THE WEDNESDAY WHINGE has a new look but won’t be dispensing with some of our old favorites and will continue to focus on THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY side of what has happened in racing over the past week. Our old mate ‘Godfrey Smith’ is back by popular demand and again pens his ‘Look Back at the Racing Week’. The Whinge will also include an opportunity for The Cynics to Have Their Say. Thanks again for your support for the most read column on this website. Our popularity continues to grow despite the bagging it is copping from one over-rated official and his cronies who only help us by encouraging stakeholders not to read the Wednesday Whinge.
GROUNDHOG DAY MUST HAVE CAUSED ‘YESTERDAY’S MAN’ TO CHOKE ON HIS CORNFLAKES 
OUR E-MAIL OF THE WEEK comes from a regular contributor from the Darling Downs who paints a humorous picture of the coverage of racing in Queensland by different sections of the local media.
‘IT must have been like Groundhog Day for the other ‘little big man’ of racing in Queensland (or he thinks he is) when he scanned through the pages of The Sunday Mail.
Alas – from the point of view of him and his mates running the show who cannot cop any form of criticism – Easter Sunday signaled the return from obscurity of The Sting.
The old enemy was at the gate and this time ‘the little big man’ had no control of what was being written. It seemed like only yesterday he could call the shots on what appeared politically about racing in Queensland in the two surviving major metropolitan newspapers.
Times have changed. He is now yesterday’s man. New faces are controlling the editorial content – objective journalists and editors who know what happened in the past and won’t have a bar of it now or in the future.
The one-time ‘little big man’ of turf journalism might still be a major cog in the wheel at the state’s biggest race club where some will have you believe - not me of course - that he has been rewarded with a ‘cushy job’ for all those years when he provided ‘public relations style coverage’ while any racing scribe prepared to criticize was ostracized.
Now he has to rely on a dwindling number of racing media foot soldiers to get the message across. Not to worry, while the other ‘little big man’ runs the show in racing there will always be someone prepared to earn the Brownie Points.
But back to the column item that must have had ‘yesterday’s man’ choking on his cornflakes – better check again to make sure this wasn’t a bad dream that had turned into a nightmare.
No there it was – Groundhog Day had arrived – The Sting had finally delivered what his legion of fans have been waiting for and his new column Around the Traps had painted a ‘true picture’ of how bad racing in Queensland is travelling under the new ‘little King’, his band of ‘fence jumping’ supporters and a Government that seems hell bent on destroying metropolitan racing at the expense of appeasing their mates from the National Party who will support the country clubs at all costs.
Better get on the blower and console ‘little King Kev’ – warn him not to read the column in question. It’s time to send out the message like he did with those despicable web sites and tell loyal stakeholders not to read The Sunday Mail.
Book space in The Courier Mail turf section to get ‘our’ message across about the promised land that awaits in racing when the TAB Goose lays the Golden Egg. Make sure ‘little King Kev’ gets another exclusive interview on Radio Propaganda.
Just when it was time to retire, sit back, put up the feet, enjoy the trimmings of a loyal lifetime of service to the BRC/QTC and wait for an overdue call up to the Media Hall of Fame and a ghost from the past returns to haunt you.
Life wasn’t meant to be easy for the ‘little big men of racing in Queensland’ – those legends in their own lunch time who are still living in an era when those who dared to criticize were consigned to the scrap heap.’
Keep up the good work Pete!’
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS refers to a column item by PETER CAMERON in THE SUNDAY MAIL and in case you missed it, here it is:
‘GIVE ME A HOME AMONG THE GUM TREES’ – THE NEW DIXIELAND THEME SONG 
QUEENSLAND’S racing crisis was there for all to see behind the gum trees.
In a week where $4 million races were held at Randwick, our Wednesday TAB races return to the gum tree era at Beaudesert.
What next for Sky TV? Gatton races where the neddies disappear mid-race behind a tall, tin shed?
Poor old Beaudesert is a stone-age relic which old-time racing scribe Pat Farrell would have scorned as an ‘emergency landing ground for crows flying from Brisbane to Sydney’.
What happened to the accepted TAB midweek venues at Bundamba, Caloundra, Doomben etc?
If Racing Queensland directors ran rugby league, the State of Origin would be played between NSW and Victoria.
Our prizemoney is too low, Eagle Farm will be closed for a minimum of 10 months from June, gum tree racing is TAB poison, stewards’ authority is flyblown from appeals, and breeders despair over our bloodstock.
And it will be interesting to see how many years the ‘sugar hit’ lasts if Racing Minister Steve Dickson’s TAB exclusivity deal comes in near $200 million.
Darling Downs breeders Neville Stewart says interstate buyers are not interested in Queensland-bred horses.
