipswich enclosure face-to-face with Brett Kitching at the Ipswich meeting on Wednesday 17 December in an amicable conversation, he told me that he’d spoken to Racing Queensland and they had advised him that my media accreditation was such that I was not allowed to be in a racecourse enclosure. Whoever told him that would have to have two – as they couldn’t possibly get that silly playing with one. Both the front and reverse of my Racing Queensland media pass are displayed today on the www.brisbaneracing.com.au website for the whole world – including Brett Kitching – to see. And in any event – how come no Ipswich Turf Club official in the previous decade had ever raised the point with me? Asked when we spoke on 17/12/14 as to 1) when the decision was made to ban me from the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure and 2) by whom, Brett Kitching said the decision was made “just before the (2014) Ipswich Cup”. Asked did he make the decision, or did the committee make the decision, he replied “a bit of both”. The Queensland Racing Media Association, of which I am a member (QRMA), was advised of my being asked to leave the Ipswich enclosure with no reason being tendered, via an email to all members early the following morning, 29/11/14. Subsequent to my email, QRMA President, Nathan Exelby, confirmed with me that he’d spoken to Racing Queensland CEO Darren Condon at the Doomben meeting on the same day my email was sent – 29/11/14. Condon then was going to ring Kitching on the matter and come back to Nathan Exelby. Unfortunately after 13 full days (29/11/14 to 12/12/14) when Condon hadn’t fulfilled his offer to ring Kitching and report back to Exelby, I advised the QRMA by email that I reckoned that Darren Condon was “totally useless to the cause” of mediation in the matter – and that I’d resolve the problem myself. So the media accreditation that I have, as per the photographs on the Brisbaneracing website today, obviously allows me into the 100-odd thoroughbred race clubs in Queensland, except for the Ipswich Turf Club enclosure. Kitching in our face-to-face conversation on 17/12/14 then added other reasons like I’d photographed their course proper at 6am, but that is simply just red herring nonsense, as remember he’d told me earlier that the decision had been made to ban me from the enclosure “before the (2014) Ipswich Cup” –which was six months before the 6am Ipswich course proper photo I took and put up publicly. There’s only each way betting at TABs and with some bookies sometimes – not when people are banned from a racetrack enclosure, so he can’t use events that happened six months after I was banned. So if those people at the Ipswich Turf Club can be so blatantly disrespectful to someone like myself, who has been a visitor to their racetrack on and off for the last 38 years – and who put them on the Internet and who has known numbers of office bearers from there, for up to three decades (Liam Tansey) – well all I can say is “God help any poor greyhound trainer or official, or any harness trainer or official, who dares to have a different view to them if the three codes ever have a presence at the Ipswich Turf Club”. In any event, greyhound and harness clubs renting from another entity like a Show Society, as say both the Ipswich Greyhound Club and the Marburg Pacing Association do currently, is fraught with danger. It always has been – and it always will be. Even the harness and greyhound codes being joint tenants of Brisbane’s Albion Park has had plenty of ill-feeling from both sides over the years, so the only way going forward, if the greyhounds and harness codes need a new venue, which we all accept they do, is for each to have their own standalone venue. Under no circumstances would either code want to be at the Ipswich Turf Club, as imagine the outrage if a greyhound so much as defecated on the hallowed course proper of the Ipswich Turf Club. That would really give Brett Kitching and the committee some grief, given I obviously cause them “some grief” just by writing factual stories about what I see at their race club – and taking photos thereof. Then again the Ipswich Turf Club has historically always been pathetic to the print media except the local newspaper The Queensland Times, as they have come under severe criticism for many years from The Courier Mail and The Sunday Mail, for having no media room – yet the Ipswich Turf Club are the exact same people that want all the media there to share with everyone the wonder that is Ipswich Cup day. It is my long-held opinion that metropolitan thoroughbred race clubs around Australia ruined racing the day they decided to ban under 18’s from their race meetings and took the decision to replace those under 18’s with foul mouthed, drunken, aggressive males and females instead of standing their ground and promoting the horse – and not alcohol – as the central theme to a day at the races. Then again I suppose it’s fair to say that metropolitan race clubs have been, in the main, totally impotent at creating new revenue streams, via motels being built on course – and the like – so the next best way to pay the bills is to gather a big group of drunks together, who in their inebriated and legless state, will happily pay any exhorbitant price asked just so they can stay on the grog. Hence I disagree vehemently with under 18’s being banned from attending Ipswich Cup Day, as that involves my grandchildren being banned from the place, particularly in the case of the Ipswich Turf Club, where the mayor of the city, Paul Pisasale, is on the committee. I’m sorry but I have problems coming to terms with how the mayor of one of Queensland’s biggest cities can be a party to banning all his under 18 constituents from his city’s biggest race day. Yet as per the Brisbaneracing photos today, he’s happily had his photo taken with both my granddaughters at other functions in the past. Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the first of two montages of photos from the Gold Coast races last Saturday, plus I have many file photos and relevant captions about the Ipswich Turf Club. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s a harness story and an educational piece for punters on mares, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Victorian racing is perused. Please note as tomorrow is New Year’s Day no story will go up on the websites due to a prior family commitment I have – so the next stories will go up on Friday evening 2/1/15 across the four websites. As this is the last day of 2014, I would like to thank all those people that have taken the time to visit the four websites during this year – and on behalf of the entire Justracing team, I would like to wish one and all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015.
Stay up to date with the latest racing news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest racing news!