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As has been well documented, the sport is in dire trouble in Queensland. Racing Queensland's agenda is very clear. Two decisions this week not directly related to Harness Racing demonstrate what lies ahead - Capalaba Greyhound Racing track is to close as is Bundaberg Race Club. The next to go in Harness Racing will probably be Redcliffe, since under Bentley's plan it is to be made a non TAB track ( which means it will close ). What next? Bring on the next state election:mad:
Is this really happening up in QLD?
Not so long ago that big owner bloke was meant to be redeveloping it all. I can remember some talk about they racing for $25,000 in metropolitan races. Now the sport is on its knees.
At the next State Election, QLD Harness Racing participants & fans need to make certain they put a bloody great broom through the bastards currently occupying the building on the corner of George & Alice.
Make specific note of the following Electorates & be sure to kick the current sitting Member from the ALP to the kirb. It's as easy as that.
Mount Ommaney
South Brisbane
Cairns
Capalaba
Broadwater
Sandgate
Greenslopes
Bulimba
Yeerongpilly
Mount Coot-tha
Brisbane Central
Stafford
Keppel
Whitsunday
Townsville
Ashgrove
Albert
Mount Isa
Chatsworth
Southport
Lytton
Pine Rivers
Logan
Bundamba
Waterford
Mackay
Mundingburra
Ipswich
Cook
Kallangur
Inala
Mulgrave
Mansfield
Nudgee
Stretton
Morayfield
Rockhampton
Woodridge
Toowoomba North
Burleigh
Sunnybank
Springwood
Algester
Pumicestone
Redcliffe
Thuringowa
Everton
Murrumba
Ipswich West
Barron River
Ferny Grove
That will duly leave old mate Bob with nowhere to go.
Triple V (and anyone else)
Can you please list everything you don't like about Bentley, why he isn't good for Qld Harness Racing and I will endevour to reply to each point to show the other side of the coin - or indeed clear up lies/myths :)
And I agree Qld is dying a slow death. A barn at Menangle is looking more and more and more attractive by the minute. :)
Geeze Flashing, you're way too nice a person for me to go too hard on this one.
As in List those aspects over an above what are for mine his rather obvious leanings toward the TB Industry & the QLD Labor Party?
That makes him 2 for 2 in my book. If he were also a strong proponent of a Carbon Dioxide Tax introduction...he'd land the Trifecta.
Please don't bring up religion. ;);););)
lmao, I don't support Labor one iota, but I do like Bentley. :) I will get back to you today (double checking I have my own facts right) on reasons why he isn't out to destory harness racing, despite coming from a thoroughbred background. People can take it or leave it with what I say. In saying that, with some of the backlash he has recieved from some misinformed harness circles, I wouldn't be surprised (or blame him) for kicking us to the curb :(
Hopefully next year, once uni is over, I can get some stalls at Menangle. I really think we are going down the gurgler now, it is such a shame because we have this awesome proposal that keeps hitting brick walls :( Its a shame because I love living in Queensland, but I love harness racing more. If that means a move, then so be it!! :)
I'm going to send you a PM with more detail Triplev, but for the benefit of the forum...
As we all know, prizemoney for races is a percentage of the turnover for each code. Queensland trots currently has 14% locked in but only until the agreement ends, which is next year. Now, if Bentley remains the head of Racing Queensland, with Queensland coming under one umbrella, he can control the prizemoney distribution. He he stated that he will leave it the same. Why is this good? Because next year, based on the turnover on harness races, we would have gone down to 10%, with the dogs getting an extra 2% the gallops getting an extra 2%. That means that the dogs would be allocated more money than us, for animals that are 1/8th of the expense to keep! Now, I wouldn't be surprised with the unwarranted backlash that Bentley has received, if he basically said screw us all and distribute the prizemoney how it should be per the turnover for each code. However, prizemoney is going to stay the same - Bentley would not do this if he was out to screw trotting.
Redcliffe has been having some troubles lately, but there was a meeting not two long ago where two financial backers have stepped forward to help out and working in conjunctions with Queensland Racing Redcliffe now gets to keep their meetings. I was not personally at the meeting but I believe all sides of the coin were listened to and without much fuss it has been sorted out for now. I understand once (and if) Deagon is built Redcliffe is to be a training centre, but Deagon is only approx. 15 mins away from Redcliffe for what will be a superior track. It's not very far away for Redcliffe participants to travel. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, but it will be maintained and kept as a training centre. Hopefully some racing (maybe restricted meetings??) can be run there still, but time will tell.
The initial industry plan saw the removal of the thoroughbreds from Deagon completely. If Bentley was anti-trotting, there would be no way he would upset all the galloping folk there for us. I do believe there has been some backlash from the gallopers about there removal. I think they are trying to come up for a way for them to at least be able to jog there. Like Redcliffe, there are many houses in the area with stables at the back. The idea was to move these people and their horses to the Sunshine Coast facility. I'm not sure what is happening with the gallopers, but regardless the plan is still for it to be a harness and greyhound racing precinct. Unlike Albion Park, Deagon is also very easy to get to, no matter where you are coming from, North or South, it is straight off the motorway. Much easier than driving through some parts of the city for Albion Park.