“We need to fund an incentive scheme that pays $20,000 bonuses to a Queensland-bred two or three-year-old winner of any TAB race in Australia.”
DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND GODREY RETURNS WITH HIS LOOK BACK AT THE RACING WEEK 
AFTER listening to your feedback we are continuing to change the style and format of the most read feature on this website – the Wednesday Whinge.
We have enticed our old mate ‘Godfrey Smith’ out of retirement and each Wednesday the Whinge will be spearheaded by ‘Godfrey’s Look Back at the Racing Week’. Some will not agree with his ‘tongue in cheek’ views on everything racing but love him or hate him – you’ll want to read what he has to say.
Here is his latest contribution:
OAKBANK JUMPS FESTIVAL DRAWS BIGGER CROWD THAN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS 
THE racing media in Sydney keeps telling us how marvelous and successful their new carnival showpiece, The Championships, has been.
Give us a break – the racing might have been outstanding and the quality of horseflesh in some of the big races breathtaking – but that’s where it ends.
The crowds attracted have been pathetic – Saturday was less than they got to the first day of the annual jumps festival at Oakbank in South Australia which has been on the downward spiral in recent years.
And the 25,000-odd that turned out to Royal Randwick to see It’s A Dundeel in his swanswong – as it turned out – in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes was on a par with the number that is attracted to a good Stradbroke day and not many more than turn out for the Ipswich Cup on an annual basis.
Considering the huge amount of money spent on marketing and promotions, along with the mountain of free advertising The Championships have received in all sections of the media, the crowd was nothing short of pathetic for a place the size of Sydney on the Easter weekend when there are a stack of visitors in the city for the Royal Show.
One high profile turf columnist raised the question: Are the days when more than 25,000 attend feature Sydney race meetings a thing of the past?
(Short of 26,000 braved wet weather to witness the Derby-Doncaster Day and only 25,500 turned out for the Queen Elizabeth-Sydney Cup fixture in brilliant autumn sunshine).
Australian Turf Club CEO Darren Pearce said the Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day attendance was down slightly on the club’s anticipated 27,500 crowd (wow, they were certainly conservative in their expectations – a lot more so than the massive betting turnover being claimed – one could argue without too much conclusive evidence to support this.)
Pearce said the result was ‘slightly disappointing but a pass mark’ for the inaugural The Championships and he was confident attendances would grow in coming years. One would hope so.
He said Day Two of The Championships was a ‘manufactured day’ that needed time to develop tradition and grow its audience. Give us a break it arguably got as much free publicity as the Spring Carnival in Melbourne does.
Pearce also pointed out that Saturday’s meeting had opposition from the Easter Show, the Swans AFL game at the SCG starting just before the last race, and a Waratahs game Saturday night was also in the Moore Park precinct. Well who programmed it to clash with those other attractions and when does he suggest The Championships should be run – on February 29 at midnight?
ATC and Racing NSW officials are keen to work closely with Destination NSW to try and co-ordinate a complementary sporting calendar to avoid, where possible, major event clashes like last Saturday.
The bottom line is that Racing NSW officials should forget about trying to upstage the Spring Carnival and Melbourne Cup – that is never going to happen – and start getting their own house in order first.
And the question has to be argued whether the outrageously extravagant amount – tens of millions in fact – in prizemoney offered at The Championships can really be justified. Would the field for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes have been any less in quality had it been raced for $2 million rather than $4 million?
Of course John Messara was delighted with the outcome – and why wouldn’t he be – this was his baby and he has a major interest in It’s A Dundeel which collected a big slice of the major prize.
But to suggest that Saturday’s crowd had justified his boast of: ‘Build It and They Will Come’ is absolute garbage. But the only ones who dared to criticize him on that front were the turf scribes that aren’t based in Sydney.
Adding insult to injury The Championships lost its biggest supporter when Premier Barry O’Farrell fell on his sword over a very, very expensive bottle of wine.
But his mate – Racing NSW Chief Executive Peter V’landys wasted no time reassuring the industry that the $10 million in Government funding for the concept was secure.
V'landys worked closely with the former Premier to secure funding for this flagship event for racing in NSW. “Sydney needed a racing event and Barry O'Farrell helped make that happen,” V'landys told Chris Roots of Fairfax Media. “He wanted to make the event like we have and was a visionary.
“He was a strong supporter of racing and without him The Championships would still be only an idea. He had vision and courage to put events on in Sydney, including The Championships, that are world class.
“The Championships have been an extraordinary success, and there is no doubt, whoever takes over will see what an event we have established in a short period of time and appreciate it.”
Is that political crap-trap or wishful thinking from Peter the Magnificent One?
