Racehorse TALK

It seems fairly clear to me that for some time there must only be a one way road to Toowoomba from the rest of the SEQ corner.

Lots of horses come out of the joint to race at other tracks, but few go the other way. Why? Because IMO MOST trainers/owners arent willing to send horses there due to the current poor quality/makeup of the track. If you dont agree with that, answer this -

How many times do you see a leading trainer ie Heathcote/Guy/Bailey etc send a horse to race at Toowoomba ?

But many of the better trainers away from the Sunshine Coast seem willing to send selected horses to race at the Cushion track?

DD, the "300,000 of QLD's Racing Public" is your figure. I'm not one of them.

The fact is its a slim 300 members at Toowoomba will make the decision for the rest of us. I'd rather Bentley & co making the decision for me, given the region can only draw a pathetic 300 people to pay up membership dues despite having a reported 800 horses in work.

The days are numbered for race club directors and a tired number of minority 'voting members' having control over our racetracks.

I've told you a million times DD, not to exaggerate

I guess some trainers and owners are more concerned with the almighty dollar then a horse's welfare Grats.

I will make 1 point, and that is not every horse will be affected the same way by the cushion track as others, some will handle it and some will not ..... the point being is that QR shouldn't be rushing into it until we all know the repercussions of the Cushion, especially when there is no going back as in Toowoomba's case.

One of Toowoomba's problems was that their Dam leaked, how can you water a track when your Dam is leaking, QR are fixing this, why didn't they fix this before tearing up the grass ?

Thanks DD, I must be way off the mark when I cant find a suitable race for a horse to contest given the 'huge' number of quality racetracks and races we have to select from in SEQ. Joke!

Within a 3 hour drive of SEQ we've got Eagle Farm, Doomben, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and  NSW Northern River tracks Ballina & M'Bah. Thats a grand total of 8.

So according to you, owners with horses paying top dollar at Eagle Farm/Doomben/Sunshine Coast/Gold Coast shouldnt need to worry about venturing out west to Toowoomba ? Why the hell shouldnt we??

Canberra falls within the radar for Sydney trainers as do tracks like Wangaratta for Melbourne trainers. But you would prefer for us all just to divorce ourselves of Toowoomba. Why ?

Do the maths. Around a 3 hour drive from Melbourne or Sydney, have a look at how many tracks trainers/owners have to choose from.

And add the fact that in SEQ, we seldom ever race more than 4 out of 7 days in the week.

As for who should be running Racing in QLD, in my view it should be someone who is brave enough to make tough decisions to drive this industry into the future, without the 'mothers club mentality' that it seems some factions want it forever condemed to.

And I gave my view DD.

You want to ignore the fact that at this point that a major industry resource like Toowoomba is largely ignored by major trainers and owners in SEQ.

But yet you want to throw cold water on the Cushion Track at the Sunshine Coast due to a perception that the same leading trainers and owners dont want to race on a Cushion track.

More of these leading trainers and owners seem to patronise the Cushion Track than Toowoomba, anyone want to argue with that?

You cant have it both ways DD.

DD, skew it however you like, more of the leading trainers in SEQ are supporting the Cushion track over Toowoomba at the moment.

Proud Knight,

Probably the biggest reason for trainers ignoring Toowoomba has a fair bit to do with the fact they race on a Saturday and compete with the Gold Coast and Brisbane metro for jockeys.

Compare the last couple of tab meetings not held on a Saturday, very good nominations including leading trainers, compare that with the number running around at the Cushion and I think you will be suffering from foot in mouth syndrome

I tell you what DD, I'll do a count on the next meeting held at Toowoomba and the Cushion Track.

I'll look at the Top 20 trainers on the Brisbane ladder and count the number of runners each has at each venue, excluding home track trainers.

I'm very confident about the results.  

Magic, Understand your point about jockeys. But thats the same for the Gold Coast each Saturday, many would argue.