GALLOPERS PUNTING EDITORIALS

Track Conditions
Misleading & Deceptive?

Now Gallopers make their living out of the racing game, and enjoy almost every minute of it. However there are some issues that annoy us to the extent of complete distraction. One is the constant mismanagement, bordering on being misleading & deceptive of track conditions given out by some officials.

Section 52 (1) of the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974 reads:-

"A corporations shall not in trade or commerce engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive, or is likely to mislead or deceive."

Some, we repeat some, and not all, race clubs and officials should read this excerpt carefully before next publishing track conditions for their race meetings. Dead tracks being officially rated as good, slow tracks being officially rated as dead, heavy tracks being officially rated as slow, and sometimes even heavy tracks being given out as dead.

This occurs not only during the winter months when rain affects tracks regularly, this happens throughout the year, almost becoming habitual by some clubs.

There are obvious reasons and benefits for clubs to give out a better track rating than actually exists. Turnover, pure and simple. Some punters will not bet on heavy to slow racing surfaces, officials know this, so some will endeavour to dupe punters by giving out false track readings on the morning of the race. Then at some stage during the afternoon they will downgrade the track reading after  a majority of punters have already placed their bets believing the track is far better than it actually is. Other race club officials who prefer to treat punters with complete and utter contempt, simply don't even bother about a downgrade, they leave the track conditions as they were initially given out even though it is clear the official rating is incorrect.

The problem for race clubs is they survive on turnover so they have budgeted for a certain amount of revenue for each meeting. Should track conditions be heavy on the day of their meeting, then it is unlikely the club will obtain their budgeted revenue from turnover for that meeting. However, if the track is heavy and the official reading is only slow, the club will not lose at much revenue from turnover as some punters who won't bet on heavy tracks will bet on slow tracks, so the budgeted deficit will be lower.

We did see an excellent piece of administration at Eagle Farm on Oaks day of 2010. There had been plenty of rain around Brisbane in the lead up to the meeting however the previous two days had been fine and sunny. The track reading was officially put out as a dead (4) on the morning of the meeting, with a proviso that an upgrade was likely even before the first race should no more rain fall and the drying winds prevailed. This is the sort of information punters want. And all officials should take a lead here. More punters will bet on meetings when information such as this is given out on race morning. The track was indeed upgraded, the racing played fairly and all punters win lose or draw were at least comfortable in the knowledge they were given a fair go by racing officialdom.

Alas, all clubs are not as informative as the BRC were on this occasion. Some, in our opinion deliberately give out incorrect track conditions to mislead punters. So punters must be aware that this may occur.

Gallopers advice to punters for all race meetings is exactly the same. Watch the first couple of races, then make an informed decision as to whether the official track conditions are correct, and whether any track bias prevails, before having a bet.

If punters see a track given out as dead, then after watching a race or two it is obviously slow bordering on heavy, they should make a note of the track for future reference to be wary of betting at this track before knowing the true conditions.

Punters are punters, most want to have a bet, however the best way to turn them away to other forms of gambling is to mislead or deceive them. This is an integrity issue as much as ensuring all horses are given every opportunity to finish in the best possible position in a race.

If punters are confident track readings are accurate, they will bet on races rain, hail or shine. If punters are unsure whether track conditions are truly accurate, they will look to other ways of spending their gambling $$$$.

It is every race club's responsibility to look after the punters and ensure they are not being mislead by false track reports.

Gallopers