THE EAST COAST SCENE
QUEENSLAND
CONDON COULD HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MARKETING FROM CLOSER TO HOME AT IPSWICH 
IT would seem that some racing folk don’t believe Queensland can learn much from the massive marketing campaign undertaken to promote The Championships at Randwick. They claim – very much tongue-in-cheek – that officials from the Sunshine State don’t need to learn how not to attract crowds to the races. They already do that very well – on a weekly basis. Here is an example of what one contributor had to say:
‘TWO things came to mind when I read the comments by RQ CEO Darren Condon about the need for a revamp to winter carnival marketing and promotion in Queensland.
The first was ‘up shit’s creek without a paddle’ and the other, some might say more appropriate, was ‘out of his depth.’
While Condon was swanning around in Sydney and rubbing shoulders with those who ‘really’ do make racing move and shake in this country, back in his home state, well the north at least, there was another administrative disaster.
Some buffoon decided they could race at Bowen on Saturday despite the track still suffering the after-effects of a cyclone that battered the area days earlier. In fact it was under water.
Trouble was nobody decided to tell the poor old licensees who travelled truck-loads of horses to Bowen for the meeting after being reassured all was well and the meeting would be run.
They arrived to find out that it was off – after a steward saw the state of the track and declared it unsafe for racing. It was just another debacle in racing in Queensland.
Where was Condon’s boss, beside him in Sydney sucking up to his good mate John Messara while all this was going on at home? Or has he had his turn at a junket to Sydney for The Championships already?
There’s no point them going to see how the big top works when the only thing they can run is a circus. The Bowen situation exemplifies the deteriorating state of race management in Queensland.
As Terry Butts said in his column this week: ‘It wouldn’t have happened’ when Alan and Patrick Cooper were doing their stints as Chief Stewards in the north. But Patrick wasn’t considered good enough to return to the job in Townsville and Condon played a big role in that vote after realizing that his current team of stewards felt too intimidated by the presence of a high profile stipe who knows what he’s doing.
This ‘job’s for the boys’ syndrome that exists in racing in Queensland since ‘I’m Kevin and Don’t You Dare Criticize the Job I’m Doing’ arrived on the scene continues. Racing in Mackay is in dire straits, so how do they overcome the situation, appoint a ‘mate’ from Cairns as Acting CEO which has stunned those who question the job he is doing in his own backyard.
And there are plenty asking after the visit of Condon to the north to discuss the starter’s levy that his southern training mates want and their country cousins don’t whether he is the right man for the CEO role at RQ either.’
EDITOR’S NOTE: DON’T blame Darren Condon for the problems in the north of the state or elsewhere. He is only working on instructions from the anointed one – the buck should not stop with the block but the butcher. As for the Bowen situation well Dixieland should dip into their coffers – or their junket fund – and compensate those who lost plenty trying to do the right thing by racing not just prancing around the country and state like a show pony and saying ‘what a good boy am I.’
Here’s the story that prompted the above email that was written in THE COURIER MAIL by BEN DORRIES: 
RACING Queensland boss Darren Condon believes the controlling body needs to revamp winter carnival marketing and promotional strategies to compete with the booming southern states.
Condon, who spent the weekend at The Championships at Randwick, conceded Sydney was in a different league to Brisbane.
“Their marketing was very good and through that marketing you saw racing really jump into the mainstream,” Condon said.
“The way they showcased everything and brought it to life was terrific. You felt like you were at a big sporting event, much like a State of Origin rugby league match or a Bledisloe Cup game.
“They did a very good job of selling their product without a whole lot of absolute racing superstars.
“The racing was of good quality but there certainly wasn’t a horse like Black Caviar to help pull fans through the gates.”
With the Queensland carnival about to kick off, officials were hoping Black Caviar’s half-sister Belle Couture might venture north.
The filly showed she may live up to her hype, with a strong finish to win at Caulfield yesterday when she came from 10th at the 400m mark.
But trainer Danny O’Brien revealed the daughter of Redoute’s Choice would not be heading to Queensland.
He said the three-year-old would learn her craft over the next two months before being spelled, with the Melbourne spring as her target.
“She has had a soft kill today so hopefully we can start raising the bar,” O’Brien said.
“She has to get a bit of confidence and get her rating up. There are plenty of races at Flemington in May and June to give ourselves a platform for hopefully some black type.”
Meanwhile, Condon believes one of the secrets to the success of The Championships was Sydney’s collaborative approach to the marketing of the event.
Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club worked closely in a way not often seen in Queensland, where racing organisations have a history of conflicting agendas.
“No one in Sydney was pulling in different directions,” Condon said.
Racing NSW has rivers of gold compared with RQ, which is reliant on a new wagering deal to give it much-needed financial clout.
