THE WEDNESDAY WHINGE has a new look but won’t be dispensing with the theme and focus on the THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY side of what is happening in racing. The Whinge will continue to provide an opportunity for The Cynics to Have Their Say. Thanks again for your support for the most read column on this website and one of the most read on racing websites in the country. Our popularity continues to grow despite the bagging it cops from some high profile officials, especially in Queensland, who cannot cope with constructive criticism of any kind. We encourage supporters – and critics – to continue to contribute but plan to restrict the Whinge to less than 10 of the best items each week. Our message to those who continually bag us is simple: IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU READ, THEN DON’T REVISIT THE WHINGE.
SHOULD JIM BYRNE HAVE TAKEN A ‘SIT’ AND WHY DIDN’T STEWARDS ASK HIM? 
DENNIS SCOTT of BRISBANE raises an interesting aspect to the controversial race at TOOWOOMBA last Saturday:
‘THERE are a couple of points I would like to debate concerning the two month suspension imposed on Skye Bogenhuber following her ride on Happy Event in the Dalrello Stakes at Toowoomba on Saturday.
Let me say at the outset that it wasn’t a good look with Happy Event ‘attacking’ the heavily backed favorite Love Spy for the lead. Some might argue those tactics would advantage the stablemate of Happy Event in Spot the Diff which ran second.
I am not suggesting that was the case but let’s assume hypothetically that it was, then the plan backfired and played into the hands of the eventual winner Crack Me Up, which, as promising as that youngster is, trainer Liam Birchley conceded after the race he was aided by the fast pace.
Stewards took exception to Bogenhuber allowing Happy Event to stride forward and maintain a fast tempo from the 800m ‘when it was reasonable and permissible to restrain and attempt to maintain a position outside Love Spy’ and that her actions ‘resulted in Happy Event failing to obtain the best possible position’.
Their argument is backed by the sectional times which show they went faster in the first 600m of the two-year-old than the feature Weetwood sprint.
Bogenhuber, with the support of trainer John Zielke and veteran owner Evan Hartley, will argue mitigating circumstances that the tongue tie had been dislodged from Happy Event pre-race or at the start making the filly difficult to restrain.
That aside, the question I would like to raise is this: Why did top jockey Jim Byrne not take a ‘sit’ on Love Spy when it Bogenhuber continued to attack on Happy Event? Granted it was 800m into the race but his decision to fight for the lead had disastrous consequences for those punters who backed the favorite.
It could be argued that the ‘lead’ was rightfully his but Byrne is a smart enough jockey to realize that adopting the tactics that he did would be suicidal. He surely realized that Bogenhuber was having some difficulty controlling her mount. Were these questions put to him at the stewards’ inquiry? One doubts it!
Interestingly, Love Spy was gone on straightening and dropped out to be beaten over 12 lengths, finishing in front of only one other runner. And that wasn’t Happy Event, which despite all the work she did, still managed to finish fifth, six lengths from the winner. That tells me that despite all the whining about being taken on in front Love Spy went abysmally in any case.
Chief Steward Rion Hitchener reportedly told Bogenhuber that the suspension could well have been three months but needed to be a strong one because it was a ‘bad look’ on a metropolitan race day in a feature race.
Sitting alongside Hitchener at the inquiry was Allan Reardon, the Chief of Stewards for Racing Queensland. One wonders what he was thinking about the ‘bad look’ comment considering some of the events – involving much more high profile jockeys than Bogenhuber – that occur on almost a weekly basis on his watch – with next to nothing being said and certainly no such penalties being imposed.
I am no mug punter, in fact I have been around long enough to comment on such matters, and I would argue that there were a couple of rides at Toowoomba on Saturday that went unnoticed which I would certainly have asked fairly prominent jockeys questions about.
But that’s racing in Queensland – hardly a level playing field in the eyes of many – and highlights the need for a broom to be put through the entire stewarding and integrity department.’
