*Just a little opinion I have on all the new races etc being announced and a few thoughts on QLD going forward, doesn’t mean it’s right, just spit balling.
Well it seems there is going to be another round of ‘Feature’ races announced and the NSW vs VIC war will continue.
I’ve got nothing against the races that they are announcing, I just hope QLD doesn’t go the same way. The EVEREST, THE KOSI, THE BIG MILE or whatever it’s called, and now more. There is a spot for all these different races (that we have already but another wave of them being released doesn’t do much for me.) The EVEREST has grabbed everyone’s attention, but not sure races competing against Cox plate day and Stakes day are ideas that will have anywhere near as much impact for racing NSW.
I’ll admit it wasn’t long ago I was thinking what race could QLD unveil to have something similar but I think there are a lot more things we can focus on in QLD before we go down that path, like getting the basics right.
We have Eagle Farm coming back online which is awesome, we have also had 10’s of millions thrown into prize money after the POC tax debate (15% is still too much btw). These are great, the QLD RACING website has improved out of sight but it’s lengths behind NSW, VIC and S.A racing websites. The average punter still hasn’t got access to QLD sectionals but we bang on about creating more turnover? It’s 2018 and the sunshine state makes punters pay upwards of $250 from data companies to do their form properly on QLD races? It is THE most commonly asked question I get from punters.
Anyway, if we are going to try something new let’s just continue to put the extra millions into prize money, it’s amazing what a difference the last pay rise has done for the racing community.
We are hearing that the later races on a Saturday (finishing around 6pm) that we have witnessed at the sunny coast and Doomben recently is extremely good for turnover. Why don’t we try to have two major meetings and focus around that time slot.? Have 8 races on a Saturday racing from about 2pm until 6pm worth the $75k which we currently race for. Make Friday the other main meeting with 7-8 races and race for $45-50k ($25k to winner) at the same time slot (or if we get lights a little bit later on the Friday). You could introduce something like the 55 sec challenge that they do at Valley or heats into a ‘Friday final’ like the Winter championships at Flemington.
Friday is more likely to grab the punters having a sports day (early knockoff) and catching up with people at pubs to have a bet. It’s also more chance of helping race clubs as you’d think companies would like a Friday afternoon/night functions, especially throughout the three warmer months of the year in our climate.
Anyway the point was that I hope money is spent on prize money or something like the above idea instead of trying to come up with a Plethora of new races as we are seeing down south.
