October
JuneInvestment pays
What an astounding contrast there is between racing in NSW and Victoria.
Victoria races day and night, with nine- and 10-race meetings, full fields, top trainers and jockeys. NSW?
Victoria has invested in year-round, weatherproof racing at tracks like Geelong, Cranbourne and Pakenham — with night racing at the last two of those as well as Moonee Valley — but where’s the easy-to-reach counterpart in NSW? A flawed investment in night racing at Canterbury, in the heart of the western suburbs, makes it almost impossible for both country- and city-trained runners to get there and back in and around peak-hour traffic.
Racing NSW needs only to look at that state’s more progressive pacing authority, which bit the bullet, sold up at Harold Park and re-established itself well away from the city centre, making it easy for the mainstay of the industry — owners, trainers and drivers — to ply their trade.
Of course this will never happen with the city-centric thoroughbred set purely focused on Royal Randwick and two weekends a year when millions of dollars go to a tiny minority of high-falutin industry people.
Take the week of June 6-10, following the east coast’s big wet.
The Monday Bairnsdale meeting is transferred to Pakenham synthetic so everyone wins. NSW? Goulburn washed out. Tuesday and they’re racing at Geelong — 10 races, full fields with emergencies. Fantastic!
Own a racehorse? You know where to race it, south of the border.
Hobart