CHIEF STEWARD UNDER FIRE AFTER A PUNTER’S NIGHTMARE AT RANDWICK 
ALBY MARTIN of MELBOURNE writes:
‘TAKE a bow, Sherriff Murrihy – if ever there was an indication it is time for you to take that overdue retirement from the Chief Stewards’ job it was the final day of the autumn carnival at Randwick.
Poor rides, form reversals, jockey spats – the day had it all – but when the dust had settled the only losers were – as per usual – the poor old punters.
It started with a massive form reversal when Unknown Destiny, which ran last at Scone at its previous start, stormed home to win after being heavily backed in from long odds. Questions were asked but the trainer was unable to provide any explanation for the poor performance. Action taken? Zilch!
One could argue that two of the riding stars of Sydney racing had a day off. James Macdonald for some reason decided to press forward on the heavily backed Old North in the Packer Plate and was found vulnerable and run down. He then managed to get lost on Pearls in the Carr Stakes. Anyone who follows the form would have expected Old North to be ridden more quietly and Pearls with a little more aggression.
The pathetic Sydney racing scribes were too busy waxing lyrical about Lady Gai’s Group 1 success with English in the All Aged Stakes to mention how poorly her fancy Speak Fondly performed in the Hall Mark (it did however pull up lame).
I saved the best or worst for last – the ride of Hugh Bowman on Press Statement in the All Aged Stakes. He decided to sit out in no man’s land and the result was inevitable a long way from home. Bowman told stewards he didn’t want to make too much early use of the horse to go forward and lead. Despite travelling three deep he felt the colt was disappointing – so disappointing in fact that the three-year-old has been retired to stud.
Just another Chris Waller trained success story that little will be made of. For a champion trainer he gets the results – but why wouldn’t he with the number that roll off the assembly line – not to mention the form reversals, wins by stable second strings and number that are sent for a spell when stewards question how badly they went when well backed but the ‘champion’ trainer cannot find an explanation.
Once upon a time Ray Murrihy was regarded as the No 1 steward in the country. Punters admired him. Now, as Sydney racing degenerates into a joke on and off the track, they can’t wait for him to hang up his hat.’
‘RACING HEADED FOR ANOTHER DISASTER IF INTEGRITY BILL IS DEFEATED’ 
MAX UNDERWOOD of the SUNSHINE COAST made this contribution:
‘CAN someone tell me where racing in Queensland is heading if the Integrity Bill being debated in Parliament this week is defeated as expected.
The tip is the independents will support the Opposition and torpedo Labor plans to change the face of racing – for better or worse – but would you want to count on the votes of the Katter Australia Party until they have actually been delivered?
The way most of us see it is this. Yet another costly Racing Inquiry, this one headed by a bloke called MacSporran, recommends changes to the way appointments are made to the control bodies that run the three codes in an effort to dispense with the conflict of interests that dogged previous Boards that were chaired by Messrs Bentley and Dixon.
Now this all ran off the back of that disgusting expose of the living baiting that had been going on at the greyhounds since who knows when and probably still is. They had to blame someone so, apart from those licensed persons caught in the act giving their dog a munch on some poor possum or piglet, the Boards running the three codes were all given the chop. What it had to do with the gallops and ‘red hots’, God only knows.
The axe should have dropped first and foremost on the Greyhound Board where one member apparently even admitted he knew of ‘live kills’ in a telephone call with a prominent official. This bloke is still bleating about being thrown under the bus. He’s lucky no further action has been taken against him. It should have been.
Then, of course, we had the stewards and integrity departments who failed to act on the ‘live baiting’ despite, according to some reports, being told by numerous individuals that it was going on. Rather than sack the Chief Steward responsible for dog racing at the time he winds up getting promoted to Acting Head of Integrity for RQ – work that one out! And by the way what does he actually do every day of the week to earn that preposterous salary he is being paid and can someone please assure the industry that his job is ‘acting’ and not ‘permanent’.
