Racehorse TALK

Do you mean the members there?

No one else seems to care.

But we don't have any say.

Is it true the the trainers are even split on what to do?

Doesn't Ron Maund have a bit of say up there and if so  I wonder what he thinks?

I still reckon that if the track is built and BB puts up enough prizemoney the owners will race there and if the trainers don't agree the owners will find someone else to train their horses.

Could be the easy prizemoney coming up if you can get a suitable couple of horses

Coinswell and Triple7, whilst it is flattering for you to believe that I am some wheeler and dealer deep inside the QRL bunker counting my kickbacks from cushion tracks contracts stopping only to post on this website, alas it is not the case.

I am just a humble punter, owner and member who chooses to exercise some free thought and not get caught up in the mindset that everything the QRL does for racing is bad and everything Russ Hinze ever did was good.

QRL and TTC are the stakeholders charged with the responsibility of the Toowoomba track. If they believe the cushion track is a good thing, then I don't have any issue with it. Bentley himself went to Toowoomba last week and was not exactly run out of town by angry locals.

If Mr Wells and doesn't want to train there, then they should pack up his 4 horses and head to Ipswich, Oakey, Warwick, Dalby or Gatton. I even understand that Kilcoy & Esk are trying to get trainers back.

DD - I read the reference to "dog track" as referring to the call to put the cushion track on the inside. BB was saying it would be so small that it would effectively be a greyhound track.

Blame the QLD govt. for this. They couldn't give a bugger about racing and have passed the the industry into the hands of this bloke Bentley to do whatever he wills.

im sure they do care about QLD racing and the revenue it generates.
the industry as a whole has gone ahead in recent times, if the midweek prisemoney could be raised im sure the racing would strenthen further.

My point exactly Thenamy, why should the industry support a sub-standard track .... the cushion track is sub standard, seems we agree on something 

Thanks thenamy but I don't think you answered my question directly.  So please pardon my being a little obtuse, I will rephrase the question:

So I take it you have no affiliation whatsoever with any organisation which receives support or benefit from Queensland Racing? 

A simple 'yes' or 'no' would suffice and will serve to put your responses into the right context.

Coinswell, Yes on about 10 counts.

I am a member of the QTC, The QROA and I have a share in 8 horses. All of these receives support or benefit from Queensland Racing.

Coin, to be fair, if we ask Thenamy1 to declare his interest, shouldn't everyone come clean on their interest?

I'll bet we couldn't get everyone on this forum to do so.

It is OK for people like me but then again I've no reason to be anonymous.

We know who most contributors are on this debate ., but a lot of other forumites might not.

Don't disagree grats.

It is important to declare relevant interests any gloss or agendas can be clearly understood.  In reality forums are not a great vehicle for this.  I have already declared my interest. 

Possibly relevantly I'd also make a distinction between being a 'member' of an organisation and an 'executive' of an organisation, say, I don't know - the QROA to use an organisation mentioned by thenamy - the latter is usually extended substantial privileges over and above the former. 

It is probably even more important to be fair - something the subject of this thread lost sight of many many years ago, it seems.

At present there is a groundswell of anecdotal evidence building about the local experiences with the Cushion Track including the need to routinely extend noms and to pump up prizemoney to attract decent fields - a $25 000 C1 race is slated for the Cushion Track under lights meeting on February 21.  These tactics are unsustainable long term and over time field sizes will fall away and therefore so will tote pools.

Interestingly in Geelong they've stopped using the artificial surface pending some kind of enquiry.

Bentley, however, perseveres with crash through bully boy tactics denigrating guys like JJ Atkins in the process and managing to divide a community, simply because they have put up cogent arguments which he cannot rebut in any rational and objective way.

I'd like him to conduct an independent poll with objective questions about their views on the SC Cushion Track amongst the local trainers, jockeys and owners (too bad horses can't talk).  And then release the results without putting his own 'subtle as a sledgehammer' brand of spin on it. 

There is a lot of politics in this without a doubt.

The LNP are very quiet on this issue as they reckon that we are only hearing one side of the argument in the press.

There are two sides and they are going to sit on the fence.

I bet you won't get any Labor pollies to comment either.

OK, might pay for me to explain my position in regard to the Cushion at the Sunshine Coast.

At a meeting held by QR and the makers of the Cushion I asked what I thought was a reasonable question,

"Will horse's burn their bumpers, as is common with other Sand tracks"

The reply was

"Don't be silly it is the Cushion track, it is going to be great for horses"

Guess what horses do burn their bumpers on the Cushion to my suprise .... and guess what else, we had two horses blow up in the joints when working on the cushion, one had to be retired and the other broke down on the cushion suffering from a sesamoid injury, funny thing was two horses broke down in the same race around the same time with the exact same injury, do you call that coincidence 

The Cushion track was heralded as being the best thing for horses safety and this is what was sold by QR to all the trainers at the SCTC ...... but guess what it was far from the truth 

So why would QR push for more racetracks /  training tracks with out proper due diligence and studies before forcing this upon TTC ?

Because they must have another agenda other than horse safety 

sometimes with any sort of decision bureaucracy creeps in, a few graphs and tables then the decisions are smacked on the table.