October
OctoberCan't handle the truth?
I notice a recent letter from Roma Williams (24/9) complimenting Racing Victoria Ltd on suppressing a media pass for photographer Liss Ralston, on grounds which include the impression that she would "not adhere to the required criteria", one of those being the "fair and objective reporting or representation of racing".
The fact is that Ms Ralston can only photograph things that actually happen. Her photographs of the death of hurdler Fergus McIver appeared in a recent RSPCA advertisement in The Age. They’re not contrived — what is shown is what actually happened.
The real problem for Ms Williams is that she cannot stop the photographs of horses being killed from coming to the public’s attention, and it tarnishes the image of an activity she enjoys.
Ms Ralston only sought a media pass to try to avoid the intimidation she was encountering at racetracks. One such instance occurred in a public area at Bendigo racetrack this season when a well known jumps jockey kept trying to take photos of her, yelling "Look over here, Lise," so he could take her photo. The photo was then posted on a Facebook site, but the jockey claimed that he didn’t post the accompanying comments, which encouraged racegoers to abuse the mother of three children.
At Warrnambool last year Ms Ralston was approached by a policeman working at the track as she was driving from the carpark. He demanded her name and address, even though there was no suggestion she had committed a crime or was about to do so. The officer recorded her details — in a racebook — and promptly handed it to racing officials.
At the Grand National Hurdle debacle at Flemington in 2008, I walked over to see what was wrong with Eveready. He had not fallen, but had broken down in the straight. Unbeknown to me the ABC had a reporter and a cameraman, who, like me, were being shepherded away, even though we were in a public area. We could hear a female voice coming over the workmen’s radios, telling them to get us away from the area. Why? They didn’t want anyone to see what was happening with the horse, yet the incident quickly found its way on to television.
The Age
’s writer Patrick Bartley wrote earlier this year of Melbourne Rracing Club chief executive Alasdair Robertson saying in front of a group of people that he’d rather his children be prostitutes or hitmen than journalists like the ABC’s Josie Taylor, who had asked the Victorian Racing Minister some awkward questions about jumps deaths.
Bartley wrote that, while in WA, Robertson had confiscated the camera of a Perth-based photographer after he’d taken a photograph of a horse that had broken down: "Robertson then told all photographers on course that their media accreditation would be withdrawn if any pictures of the distressed horse were published." (The Age, 15/4/11)
The jumps racing industry is now being exposed, and the protection it has received has gone with the arrival of social media. To its great credit, Winning Post has always given both sides of the story.
Richo’s recent story on Ginolad is one we’d probably never see in a mainstream newspaper. After winning the Grand Annual and Grand National Steeplechases in the same year he went overseas with the intention that he would be set for the Grand National at Aintree. He has contested 16 jumps races in the UK, winning a four-horse novice event where two of his competitors failed to finish and never appearing at either Cheltenham or Aintree.
Richo’s description of events may not have helped jumps racing, but they were at least truthful. Nobody should ask for more than that.
Black Rock (Vic)