Whilst the Board appointment process and the running of integrity should be well and truly separated it seems that both are linked under this new Bill and if it gets buried by the LNP and their cross bench ‘mates’ this week, racing will be back to Groundhog Day in Queensland.
The industry will be no closer to having a Board in place. Racing Minister Grace Grace will be forced to bid adieu to her good mate Steve Wilson who will be the shortest lived acting RQ Chairman in history. And that mightn't be a bad thing.
And what happens to plans for a new Integrity Unit. Well racing in Queensland continues to stagger along like a rudderless ship with Jamie Dart firing blanks in the Integrity Department and Allan Reardon going through the motions of his pre-retirement role at Chairman of RQ Stewards. Little wonder punters have got no confidence in the product in the Sunshine State. And that’s without even delving into the inadequacies of that rank failure UBET.
So what do we do – leave the three codes bundled into one, let stewarding and integrity stagger along finding the odd small fish to fry to keep it looking like they are doing a fine job, return to the situation of club representation on Boards where depending on how influential you are, it’s a matter of ‘fuck the industry overall, I’m looking after my own backyard.’
One thing’s for sure – if you really want to know what the future holds for racing in Queensland just check out the hopes and dreams of ‘trots king’ Kev Seymour. His men and women in the political and industry bunkers will have been working feverishly to ensure what the big man wants the big man gets.
Story goes that will start with a return to a separation of the codes – and you can bet the conditions will ensure that harness racing doesn’t have to stand on its own two feet. Of course, there’ll be a major new track development in the pipeline – probably down Yatala way with a conditional sale of Albion Park to you know who.
What about the gallops you said? Well, as usual, they will get what they deserve for sitting back and letting this happen for decades now. And they reckon that idea of Bentley’s of having the trots and dogs under one banner at Deagon and shipping the gallops silver tails out had no merit. Who's kidding who?’
‘BLEATING BREEDERS HAVE HAD THINGS TOO GOOD FOR FAR TOO LONG’ 
STUART WILLS of the DARLING DOWNS, a regular contributor to the WHINGE, sent this email:
‘IF there is one group in the racing industry that many other stakeholders believe have had it ‘too good, for too long’ it is the breeders.
There are many who believe that the breeders consider themselves elitist to the rest of us poor plebs who keep the wheels of racing turning.
Now that they are being asked by Racing Australia to abide by the same Rules of Racing as the rest of us they are strongly resistant to change. Which poses the question, WHY?
Racing Australia is proposing that a new condition will be added to mare returns to the Australian Stud Book. When breeders sign off on a mare return they will be required to tick a box in order to have that foal accepted into the Stud Book which reads:
“As a condition of my participation in the Australian Stud Book and the admission of horse(s) owned by me to the Australian Stud Book, I will comply and be bound by the Australian Rules of Racing and the local rules, regulations, bylaws and conditions of the Principal Racing Authority in the State or Territory in which I reside”.
One has to question why the Breeders would want to resist falling into line with Rules of Racing that apply to everyone else participating in this great industry.
Interestingly, the change that would see a more level playing field for all stakeholders, is being driven by Racing Australia which is headed by one of their own, prominent breeder John Messara.
It came as no surprise that one of the first groups to whinge would be one of the least successful on the breeding scene in this country, the poorly performed Queensland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.
Their enigmatic chairman Basil Nolan, who does more somersaults on political issues than former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, is aghast at the proposed change. Don’t hold your breath, he’s just as likely to change his mind overnight. Poor Basil always has something to bleat about.
Rather than me rant on about why I think there should be change to bring the breeders into line with the rest of the stakeholders in racing, I would request that you reproduce the following article by the Racing Bitch, out of Hong Kong, which is one of the best sources of commentary on all things racing in Australia.
It reads:
THE strong and vocal opposition by the breeding sector to proposed moves by Racing Australia to bring them under the control of the rules of racing, similar to all licensed persons, threatens to escalate into another all out brawl, which Australian racing can do without.
