smokin

Last Wednesday Morning, the trumpets could be heard all across the CBD of Sydney as the Federal Court handed down a verdict that could have severe ramifications for the Racing industry in NSW for years to come.

Almost a week has passed and plenty of time for the spin doctors to put out the usual drivel, however, I want to centre on how this can be seen as a win for the participants, as named by the Druitt St Bunker, the prospect of the gold lined clouds be soon forecast away when the thunder starts to roll in the hills as this will not be anything near the golden carrot.

The prospect of raising prize money sounds great in theory, but to raise money to the levels that are being discussed, especially in the Metropolitan Area is bordering on suicide. If the TAB wasn't driving the demand for meetings and Racing NSW easily signing off on whatever they request, there is a chance that this could work, however, with the TAB Racing Distribution Agreement demanding 123 Metro Meetings and 127 Provincial. Over 52 weeks, considering that Hawkesbury and Scone now have stand-alone Saturday Meetings, leaves 50 Saturday meetings, 52 midweek meetings, makes 102, with another 21 meetings to be split over public holidays, the joke that is Night Racing and the odd Sunday Meeting.

Does anyone else think that 50 race meetings, if we were to subtract the carnivals, which would take out another 11 Saturdays, drops the number to 39 meetings, that would be truly deserving of $100,000 per race?

Considering that Racing is no longer managed as a sport, it is an all-consuming, all-bludgeoning machine that the powerbrokers believe would fall apart if it was left to take a break for a few weeks. E.I proved Racing is a strong product that if it was to break from time to time, would not only survive, but come back bigger and stronger and drive the demand for itself.

And herein lays the problem, There is no consideration to the fact that Horse Racing is a Sport. Anyone that has done any study into what sport is, can identify what makes a sport unique, however, the sport in Horse Racing has been lost, and was lost a long time ago, then the industry lost the TAB. Horse Racing had become an machine, that for its own benefit needs to be rationalised in SUPPLY.

I wholeheartedly agree with racing for $100,000 per race on a Saturday, if and only if, you were to drop about 60 meetings a year from the metropolitan calendar. There is no way then you would ever be seeing a race with only 3 runners per race. Racing needs to stop the oversupply and support the rationalisation of the top of the tree (metropolitan meetings) and use this as the guide to develop the day in and day out product, being country and provincial racing, increase the returns at the grass roots and the returns go back to where they need to be. If you increase the health of the grass roots, the top is what will prosper, once the lifeblood is pumping.

And speaking of the lifeblood, I would love to see how the Court ruling is going to improve the livelihood of those employed in the front line of racing, at the stable level. Mr V’landys was quick to spin ''They get up at 3 o'clock in the morning. Strappers are on 30 grand a year, 'Well now, the first thing we will do is look at how we can increase the wage rates of all our participants throughout the industry. They won't go living in poverty anymore.” Asked what kind of pay rise a strapper might expect, he said it should be ''at least $10,000''.

I know the life of a stablehand, it should be the greatest job in the world, I would have loved for it to be my occupation of choice. What I could not stand for, and my eventual reason for leaving is that not only does the humble stablehand get treated like dirt, but they are paid like dirt. There is absolutely no reason for a strapper or a horse to be out of bed at 3am, Horses don’t like it any better than the humans do.

The age old arguments just don’t fly anymore. Horses are worked early in the morning to escape the heat of the day is a common one, yet you expect them to race in 40 degree heat at 3pm in the afternoon. People wonder why there is such a rise in this atrial fibrillation, maybe horses just aren’t conditioned to race day, they are conditioned to early mornings, not racing at 3 in the afternoon and 9pm at night. Tommy Smith started training his horses under the cover of darkness, to hide his methods and before professionalism, it was a hobby, to be done before your usual occupation. If you want to start looking at ways to nurse the staff into some type of health look at not only when they work, but how much they work. It is ridiculous to expect a staff member to work 13 mornings straight, give them 1 day off every 14, and expect them to be switched on and happy with their work.

$10,000 is not going to make any difference to getting someone like me back in the industry. Racing NSW have had many opportunities to listen to my concerns, I have hounded and harassed and barked at them for many years. Yet they see this as a problem that is not there’s to fix, as they do not employ the stable staff.

Never mind the fact that jockeys get 1% of the national prize money pool to fund there association and set them up for life after riding and serious injury. I have asked many times, what has been done for the track work riders and stable hands that I know have been seriously injured, had prolonged injury enforced absences and need re-skilling to enter the workforce away from racing? Nothing, yet for jockeys this is seen as a priority.

As an employee group in Racing, the track-work riders, stable-hands and forepersons total approx. 3300 members strong. They have no access to any type of up skill training, counselling services, dispute resolution services or any type of industrial representation. If Mr V’landys can see a 10K improvement per year to each of these employees, that would total in excess of $33 Million. I thought the industry was in line for maybe $50 million a year extra through the 1.5%, if they were lucky to sustain current wagering trends and get into a position to implement the money.

Racing NSW could get this industry moving forward quicker than a Ferrari in 1st gear if they were less obsessed with continuing with the machine and employing genuine strategy to work the industry over from the grass roots up, not the other way around.

Smokin....