The Sunday Afternoon “Finish On”

FRIDAY'S Brisbane Cup win by WA star Elite Machine powered his career earnings beyond $1m and maintained an unbeaten record at Albion Park.

There was no fluke about the win, he'd won his heat in a slick 29.68 which followed a 29.78 win seven days earlier.

On reflection, it's remarkable that Elite Machine was able to outpace fellow Sandgroper Crumble Monelli early in the Brisbane Cup as the latter has run quicker sections at Cannington over 520m than Elite Machine – ‘horses for courses' as they say!

ELITE MACHINE is your 2023 $1M @SkyRacingAU Group 1 Brisbane Cup champion!

And then there was the gritty effort by Kiwi expat Postman Pat.

A slow start from box eight was Kryptonite for the son of Hooked On Scotch yet he stuck to the task so impressively to finish second – his first defeat in eight starts on these shores.

While connections missed out on a stunning $650,000 winner's purse, $160,000 for second was a decent consolation and, when back in Melbourne, the riches on offer in spring loom large.

Beaten yes, yet Postman Pat's stocks may have lifted a notch with this never-say-die offering at the elite level.

The other aspect to the Brisbane Winter Carnival which flies under the radar is the swabbing regime of the Queensland Racing and Integrity Commission.

Something like 46 pre-race and post race swabs in addition to hair testing samples were taken for dogs engaged at the July 7 meeting at Albion Park.

Surely that's a record.

REGULATION

A strategic move by the ACT Government to, from July 1, increase their Betting Operations Tax (referred to as a Point of Consumption Tax elsewhere) to 25 per cent – the highest in the land got this writer mindlessly looking at other jurisdictions regulation.

One quite mind-numbing (but hardly surprising) offering out of Western Australia comes from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries which sets out WA minimum bet limits.

The example below refers to bookies which have an annual turnover of less than $3m (very few in that category you would think) and it surely has been drafted by a public servant with no idea about placing a wager.

It says: … "a win bet must be accepted to not exceed the amount set out in the below table for each race type."

And here's the table:

For this writer, the way the rules are structured, WA seeks to limit the amount a punter can wager – not win – on a single bet.

Are you with me?

Or does it mean that the bet must be struck to the limit if, initially, the punter exceeded that limit?

Maybe this is a poorly crafted document and a correction might be coming yet there are aspects further along the document which rogue bookies (and there are a number) continue to breach but are never taken to task due to the complexity and effort required regarding making a complaint to the regulator and this is how it looks:

The domestic betting operator must not do any act or refuse to do any act to avoid complying with minimum bet limits including but not limited to:

* refusing to accept a fixed odds bet * closing a person's account * refusing to open a person's account * placing any restrictions on a person's account * refusing to lay fixed odds to any person * laying lesser odds to a person * any other act or refusal to do an act in order to avoid complying with minimum bet limits.

The conga line of punters who have been ‘handled' by the seven aforementioned breaches would be Hume Highway long if properly measured across the land yet individuals have little to no advocacy.

The real issue is that the regulators don't regulate. How about protecting the punter boys and not your own bottom line?

EOFY

Now that the numbers have been crunched, here's a quick perspective of each greyhound racing jurisdiction for the past 12 months.

Next week, I'll delve a little deeper into the historical allocation of funds back to industry yet, for example, Queensland Racing has lifted total prize money from $12.6m in 2017/18 to $33.2m for the recent 12 months.

Victoria is up from $37.7m while NSW has doubled prizemoney allocations from $23.2m.

The spends (above and below) does not include starters fees, travel allowances or breeders' payments (not forgetting NSW has not had those since the dismantling of Blue Paws and the GRNSW Board has no appetite to assist).

2022/23	Total $	# Meetings	# Races	Ave $ per Meeting	Ave $ per Race	Max 1st prize
VIC	$62.1m	1,283	15,162	$48,402.62	$4,095.80	$1m
NSW	$46.9m	1,255	13,738	$37,431.55	$3,419.46	$1m
QLD	$33.2m	662	7,555	$50,158.42	$4,395.09	$350k
WA	$17.4m	474	4,386	$36,801.61	$3,977.19	$300k
NZL	$15.6m	418	4,931	$37,370.20	$3,167.87	$53k
SA	$9.1m	472	5,066	$19,404.16	$1,807.89	$100k
TAS	$6.3m	160	1,618	$39,552.44	$3,911.24	$100k
NT	$1.4m	77	663	$17,665.19	$2,051.61	$25k

Another element which is very interesting is the average yearly earnings of dogs in each state:

