QTOA Chairman's Report: February 2025

Dear Members,

Representatives of QTOA will attend a Stakeholder Engagement session Racing Queensland is conducting next month.

The session will provide RQ an opportunity to give a presentation on key industry performance/trends and topics, and stakeholders the opportunity to raise any issues of strategic importance to the industry.

This meeting follows on from an industry Thoroughbred Alliance meeting held recently with senior representatives of Racing Queensland and the new Minister for Racing, Tim Mander.

The Minister has committed to the establishment of a comprehensive review of racing in Queensland, the details are yet to follow, however, we are optimistic the QTOA and other interested parties will be given an opportunity for meaningful input.

We intend to submit a position paper to the Review.

We believe that now is not the time to be simply asking for more money from the regulatory authorities without making recommendations for how we see growth can be driven into our industry. It will be growth across the spectrum that fuels the revenue required for the industry to thrive and prosper into the future.

We will be strongly advocating for the establishment of a formal link between Government initiatives around tourism towards the promotion of racing. There are successful models for this already in operation both in Australia and overseas. Of particular relevance is the promotion of the upcoming Olympic Games and associated sporting and cultural events leading to the Games. We see strong direct synergy.

It is critical that we address and become involved with the strategic marketing of our industry. Attracting new participants, younger people, male and female, particularly those with no prior exposure to the joy of involvement.

Our industry is being challenged on the political stage with the Greens proposal to outlaw thoroughbred racing. For the countless people directly and indirectly involved in the industry this proposal is not just ignorant of the facts but deeply insulting. We cannot meet this challenge by simply producing statistics to demonstrate the value of our industry to the broader economy (although this is a critically important matter); we must counter the emotive elements of the challenge.

In particular the matter of animal welfare must be met head on. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, much damage can be done by people whose good intentions are based in ignorance.

We will of course be addressing other matters of vital concern to QTOA, including but not limited to, prize money, allocation of QTIS funding, industry rationalization, the composition of the Racing Queensland Board, the allocation of POC taxes, and the Work Cover levy on prize money.

ADDITIONAL RACES FOR NORTH QUEENSLAND

We are pleased to report some positive news for owners in North Queensland with some additional races and extra funds being added to races following the loss of recent meetings due to flooding.

The QTOA, hand in hand with the Australian Trainer's Association, has stressed to Racing Queensland the importance of ensuring prizemoney is not lost to participants in these affected areas.

Whilst we understand the reprogramming of entire meetings is not always possible given the busy program, we are pleased to report that Racing Queensland have agreed to add additional races and funds to races in Townsville, Cairns and Mackay throughout March.

The positive news comes as we continue our recent push for additional QTIS prizemoney to be considered for North Queensland and Central Queensland.

As we reported, some of the new initiatives provided by RQ which will be trialled until May are as follows:

3yo/4yo/5yo Bonuses:  Introduction of additional bonuses for 3, 4-& 5-year-olds on 2 selected races each month (i.e. one in each of the CQ/NQ regions respectively).  Note, these races will not be restricted by age, rather will simply have the new bonuses programmed on them.  This will be introduced in February 2025 

3yo Handicaps, 1400m & further:  These races will be programmed for both 3yo’s & 4yo’s going forward. Note, this change will make the previous (trial) protocol of adding (3yo) bonuses to other races on a program (if a 3yo race was deleted through insufficient nominations/acceptances) redundant.

3yo Handicaps, less than 1400m:  If these races receive nomination numbers which, after nomination extension deadline, deem it likely to be deleted RQ may delete it prior to acceptances and instead may program a replacement race (at that meeting & calling for fresh nominations etc) for both 3yo’s & 4yo’s with QTIS bonuses applicable to both.

We would like to thank Racing Queensland for listening to our concerns regarding prizemoney returns in regional Queensland and we will continue to push for equitable outcomes in these areas.

RQ TO TRIAL 3YO & 4YO QTIS RACES IN SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND

Participants in SEQ have also received a win on the matter of 3YO races being lost to the industry due to insufficient field sizes.

Following on from the current trial of 3yo and 4yo races with QTIS bonuses being applied in CQ and NQ, Racing Queensland have also committed to implementing the same process in South East Queensland, which will not only increase the chances of the race going ahead but also the QTIS bonuses being won.

The process sees 3yo races which are deleted (at weights declaration) replaced with a 3yo/4yo race with bonuses on it for both ages. Note, it will be restricted to Midweek Metro & Provincial meetings and not Saturday Metropolitan races. 

The process will commence on March 1 and at the conclusion of the trial the Industry Alliance will seek to have input into a review of the matter with Racing Queensland.