(Source: Fan Pop)

STOP THE WHINGEING AND TRAIN WINNERS!

(Source: Human Stupidity)

It used to be the poor old Brits who were universally labelled the “whingeing Poms”. They had a monopoly on this moniker, but times have changed. Can’t hear them whingeing and whining about the cricket, or tennis, or rugby, can we?

(Source: Event Finder)

The Poms have got smarter. They have purged themselves of this derogatory label by exporting it to guess where? Australia. And of all places- to Australian racing.

Have you ever heard of a more miserable, whingeing, whining profession than racehorse trainers?

(Source: Colour Box)

Their latest tantrum surfaced in Melbourne’s News Limited rag, the Herald Sun and on Melbourne radio station Radio Sports National, and a podcast we heard of host Shane Anderson interviewing a Victorian trainer, we had not heard of since he won a race last Saturday at Flemington – Jason Petsch.

(Source: Eliza Park)

Jason Who? Fair question. It seems Jason has a problem running a successful small business. Nothing unusual about that in Australia or anywhere in the world for that matter. As Bob Dylan reminded us: “ the times they are a changing”.

(Source: SLRHS)

But in poor old Jason Who’s case, it’s someone else’s fault. Blame the governing body, Racing Victoria or his State Association, even his dog – it’s all their fault.

It has nothing to do with the simple fact that he struggles to train the steady stream of winners so he can keep his cash flow ticking over and attracting owners to his stable. Or that. maybe, he just can’t run a successful business?

(Source: Grace Has No End)

Perhaps Jason Who should find an alternative career outside racing? No different to some of the self pity that we have heard frequently in Sydney from trainers.

(Source: My Confined Space)

Jason Who’s beef is that he is owed plenty of moolah by owners, and that the regulator is the culprit.

A simple question Jase; how in heaven’s name could you run a business with spiralling debt? Why wouldn’t you cut your losses early doors and piss these owners out of your stable? And why don’t you have some form of a written agreement with your owners to at least shove under the noses of the regulator and any court of law?

(Source: Extreme Experts)

No Jason, like many of your fellow trainers, you are just shit scared of letting go of bad paying owners and you hold on to them and their shit horses in the vain hope that the genie would jump out of the bottle and put your cash flow back in order. And when the genie fails to jump out of the bottle and appear at your stables and rescue you, it’s someone else’s fault.

(Source: 123RF)

The stark inconvenient truth is that there are just too many trainers in Victoria and in NSW. End of story.

Some thousand odd- and some are very odd- trainers apparently licensed in Victoria, about 500 too fucking many. Some 500 too many who can’t make a living out of racing.

(Source: Scribido Magazine)

It is time the regulator, Racing Victoria made some tough decisions and dished out some tough love- if nothing else to the starry eyed dreamers that will never make the cut.

It is plain delusional to believe that Victorian racing can sustain the financial viability of 1000 racehorse trainers. If Racing Victoria has put a cap of 700 trainers in their strategic plan, they should be commended for common sense, not beaten up for having the foresight and fortitude to recognize that 1000 into 700 just doesn’t fit.

It’s no different in NSW; some might even say it’s worse, with hundreds of trainers having little or no hope of training sufficient winners to keep their businesses afloat.

For a racehorse trainer, the one and only rule for survival is strikingly simple: Train fucking winners and keep training them so that your percentages from prize money keeps flowing in to your bank balances so you can then pay your staff and your suppliers and your vets.

And guess what? If you keep training winners, these “dud” owners won’t have anywhere to hide and avoid paying their training bills and, better still, the phone will start ringing and you’ll get GOOD owners pleading with you to train their horses.

(Source: Rat Cliff Animal Hospital)

Getting Racing Victoria or Racing NSW to tighten the rules and force owners to pay their outstanding bills is only a very small part of the solution.

If you don’t train winners- and regularly- you just cannot and won’t be able to run a viable business. Simple as that. And not even the “big” trainers are immune from this simple yet inconvenient truth.

Take note Mike Moroney, who was quoted in the Herald Sun. Are you training enough winners for the bulging number of horses you have on your books?

(Source: Herald Sun)

Perhaps running three stables – in Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand is just plainly not viable? We’ve seen bigger and more successful trainers come a cropper trying to conquer the world with satellite stables, big fella.

(Source: Funny Pictures Free HD)

And another dose of reality for these whingers and whiners: The more you bleat about your financial situation, the more you draw attention to your failure to run a successful business, and your ability to train winners. Remember, you don’t fill your mantelpiece with trophies for training losers.

It’s long been in the DNA of racehorse trainers to play the game – worldwide. If you can’t train winners, if your owners owe you money, if your horses get beaten, it’s always someone else’s fault.

(Source: Up Times Of Tware)

Training and owning racehorses guarantees truckloads of angst and disappointment and failure. It comes with the territory. Ask David Ferraris or Sean Woods or Paul O’Sullivan in Hong Kong.

Getting a trainer’s licence is an entitlement to absolutely nothing. Being owed money for services is not unique to the profession of racehorse trainers.

