2016 arrived and racing in Australia kicked off with the richest raceday ever – with the Magic Millions held at the Gold Coast Turf Club.
It was great to see the champ Buffering winning a Queensland bred-only bonus race in his own state, and up and coming dominant two-year old Capitalist and strong marketing cameos from Melbourne Cup winning trainer Darren Weir and jockey Michelle Payne.
You would think Racing Queensland would be cheering from the rooftops and provide a formal summary of a great event. Crowd figures and wagering turnover – the key metrics of a successful event.
But, nothing. Not a word. I would like to openly ask Racing Queensland, UBET, the Gold Coast Turf Club, Magic Millions and anybody with an interest in the well-being of Racing in Queensland to respond and get back to us with the figures.
Transparency and open communication and getting on the same page are some of the key statements coming from racing authorities in various states.
Prizemoney stoush
Thursday saw a little spat between the Melbourne Racing Club and Racing Victoria regarding the prize money on offer for the 2016 Blue Diamond go public.
Racing Victoria had previously advised that prize money would be increased from $1M to $1.5M as part of prize money increases on the back of a $50M reported profit for the 2015 financial year.
Yet the Melbourne Racing Club in a press release announced on the back of a record second declarations – 209 of them in fact – it was reducing the prize money to $1.4M due to a decrease in prize money allocation from Racing Victoria.
This was quickly refuted by Racing Victoria in no uncertain terms and it will be interesting to see the fall-out of these discussions. Sources link the frustration from the Melbourne Racing Club re-funding deficiency for racing at Sandown, previously Betfair park, renamed William Hill Park and now known as Ladbrokes Park.
The Melbourne Racing Club has been abrasive regarding industry funding and comments regarding the wagering joint venture partner Tabcorp that culminated with the banning of fairfax journalist Patrick Bartley from the Caulfield Cup which almost resulting in a press walk out.
ATC’s ambo error
Communications in Sydney between Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club broke down this week when a change in ambulance attendance strategy by the ATC to cut costs caused the Warwick Farm trials to be called off after all the participants and arrived.
The ATC CEO apologised and promised compensation but is evidence of several issues with many highlighting issues regarding the continuing losses incurred by the ATC with racing at Canterbury and the long-term plan to sell off this racetrack – and fund night racing at Randwick.
Brisbane Racing Club not happy with Sky coverage
A year is a long time in racing. This time last year we had the Sky racing blackout of Victorian racing and racing.com was yet to go live on free to air. The joint venture with Seven media has been an unqualified success for Victorian racing – yet the impact on other jurisdictions is starting to take effect with Queensland in particular losing out on its exclusive Sky coverage.
As reported this week the Brisbane Racing Club is fed up with Racing Queensland and is looking to explore its media rights directly with racing.com. And I predict this situation will only get worse as Victoria goes on its own with the raceday clock as it aims to reduce the time between races as evidenced by an upcoming trial which will cause conflicts with other thoroughbred races across Australia and thus on the coverage of Sky 1.
Even on Australia’s richest raceday we had a very small gap between the races at the Gold Coast and Caulfield which got real close with a delay at the Gold Coast – it would be interesting to see what the impact was on wagering?
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