Condon says Queensland must look at doing things in a new way to spike interest in the state’s winter racing carnivals.
VICTORIA
NAPTHINE SUPPORT FOR WATERHOUSE IS ‘FINGER DOWN THE THROAT’ STUFF 
‘WHO said the Waterhouse clan doesn’t have political pull and it stretches beyond the New South Wales border?
Can you believe that the Premier of Victoria would try and influence the racing authorities in that state to allow controversial bookmaker Rob Waterhouse to work on the rails at the Warrnambool Grand Annual Carnival?
Perhaps someone should give Denis Napthine a history lesson on what has happened in the past involving the Waterhouse family or more to the point even update him on recent controversies where conflicts of interest have been raised about the ‘First Lady’ and the family bookmaking empire (father and son).
I guess if Gai is going to have a starter over the jumps at Warrnambool they figure it is quid pro quo for Robbie to make an appearance as well working in the ring for the three days of the big meeting.
If Racing Victoria steps in on behalf of Waterhouse and makes this happen they will go down in the estimation of a lot of people in racing Australia wide.’
EDITOR’S NOTE: THE author of this email will be pleased to read this report in THE AGE today by LAURA BANKS where it has to be said ‘sanity appears to have prevailed’ over ‘political pressure.’
RACING Victoria will stand by its decision not to allow flamboyant bookmaker Rob Waterhouse to work the rails at Warrnambool's May carnival next week, despite calls from the Premier, Denis Napthine, to re-think the ruling.
In an 11th-hour plea, Warrnambool Racing Club and Napthine urged RVL and the Victorian Bookmakers Association to overturn their decision, saying the colourful bookie would attract additional punters through the gates and to the betting ring.
But RVL chief executive Bernard Saundry said while the organisation was open to discussions with WRC and the VBA about upgrading the bookmaking status of the 2015 carnival to that of metropolitan meetings, it would not change the status of this year’s carnival.
''Such a decision requires appropriate consultation with all parties and is not something that we could consider on the eve of this year’s carnival,'' Saundry said.
''Racing Victoria has an agreed policy with the Victorian Bookmakers Association, which affords priority to those bookmakers who have stood at the racecourse in the previous 12 months.''
He said RVL was not prepared to parachute one bookmaker in at the expense of those who have worked at country meetings throughout the season.
''Since being granted his own Victorian licence last November, Mr Waterhouse has stood at three Victorian meetings, all in metropolitan Melbourne,'' Saundry said.
''There are nine other licensed bookmakers that have applied for - and missed out on - a stand at next week’s Warrnambool carnival because demand was greater than the stands available.
''Mr Waterhouse has been treated no differently to them in reaching this decision.''
Waterhouse, the husband of trainer Gai Waterhouse, told Fairfax Media he had applied for other meetings but without success.
He said he and his wife would attend this year’s carnival despite the decision but may not return to Warrnambool again.
''The decision is no fault of the Warrnambool Racing Club, they have bent over backwards to help us. Gai has commitments at Warrnambool for this year’s carnival and she will fulfil them,'' Waterhouse said.
''I’ve just felt it’s very disappointing that I will not be allowed to work on the rails at the carnival because of the ruling from Racing Victoria.
''I would say if the ruling is not changed by next year, this will be the last Warrnambool May carnival that we will be attending. It’s disappointing because we just loved last year’s carnival, it’s the best country carnival in Australia.''
It is believed Waterhouse held more than $80,000 in bets on one day at last year’s carnival. The bets included $30,000 on-course and more than $50,000 in phone bets from across Australia while he worked on his son Tom’s stand.
Napthine said his role as racing minister was to champion the best interests of racing in Victoria and believed ''colourful'' bookmaker Waterhouse was a draw-card.
''I am aware that what we need in racing is to do everything we can to attract people to the track and attract them to the betting ring,'' he said.
''It would be a win-win for all bookmakers rather than [punters] having a bet on their phones or staying home and having a bet with corporate bookmakers that aren’t even at the track.''
Saundry said while RVL welcomed both Waterhouse’s and Napthine’s interest in the Warrnambool carnival it did not believe that Waterhouse’s presence in the main bookmaking ring would have a profound effect on the success of the three-day event.
“So we’re not of the opinion that the club is at a disadvantage with this decision,” he said.
WRC chief executive John Green said he was disheartened with the decision.
''It’s just disappointing, the club tries to act within the objective of Racing Victoria to provide racing facilities of the highest excellence and we believe Mr Waterhouse does that in a bookmaker sense,'' Green said.
Green said he would continue talks with RVL in the hope of having the guidelines changed for the 2015 carnival.
