One can do what they want, but is it what they need? This is what we have been thinking about many of those working in marketing in way too many jockey clubs and also having spoken to suppliers who have been hired, work their arses off according to the weirdest “briefs”, present their work, and which, very often, never sees the light of day.
Why? Few of these marketing gurus know what’s right, but once this work is presented, everybody and their dog suddenly come to the realization that everything is all wrong. The fault of the supplier? So think the gremlins who gave these people the brief in the first place and when the buck should stop with them.
What happens next is everyone going into PANIC mode and overdrive to cover their asses and tracks and where The Blame Game is shamelessly played out along with lame excuse called Pass The Buck.
As we have written below, like the Italian racing industry, the racing industry is not only in dire straits like a rare bad Mark Knopfler Moment, it is, sadly, up the proverbial creek without a paddle and the only racing club winning today being the HKJC. Why? It is the only game in town, it has a CEO who “gets it”- from a GLOBAL perspective- and who is a game-changer not resting on his German laurels. He knows full-well that things can always turn and bite one on their arse when least expecting it. Like a boy scout, he knows he must always Be Prepared- and so must his troops.
The future of the ENTIRE racing industry is staring into the same mess which derailed the music industry. But many are not seeing and have not see what we have with the latter industry. This had to do with nepotism, cronyism and which had to do with bad hires who refused to see the forest for the trees and went about doing what has always been done as this was the way it had always been.
It was a constant game of either keeping their heads down and not putting their balls on the line by saying and doing tickyboo or else keeping themselves “busy” by attending one useless meeting after the next and looking harried. It all LOOKED good and The Big Guy would say, “She works very hard.” Yes, maybe, but what the hell is she DOING and is it any good? It never was.
Nothing comes easy today, especially when it comes to marketing in its truest form and not ATTEMPTS to understand marketing and on-the-job “training” while running around with fancy titles given out way too liberally. Promotion work is not marketing and we know many who are incapable of even writing a simple marketing brief, let along working on a strategy statement.
In today’s consumer-driven world with its plethora of choices, those running racing clubs and, especially those hired to “connect” with consumers better get going- and quickly- to understand how and why and where and when this should happen.
Social media is evolving at the rate of Don Knotts and so-called “marketing” people better understand and not use this term as just another buzz word at presentations. One can fool some of the people all of the time, but- well, you know how the line ends.
Facebook, for example, will soon have its own IPO. Last week, Jerry Yang, the founder of the floundering Yahoo, resigned. All the major social networking sites are at war against the stupidity of SOPA- the Stop Online Piracy Act. Talk about shutting the barnyard door after the horse- and genie- have bolted.
So if all these people who bandy this term called “social media” are clueless about any of the above- and the impact it will have on social media when used in the marketing of horse racing to its future customers- totally new racing enthusiasts with a veritable buffet of entertainment choices- they are not only kidding themselves, they are also making all the wrong noises to their superiors and talking utter crap.
As John Lennon once sang, “Mother Superior jumped the gun” and bang-bang-shoot-shoot- but unless racing clubs get their hiring processes in order, get rid of useless “Human Resources” people- very few know who the fuck to hire as their “universe” and roller deck is so small.
One has to wonder who hired THEM and what THEIR qualifications are and if they are allowed to keep bringing in inferior versions of themselves, what one will have is one very weak Starship Enterprise and heading into the great unknown with those “hard-working” little Oompah Loompahs in tow and one giant abyss. And no, we don’t have a lisp.
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RUMBLINGS GROW LOUDER IN QUEENSLAND
“Racing Industry needs closer Labor scrutiny”, barked Brisbane’s only daily newspaper – the Courier Mail in an editorial on January 13. Despite the Courier Mail’s very strong conservative view of the world, and we are poles apart ideologically, the editorial resonated on many fronts and from what we are hearing, the governance, strategy, direction and modus operandi of Racing Queensland and its heavyweight Chairman Bob Bentley, is causing more than a mere flutter in the hearts and minds of Queensland racing people.
“Hello, I am Bob Bentley and like the car itself, I am driving everyone around the Mercedes-Benz! Haw haw haw!”
