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With the Spring Racing season done and dusted for another year, here are 11 things I think Australia needs to embrace to make following racing all it can be in this country.
I’ve put together a list of the television shockers, faux pas and things that grind my gears about the coverage and discussion around the sport in this country. Feel free to contribute yours,
1. Copy Singapore and the USA and display numbers of every runner on the screen as they jump. Guys, this is 2015. We currently have to wait until the race is half over before we just get the first four runners and often they are incorrect. By using an electronic chip it is 100% correct and also advises if your horse is wide.
2. Can the Sky Racing anchors please stop saying: “TAB dot com dot au” a million times every afternoon? Fellas, every man and his dog knows that they have a website. Just “the TAB” is all that is required.
3. Can someone tell Richard Freedman that when he works at Sky Racing it is TV and not radio? We all can see Rich, no need to read us the numbers in the frame and each dividend. Something useful like what Glenn Munsie says is more beneficial.
4. Bigger fields required, especially in NSW. Now Grahame Begg is quitting and the way we are heading it will be Waller, Smith, Snowden and Darley as the only trainers supplying runners in Sydney. Do we have to wait that long before the battling trainer can get some relief from operating expenses?
5. TVN, if you refuse to follow Singapore then at least put up what price the leaders are on the screen during the race.
6. The replays of every horse race in Australia should be available free.
7. An electronic form guide that shows the last 10 runs of each horse should be available free like it is in Hong Kong and like it is for the greyhounds here. Do our administrators get it that by giving punters intel they will invest?
8. Channel 7 needs to hire someone to advise them on camera angles. While they are at it, they can bury that ground level cam just before the home turn.
9. UK racing is shocking at this, but some clubs still have tiny numbers on the saddle cloth that even the jockey would struggle to read.
10. Why do greyhound races always follow a trot race? The dog race does not last long and should be scheduled before the harness race as there is often a delay. If you have zero interest in pacers and are forced to sit through 30 plus drawn out races every night it is punishing. This is a huge advantage to increasing the hold for harness over greyhounds.
11. Live ‘In-Play’ Betting via the internet. Anytime you are ready fellas! How ridiculous is this inane outdated law that encourages betting off shore.
This law applies to all online operators, regardless of whether they are owned and/or licensed in Australia. However, adherence to the Internet Gambling Act is the responsibility of the gambling operators and not individual Australians.
An Australian resident is not breaking the law by betting live online, which encourages off shore investment, or billions “lost” to the local industry. Most offshore betting providers either ignore, or are unaware of the IGA, and continue to offer live betting to Australian residents.
As things stand, Australians are free to participate in live betting offered by international agencies, because any infringements would entail penalties for the betting operator and not the punter. For obvious reasons, live betting isn’t huge in Australia, but it is massive in Europe. According to one agency, live betting accounts for 90% of wagers on cricket, tennis and soccer.
At this stage, no major Australian bookmaker offers live online betting to Australian residents, however most international agencies do.
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