MAR 2 - SIX RACES - THE WARNING HAS BEEN POSTED!

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The level of concern about the diminished standing of the mid-week metropolitan meeting in Brisbane has been well addressed by leading trainer Robert Heathcote in his weekly blog on horseracingonly.com.au (see separate story - Metro mid-week status under threat).

That some work needs to be done to stop the slide in the number of races carded at these meetings is an undeniable fact.

Doing nothing is not an option, unless we want to face the prospect of having five races carded one day. If you consider that statement as being dramatic, just a short time ago having six races programmed for a mid-week metropolitan meeting would have been unthinkable! Yet here we are.

The ‘just a short time ago’ timeframe factor is as important a consideration as the lesser number of races that are now often in play.

For many years people from various parts of the industry have been bemoaning the fact that racing has been losing ground. The loss has always been gradual and measurable in relatively marginal terms which appeared to pose only a limited and manageable threat to the industry.

It is when the rate of that slide starts to escalate and pick up serious momentum that racing really needs to beware.

The twenty-five percent drop off in individual races allocated at some meetings from ‘just a short time ago’ indicates that just such an escalation is now taking place and its negative force is pulling at the very fabric which needs to hold together for racing to survive as a viable business.

We can no longer go with the flow. It is time to plan a new direction.