HERE WE GO AGAIN....AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!
The wonders of modern technology. Here I was enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon in the garden when I received a text message on my mobile courtesy of our friends at RWWA which read.... "The race meeting scheduled for Bunbury today has been abandoned due to the unsafe condition of the track." Marvelous invention the sms messaging service!
I was quickly on my mobile to the staff at Amelia Park to ensure all my horses had survived the storm or flood or whatever other inclement weather had caused the abandoning of a race meeting only 40km away. The staff thought I had been drinking or had gotten too much sun whilst out in the garden. No rain. No wind. Just a picture perfect summers day. Not a cloud in the sky.
So how and why is a race meeting called off due to the condition of the track? And more to the point, what made the track deteriorate between 8.00am this morning when the track rating was given as good 3 on all TAB outlets and the time the owners, jockeys, horses and staff had travelled over 200km to get there some four hours later???
Earlier this year we had the same situation at York. Sprinklers were blamed. Then we had it at Northam. Beetle's were blamed. That is after a couple of years of Pinjarra. No one took the blame there. Now we have more of the same at Bunbury. I wonder who is to blame this time?
A couple of weeks ago I am told that one of our leading race day commentators Wes Cameron, made comment on radio, that he felt the condition of the Bunbury track the previous day was such that he could envisage a meeting or two being missed because of it. How can a guy who does race day comments foresee these problems but nobody in charge can?
After the York debacle earlier this year I had a long and somewhat heated argument with the Chairman of Stewards Mr John Zucal regarding the way the industry participants continually have it stuck up them by these provincial clubs. John actually agreed with me and gave me and the industry an assurance that this would never happen again. Well I hate to say it but the more we are told that things will change; the more they seem to stay the same! I think there was a movie some years ago that summed up this situation fairly well. I think the name had something to do with HOGS!!! The producer could have saved himself a lot of money and simply filmed a couple of days in the life of a provincial racing club.
I wait with baited breath for the next episode.
I was quickly on my mobile to the staff at Amelia Park to ensure all my horses had survived the storm or flood or whatever other inclement weather had caused the abandoning of a race meeting only 40km away. The staff thought I had been drinking or had gotten too much sun whilst out in the garden. No rain. No wind. Just a picture perfect summers day. Not a cloud in the sky.
So how and why is a race meeting called off due to the condition of the track? And more to the point, what made the track deteriorate between 8.00am this morning when the track rating was given as good 3 on all TAB outlets and the time the owners, jockeys, horses and staff had travelled over 200km to get there some four hours later???
Earlier this year we had the same situation at York. Sprinklers were blamed. Then we had it at Northam. Beetle's were blamed. That is after a couple of years of Pinjarra. No one took the blame there. Now we have more of the same at Bunbury. I wonder who is to blame this time?
A couple of weeks ago I am told that one of our leading race day commentators Wes Cameron, made comment on radio, that he felt the condition of the Bunbury track the previous day was such that he could envisage a meeting or two being missed because of it. How can a guy who does race day comments foresee these problems but nobody in charge can?
After the York debacle earlier this year I had a long and somewhat heated argument with the Chairman of Stewards Mr John Zucal regarding the way the industry participants continually have it stuck up them by these provincial clubs. John actually agreed with me and gave me and the industry an assurance that this would never happen again. Well I hate to say it but the more we are told that things will change; the more they seem to stay the same! I think there was a movie some years ago that summed up this situation fairly well. I think the name had something to do with HOGS!!! The producer could have saved himself a lot of money and simply filmed a couple of days in the life of a provincial racing club.
I wait with baited breath for the next episode.
posted by Lou Luciani at
3:57 pm
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