Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys must get out of bed and just give thanks every day.
Because everything he and his Board seem to rubber stamp comes up trumps, while conversely, Racing Victoria keeps getting slammed.
Regumate being the latest.
Until Racing Victoria sees fit to recognise that fillies and mares racing on Regumate (or anything with its main constituent: altrenogest) is good for the horse, and racing and punters, then they will lose the top mares.
The Bob Peters camp in WA, has already said they will race in NSW when the big races are on with exciting mare ARCADIA QUEEN: because she can run on Regumate.
The NSW TAB, which gives money to NSW-based race clubs based on turnover, will benefit the most, with that benefit filtering through to the clubs. Which no doubt then goes into prizemoney increases pushing NSW further ahead of the rest of the country.
“Given the insignificant trace levels found in these oral substances and having regard to advanced testing equipment used by the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory and the fact that it’s so minuscule it has no effect on the horse’s performance, the Board has introduced the local rule 44A to safeguard the NSW racing industry by allowing fillies and mares to continue to be administered oral altrenogest in NSW,” said V’landys.
Australian Trainers Association chief executive Andrew Nicholl is at his whit’s end with the Racing Australia inaction, saying he believed RA intended to conduct tests on a sample group of fillies and mares to assess the benefits of Regumate.
Nicholl predicted it might take up to six months for a ruling to be made.
Mind you, because some trainers will declare their female runners don’t improve on it, altrenogest just may go the way of blinkers and ear muffs etc.
All can make certain horses race considerably better while not influencing others at all. Are they performance enhancers?
But when it comes to star mares like Arcadia Queen and Aloisia, they’ll happily race now in NSW where the prizemoney is bigger and racing conditions better.