Another thing, the industry is no longer recognising the decisions of BOTRA (anti-Bentley). I think if you came up here and spoke to the participants, the majority really are for this new plan. It is just a hard, uphill battle when the few people that do oppose Bentley/Industry plan have a lot of resources and money. I'm not saying that these people don't have the best interests of harness racing at heart - they do, I'm just saying they just aren't the majority.
Sadly, we can't have it all. Bentley has had to make some tough decisions and he's not going to be able to please everyone. These tough decisions need to be made for racing to continue in Queensland. If he really was anti trotting, next year our prizemoney would decrease to 10%. I can't believe people are bickering when we can have our very own Menangle only 20 mins further North than Albion Park. Menangle is a long, long way from Sydney while Deagon is in the Northern Suburbs of Brisbane with easy access. Further, Bentley made a tough call with the Deagon gallopers to provide the greyhound and harness with a world class facility. If he was that anti-trotting he would not have done that. In light of what has happened recently to Phil Mitchell, I am not going to elaborate on a public forum but at 1400m track is going to be fairer racing for all than a 1000m track. Further, Redcliffe is going to received funds to keep it maintained as a training track, with the possibility of some restricted meetings too.
One more thing - the future of the Interdoms is a bit up in the air after Perth. NSW and Qld proposed (at a meeting several months ago) running 3 Interdoms in a row each, giving them a better chance to find a sponsor (ie for 3 years in a row rather than 1). Bentley was very enthusiastic about this for Qld. Why would he want this if he is anti-trotting? These things take a lot of resources and organising - if he was anti-trotting, he would much rather concentrate that energy, time and money into the gallopers.
Im going to PM you some other stuff Triplev, just not comfortable going into nitty gritties on a public forum!! :o I'm not saying Bentley's perfect, I'm not saying I agree with everything he says. What I am saying is he is TRYING to stop us from going down the gurgler. The effort he is putting in the save Qld racing is a lot more than his predecessors and I respect that. :)
Flashing Red.
I was going to let this go but I think you should get some of your facts right before you comment anymore on Qld racing.
You talk about prize money distribution and how we are locked into an agreement until next year. Well we are locked into an agreement until 2014 when the Tab will sit down and then work out what percentage all 3 codes will receive. Mr Bentley cannot change our current agreement even if he wanted to, because we are locked into it. So don't make him out to be such a good man because he cannot legally touch or change what we are given at the moment. The problem harness racing has at the moment is that yes we do receive 14% of the turnover revenue but we only contribute 10%. The greyhounds at the moment contribute more than us, so if when the next agreement is up for renewal and the greyhounds are still outperforming the harness code then they will receive a bigger piece of the pie then the harness code. It will not matter one bit if a greyhound cost 1/8th of the expense of a horse to look after, they will get the amount of money that they are entitled to under the agreement.
You also make comment about Mr Bentleys plans on tracks at Deagon and Ipswich. I can guarantee you that the galloping trainers at these venues will not be relocating to any other venue to allow our code to set up shop at their tracks. They have already met with racing Qld and they are not moving and why should they have to. You seem to think that with the sale of Albion Park then we would have our own Menangle up here, but that is not going to happen. If we were to move to one of these other venues we would be located inside the galloping tracks and would be tenants to the galloping clubs. Any money raised from the sale of Albion Park is going to go into rebuilding the Gold Coast turf club ($58 million)and the 3 northern Turf clubs will receive the rest. This has been confirmed by Racing Qld .
I also note your comments on how the industry does not recognise BOTRA anymore. You could not be any more off the mark if you wanted to be. Mr Bentley refuses to recognise BOTRA because they have taken him to task on a number of issues, something which he does not like, that is why he does not recognise them. As for the industry participants well the majority are backing them. In a recent survey conducted by BOTRA which was open to both members and non members to comment on, the issue of the sale of Albion Park received over 80% of replies wanting it kept and not sold off by Racing Qld. I feel this alone shows that you are in the minority.
The main reason why certain individuals are taking action against the sale of Albion Park is because any money raised from the sale would go into refurbishing galloping tracks, not into any harness tracks. Another reason for the court case is that if the LNP win the next election they have already stated that Mr Bentley will be sacked from his position and all 3 codes will go back to running themselves. Now if Albion Park is sold off before then where does this leave harness racing. The gallops will have the money from the sale of Albion park and we will have nowhere to race. Can you see why this is a bad thing. Mr Bentley has no intention of building any tracks up here for us. The Qld government is broke so they won’t give him any money and his racing board is broke, so where do you purpose they get the money from.
I for one would love to see a 1400 metre track up here to race on and a facility that we can be proud of, but it not going to happen under Bentleys watch. Hopefully after the next election we have an LNP government and we will have administrators running harness racing because they want to, not because it is a job for the boys like it currently is, under the current Labour regime. Don't think for a second Mr Bentley is a friend of harness racing. He has no regard for it at all.
Just a question for anyone is this Bob (wanker) Bentley on the board of Australian Harness Racing ?