Bentley was and always will be a polarizer: You are either one of his crew or drifting towards one of the many reefs in far north Queensland. To be fair, Queensland racing was very much an “old boys” network before Bentley arrived on the scene. It was a very political organization with entrenched links to the Government of the day – run and controlled by the Joh Bjelke-Peterson/Russ Hinze team. The metropolitan clubs ruled supreme. There was no governing body and any dissenters were treated with contempt. The Committee Rooms at Eagle Farm and Doomben were the only places to be, and an invitation to either was coveted not just by racing people but also by Queensland’s aspiring and ambitious social and career climbers.
But like many empires which end up in decay, Queensland racing’s emperors and their empire had long passed their Use By date, and together with a very significant and almost seismic shift in the political landscape, the inevitable shake-up happened. And that’s a story for another day.
Enter Bob Bentley, who was in the process of forging a very strong and mutually beneficial with successive Labor State Governments and the movers and shakers in the Labor Party backroom – the “machine” men.
Even we’re getting tired of bunging in Billy Bob’s photos.
“Billy” Bob Bentley succeeded in shaking up Queensland racing, which at the time was in a dire need of a shake-up, not unlike the present situation in our own backyard in NSW. Despite the howls of protest, several rundown country race clubs were either closed down or lost their Tab race dates. The Queensland racing model was unsustainable – racing in the Sunshine State was at the crossroads. Bob Bentley was the right man at the right time.
Tough and uncompromising, his crash-through approach ruffled the feathers of the Queensland “racing establishment”, who were unaccustomed to a governance structure where the Principal Clubs in metropolitan Brisbane no longer ruled the roost. But the “old guard” was not going to roll over. It undertook a campaign of rage at some of the decisions and initiatives that Queensland Racing and its newest incarnation Racing Queensland have introduced and implemented.
Many of the Racing Queensland initiatives have the unmistakable imprimatur of Bob Bentley. The protracted and controversial merger process which resulted in the Queensland Turf Club and Brisbane Turf Club merged into one entity; the installation of two synthetic “cushion” tracks at Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast; the merging of the three codes of racing – thoroughbreds, harness and greyhounds into one controlling body – Racing Queensland under Bentley’s leadership and control; Racing Queensland’s deals offering Clubs funding for infrastructure and upgraded facilities in exchange for equity in those race clubs; the controversial decision by Racing Queensland to sign their vision and broadcast rights with Sky, instead of industry broadcaster TVN; all have combined to make Bentley one of the most unpopular and disliked figures in Queensland racing.
The Bob Bentley
His position on the Board of the Queensland’s pari-mutuel wagering operator, Unitab has also drawn claims of conflict of interest. The Board of Racing Queensland is also very much made up of Bentley supporters. Some appointments were extremely controversial, as was the Appointment process itself.
It’s that man again and a Mini-Me!
The most recent tipping point and the trigger for the Courier Mail editorial was the announcement by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh of a $35 million funding grant to the Gold Coast Turf Club for an upgrade of the track and facilities. The significant aspect of her announcement was that it was a “no strings attached” deal, unlike Racing Queensland’s deal which insisted on a trade-off for equity in the Club.
While the argy bargy between Bentley and Racing Queensland and the Gold Coast Turf Club was being played out, the rumblings across the Queensland racing industry about Bentley and Racing Queensland’s heavy handedness literally beating the Clubs into submission by starving them of essential funds for infrastructure and maintenance, started to resonate.
The facilities at Eagle Farm and Doomben and at the Gold Coast mirror the problems that Queensland racing’s decision makers and administrators , through their tunnel vision view of the future, are so hopelessly incapable of resolving. Each year during the Queensland winter racing carnival, we hear the same complaints of outdated facilities failing to cope with modest, by carnival standards, crowds that attend. Ditto the Gold Coast Magic Millions carnival where, despite the influx of visitors to the Sales, and the generally high quality of the race card, the facilities have been overwhelmingly condemned as reminiscent of a time warp.
It is not surprising that so many of the inter-state visitors to the sales, give the Magic Millions race day a wide berth and prefer instead to laze by their hotel pools rather than be a part of the bunfight at the race track. And, good grief, what a bunfight it still is about the outcome of the protest! Move on, people! It’s over.
With a State election imminent and some powerful and vocal sections of the Queensland racing industry taking to the media threatening to take some of racing’s issues into the election campaign, Premier Bligh clearly wanted no part of this. Her political instincts warned her that she risked being wedged. The Gold Coast is looming as an election rout for the Bligh Labor Government. And to be caught in the crossfire between Bob Bentley, whose popularity rating like Brad Haddin’s current batting average would struggle to get into double figures, and the Gold Coast Turf Club, which has had to deal with its own demons and power struggles at both a board and administration level; would have been akin to a dose of political suicide.
