Wow – Messara – announced via Ray Thomas of course, has decided that improving returns to owners and maintaining training tracks (at all) may improve things in Racing in NSW.

A Eureka moment obviously…. that is and has been reality in Victoria for over a decade now.

Racing NSW does not have to reinvent the wheel – just look across the border and face some ugly home truths.

Having experienced racing as a participant in both states, I was obviously not aware of the acute differences in the way racing is conducted and managed either side of the border and feel as if I have walked unwittingly into a 1930’s gangster movie.

It would be amusing if it was not destroying the sport/industry which I have loved and worked in my entire life.

As far as field sizes go nothing that has had the roots chopped out can grow or survive.

As long as leading country trainers are referring to Sydney as a ‘closed shop’ (not my term) it will never recover – the main difference between Sydney and Melbourne racing is the depth of number of participants (trainers, jockeys and owners) who expect and receive nothing less than best practice in the areas of integrity and training facilities as is reality in Victoria.

Putting nice descriptions of what the training facilities should be on the RNSW website does – newsflash – not make them a reality in the real world. And gagging anyone who dares to speak out on any of these problems will not fix them either.

Open, competitive, interesting racing has field sizes with each way betting and promotes wagering…………………….does not sound like rocket science but fixing NSW racing may be harder than taking a return trip to Mars.

And while wagering parity is part of the answer it will only be a band-aid if current management continues as is.

Annette Oliver