October
DecemberEasy kills hard on battlers
I see three gallopers from the powerful Mark Kavanagh stable went to tiny Avoca on December 7 and knocked off three of the six races. A few weeks before, a horse racing in Gerry Harvey’s colours even took the crumbs from the mouths of locals at Gunbower!
Is no one else disturbed by this trend of big stables, supported by rich owners and corporate breeders, plundering community race days and dominating the spoils almost every time?
I’m sick of the explanation that they come to these far-flung meetings for an "easy kill." The battlers and hobbyists, those in pursuit of small rewards, who try to keep the blood of the sport pumping for the love of it, don’t have the luxury of easy kills and are being bled dry.
According to the Racing Victoria website, the Kavs of this world — and some are increasing in size, with satellite stables across the country — have more than 80 horses on their books. They have to race them somewhere and so they win, not only because of the expert spit and polish applied, but by sheer weight of numbers.
The former milkbar owners who were swallowed up by the supermarket and fast-food giants know exactly where I am coming from.
I’m sick of the glut and the greed and the excess and I think it’s time that the premier race clubs in each state think about some form of equalisation, much like the salary caps that exist in the football codes.
Easily done … stables that have more than 40 horses in their care should not be allowed to nominate for races of $8000 in stakes and less, with possible exceptions for those that have not won say $100,000 in stakes in the previous calendar year.
That way the little guy might have the confidence to travel hundreds of kilometres to remote race meetings at high cost without the fear of being crushed by the expanse of an all-consuming colossus.
Great Western (Vic)