Nevertheless, and as the Courier Mail points out, Premier Bligh’s announcement is a massive slap in the face for Bob Bentley. Like the Courier Mail, we are also mightily suspicious of concentrating power in the hands of one individual or in one governing body which cannot be held accountable. Just over the border we have a stunning example of the outcomes of that sort of a concentration of power in racing.
If, as most of the respected political pundits predict, Premier Bligh and her Labor Government are headed the way of her colleagues in NSW last year, then Bob Bentley is dead man walking. One of the first acts of an incoming Liberal Government will be to show Bob Bentley the door that is clear marked EXIT.
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ITALIAN RACING PROBLEMS MAY BE CONTAGIOUS.
The news that the crisis in Italian racing has triggered noisy and rowdy demonstrations and protests attended by up to 1500 outside the Italian Parliament in Rome, with an explosive device ominously going off at one, and firecrackers let off at the other, and thankfully no reports of any casualties; should send a clear message to Governments and racing administrators worldwide: Italian Racing, in recent years, has been going down the gurgler and fast.
Its decline has been accelerated by the economic crisis in Europe and in the euro zone. But the crisis in Italian racing is unambiguously reflective of much deeper and entrenched problems faced by thoroughbred racing and all forms of racing in many countries. It would be naïve and delusional to point the finger of blame on the economic contagion that is sweeping through Europe and specifically, in this instance, Italy.
It is true that successive Italian Governments have failed dismally to provide the necessary legislative support to secure the racing industry’s revenue or funding base. They have collectively chosen to take their eyes off the ball in supporting an industry that directly employs over 50,000 people, let alone the many Italians that indirectly earn a living out of racing through a network of racing related industries.
Racing has been low on the list of priorities for a succession of Italian Governments and their legislators. And can you blame them? Bunga Bunga parties sound much more fun after all.
Governments alone cannot be blamed for the plight that Italian racing finds itself in. The Italian Racing Industry and its administrators must shoulder and share the blame. Together they have been complicit in doing an Emperor Nero, while Rome has burned right under their eyes and noses.
In an ideal world, Governments and Racing should not be joined at the hip. But we don’t live in an ideal world and never have and never will. But that has and never will be an excuse for a racing industry to absolve itself of blame for the crisis that racing finds itself in many countries the world over.
In Italy, there has been no racing so far in 2012 – at any of its 41 racetracks. Government funding, it is alleged by many in the Italian racing industry, will be cut by 40 per cent – which clearly will be the death knell for Italian racing. But, according to Italian gambling authorities, betting slumped a massive 20 per cent. Attendances at race meetings continued their dramatic move south.
In an attempt to throw a lifeline to the racing industry, the Italian Parliament this week accepted a proposal, to refer to its Budget and Finance Commission, amending an act of parliament to allow part of the revenue from taxes obtained from slot machines to be handed over to the racing industry to help finance prize money.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Band aid solutions to temporarily treat the symptoms of what clearly is a much more deep-rooted problem. Any industry that relies on Government subsidies and industry protection for its survival is surely doomed. And this in the position that Italian Racing and for that matter racing in many countries and particularly some states in Australian finds itself in.
It is also where Hong Kong racing does not find itself in. And it is why the Hong Kong racing model, despite the onerous and draconian legislative requisite to keep Government coffers topped up to the tune of several billions of dollars each year, is in a buoyant position of strength and prosperity, which it will continue to be in for the foreseeable future.
The critical and fundamental difference between Hong Kong and its funding model, is that it has full and absolute control over all significant areas of its racing product – wagering, vision, infrastructure and facilities. It has complete control over its revenue streams, through its complete ownership of the totalisator – on and off course.
For wagering, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only game in town. If you want to place a bet on racing or on soccer – the only two sports that can be legally wagered on, there is only one legal wagering operator – the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Sure there are illegal offshore bookmakers, but to the overwhelming majority of punters, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only vehicle for wagering in Hong Kong. There are no privatized pari-mutuel totalisator companies or corporate bookmakers or betting exchanges who can cannibalize racing’s revenue streams.
Controlling the “treasury” means controlling your destiny. It is what the European, American and Australian racing industries don’t have control over. And it is one of the major reason why the racing industries in these countries are struggling and eventually will confront a fate similar to Italy.