''The carnival attracts in excess of 27,000 people over three days of country racing, which is well over the capacity of most metro meetings,''
He said the Warrnambool carnival was Australia’s premier regional racing carnival and there was a ''good case'' for it to be upgraded to metropolitan status.
NEW SOUTH WALES
MILLIONAIRE BREEDERS THE BIG WINNERS OF THE COURT DECISION IN AI CASE 
ONE of the big winners to emerge from The Championships has been John Messara – not only was the concept largely his brainchild but he also shared in the obscenely extravagant stakes paid as an owner of It’s A Dundeel winner of the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Not everyone in racing is a fan of the prominent owner-breeder and boss of the Australian Racing Board and Racing NSW as this email from a Victorian contributor – one of several received – seems to suggest.
‘AS a regular visitor to your website I get to read the column written by Terry Butts who I have never heard of. Having said that, I wish to congratulate him as the only racing writer in this country prepared to call a spade a spade where The Championships is concerned.
Not only has Butts expressed the opinion of many rank and file owners like myself who believe that prizemoney should be spread across the board rather than poured into one big race but he has also stopped short of giving John Messara a giant lick-over like most of his colleagues, especially those who are Sydney based.
Butts has rightly pointed out how the multi millionaire breeders in this country – and from overseas with racing and breeding interests in Australia – are the big winners of the court ruling in the AI case. Messara is one of them.
He was quick to highlight the fact that the Queen Elizabeth – won by a horse which Messara owns in Its A Dundeel – would have been the same spectacle and arguably attracted the same crowd and just as good a field had the stakes been $1 million instead of $4 million.
Butts was correct in stating this sort of money could have been better circulated to struggling NSW clubs where trainers are closing up and walking away from the industry – despite all the propaganda you will read from Messara and his mate Peter V’Landys how the court victory over the corporate bookmakers has spelt untold riches for the industry. They just forget to mention it has only been enjoyed by a privileged few.
And as for the AI decision, the judge ruled in favour of the multi-millionaire breeders like Messara who are now running racing in this country. Even the Racing Queensland Chairman Kevin Dixon is a former studmaster and from what I am told the breeders get a very good deal under his leadership in the north. As Butts said ‘Messara, the Arabs and UK bloodstock conglomerates already have far too much say in t he racing industry – an industry that quite frankly has its back to the wall. Some might say an industry sadly suffering the effects of elitism - a plague our forefathers would never have tolerated.’
EDITOR’S NOTE: AS a postscript to the AI decision, I felt this column item by MAX PRESNALL in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD this week was worth reproducing.
BRUCE McHugh, once the bastion of bookmaking boldness, lost more in the courts than he ever did jousting with Kerry Packer, including turnover tax.
Last week, three appellant judges unanimously rejected McHugh’s claim that artificial insemination rules were a restraint of trade after Justice Robertson had earlier found them not anti-competitive.
Thus, the Australian Rules of Racing allowing only naturally conceived horses to be bred and raced as thoroughbreds remains.
Some figure the $6.5 million to $4 million bet by Packer on Myocard, most of which was held by McHugh, in the 1987 Sydney Cup was the biggest bet in racing history.
Myocard was beaten a half-length by Major Drive, part-owned by Packer. Due to Packer plunging on the three-year-old, Major Drive eased alarmingly in the betting to the degree chief steward John Schreck sent a message to Greg Hall, rider of Major Drive, that he was under close surveillance.
Packer copped losing the millions sweeter than the action by Schreck, and called Jim Bell, the AJC chairman, to his mansion to give him a personal dressing down for the impertinence.
Even before last week’s result, McHugh, a former Sydney Turf chairman, had put far more into the racing industry than he had taken out.
THE NARCS HAVE THEIR SAY ON CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
NO APOLOGIES FOR STANDING BY OUR MATE ‘MOODS’ – PERHAPS THE TRUTH HURTS 
LETSGOHORSERACING makes no apologies for being long-time mates of Peter Moody and suggestions that we are not prepared to be critical of him over the ‘stable keys’ issue are wide of the mark.
Some readers have taken us to task and suggest we should publish the real story of ‘how off-side’ big Pete is with many of his training colleagues over comments he made about them.
Our response to that is ‘possibly the truth hurts’ as it does when we criticize colleagues in the racing media, especially in Queensland where in our opinion many are not prepared to criticize largely because history shows there is no future as a racing writer for them if they do their jobs properly.
But to appease those who are keen to give Moody a swift kick in the guts while he is supposedly vulnerable on the controversy that seems to have been resolved in Victoria, here is what the Racing Bitch (out of Hong Kong) had to say on the issue and he wasn’t very nice to our mate Pete.
‘WE admire his unbridled passion and even went to bat for him when he first cut loose and whacked everyone in sight but the more we went back and listened to that initial rant, it all dissipated into bizarre, irrational and comical mutterings from Peter Moody.
