Not many people like QLD racing more than myself but gee whiz we are flirting a line at the moment and instead of aiming for ‘world’s best practice’ it seems we are at risk of falling further behind.
Before we get to some things that might need to be fixed, I’ll start by saying our summer carnival is an absolute gem and that is something that RQ have promoted very well over the last couple of years. It’s now a carnival I like more than our winter carnival. I’d love to see more coverage/shows involved with it though to really ram it home but it has reached a good level and hopefully we can continue to make it bigger and better.
Another good thing is horses having to have an official trial if they debut in a metropolitan area. Big tick for that (as long as the footage is available)
Many race clubs also promote their product incredibly well these days, both the big clubs and many smaller country clubs. We have some of the best race clubs around.
*Now to the stuff that I feel really let’s us down. People should not look at this as a ‘negative’ article, it is not. It is trying to bring attention to things we can do better. This is not just my opinion, it’s what I am being told by my social media following over and over. This is a way for those punters concerns to be heard.
In recent weeks we have had a few sets of trials. Last week we seen a horse go from $10 to $3.90 after markets went up. Many punters new the trial was missing but many other punters scrambled to see the footage with no luck. That is until some punters had phone footage.
This was also the case for punters wanting to watch MISHANI BLOSSOMS trial as it was right in the market at the GC Saturday. You guessed it, no footage of that trial either. So how are punters meant to back her or any other horse in that race with any confidence? Out of that Deagon trial it should be noted LIGULATE has since run 2nd and won a race in town while VINCO placed in a metro race at $21.
We also had 14 trials at Beaudesert without any footage whatsoever. Many of those horses are racing this weekend so good luck there.
At the end of the day punters want confidence to have a bet. That is what everyone keeps saying and it’s correct. If they can’t find it in QLD they will just go to NSW or VIC or anywhere else. Melbourne have a stack of jumpout footage. I’m not even sure what happened up here but we were recording Brisbane jumpouts and apparently they were for owners? So no numbers or colours that any punters could use in any way possible? Anyone I told down south literally laughed over the phone when I mentioned it to them. With the amount of video footage the stables and syndicates do these days for owners you either go all out and make it for punters or just don’t do it at all as it’s a waste of time, energy and money.
I have many punters who just love the racing in Qld and like myself will always punt here. The disturbing trend has been the people writing to me saying they just don’t punt here anymore at all. (I’m probably not the one they should be telling but they probably want to vent)
Of the main racing jurisdictions we have the least useable website for form/replays etc as well. It’s not horrible but that needs to be on the list for a MAJOR upgrade very soon. It is so important to have a one stop shop for punters to get everything they need.
*Another thing that doesn’t help our state is prices going up so late. Most of our meeting’s away from metro Saturday’s go up later than anywhere else in Australia. You can even bet on American racing etc before you can Qld. Any bookies out there willing to back their staff in and do the work to go up first and promote it? Can’t hurt having a go?
*So what do we all want to happen? Exactly what the headline was- We need to be better. I’d love there to be somebody to oversee all the things we have mentioned and make our state a real force. Become a big presence on social media, tweet when replays, stewards reports, articles etc are up. Make a one stop shop for punters and make it that good that punters from around Aus want to bet on our product. We have to aim for that worlds best practice or at the very least reach the levels of the other states. If not, we risk becoming insignificant very quickly.
