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OUR good
Australian friend Peter Morrison wrote me about an
American racing fan who had watched races in Manila
lately and commented on how horses were kept waiting for
so long at the back of the gate before the race is
started.
Here’s
the letter of Robert Wright as sent to Peter Morrison:
“[Have] to complain to somebody [that] knows. I wish
these horse track operators would train gate personnel
[on] how to load horses in an expedient manner. I go
nuts watching it take four to five minutes to load five
or six horses. Some horses stand in the gate for several
minutes which increases [the] risk of injury. Can you
imagine a bunch of Olympic sprinters kept in the blocks
for minutes? If I owned horses here, I would not race
without quick loading and dispatch like [in the] US, UK,
Australia and elsewhere. There, that’s my bitch for the
day. Thanks for listening. All the best—Bob”
Here’s
Peter’s reply: “This is so true. Maybe you can send [on]
copies to the people who can encourage the starting
staff and the principals who control them to smarten up.
Even the starter himself holds the runners far too long
once they have all been boxed [locked away in starting
gates].”
Aside
from Robert Wright, many have been noticing it long
before but the public got tired of bringing this issue
to the proper authorities concerned which is the club
itself.
The
issue of starting the race on time has been there long
before but it was only recently that it has been given
attention after the Philippine Racing Commission
reminded the proper authorities on the said matter. Why
the delay on starting the race? Club authorities are one
in saying that it has been the habit of Filipino bettors
to jam the betting windows in the last few minutes
before the races start. Unlike in many international
racing countries, the local racing fans would want to
see as much information they could gather before
splurging their hard-earned money on their chosen
horses.
With
this, the racing authorities are kept from starting the
race on time because the sales are low. But this should
not be the case here. In many major racing countries,
races must always start on time whether sales are down
or up. Why wait for the bettors to bet when time is of
the essence especially when you’re on telecast. This is
best described in Australian racing when every
thoroughbred racing competes with dog and harness racing
on precious telecast hour. A two-minute delay in the
start of race would mean getting off the telecast and an
uproar from the betting public on various off-track
betting stations.
MAGIC
Millions managing director David Chester will be in
Manila next Tuesday (January 22) to address Philippine
buyers about the forthcoming Conrad Jupiters Magic
Millions Yearling Sale to be held in
Gold Coast,
Australia,
from March 24 to April 2.
A record
number of over 1,800 yearlings have been catalogued for
the event and will be sold over eight sessions. The
sessions that will appeal to the Philippine market are
sessions 7 and 8 to be conducted on the first and second
day of April, according to David.
He also
said that for the first time, Magic Millions will
distribute price estimates of all yearlings to be
offered at sessions 7 and 8 of the sale. Magic Millions
will also be extending its usual incentives to buyers
traveling to the Gold Coast and will also be announcing
the date for the Million Pesos Magic Millions sponsored
race for 2008.
THE
resumption of the races and the eerie silence after the
“war of nerves” between the Philracom and several groups
of horseowners don’t mean that all is well now in the
four corners of the local racing industry.
The
pronouncement of Malacañang regarding the appointment of
an officer-in-charge in the Philracom in the person of
commissioner Joy Rojas II has left more questions than
answers. It was Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who
declared in a press conference late last week the
appointment of Commissioner Rojas as OIC of the
Philracom after he declared that chairman Florencio
Fianza “was sent by President Arroyo to
New York
to attend to some pressing matters.”
Only a
few hours after the horseowners declared “moral victory
in the ousting of Fianza,” here comes the retired
general himself telling the media that it was he himself
“who appointed Commissioner Rojas as officer-in-charge
of the Philracom while he was away for two weeks on
urgent orders from Malacañang.”
We are
left here with more questions than answers when
Malacañang failed to come up with concrete answer on
what’s the real score in the Philracom. Is the
appointment of Commissioner Rojas as OIC a mere process
for the “graceful exit” of chairman Fianza from the
Philracom? Will they allow General Fianza to go back to
his old post as chairman of the Philracom when he comes
back from a two-week stint in the
US?
Or will Malacañang just announce later on that General
Fianza will be manning his post as director of the
transnational crime body on a full-time basis when he
comes back? Why appoint Commissioner Rojas (a son-in-law
of Press Secretary Toti Bunye) as the Philracom OIC when
there are several commissioners who are more senior to
pick from?
These
are several questions that can be answered sooner than
you expected. But for the meantime, several questions
have also cropped up lately and are now the talk of the
buss in various quarters of the industry. One is that
“will Commissioner Rojas reverse his earlier stand in
that controversial Philracom resolution regarding the
handicapping of three-year-old horses where he is one of
the signatories? Does the present Philracom board of
commissioner the power to stop the implementation of the
controversial resolution? Although the races have
resumed on Thursday, only those races for the
four-year-old and up divisions have been allowed to go
on. Those in the two-year-olds and the three-year-olds
are still on hold because the controversial resolution
in which the horseowners are up against with is already
being implemented as early as the second week of
January.
There
are still many questions being raised but we have no
more space here. I can print them more next Friday. |