Going on and on and on about the same thing has become b-o-r-i-n-g and is coming across as showboating or else someone “having a Howard Beale Moment”.
We have one piece of advice for Pete: Get a locksmith to cut a set of keys for the gates at your Melbourne stables and give them over to the Stewards as quickly as Black Caviar’s unforgettable exploits down the Flemington straight in your adopted home town of Melbourne.
Pete, if the response from the trainers and some of your Melbourne colleagues at the sales in Sydney is any guide, you’re making an arse of yourself by repeating and repeating about “lack of balls”, being “yellow”, being let down by the “spineless”, the keys to your kingdom, being the master of your domain.
Mate, you’re the only man on the island, and don’t think that the shipwreck approaching you is going to provide you with any company.
The problem for you, Pete, is that you have- again- not understood when to rein it in and when not to go on and on and on half-cocked- but with no one in the henhouse supporting your turn as racing’s Longhorn Foghorn.
From what we hear, just about every major Melbourne trainer has provided Melbourne’s racing police with access to their stables to enable stewards to conduct stable inspections to wipe out any “cheats” in the industry down there in bleak city.
Obviously- and faced with this uncomfortable and inconvenient truth- Moody took to the Melbourne airwaves of RSN on Wednesday morning, and slammed his “yellow” and “spineless colleagues” for failing to come out publicly in support of him. And he has been singing this same old song ever since.
Bad move, Pete.
Who in heaven’s name is advising you, if indeed anyone is?
Tony Blair? Alfred E Neuman? Hulk Hogan?
Slamming your colleagues who have privately expressed their support for you, but, for reasons best known to them, and, perhaps, very legitimately, have decided not to make public statements adding more flames to the fire you have lit of your own accord, is tres, tres ordinaire- and sounding more desperate than the most desperate housewife.
Spraying bullets indiscriminately at your mates and colleagues like Tony Montana on Bolivian marching powder, says it all.
Then, there was the personal and public attack on Melbourne Racing Club Chairman Mike Symons- your landlord at Caulfield- for backing the stewards’ policy, which doesn’t help either.
We don’t know Symons personally or as well as you do, but we know from his public utterances that he is a passionate racing person and a very smart racing administrator.
Does it matter that he wears Armani shoes or suits?
Don’t the majority of your “big” owners fit into that category?
Or are you going to check the maker of your client’s clothing attire before taking them on?
So why the sudden theatrics and hysterics, Pete?
It’s all become tiresome and as meaningless as Barbara Billingsley talking jive. Hmmmm.
Didn’t you handle the “Chinese whispers” being spread by your former “bestie” with the contempt they deserved by refusing to speak publicly on his betrayal?
So what’s REALLY going on right here and now, Pete?
Surely, you have nothing to hide by allowing the racing police access to your stables just like most of your fellow leading trainers have done?
Mate, you are not and have never, ever been above the laws of racing.
If you have a problem accepting that simple principle, then being a licensed person is not for you.
If you can’t sign up to a level playing field, then don’t expect the regulators to make an exception for you because you “once trained Black Caviar”.
And please don’t give us that pathetic bullshit through the media about how much you have done for racing.
Does this mean that you should be treated differently when it comes to a level playing field?
Imagine if you put on such a hissy fit in Hong Kong where we reckon you would still like to train: You’d be riding off singing Vaya Con Dios or that great Moody Blues’ classic called Go Now.
Pete, like many in racing, we, too, are sick and tired of the petty politics being played and which is holding the industry back and only helping it go backwards. And as for playing politics, you are way out of your league.
You have neither the intellect nor guile to play politics- and the more you play the martyr, the more you come across as Martha and one has to wonder if it only makes the hole deeper.
To use a cricketing analogy, you are a backyarder, mate- and a bloody bad one at that.
Pete, you left kindergarten a long time ago and to use terminology which you should understand, stop fucking sooking and concentrate on training winners – Group Ones at that as those halcyon days of Black Caviar are part of a very distant memory in the racing world where one is only as good as their last winner’.
‘IT’S A DUNNY DEEL’ FOR THE ‘NOBODY’S’ OF RACING IN THIS COUNTRY SAYS THIS READER 
THIS interesting email from a long-time follower of racing in New South Wales might not win too many friends but it is indeed thought-provoking:
FIRST HAND – Good luck to John Messara and his supporters for picking up the thick end of a $4 million race last Saturday. The Government-backed funding that contributed to the particular race would have come from the pockets of battlers to multi millionaires. The mind boggles at the number of bottles of wine this financial backing could have purchased?
