What a weekend and week ahead in Racing. My highlights and talking points all have a ‘W’ flavour, from Waller to Whips to WA Racing, to a couple of the ‘what the!’ moments.
Chris Waller – what a freak! Winners all around the country over the weekend with another Group 1 with The Project in Perth, Junoob and the Ballarat Cup, plus the obligatory metropolitan winner in Sydney on Saturday.
The Railway in Perth was the 10th Group 1 for the Waller stable this season, setting a record breaking pace.
It will be interesting to see how the whips debate pans out with the power struggle between the Australian Jockeys’ Association (AJA) and Racing Australia coming to a head on December 1, with the new whip rules scheduled to come into national effect.
This issue isn’t a massive one in the sport – involving the classification of backhand whip strikes as the same as forehand strikes.
But what has unfolded is a real power struggle between AJA and well respected spokesman Des O’Keffee vs Racing Australia. Chairman John Messara wrote to all jockeys yet CEO Peter Maguaran has been unusually silent.
As we have written previously we early await the first annual report of the new Racing Australia and this a real test of authority and decision making process.
Super Saturday was the biggest raceday in Perth for the year. Attendance was approximately 12,000 with the heat an explanation for the lower than hoped 18,000 figure. Birds of Tokyo was a major attraction yet Perth Racing on the back of a reported $4M loss continues to struggle after years of non-racing leadership.
The turnover, as reported by RWWA, is below – note I don’t have a comparative vs last year but hope to find one and update this article.
ASCOT – SATURDAY NOVEMBER 21
| CATEGORY | TURNOVER | % OF TOTAL |
| TOTE | $2,742,590.30 | 59.62% |
| FIXED ODDS | $1,857,552.50 | 40.38% |
| TOTAL | $4,600,142.80 | 100.00% |
Buffering is a Queensland-bred hero competing in his 30th Group 1 race. It would seems a marketing oversight or lack of awareness as to why Racing Queensland and UBet would not initiate and prioritise a marketing campaign about this great warrior and his charismatic trainer Rob Heathcote.
Hopefully watch this space for the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast, in early January.
Also up north, Racing Queensland have created a new ‘Origin’ jockey series which will offer some fresh interest over December’s quieter times.
(Editor’s note: The Roar will have more on that later this week.)
That’s what I am calling it – the prize money war! On the back of The Championships upping prize money to $20m for the two days, Racing NSW today upped prize money for both country and provincial races on the back of the tax parity approach being adopted by the NSW Government, leaving Racing NSW flush.
Minimum prizemoney for Country TAB meetings will go to $20,000 a race, a rise of 33 per cent, while provincial racing minimum stakes levels are set to rise $5000 to $27,000 from July 1. There will also be 40 showcase meetings spread across country areas each year, where prizemoney will start at $30,000 a race.
The increases won’t come into effect until July 2016, but it’s a sign that Racing NSW are looking to keep participants – especially owners and breeders – happy.
Expect another swift response from Victoria especially after the record $50M profit reported for RVL. It only highlights the commercial issues for states such as SA, QLD and WA and expect them to fall even further behind re prize money.
The Australian Turf Club have been spruiking a record operating profit in the lead up to Thursday’s AGM. Another point of view would be they actually reported a $4.2M loss and have several transparency issues including Admin expenses rising to $25M from $10M without any detail plus revenues in advance of $57M.
The annual report fell short of reporting actual attendance figures for the year. What? Can you imagine the NRL or the AFL not reporting actual attendance and a detailed analysis?
Reading the fine print also a sneaky reduction of attendance goals from 500,000 to 460,000 that may or may not be critical to certain executives.
The Newcastle Jockey Club has sacked its CEO Cameron Williams, in the lead up to its AGM.
Cameron Williams was sacked in September, with no public explanation by the board – and only comments being that the club itself pointing towards considerable unrest.
NJC Chairman Geoff Barnett told the ABC said there is already a shortlist of candidates for the CEO’s job, but he expects members will be asking questions at the AGM this week.
“I think members are entitled to ask the question, about why with the CEO, that’s a fair question to ask,” he said.
“Some of the answers will be that a club’s not all about the bottom line. It’s nice to have a good strong bottom line, but we are a club. We’re not a high powered business, we are a club and we’ve got to consider that fact all the time.”
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