Of course, any industry is only as good as those who run it, and again in these racing jurisdictions there is an unmistakable poverty of talent and ability, knowledge and expertise among their racing administrators. Short term and band aid solutions, an obscene dependence on Governments and legislation to fund and protect the racing industry is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
In Australia, we take a deep breath each time the various State racing administrations are confronted with decisions relating to all aspects of their future and their survival. Show us an Australian racing administrator with leadership and vision, with the flair and fortitude to change the way racing does business in this challenging and ultra competitive modern world where technology and communication makes you do the impossible, and we’ll show you a Thylacine Cynocephalus (Tasmanian Tiger – believed to be extinct).
No leadership, no vision and soon, no gig? Who knows?
Back to Italy and our good mate Frankie Dettori, who wore a blue “Save Italian Racing” t-shirt when he was here in December for the International meeting, for the last word. “Italy is in crisis – there is a great tradition of racing there, a great history, and it would be a tragedy if that was to be lost. I know there are many other pressing issues for the Government, but if they don’t do something we could be looking at 50,000 people out of work. I feel for my family, I feel for my friends, I feel for the Industry as a whole”.
The Coolest Jockey in the entire world.
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IS TASMANIAN RACING WORTH SAVING?
This must surely be the question that the Tasmanian State Government would be asking itself after yet another series of debacles that have made Tasmanian Racing appear to be a fitting plot for an episode of the comedy classic, Fawlty Towers, Basil.
Setting aside all the cheap jokes that are made about Tasmanians and their heritage and lineage, the headlines that Tasmanian racing habitually attracts makes you wonder if there is a reality edge to the many jests about the inhabitants of the Apple Isle.
Certainly Basil Fawlty and Manuel must be in charge of Tasracing, the governing body that is supposed to be running Tasmanian racing. The litany of errors and mismanagement, flawed decision making and dare we say it, allegations of incompetence have combined to bedevil Tasmanian racing.
While its predecessor, Tote Tasmania, left its own legacy of crises and problems of its own making, its successor Tasracing appears to have already created its own legacy which has now taken Tasmanian racing to the edge of that well known precipice from which there can be no turning back.
Not only has Tasracing completely disenfranchised the participant groups – the trainers and owners and jockeys, but it has now managed to wake up Hobart’s only daily newspaper – the Mercury from its slumber. In an editorial this week, the Mercury fired off a stinging rebuke to Tasracing and questioned both its management and Government funding, demanding that the State Government intervene to put an end to the “waste of taxpayers money”, which could otherwise be legitimately spent on such community imperatives as health, education and policing.
Ominously the editorial pointed to the Government funding of upgrades of Bellerive Oval and York Park which have attracted the staging of many successful sporting events, and particularly in cricket and AFL. When the media alludes to particular sports which are delivering financial and community benefits, in a direct and opposite comparison to racing, the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear.
Governments have shown that they are particularly sensitive to newspaper editorials and media commentary. To Premier Lara Giddings and her colleagues in the minority State Government, the chickens have come home to roost for Tasracing and the Tasmanian racing industry. Supposed rabbit holes at Elwick race course which caused the cancellation of a race meeting last week, a fire at Launceston which blew out the lighting towers and resulted in the last two races being abandoned and grave concerns over the state of the Elwick race track in the lead up to Tasmanian’s heavily-promoted summer racing carnival which commences with the running of the Tasmanian Guineas this weekend, are just the tip of a rapidly growing iceberg of problems which seem to have plagued Tasmanian racing over recent years.
There have been monumental stuff-ups with a successions of major infrastructure projects and some very questionable and poor decision making, which has seen confidence in Tasmanian racing plummet to levels lower than double digits. There has been en exodus of owners, trainers, jockeys and breeders from Tasmania. The jockey shortage is so bad it has to import jockeys from Victoria – fly them over at Tasracing’s expense to enable a race meeting to go ahead. Prize money is a pittance.
The great danger for Tasmanian racing is that the State Government might just put its hands in the air and say enough is enough. It could decide that it could recoup the revenue that it would lose in taxes and save the money that it pumps into the racing industry by simply turning Tasmania into a wagering hub with low level taxes and license fees for wagering operators to plug any shortfall. It is an option that the Tasmanian Government may just be pondering, as it turns its attention to its own survival.
