The Roar
The Roar

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Three Wide No Cover: Awards, awards and raspberries!

Warrick Farm racing at its finest. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Expert
24th August, 2015
9

The year of racing came to an end almost a month ago and race fans have shifted their attention to the upcoming spring meetings, starting with this weekend’s Group 1 Memsie Stakes.

Despite this, the annual award ceremonies for racing in New South Wales and Victoria were not held until last week. Should we not follow the lead of AFL, NRL and Cricket and have these awards as close to the end of the season as possible?

The trainers and jockey premierships were close this year and created some good marketing buzz. Yet we wait three weeks to host industry only award nights.

Also awarded last week were the respective Horse of the Year awards. Victoria was restricted to Victoria only races and voting by a panel of administrators and media. NSW had a pretty convoluted points system that is always going to reward quantity over a single stand out performance.

With Dissident taking out Victorian HOTY and First Seal taking out the NSW HOTY, what do we think of their merits?

The most interesting thing for me is that both the stallion and mare are now part owned by the China Horse Club.

I was watching the live telecast of the NSW Awards on Sky Thoroughbred Central and was intrigued to see the China Horse Club Chairman Teo Ah Khing speak after winning multiple awards, saying “that this was on behalf of all the 60 million China Horse Club members”.

I am not sure of all the membership benefits attached to the China Horse Club but this certainly highlights the presence of Chinese ownership and potential for Australian bred thoroughbreds and racing in general.

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Unfortunately Racing.com was not telecasting or webcasting the Scobie Breasley Medal, Racing Victoria’s version of the Brownlow.

Damien Oliver collected his eighth ‘Scobie’ while leading trainer Peter Moody publicly snubbed the awards and new Racing Victoria Chairman David Moodie scooped the owners and breeders awards. The Fred Hoysted award for training was awarded to German trainer Andreas Wohler for winning the Melbourne Cup.

And so onto the awards for Racing Queensland. Oh wait they have been cancelled or can’t get sponsorship from new wagering partner UBet. Or some other excuse from a political organisation that trumpets a $28M black hole without backing up with any financial information and has refused all requests to an interview or disclosure of any financial information.

They are now recruiting for an independent Chairman and three independent board members that can’t have been a member of a race club or a horse/dog owner for two years. They are advertising on Seek! For those interested, salary comes in at a maximum $50,000 and $30,000 respectively. Go figure?

Racing participants in Queensland should not have to put up with this ineptitude. (That’s my raspberry if you could not pick it!)

So what about the Australian Horse of the Year? Is this something that racing should be coveting and using as a key plank for the marketing of racing heroes to the masses?

The award was a pretty big deal when Black Caviar managed to win it three years in a row, becoming just the second horse, alongside Sunline, to win three years in a row. Lankan Rupee won last year’s award but was unable to take the chocolates from Dissident for the Victorian title this year despite a superior international rating.

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So when and where are the Australian Horse of the Year Awards. We went to Racing Australia to find out – but they don’t run the event and don’t have any information. Racing Victoria run the event and use it as a launch for the Victorian Spring Carnival. October the eighth at the MCG.

Surely the recently formed Racing Australia will take charge of this event and look to showcase this as soon as possible after the end of the racing season. Does this mean Sydney will host the awards in 2016? But what if Channel Seven want to broadcast the event for racing content?

Here at The Roar we have been interested in the debate surrounding Australian Horse of the Year since May.

And I wrote about the season’s defining performances just before the end of the season, back when the awards should have been held, throwing my vote towards Delicacy.

So it will be interesting to see whom is nominated for Australian Horse of the Year and who wins.

Does Protectionist poll well after one of the most dominant Melbourne Cup wins? Or does his disappointing autumn hurt his votes? The points system that gifted First Seal the NSW awards is not used for the national awards and I don’t think she will gain too many votes.

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