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THE END OF A SPRINT RACING ERA
Sprint Racing within TB race meetings ended in Queensland in 1993 when the Australian Racing Board changed the national Rules of Racing to prohibit Racing conducted under ARB Rules of Racing at distances less than 800m. All TB Racing Control Bodies in Australia had no option but to close down any racing at distances below 800m.
The late Sandra Crompton who contracted cancer and sadly passed away in 2004 wrote the following article which illustrates her love for Sprint Racing and her interpretation of events that initially led to establishment of the Australian Sprint Racing Industry and in turn it’s demise in Queensland.
Sandra was Secretary of the Queensland Sprint Racing Association and the letter which was published by the AQHA News in 1993 is re-produced with permission of her husband Graeme Crampton
THE LAST STAND – AN INDUSTRY ON ITS KNEES
August 1st might well be the official birthday of all horses in the southern hemisphere, but in Queensland it could well be the sounding of the death knell for sprint racing under 800m on AJC registered tracks.
Quarter Horse people involved with sprint racing on AJC tracks are now faced with a “do-or-die” fight for survival or their section of the racing industry will be gone forever. The sprint industry in Queensland has always been pushed around, from one venue to another, for many years now. Perhaps it is because this section of the racing industry poses some kind of threat to certain people within the Thoroughbred industry?!
The following brief history of AJC sprint racing in Queensland may help to shed some light on the situation as it stands today. Some 12 years ago, The National Party’s Russ Hinze was approached to help foster and guide the budding sprint racing industry. Representatives from the sprint industry gained his support and an approximate 3 million dollars was pledged towards developing a complex at Rocklea in Brisbane. However, zoning problems coupled with a parcel of land which could not be acquired put paid to that plan, so then negotiations took place to make Toowoomba’s Clifford Park racetrack the home of the sprint race industry. The negotiations included the creation of a 500m straight at Clifford Park. At the time, the future of sprint racing under 800m seemed assured.
The annual “Sires Produce Futurity” concept was quickly developed primarily to provide funds for the sprint industry, so that it did not become a burden to the Thoroughbred racing establishment. Over the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of dollars, from the owners of sprint stallions and from the owners/breeders of the progeny of those stallions went in to Clifford Parks coffers to maintain racing under 800m at Toowoomba. Additional money was also acquired through sponsorships from businesses and other private sectors.
Racing clubs which programmed sprint events benefited from nominations and acceptances, increased gate attendance and, most of all, from TAB distribution on the funds supplied by the sprint industry (often on funds accrued when payments for certain events (ie. Sires Produce) were paid 2 years in advance!). As the sprint industry began to grow and prosper, rumours began to circulate (in particular at Clifford Park) that certain Thoroughbred breeders were becoming concerned that for every sprinter racing there was one less Thoroughbred gracing the turf. So a fear campaign began to kick in. In particular it was hinted that sprinters were unsafe rides for jockeys. A ludicrous idea when one considers that since sprint racing has been legalised in Queensland, not one rider fatality has been recorded and their have been very few injuries altogether. Then unflattering statements about the sprint industry began to appear in the press, and this together with a drop in prize money ($2,000 per race to $1,000 per race) for sprint races under 800m only, was designed to keep the pressure on and make the sprinters and their connections look and feel second rate. This smear campaign found its mark, with many abandoning Toowoomba and/or the sprint industry which left only the diehards to tough it out at Clifford Park. The muck-slinging continued, the diehards kept racing for meagre amounts, until the Toowoomba Turf Club announced that if any sprint race didn’t attract a field of 8 acceptors it would be cancelled. This announcement was followed soon after by another (no further programming of sprint races) which effectively meant the end of sprint racing in Toowoomba. Clifford Park, the home of sprint racing in Queensland, had kicked its kids out on the street! And to add insult to injury, the few who were behind the demise of the sprint industry in Toowoomba were looking at promotions for a job well done! After all, hadn’t they put those speedy squibs in the gutter where they belonged?!
Despair and confusion reigned in the sprint industry. It was about this time that the Gympie Turf Club, which had financial problems of its own, was approached by representatives of the sprint racing industry. The Gympie Turf Club, the (now defunct) State-wide Sprint Racing Association and, a little later, the Queensland Sprint Racing Association negotiated and soon Gympie was the new home of sprint racing in Queensland. An injection of many thousands of dollars in funding the sprint industry saw both Gympie and the sprinters up and racing once again. And once again a bright new future for sprint racing seemed assured.
With hope anew, what remained of the battered and bruised sprint industry loyally supported Gympie, even though it meant that many trainers had to travel over 9 hours for the pleasure of running their horses in races lasting around 20 seconds. For the last three years, sprint racings future just kept looking better and better. The number of sprint horses racing grew each season and so did the prize money which, as usual, was generated within the sprint industry through sponsorships and other forms of fund raising. The time looked right to approach the AJC, once again, in the hope that they would allow some well-performed sprint stallions entry into the Non-Studbook, which had been closed to them some years before.
(Whilst on the subject of the AJC and the Non-Studbook, it should be pointed out that back in the mid-1970s, the AJC was in need of some revenue in a hurry. To remedy the situation, the AJC opened the Non-Studbook to Quarter Horses and others. Over the next 18 years, hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed into the predominantly Thoroughbred racing industry from the sprint horse industry. Then, approximately four years ago, without any prior warning, the colt/stallion section of the Non-Studbook was closed. This meant that no imported entires or entires bred after the date of closure could be registered with the AJC in the Non-Studbook; a decision which severely affected the sprint horse gene pool.)
With AJC Non-Studbook negotiations looking fruitful, all that was needed to swing the vote in favour of these select stallions and sprint racing was a positive response from the Queensland Principal Club.
No one was prepared for the response that did come from the QPC. The club had moved to adopt Rule 43 (no racing under 800 metres) as of August 1st 1993. When asked why it had taken this action without first consulting the industry it represents or the race clubs which programmed sprint races, the QPC replied that it had done so ‘to bring Queensland in line with the rest of Australia’! There are states in Australia which program hurdle racing and steeplechases, but these are illegal in Queensland at present. Will we see jumps racing in Queensland in the near future, just to bring it in line with other states? I think not! I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
It seems that only a handful of Thoroughbred people, who refuse to recognise the financial contribution that sprint racing has made to the AJC and to Queensland racing as a whole, are those that have succeeded in bringing an entire section of the racing industry to its knees. These same people fail to see that the Quarter Horse was developed into the fastest horse in the world over the quarter mile through Thoroughbred lines and, to this day, the breed is kept that way (both here and in the USA) by selective infusion of Thoroughbred blood. Be that as it may, whether its racing over 300 metres in 20 seconds or 2,000 metres in 3 minutes, racing is racing and racehorses are racehorses. It should be the individuals right to choose over which distance his or her horses race – not the establishment’s choice.
It is my most sincere wish that sprint racing is not excluded from AJC racing in Queensland. It is also my wish to see members and friends of the sprint racing industry get off their knees and make this, the one last stand a mighty and memorable fight.
Sandra Crampton
1993
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