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Letter of the Week

All about the horse

I have been following racing since I was a boy. My grandfather and father worked on a racecourse and I have been fortunate to have a lifelong love affair with the thoroughbred, which is not motivated by gambling or punting.
I should also add that I am a director of a number of racing-related companies and for two years handled the advertising of the Melbourne Racing Club, when that magnificent mare Black Caviar was in her prime. My family also owns and breeds racehorses.
It is therefore important to put my biases up front in writing about what I feel is something the racing industry is getting wrong.
Whilst parties at carnival time and winning on the punt are important economic considerations, the reality is that many of the mothers bringing up our next generation of potential racegoers feel the sport is anachronistic, cruel and irrelevant.
Having recently read Matthew Benn’s book Fixed, I am starting to realise that the biased view of the sport presented by many through gambling — and the stories of impropriety and cruelty, both alleged and implied — have done almost irreparable damage.
There is no doubt that the Australian racing model has been the best in the world and that its funding of prizemoney through the TAB and more recently though the corporate bookmaking model has helped maximise returns to stakeholders.
The challenge, sadly, is that our industry is not doing enough to promote the horse and its relationship with people.
This week the birth of Black Caviar’s daughter saw her influence again spread to the front pages of newspapers and the media, who reflect Australians’ unusual fascination with this great horse.
This affection is genuine and her memory should remind us that everything we do in the industry is generated by a four-legged animal that is taught to race, carry weight over distance and do what instinctively it was bred to do.
Les Carlyon, one of our foremost writers and historians, has long argued that champion horses bring people to the races in wonderment at their athletic ability and desire to win. It has always been so.
The greats in my lifetime? Vain, Rain Lover, Makybe Diva, Lonhro, Kingston Town, and of course the lady herself, Black Caviar.
These horses do what they do because they want to. The jockeys and trainers do their job, but at the end of the day the public yearns for the equine hero.
As you watch the current round of TV ads for the industry and see the carnival advertising unfold with crowds of young people getting the “feeling”, let’s not forget what makes our industry great.
The horse, an animal that has been so much a foundation stone of our history since this country was first settled.

David Trussler
Essendon (Vic)
Today's Racing
Friday 29 March
Saturday 30 March
Sunday 31 March