	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
VIC	$6,741	$6,421	$7,152	$8,694	$8,839
NSW	$4,206	$5,411	$6,220	$7,218	$6,250
QLD	$6,051	$6,664	$6,638	$6,941	$8,059
WA	$8,405	$8,155	$8,883	$9,532	$10,481
SA	$3,304	$4,203	$3,706	$4,312	$4,016
TAS	$6,045	$5,725	$7,329	$7,944	$8,520
NT	$3,085	$3,700	$3,706	$4,596	$5,575

And then there is this nugget:

Average earnings first 10 starts
2022/23
VIC	$3,999
NSW	$3,451
QLD	$4,116
WA	$5,850
SA	$1,768
TAS	$4,520
NT	$2,013

The big picture is coming and this national analysis is food for thought before we get into the nitty gritty next week.

HOME

The Albion Park winter carnival provided stunning, record-breaking prize money and it was enough to keep Dave Hobby in Queensland for just on two months.

The multiple WA Trainers' Premiership winner travelled with a small team but is now home at Nambeelup and has a busy time coming up.

"The staff have kept the trialling program up to the young dogs … I've around 40 pups ready to qualify," the veteran mentor said.

"I think the first set of trials we have at Cannington will be for 30 and they're mainly by Sunset Spitfire and Zack Monelli.

"There's a long way to go yet and early trial times can be deceptive but this lot look pretty special – I just hope they continue to progress."

Sunset Spitfire's oldest progeny were whelped in late December 2021 and he's only had only eight services registered yet the upswing can be sharp when pups of genuine quality evolve from promising saplings to fast maiden winners.

TAXING TIME

Once Point of Consumption Tax was raised in Queensland last year, other states fell in line and the softener for industry was a better return for participants (except in the ACT).

The upswing in taxation forced TopSport to limit promotions and scale down operations which had seen their turnover reach $1.2b, yes billion.

“We turned over $700m last year and a lot less tax went to Treasury,” TopSport CEO Tristan Merlehan said.

“Many of the punters who don't bet with us now have just ceased betting.

“Our model was to provide the best price to punters and that was attractive to big players but we had to fall into line with other wagering service providers and markets became less competitive.”

The competition between WSP's to drive market percentage down (better dividends) and lower turnover will soon have a market affect on industry returns.

The Rivers of Gold, Land of Milk and Honey – call it what you want – is not what it was during stay-at-home times of Covid-19 and the discretionary spend in this inflationary economy is under duress.

Prize money is yet to come under pressure yet the massive spending program GRNSW promotes will surely need a steady hand.

Goulburn's upgrade is about to kick off, Tweed Heads, Dapto, Lithgow, Tamworth, Bathurst/Orange and Wagga capital works are planned and Wentworth Park's relocation is not too far away.

Just how all this can be managed and more importantly financed, in a timely and responsible manner?

IRISH EYES

For those who peruse the Irish greyhound results, this will be not news yet the utilization of Aussie sires is nothing like it was 20 years back.

No doubt the likes of Top Honcho, Honcho Classic, Frightful Flash etc rejuvenated and strengthened Irish pedigrees – just as Waverly Supreme did here in the late 70's.

Interestingly, My Redeemer seems to have caught the attention of Irish breeders, he's available there for €1750 (A$2870) which includes the veterinary costs.

My Redeemer stands with David Geall at $2750 here, so the Irish are getting a nice discount to access the Group 1 winner which has produced more than 1 group 1 winner himself.

DECOMMISSIONED

After 20 years of faithful service, GRNSW's old website was decommissioned on Friday.

No Longer

Some three years back, GRNSW spent a bucket load of cash on the new version and its a website which this writer avoids at all costs.

The old website was built before multi media was such a force and an upgrade was required yet replacement does not cut the mustard in a user friendly sense.

Fields are available in a more practical format at the Greyhound Recorder and the new GRSA site provides access to replays ‘other state' events – a massive boost for punters.

Punters can bet on WA meetings and via the GRSA site and watch Cannington replays for reference. Darwin form guides and replays are there – in fact only Tassie replays are not available.

It's quite bizarre that GRV has no access to NSW replays and vice versa yet GRSA has the lot (bar Tasmania as previously mentioned).

Co-operation between states with media (something which will stimulate turnover) regarding intellectual property has been addressed by GRSA so why not others?

The vision is only worth something when punters are using it to make wagering choices.

So wouldn't logic say making the vision open and accessible on as many platforms as possible work towards generating the best wagering outcomes for the industry?