SECOND HAND – I have never been in the situation, touch wood, that young Mrs Nathan Berry nee Schofield finds herself in with the passing of her hubby of just eight weeks. It is dreadful and I feel deeply for her even thought I had never heard of her until her wedding.
I note they have opened up a Nathan Berry Trust Fund to help in research into the cause of Norse Syndrome which caused Nathan’s death. Further, it is reported that the Fund is also being made available to the widow in her hour of need. Good luck to her, she will need all the support she can muster.
THIRD HAND – I also read where two children aged four and five were wandering up a main road in a country town in NSW a couple of weeks back. When asked what they were doing they said something along the lines of: “Our daddy has been hit by a train”. He was a Mr Nobody who rode a bit of trackwork at the local racecourse so he could feed his kids.
He was left to do his best with these two young ones that he could. I am certain that there isn’t any argument that these two little ones didn’t ask to come into this world.
YOU BE THE JUDGE
I would like your readers to ponder which ‘HAND’ they would like to be dealt with in life?
HAND No 1: Five ‘Aces’ (yeah I know there are only four in a deck but life isn’t always fair either.)
HAND No 2: Here we have a young lass in the prime of life with more cash support than 80% racing folk and a loving family to help her over her bad times. A Trust Fund being formed to help her, I assume financially, and more importantly funding for research into the cause of Nathan’s death.
HAND No 3: Sorry kids – your Dad was a Mr Nobody – do your best.
Life is cruel and I can only thank the good Lord for the life I have been given – what’s left of it.
NOT TO WORRY THE NEW HIGHLY PAID CONSULTANT RACING MANAGER WILL FIX IT 
THIS interesting email was received from an interstate owner with horses heading to Queensland for the carnival:
‘I find it simply astounding that in 2014, where all walks of life are automated, computerized and accurate to a hundredth of a millimetre, that Racing Queensland appears to be slow.
If you go to the Thoroughbred Racing Queensland website to nominate your horse for this year’s BTC Cup, it asks you to send your details to Stephen Ferguson, CEO of the Brisbane Racing Carnival.
It then provides his email address etc.
What if someone didn’t know Ferguson was no longer in the job at the BTC, replaced by Dave Whimpey?
Would their nomination be null and void because it was incorrectly addressed?
Would it be accepted at all?
Would it reach its destination if it was sent to an email address of a CEO long gone?
There is simply no excuse for such incompetence at the sharp end of management of all nominations and entries for races in Queensland.
Simply astounding!’
EDITOR’S NOTE: PERHAPS you should address your complaint to the newly-appointed, highly paid consultant who is now the new Racing Manager at the BRC. I haven't any doubt the noms would reach the right quarters but it's still not good enough for any club – let alone a major one.
THE CHAMPIONSHIPS WON’T BLOW WIND UP THE BACKSIDE OF THE SPRING CARNIVAL 
‘I was interested to read the article posted by the Fairfax reporter, Chris Roots, on the great success of the recent Sydney Championships series.
As far as I am concerned any initiative by any racing body to improve the industry should be applauded.
The rave reviews received from the very pro Sydney turf journalists on the outstanding success of the carnival leaves me a little bemused.
Sure there was some terrific racing – none any better as far as I am concerned.
With some fine tuning I dare say that within the next five to 10 years the carnival could be knocking of the door as a ‘top dog’.
However, to me at least, the Sydney reporters are going past what is called The Point of Sale. In other words they are trying too hard to please Mr Messara.
One interesting observation that caught my eye was a discussion between two characters on ‘who had the biggest and the best – Sydney or Melbourne’.
As things heated up one character told the second that Sydney’s top attendance was about 25,000, half of which were from Melbourne. He went on to say that in Melbourne they get 25,000 to turn up to ‘the opening of an envelope’.
I am not certain that autumn (the twilight of life) will ever outshine the spring (the beginning).
Interesting to say the least!’
QUOTE OF THE RACING WEEK - not that one about all the odds-on favorites that went down in Queensland over Easter: 
JOHN Wheeler, an institution at the Oakbank Carnival at Easter in South Australia, was interviewed on RSN in Melbourne at the weekend:
WHAT makes this carnival such a success story?
WHEELER: I don’t know. It’s different. On the Monday the crowd lines up to get in from five and six in the morning. By nine the joint is packed. By the time the second race comes around just about everyone is pissed.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IN THE MAINSTREAM RACING MEDIA
AUSTRALIAN RACING COULD LEARN FROM THIS ENGLISH BACKWATER 
MAJOR race days aside - and that tends to mean the blockbusters of the Melbourne spring and Sydney autumn carnivals - Australian racecourses seem to have problems in attracting fans to ordinary meetings.