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FREDDO AND HIS EMAIL OF THE DAY
It is good to read the news of happenings in the happening places but what of the far flung places like the (almost) forgotten Tasmania? A recent editorial in that trusty journal the Hobart Mercury took a big stick to the racing administrators in the Island State, (Improvements way off track.. Jan 17, 2012) and it seems that a lot of money has been spent propping up the racing industry, but it also seems that the hierarchy has stuffed up big time.
A read of the editorial and a quick look at the recent history shows all too clearly that it is time for a clean out of the bureaucracy, and time for some action instead of empty words.
The current major problem – but a very long standing one – is the state of the major racetrack at Elwick in the lovely capital city of Hobart. With just weeks to the big one for the year, the Hobart Cup, another meeting was cancelled after the discovery of holes in the track. At first it was said that drainage problems were the cause, now the gurus are saying that it was a few rabbits that did the damage!
Whatever the reason, and will we ever really know, this just caps a long list of excuses for cancellations and poor tracks; usually it is the trainers and jockeys who let their imaginations run wild in inventing “reasons” for a loss, but it looks like it is the racing administrators in Tasmania who take the prize for inventiveness with their excuses and promises of better things to come. Here’s a little sampling from over the years:
In September 2009 after the third consecutive meeting (since Aug 9) was postponed the Tasmanian Thoroughbred Racing consultant, a Mr. Neil Gardener, went on the defensive against claims a meeting was called off because the tractor became bogged.
“The tractor was not bogged. It did severely damage a section at the 1100 metres” he said. Apparently the problem was just a few blocked drains, so there!
Having obviously extracted the tractor after the postponement on the 21st, the scheduled meeting for the 29th of September was also called off because of rain. This time the optimistic track consultant told an anxious industry “deep draining would be carried out, with sand slip drains due to be installed in February”.
In March, 2010 a meeting was called off 20 minutes before the first race because the surface was “loose and shifting”. Sorry we didn’t notice this earlier, but then it did rain – 10ml of rain in 24 hours, hardly a drenching. Looks like the sand slip drains were a fizzer.
Following that loss the Tasracing Chief Executive, Gary Lottering, took a peek outside and declared that he had confidence in his staff to fix the ongoing problem at Elwick, but admitted it would take time. He went on to say:
“No one wants to go to work and experience these problems, it’s a difficult set of circumstances however we have invested a lot of money for equipment and it will take time to get it right.”
“We have learnt from the incident and the inside track will be ready in weeks rather than months.”
How much have they learnt, and was that large investment a good one? Now into 2012 and just weeks from the biggest race meeting of the year yet again a meeting lost with drainage and rabbits copping the blame. Two tracks, and not one of them fit to race on. No wonder the local organ gave them a blast – but would they read it? Both the CEO and the Track Consultant are out of the State on holidays so we can’t credit them with any ingenious excuses.
The local trainers, owners and jockeys are rightfully fed up with excuses from the costly bureaucracy, and as one wag so aptly put it “The rabbits aren’t on the track, they are in the Board room and executive offices of Tasracing.”
The heavy hand of Government weighs heavily on the racing industry in Tasmania, and probably rightfully so as the State has invested a lot of money in recent years – about time for the Minister to sweep through and shift a few of the old mates along, go for competence instead of connections, and start getting some value for that money.
Freddo
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BITCHES AND PIECES
As anyone who knows anything about racing in Hong Kong will tell you, it means zero what the English racing media writes. That’s for HKJC officials and a few foreigners in town. It carries little or no weight and will never bring about any change. However, when the Chinese racing media starts rattling its sabres with its game of rumours and innuendos, everyone takes heed and which results in the old game of Chinese Whispers.
It’s natural what with over 99.9% of the betting public being Chinese. Over the past few weeks the stories of a very well-known Hong Kong trainer and how he lost an untidy big bundle in one of the casinos in Macau- some say $5m, others say, over $20m- and how, because of this, his “focus” has been elsewhere- has been embellished and trotted out on-track, off-the-track and way-off-track. We have one word for all of this: Bollocks.
We know the trainer in question very well despite attempts to not reveal his name for legal reasons by those who have written about him. And we have our guesses as to why one particular Chinese reporter has “pumped up” this story. Guess it was also a slow day for real news and so came this work of fiction.
Even if true- and it’s not- we have no idea what losing at the tables and his professionalism as a trainer have to do with anything, but tongues are wagging and where there are wags, there are other tales.
