Published Messenger Newspapers, Adelaide, April 14, 2004
ODDS BEAT RACING SYNDICATES
SPEND any time in the company of the drinking classes and you will run into otherwise sane men who are members of horse racing syndicates. Five of my friends are in syndicates. While they have always been punters, they waited until their fifties to take the plunge into racing syndication. Some middle-aged men have mistresses, others buy horses - it probably costs roughly the same. One of them had no real interest in owning a horse but could not resist a bargain. The horse had cost $90,000 at the yearling sales, with each of nine syndicate members paying $10,000. One member had later offered his share to my friend for $1000, a dubious bargain given the constant outgoings for stabling, training, transport and veterinary care. Then the horse damaged itself while standing in a paddock and will not race again until the Spring, if ever. Another mate paid $2500 for a share in a horse that had its first run recently in an 1100m maiden for two-year-olds at Flemington. He went to Melbourne to watch the race live. To show solidarity, I cycled around to the TAB and watched it on TV. The horse missed the start, came out of the barrier on two feet, and ran last. It never looked remotely like threatening the others. Now, I know almost nothing about horse racing but I knew then how it felt to lose a $40 each-way bet. I sent my mate a text message saying, "v ordnry nag". "It was a good run," he texted back. We must have been watching different races. Next day, he flew in from Melbourne and we caught up to discuss the good run. He was not in a good mood. As someone who normally flies 1A, his seat had been occupied by a Hells Angel in full regalia, a giant of a man with tatts and a shaved head. Hells Angels Inc seems to be prospering though not, I daresay, through racing syndication. After a couple of beers, my mate had relaxed enough to say his horse, although it finished last, had actually covered the final 600m just one second slower than the winner, and faster than the second placegetter. He quoted the jockey as saying the horse "felt good - it's got an engine" and the trainer said it needed some "barrier education" and would be better for a run in the country. Then why bother with a first-up start at Flemington? What I find puzzling is how syndicate members cling onto these throwaway banalities as holy writ and continue to underwrite racing stables based on little more than a trainer's whimsical guess and their own blind hope. No other business would survive long using the same over-promise and under-delivery model of customer service. (The horse ran third at Terang last week. The jockey said it was "all over the place". The trainer said it needed blinkers next run. And ker-ching! goes the cash register. Worse, it paid no third dividend and I did my money again.)
