Harness racing in Queensland may well have hit a new low this week.
The Courier Mail ran a story on Friday (sponsored article by the Seymour Group under “THE TROT SPOT”) on why Greg Mitchell and his newly formed group should get their hands on all or part of the $10 million dollars owed to the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club.
Greg is saying he is “more than happy for the Gold Coast Club to race at his and the Seymour Group’s new venue” (The way l read the article, they just want to get their hands on the $10 million that’s promised to the GCHRC) which seems extremely cheeky at best.
Now, let’s be really clear here. Harness racing needs people like Kevin and Greg, in fact, I wish we had 20 more of them right now in QLD. They do invest time, money and energy into the sport so good luck to them for having a crack at the $10 million on offer.
It’s just a sad state of play that a crazy idea like this can make it into the light of day.
The Hon Grace Grace, (QLD Racing Minister) has given undertakings to GCHRC that the money will only go to them, however she has a strong desire for the Greyhounds to be a part of the proposal before the $10 million is released to GCHRC. Mitchell has ruled out a partnership with the dogs.
The state of harness racing in Qld is a joke! Successive poor governments and clueless racing ministers have put the knife into the sport, so who really knows if Grace can keep her word and not give the GCHRC money to the Seymour / Mitchell Group.
Some of the challenges l have with the information at hand are listed below:
*The council approval for the site at Alberton will only go ahead if it’s for THE GOLD COAST HARNESS RACING CLUB, that said, why the Council ruled out any possibility of co locating at the Gold Coast Turf Club, and not having any tract of Council land
within a reasonable distance to Surfers paradise is totally lost on me.
*The Seymour / Mitchell group have ZERO rights to this money and all of the spin in the world can’t change that. The $10 million is only 25% of the total owed to the GCHRC and it’s their money to set up the club they want and how they wish to power the sport forward. The GCHRC has already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars making a new club / track possible, so it’s hard to image why anyone would try and take their money now.
*This obsession in building harness racing tracks in the middle of nowhere, that people refuse to visit or support, has to stop. It has cost NSW greatly with the mess at Menangle and reports out of Victoria are that they would more heaven and earth to get back to Moonee Valley and start over again.
*I’m also told the Bathurst Harness Racing Club wished it had its time again as people are just not supporting the new site.
*If this site at Alberton (it’s not in Yatala as reported ) is so good, just go ahead build it and run it without taking the $10 million from the GCHRC.
The Alberton site is now getting promoted as “The Field Of Dreams” – what a great show piece this will be with no night racing or lights to show case the sport and a 55 km drive from the heart of the coast and Australia’s number one tourist destination.
What l don’t understand is, with Albion Park in great need of new administration and direction to fix the embarrassing facilities, why the Mitchell / Seymour group don’t put their resources and energy into fixing up that mess and leave The Gold Coast Harness Racing to build and run its own site.
Reports at http://www.harness.org.au/news-article.cfm?news_id=31279 of Darrel Graham getting off a positive test for Testosterone this week while he appeals his 15 month penalty for Cobalt ( 342 Ug/L) http://www.harness.org.au/news-article.cfm?news_id=30781 and no follow up to the multiple positives to arsenic by Grant Dixon reported back on the 29/02/2016 (why they are using Grant to promote the new site is another mystery) http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/superracing/qld-racing/top-queensland-harness-trainer-grant-dixon-has-two-positives-to-arsenic/news-story/fd8864f10f7c57f72af744d546c0e059
I just hope that Grace Grace can hold true to her word and hand over the money to GCHRC (however lying is the first language of being a politician) and get behind Harness Racing QLD in general and clean it up once and for all.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