If there was a caste system in racing, then the breeders would regard themselves as ‘high caste’ – elitist and demanding respect and kinda worthy of being almost above the rules of racing. Their compliance with protocols, rules and regulations would never be open to question. They are racing’s very own self-styled law abiding citizens. To bring them under the same rules under which trainers, jockeys, strappers – aka all licensed persons- would be demeaning. Would you dare call the Queen, Betty Windsor?
So it was somewhat baffling that Racing Australia, whose Chairman, John “the Messiah” Messara, is the “emperor” of the elitist Hunter Valley breeders, with the support of Racing NSW, which, unsurprisingly, he also Chairs, is proposing such a groundbreaking change to herd Australian breeders under their expanding tent.
According to Les Young, a well-known racing and breeding identity, writing in The Sportsman: “issues of transparency in the ownership of horses and welfare were advanced as the reasons behind the Racing Australia initiative”. Young states that the Thoroughbred Breeders Association had pointed out to Racing Australia that the breeders had already agreed on providing greater transparency in identifying the owners of horses sold at auction and planned to appoint welfare officers to identify any equine welfare problems. But as with most changes of great magnitude, there are always deeper motives and agendas and many stakeholder groups are becoming increasingly wary of such self-serving agendas from regulators.
It is however difficult to argue why the breeding sector should not be subject to operating within the same rules, and answerable to the regulators as other participant groups licensed do in the provision of services, charging fees for those services and deriving incomes from racing. Rules introduced in recent times banning the use of steroids out of competition, and in boosting the physical appearance of yearlings being prepared for sales, together with an x-ray repository of yearlings at sales, is a recognition that the integrity of the breeding sector needed to be addressed and tightened up. And not before time. The breeders cannot and should not be treated as a “protected species”.
But Racing Australia needs to go a lot further in addressing some glaring anomalies under which the breeders operate, comparative to other stakeholder groups. The entire sales process falls unacceptably short of even some of the basic requirements and standards of transparency. Like the real estate and property sector, it is in desperate need of regulation to address dummy bidding commonly used to artificially inflate the prices of yearlings. And what about the common practice of breeders “buying back” into their yearlings in pre-arranged deals with bidding trainers and agents?
And what about the long-forgotten Breeders Levy, long promised but gathering dust somewhere in the archives of Druitt Street? If Racing Australia is serious about enhancing the integrity of the breeding sector and establishing a level playing field for all industry participant groups and stakeholders, then they need to do a lot more than getting breeders to tick a box agreeing for them to be bound by the Rules of Racing.’
EDITOR’S NOTE: HERE’S an update on the above – a story written overnight by DANNY RUSSELL of the HERALD-SUN which reads: 
RACING Australia has rejected claims that a proposal to bring horse breeders under the rules of racing was a power grab.
Racing Australia chief executive Peter McGauran (photographed by the Sydney Morning Herald) said reforms being floated by the board were all about welfare and integrity.
McGauran said it was unacceptable in the modern era that there was no regulating authority for foals until they were registered to race.
He said the reforms would allow the industry to know who owned a horse from birth, who was responsible for its welfare and the conditions under which it was housed and cared for.
“Moreover we want to know the fate or destination of the some 3000 thoroughbreds born each year which are not registered as race horses,” McGauran said.
But Thoroughbred Breeders of Australia president Basil Nolan called the proposal a power grab by a body that was totally unaccountable.
He said breeding was a primary industry and separate to racing.
“It is as if the butchers suddenly decided they wanted to regulate farmers,’’ he told RSN927.
Nolan said the new rules would be completely irrelevant to breeders.
“All recent scandals involving thoroughbreds have involved racing and not breeding so it’s important for us to maintain we’re separate industries,” he said.
McGauran said Racing Australia had great confidence and belief in the Australian breeding industry. But he said it was “delving into the ridiculous if you think in the competitive animal sports you don’t have to answer for all horses”.
“We are being proactive,” he said.
Racing Australia’s proposal will be considered by each principal racing authority over the coming weeks.
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.
