IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published in the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS reveals how the long standing feud between the Townsville Turf Club and a developer has been resolved.
Butts says the outcome is confidential but tips that the TTC got considerable compensation but isn’t sure how much.
Here is the Butts’ column:
FUED BETWEEN TTC AND DEVELOPERS IS OVER BUT DETAILS CONFIDENTIAL
THE long lasting feud between the Townsville Turf Club and its near-neighbour – the developers of Fairfield Waters – has finally been resolved.
Both parties agreed at a mediation meeting last week to end the conflict that has festered for almost eight years. Details of the agreement are confidential – not -not even members of the TTC are privy.
All we know is the TTC did get some compensation and each party will pay their own legal fees.
And you would just love to know the figure!
Fairfield the developer, Cardno the engineers and Hansen the contractor had 12 top heavv legal eagles, mostly from the south on their side of the table.
The Townsville Turf Club‘s case was handled by local solicitor Barry Taylor.
TTC chairman Kevin O’Keefe’s only comment was: “I am glad it’s over.”
The conflict was all over an agreement between the Turf Club and the developer Fairfield to provide land fill that was taken from the middle of Cluden racecourse. It was their idea to create a lake that would store water to irrigate the entire racecourse and training tracks.
But the TTC claimed the contractors “dug too deep” and punctured the aquifers. The result was a lake full of salt water – deemed useless for irrigation purposes.
STATUE IN MEMORY OF DESIREE GILL UNVEILED AT GYMPIE CUP MEETING
A MARBLE statue in honour of Gympie jockey Desiree Gill was unveiled at a moving ceremony during the Gympie Cup meeting on Saturday.
The 45-year-old premiership winning jockey died in a race fall in November last year at Corbould Park.
Gympie Turf Club president, Spencer Slater, said she did a lot for the local community and the statue was the best way to honour her.
The meeting was attended by many of racing’s luminaries including Melbourne-based jockeys’ advocate and long-time head of the Australian Jockeys’ Association, Des O’Keefe.
He described the sculpture as one of the best he had ever seen.
And Racing Queensland’s CEO, Darren Condon, was equally impressed.
“The sculpture of the jockey at Randwick racecourse cost $120,000. This one cost $20,000 – and it is just as good,” said Condon.
And the sculptor just happens to be a bloke well known around the Mackay district as a blacksmith – Dan Davies.
“Dan used to ‘dabble a bit’ while working with horses in Mackay and also assisted at the barrier on race days,” said former Mackay Turf Club CEO Joe Hynes.
The sculpture is made of Chillagoe marble.
NORTH SADDENED BY THE DEATH OF FORMER HIGH PROFILE STEWARD
THE northern racing world is saddened by the passing of former RQ steward, Steve Rowe, who died after a heart attack in Cairns last week.
Steve was a dedicated racing man and held senior posts as a steward in the north – at one time based in Townsville – and at Toowoomba.
He was a no-nonsense type who had a thorough understanding of the racing game and had the respect of all licensees.
Steve was a brother of leading Cairns trainer, Trevor Rowe, and right until his sudden departure he took an active interest in the stable and attended race meetings in the region when health permitted.
He was particularly attached to the horse He's A Ladies Man which won on Saturday at Townsville, a win that brought a tear to the eye of the Rowe stable and its ardent followers.
THE ISSUE OF WHIPS AGAIN BEING RAISED BUT WILL THE ARB DO ANYTHING?
THE old chestnut of whips has been raised again and it is really time authorities (spare us the Australian Racing Board) had another look at an issue that is quite contentious.
Personally, it would not worry this writer one iota if whips were banned altogether. And please no more of the bulldust that “the horses don’t feel it”.
Of course they do. And jockeys have told me the severity of the new padded whip is no different to the old type.
And as former international jockey Danny Brereton wrote last week in the Herald Sun: “Flogging a horse, even backhand which is unrestricted, up the entire length of a straight, just looks terrible and it’s useless.
“Backhand is just as bad as forehand, which is now restricted. They can hit them just as hard both ways and both look as bad as each other,” he wrote.
WATCHING HORSES FLOGGED AT END OF DISTANCE RACES IS ‘HEART-WRENCHING’
FRANKLY, it is heart-wrenching to see horses at the end of 3000m and 4000m steeplechases being flogged by their heavyweight riders. You see it every year at Warrnambool.
Proponents of jumps racing say horses ‘love’ jumping and I have no doubt they do.
But let them jump without the flogging.
And whipping two-year-olds? Well, really, what do you think?
Brereton, who has not ridden since a frightful fall four years ago, rode for a while in Hong Kong where Australian jockeys had a reputation for heavy whip riding.
“We’ve evolved a lot but we need to change more. There is a danger in our ‘macho’, tight-riding culture, and the whip is part of that.
“I’ve been out of it for four years since a bad fall and feel I see it a bit differently than when I was absorbed entirely in the racing world.
“People are always asking me about jockeys whipping horses, if it hurts, why they do it,” Brereton said.
Brereton does not suggest the whip should not be used at all. He writes: “A spooked horse can jump 20 feet in the air, sideways.
“Sometimes you need it just to keep a horse straight. It’s a necessity. One or two taps around the bum, I reckon that’s fair enough too.”
DANNY BRERETON WAS THE JOCKEY WHO INTRODUCED TOE-IN-THE-IRON STYLE
BY the way what is not generally known in racing circles is that it was Danny Brereton who introduced the toe-in-the-iron style of riding that has been adapted by most jockeys throughout the country.
And in spite of come controversy, Brereton makes no apology.
“I made a study of the riding styles of the best heavyweight riders in the world and found they seldom moved on a horse. No whacking or kicking at random as many jockeys do. They kept their mounts balanced. And riding with just a toe in the iron kept my legs from moving.
“When I first started to ride with just a toe in the iron the Melbourne stewards tried to stop me.
“But I persevered and I know it’s the best.
“Horses don’t have to be kicked. They need only a squeeze and I found that the style prevented me from moving about too much. It kept my legs together and made me use the upper body.
“That where the strength is.
“You get the best response from a horse not by whip use or hands and heels riding. It often makes the horse unbalanced.
“You need to be strong up top,” Brereton said.
So now you know.
BRERETON APPLAUDS STAND ON CARELESS RIDING BEING TAKE BY RVL CHIEF STEWARD
DANNY Brereton rode with great success in Australia and overseas before coming down in a race at Mooney Valley in the same set of circumstances and in almost the same place that young Chad Schofield came down on Saturday.
“Three horses where there is room for only two. It doesn’t work,” said Brereton yesterday.
“And what gets me is that Chief Steward Terry Bailey is doing his best to have safe racing and yet doesn’t seem to be getting all round support he needs.
“We race too tight here – it really is ‘macho’ style riding – and it is not necessary.
“Horses like room to gallop. There is too much interference from horses racing too close together.”
AND there was another pointed that he wanted to raise.
“In all the times I was suspended or in trouble with stewards during my career I found they were right 95 per cent of the time.
COLUMN COURTESY OF TERRY BUTTS AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, one of Australia's leading rural newspapers.
TERRY BUTTS can be contacted by e-mailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
