October
OctoberOn the road again
When the time comes for Australian businesses — all businesses — to prepare carbon pollution audits, the racing authorities in each state will have to show cause why horses are being tracked all over the country to compete in races, just because there happens to be a racecourse in some far-flung corner of the state.
The job for Victorian authorities will be easier than that for other states. But it will put incredible pressure on how racing goes about its business.
Trainers will probably have to buy carbon credits to offset their carbon emissions from all the travel they must undertake to run their businesses.
At a recent upcountry meeting in Victoria most horses came from outside the local district … from Ballarat, Camperdown, Pakenham, Warrnambool, Mornington, Geelong, Caulfield, Hamilton and interstate. The question will be asked: How many "carbon kilometres" did they travel (there and back) and why?
On the day in question the majority of almost $100,000 in prizemoney was won by horses trained at Caulfield, Colac, Geelong and Warrnambool. Will this make economic sense in the future?
Granted, some of these runners might have been owned by people from the local area. But, if so, the percentage would be very, very small. This place is not a noted horse-training centre. If racing there relied on locally trained runners — say, within a 50km radius — entries would be low and fields very small … if they could run a meeting at all.
It would make more economic sense for races to be run where most of the horses are. If this means racing at "super" racing/training centres, so be it.
Close your eyes and imagine the scene on a raceday now: horse transports and floats travelling thousands of kilometres (in total) from all directions to a distant racetrack to compete for prizemoney that the locals are very unlikely to win.
How many "local" patrons will even bother to attend the races? Probably less than a hundred. (This scenario does not even take into consideration the road-safety issues of dozens of vehicles on the roads, making unnecessary trips over long journeys.)
And let us not forget all the other participants who jump in their cars to get to these far-off meetings: stewards and other officials, jockeys, bookmakers.
Perhaps Racing Victoria — and other racing authorities — will have to create a carbon tax equalisation scheme to subside trainers who travel their horses hundreds of kilometres to compete for prizemoney. Or will carbon-kilometres force the industry to confront the reality of running races where most of the horses are to be found?
Geelong West (Vic)