There is a very clear and unmistakable message for the “Jason Who’s” and his fellow bleeding hearts among the ranks of Australian trainers; if you can’t train winners, it’s time to get the hell out of racing and find another profession or a job – one which doesn’t overtax the sparse grey matter which seems to stifle the intellect of many trainers.

(Source: Supas Wag)

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PRIZE MONEY FAILS TO LIFT FIELD SIZES

(Source: Oc Speakers Bureau)

It’s a serious problem that just won’t go away. Mid-week Sydney provincial field sizes which were expected to head northwards, are struggling to exceed double digits.

(Source: Toon Pool)

The hike in prize money which we were assured was the panacea has proven to be anything but that. Fields of six, seven, eight and nine runners monopolized the Kembla and Gosford mid-week programmes. All racing for minimums of $22,000 at Gosford and Kembla. Canterbury acceptors raced for minimums of $40,000, with two of the races attracting eight acceptors.

(Source: Baby Boomer Flash Back)

Even the Saturday metropolitan race fields have shown a worrying trend downwards with field sizes despite the post High Court euphoria over Racing NSW’s victory over the Product Fee dispute with the corporate bookmakers which led to an instant hike in prize money minimums to $80,000.

(Source: SMH)

The severe migraine for Racing NSW and their interstate counterparts lies in the very obvious impact on wagering.

Small fields mean smaller wagering pools. Fields of less than eight starters smashes place pools and exotics.

Translated into State Industry revenues it simply means that less is returned to their coffers from their various pari-mutuels partners – the totalisators.

(Source: Vision Help)

At a time when wagering on thoroughbreds is trending southwards, the long term implications for Australian racing are plain for all to see.

In its present form, right across the board, it is completely unsustainable. The size of the pie is simply not big enough to financially sustain the racing industry across all sectors – from its organizational and administrative structure to its bloated base of participants.

(Source: Tablets Planet)

There are simply too many of everyone in Australian racing for it to operate efficiently and profitably for the good of everyone in the industry.

There will need to be savage yet inevitable correction if the Australian racing industry is to operate in a viable and meaningful form. The writing is already on the wall.

(Source: Indiana Grain)

Tasmanian racing is in its death throes. The last rites are not all that far from being administered. Which State will be next?

(Source: Movies Hark Deblore)

There is little doubt that in this overly democratic wagering environment based almost exclusively on free and open market principles, inevitably, Australian racing is heading down the UK path with one major difference- and not heading down that Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy, Toto and her weirdo matew to see the Wizard.

(Source: RV Tripper)

While the UK racing industry was bailed out by the oil rich Arab benefactors, and in recent times “black” money from what was previously loosely referred to as the “Iron Curtain”, the Australian racing industry does not seem to have similar benefactors knocking the door down to bail it out.

(Source: Yahoo)

Sadly, the decision makers in Australian racing will turn a blind eye to the warning signs. Like Emperor Nero they will fiddle while Rome burns.

(Source: Jeffrey Hill)

THE BASKET CASE THAT IS TVN

(Source: Susans Custom Creepy Dolls)

The longer the resolution of the soap opera that is TVN drags on the more obvious it is that the ATC and the Victorian Clubs and Racing Victoria should just turf Racing NSW out of the picture (no pun intended) and get around to the business of monetizing the only surviving serious source of revenue for racing in Australia.

(Source: Wickinv)

The mail we are getting points to some bewildering boardroom ploys which continue to leave TVN like the proverbial ship without a rudder ever since its previous Chief Executive Peter Sweeney departed the bitterly divided organization earlier this year.

(Source: The Jelly Bean)

A succession of eminently qualified potential candidates for the vacant Chairman and Chief Executive positions have publicly and privately declined the invitation to self immolate what would have been the inevitable fate awaiting the appointees.

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The spin that greeted the “new” TVN restructure and Board appointments has turned out to be exactly that.

We take no comfort in being prophetic when declaring that the state based structure of the Board was a disaster in waiting. What did surprise us is that it took as long as three months to unravel.

(Source: Cloud Front)

TVN’s Boardroom problems have a long and painful gestation period. They go back to 2005 when Justice Patricia Bergin delivered her damning judgment in the NSW Supreme Court against Racing NSW and ruled in favour of the two NSW race clubs – the AJC and STC, in litigation instigated by their own State regulatory authority.

The 2005 judgment coincided with the birth of that infamous and hugely discredited war cry of the “63,000 participants” invented by Racing NSW Chief Executive Peter “the not so great” V’Landys. That man is the supreme martyr and should be in politics. Hell, he wouldn’t even need his mate Peter “toffee tongue” McGauran to tutor him.

(Source: Everyday People Cartoons)

After all it is the livelihoods of the 60,000 odd participants in NSW whose best interests, he keeps telling all and sundry, that he is protecting. And we believe every single word he has told us. Since 2005.

(Source: Geofftalbot)

For TVN it is not unlike the noxious weed in the garden that even a decent dose of “Round Up” just won’t eradicate.

(Source: Drewlitton)