This other one also involves Macau and a one-time quite a socialite when married to member of Macau racing’s fraternity. These days, the still very attractive lady seems a little lost and, according to the rumour mill and, again, the Chinese racing media, also more than a little greedy and desperately in needs of funds.
As our mothers used to say, Never a Lender or a Borrower Be and it appears that our lady friend just might be owing some people we would never shake hands with in case we lose a few fingers, a seven figure amount. What to do? Her ex-husband can’t help as he lives in his own La La world. The current boyfriend? Nah, he’s nowhere as rich as she might have once thought and not “the catch” to end all catches. In fact, if we caught this one, we’d throw it back from where it came from.
Just another rumour from the Chinese media mill? Not this time. Where there’s smoke, there’s a fire up your arse and it is the talking point with many in The Mysteria Lane of Asia- Macau. Watch this all end in tears.
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TOMMY BERRY TURNS DEAF EAR TO BORING OLD RADIO FART.
People whom we thought knew better are still banging on about THAT decision by the stewards on the Gold Coast to uphold Tommy Berry’s protest against Nash Rawiller and with both jockeys riding horse for Lady Gai- who, by the way, is TERRIFIC for the sport in Oz- and elsewhere- and makes many of her male counterparts sound like yobs and act like girlie men. The lady has balls and beneath that lady-like behaviour, she is sharp and can mix it with the best of them. Just ask John Shreck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpHEd7pT5s&feature=related
As for this non-stop wang-dang-doodle about this Stewards’ decision, we have to laugh when we listen to racing radio stations and people like “Wes” and “Shorty” in Perth- and we like these guys and their programmes- start going on and on about this result and end with, “But it’s over and it’s time to move on.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjELUJ014ww&feature=related
We can kinda handle this, but what really got us was the grilling young Tommy Berry received from one particular Grumpy Old Man on radio recently.
The young Berry had done the decent thing. Invited to phone in, he did exactly this perhaps thinking, he’d just be asked to just recap on what had transpired. But the grilling he got from one of these armchair panelists and critics was the stuff which took us back to schoolyard bullies.
This bloke was rude, arrogant, a twat, he was wrong, wrong, wrong and the quiet Tommy Berry made him sound like a right imbecile. This wasn’t “talk back radio”, this was gawdawful Talking Through My Pockets Radio and if we were Tommy Berry, we would have told the twat to go get stuffed and had his lawyers send him a suit for libel and defamation of character.
Instead of trying to put words into Tommy Berry’s mouth and corner him into saying something which was a dead issue, this radio station and the goofball doing the interrogation should have had the balls to have Wade Birch, the Chief Steward, phone in and take the grilling. And we all know how much he loves and thrives on publicity- good or bad.
“Publicity? Where?”
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THE GOLD COAST MAGIC MILLIONS “VIRAL” VIDEO…
…WHICH IS LOST ON US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJCewe6gLtU
Perhaps, we had to be there, but we find the above video to be silly stuff and which has still managed to get over 3000 views on YouTube. 3,000? Hell, the video of new grandpa Neil Paine’s memorable appearance at a Happy Wednesday event late last year has gone over 11,ooo views- ELEVEN THOUSAND views- and with “Knackers” back in Hong Kong in February! We feel an encore is on the cards as “Knackers” has done more to promote the Happy Wednesday events overseas than anyone we know- especially to the “reticense” of Australia. Faaark!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ4WT-Id_dQ
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THE 25 HOTTEST FEMALE POKER PLAYERS
Seriously, can we have a photo of 25 of the hottest female racing experts?
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Now where were we….Yes, listening to Messara reminded us of an election campaign where political parties and their leaders make these tantalizing promises and pitch their vision of the world to the electorate, the difference was that he was Gillard and Abbott rolled into one. And like the Rudd/Gillard Governments the “Messara Government” was quite prepared to unleash its own spending spree.
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Perhaps it’s time the stakeholders and decision makers should be asking the hard questions about what appears to be very much a superfluous tier of bureaucracy and its costly management and administrative structure.
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The “Monkey Man” makes famous lady weak in her knees.
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Some well known Sydney trainers, and one in particular who is a mate of a prominent Melbourne trainer who was once close to Moody, have privately expressed their displeasure of Moody’s footprint in Sydney fearing that some of their wealthy Hunter Valley clients will defect to the Moody One.
Many NSW trainers are also unhappy that the NSW Trainers Association has not made loud enough noises of protest over the prize money situation. 
