Where to now for Albion Park?

Two weeks ago I went to AP and thought there must have been a funeral occurring. There was more life and atmosphere at the local cemetery. No crowd, no in-between activity except a couple of mini-trots events. Could not wait to get out of there.

Went up again last Saturday night and what a difference. They were holding the first of their country fair meetings. It was a bit more challenging to get a parking spot, there were people everywhere and different activities held all through the night. A great way to introduce families, the new and unitiated to the sport. There was an excellent demonstration on the hows and whys of equipment, accompanied with prizes and a couple of youngsters were lucky enough to gear up and go round the track in a dual sulky. A fantastic effort by the club to breath a bit of life into a sport that was pretty well dead and buried up there. Its a long way back for them but it seems there are some up there that are willing to have a go at something to attract crowds back to the track.

There are plenty of big issues to be dealt with, not the least being the extremely sad state the grandstand is in. Saw the In The Gig show today and was interested in seeing the new (and very young) Ross Dowds plans for the future. He didn't come across as being very confident in his vision for the future, maybe he had stagefright from Chris Barsbys grilling of him (LOL), but it all seems to depend on the DA approval in about a months time as to the next saga up there. I haven't looked at the plans but I hope the new grandstand is built all the way around the finishing post and not just for the members benefit.

Ross was also pretty chuffed at the "full tote room" on Saturday night. I know he is pretty new at this caper but seeing as you are now the CEO maybe you could do something about this abomination that is the tote room. Access to the members room goes straight through a narrow passage between punters and tote windows. Hopeless. Need to spend some money in accomodating the punters on course before they go back to the clubs and pubs which are only to happy to accomodate them. Position of monitors and screens needs a massive renovation, along with tables, chairs etc. The current set-up I know is temporary, but really it is a disgrace the way it is at present.

The racing was good, Terrorway still ran good first up, bloused by old-timer Destreos in a career best 1.52.9, 9yrs old, 40/1, I can still hear his connections screaming...good stuff.

All in all a much better experience than two weeks ago...to all of those who are working towards bringing Qld harness racing back to life I wish you every success. There is a lot of hard work and commitment required.:)

Good on the club for selecting a young CEO.

I wish him all the best but he has a huge challenge ahead of him. Great initiative though with these country fair's. Once a month and it gives families the opportunity for a family night out that won't cost them a fortune.

If they want to get harness racing going again up here then they need to get some of the country tracks up and running again. To shut down all the country tracks like they did up here was and is a disgrace. The biggest problem we face up here is the people running the code believe all our racing belongs in Brisbane and nothing in the country areas. With the Gold Coast track gone next year that leaves us with 2 tracks and one galloping track to race on if all goes well up here in Toowoomba. They need to to try and find some new venues in which to get the code going again. It would not hurt one bit to see a track out Ipswich way where the bullk of the trainers are. As for Albion Park, if they go with the grand stand idea that i have seen then it will be a good setup. If it is worth doing though for the number of people that go to the trots now that is up for debate. If they are willing to try and entertain people every saturday night and try and get bigger crowds back, then that will be great. AS for the new ceo of Albion Park, would have to say i was not impressed by him the other night on In The Gig. He did not sound confident at all. If you are going to take on those kind of roles then you need to have a presence about you and that was sadly lacking.

There is no doubt that the years of neglect has resulted in the pigeons coming home to roost for Qld harness racing. It culminated in the demise of the last lot of administrators, some helping themselves to a little golden handshake on the way out the door...maybe there will be some justice down the road yet. But these are the cards the kid has been dealt. We could go on about the past, blaming all things bad because of what has gone before, or Ross Dowd, Kevin Seymour, David Fowler and other committee members can bite the bullet, make some rational, economic decisions that can strengthen their current position yet still promote growth within the industry. You are right Craig about getting the country clubs up and running again but that is not going to happen until confidence returns to Qld racing. Country racing in NSW and Vic is exceedingly strong, espec Vic with old tracks re-opening with government support. Some of these country cups attract crowds the city clubs could only dream of. Bottom line though is money is tight and I can't see anything to out-of -the-box happening too quick. Are they still arguing about the Deagon plan up there?