October
JanuaryPrize project
In his regular ramble (31/12) serial scribe Michael J. Gamble calls for door prizes for punting patrons at race meetings.
Taken with his prior call for tax deductions on losing bets, I fear that the Anakie Fairy Park is just too close to Geelong.
MJG rightly extols the contribution to racing generated by punters’ turnover, albeit that this tithe is not entirely voluntary and any altruism a distanced second.
James Otis decried "taxation without representation", which jells well with the treatment accorded to punters, in my view the second-most overall contributors to the racing industry.
They have no voice, no representation and are invariably accorded the mushroom treatment.
But MJG sorely underestimates the input of owners, even insultingly so lumping them with breeders. To me, owners are far and away and by any measure the greatest contributors to racing.
Slow horses and fast horses are fed and trained and treated the same. The farriers and float drivers must be paid win, lose or draw.
Commissions and percentages accrue and at every turn the owners are bled dry.
The notion of a prize at each meeting is meritorious, but it should go to an owner — perhaps to the owner/s of the horse judged by the stewards panel on the day to be the unluckiest not to win.
Such an award would certainly create interest (and turnover?) the next time such a horse ran.
Think Serene Tanie.
Rutherglen (Vic)