MICHAEL LYNCH reports for FAIRFAX MEDIA that for all but the minority, racing is clearly a wagering based sport, and the growth in sports betting and the explosion of other sport and entertainment options over the past 30 years mean it is unlikely to ever hold the once prominent position it did, hence the drop-off in patronage.
However if officials are looking for ways to boost attendances, especially on nondescript "industry turnover" days, they could do worse than take a look at the way a provincial English racecourse, Towcester, does things.
The track is in the middle of an estate in Northamptonshire owned by Lord Hesketh - once of formula one fame - and some 100 kilometres north of London, so it is hardly close to the metropolis.
Yet when I went there one day in early April for what could at best be described as a bread and butter meeting I was surprised by the numbers in attendance, the number of bookies in operation and the feel-good factor around the place.
There were no star horses on display - hardly surprising when on an eight-race card the biggest prize purse was around $6000 for a couple of handicap steeplechases over 3200 metres plus. In fact the rest of the programme comprised of a couple of maiden mares hurdle races, a low class handicap hurdle and a maiden race for hunter chasers - horses whose primary function is to hunt with the hounds during the winter and run under official rules in the spring. Hardly back page lead material.
Sure, Leighton Aspell, who had won the biggest race of the year, the Grand National the previous Saturday, was there (he rode a double), as well as Tom Scudamore, who had been one of the most successful riders this year at the season defining Cheltenham Festival.
But they were hardly enough to draw what officials estimated was a crowd of around 5000 for an ordinary Thursday afternoon meeting.
The key to Towcester's popularity lies in its pricing policy - or its lack thereof.
Admission to the racecourse, in attractive countryside but close enough to major motorways, is free, and that seems to hold the key.
Several people I spoke to said they had come because they knew they would have a good day out and the fact that they didn't have to shell out the equivalent of $15 or $20 to get in meant that they could start the day in front.
There were an encouraging number of families with young children - surely the target market racing needs to attract if it is to build a following for the future.
As one parent with a couple of under sevens told me: "Because we don't have to pay to enter we have more money to spend on the inevitable drinks and snacks for the kids, and for ourselves - and maybe have a little left over if we want to have a bet."
That certainly seemed to be the case judging by the number of bookies at work in a reasonably competitive ring. When people get into a place like Towcester for nothing, they tend to spend more in the bars and on racecourse catering and probably bet a few dollars more than they would have if they had to pay to get in.
Also the course - as do several other smaller meetings in the UK - seems to tap into the local market and attract a good proportion of nearby residents, even on a working weekday.
Would it work in Australia? There have been a handful of attempts to draw crowds, with late starts, early starts, twilight racing and night racing.
It seems the most sensitive thing of all is the price point - and the way people feel about a local amenity, certainly if my Thursday afternoon excursion out of London is any guide.
One young lad mending the fences between races summed it up. "We always seem to get a decent crowd, even to meetings like this. We have had to actually charge at a few of the most popular ones, just to try and keep the crowds down. At Easter one year when it was free we were turning people away."
AMAZING HORSEMANSHIP SAVED FELLOW LADY RIDER FROM FALLING 
LIBBY Hopwood is surprised by the attention her amazing horsemanship and sportsmanship at Oakbank on Saturday has received.
LINCOLN MOORE reports in the ADELAIDE ADVERTISER that Hopwood saved fellow rider Holly McKechnie from falling from Miss Joolia shortly after the start of the Triple M Handicap, a gentle shove keeping McKechnie aboard her horse.
“I’m surprised by how much it’s blown up to be honest,’’ Hopwood said having been inundated with messages of her heroics.
“I looked across and could see Holly was in trouble and I just tried to help,’’ she added.
“It all happened very quickly, it was a matter of a few strides and we were back racing.’’
McKechnie and Miss Joolia regained composure, the favourite winding up in fourth place after the early incident and Hopwood said McKechnie was quick to thank her for her efforts..
“Holly was very happy after the race.’’
Hopwood, the former Dux of the SA Apprentice Academy, has enjoyed a good run in the saddle riding regularly for leading trainer Tony McEvoy and said riding trackwork at Murray Bridge had been a key factor in her re-establishing herself as a leading rider.
“It’s starting to get to where I want things,’’ Hopwood added.
“I just have to translate the rides to town.’’
“Riding work at Murray Bridge has been the turning point in my career.’’
“The Murray Bridge people are very much behind me, it doesn’t matter who I ride a winner for I get messages from people congratulating me.’
“They genuinely want to see me succeed.’’
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the above e-mails should not be interpreted as those of JOHN LINGARD, the owner-editor of the letsgohorseracing web-site. That is why he has added an ‘EDITOR’S NOTE’. Every endeavor is made to verify the authenticity of contributors. We welcome any reasonable and constructive responses from parties or individuals.
