FOI confirms WCC weakness on racehorse training breaches

Professional racehorse training at Lady Bay continues to raise concerns around who is monitoring and reporting alleged breaches of the rules. Image supplied.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I always suspected it was the case, but now it’s been confirmed – for almost three years, the Warrnambool City Council did virtually nothing about racehorse trainers breaking the rules at Lady Bay.

Early last year I lodged a Freedom of Information application for all of the correspondence between the council and Warrnambool Racing Club about breaches and alleged breaches of the training rules at Lady Bay.

I asked for everything from 1 December 2016 – which is when the new rules began – right through to 14 March 2019: all letters, emails, the whole lot.

The application took nine months, with the council making me jump through multiple, mind-screwing hoops to narrow down such things as what I meant by “members” of the WRC, what email addresses they should search for, what names they should search for, what keywords they should search for….

On and on it went, at an eventual cost of $216.75 (funded, thankfully, by a grant from the Walkley Foundation Public Fund which supports investigative journalism).

And at the end of all that searching and all that money, the result was just two letters:

Two, brief letters from the WCC to the WRC in 27 months: one written in March last year and one from November 2018.

This was the total sum of all written correspondence between those in charge, despite the steady stream of complaints (and videos and photographs) from the public during this time showing near misses, a racehorse that had thrown its rider, trainers riding fast past walkers, and numerous other safety issues. (See footage below from 2017.)

Apparently none of this warranted even a single email from the WCC to the WRC.

Perhaps they rang or texted each other, leaving no paper trail, I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is that when it comes to cracking down on errant trainers, the council has been extraordinarily weak.

Let’s be super clear here: asking for the rules to be enforced does not mean we are instantly “anti-horse racing” or that all trainers are running amok. #notalltrainers

Instead, it’s a reminder that a public beach is just that – public – and members of the public have every right to be asking the council what happens when things go wrong, especially when it comes to racehorses on Warrnambool’s main swimming beach.

Until last November, not one trainer had been suspended or fined.

The council says it has since cancelled the permit of one trainer for breaches, although we don’t know who, or for how long, or why, or whether – to be frank – if this actually happened, as some within the industry are unaware of it.

Professional racehorse training at Lady Bay is now the new normal and despite claims that it has “always” been this way, it hasn’t.

A second FOI, which I will write more about soon, revealed there were regularly more than 1000 horse workouts a month at Lady Bay until disgraced trainer Darren Weir fell off his perch.

This is not how it used to be, but this is what our council happily signed up for: up to 96 horses running each morning until 10am, seven days a week, from the first day of Autumn to the first day of Summer, including public holidays.

And they did this with a promise that officers would keep an eye on things – the FOI results show that they didn’t.

In fact Mayor Tony Herbert has recently taken things one step further and suggested that people who are worried by the racehorses at Lady Bay should go to another beach.

Good grief.

This is an excerpt of what Cr Herbert recently wrote in an email to one resident:

“I have spoken to many people over the past few years and some of them avoid the said beach when training of horses is occurring. Some find that unacceptable, others find that ok. WCC approach is trying to achieve a balanced approach.

We are so lucky in our city and region that we have a number of alternatives, if sharing the beach with horses is unacceptable to you in the mornings. During the winter months if I’m walking my dog, I choose to use other beaches and there is a number of them.”

In other words, if push comes to shove with “sharing” our main beach, it is the general public that gets shoved.

Shifting sands on racehorse access to coastal reserve

The area of Long Dune, Tarerer coast/Spooky’s Beach, Belfast Coastal Reserve that will be opened up to large-scale racehorse training. Image:Chris Farrell Photography.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Cracks in the resolve:

Following on from last night’s post, I can tell you that at least two W’bool City councillors have changed their minds about dozens of racehorses training at Spooky’s Beach in the Tarerer coast/Belfast Coastal Reserve.

The fallout from the Weir/McLean saga is starting to bite.

Cr Peter Hulin is no longer in support of up to 40 racehorses a day using a long dune known as “Hoon Hill”.

(Doesn’t that disgraceful name speak volumes about how this area has been treated over the years? I am going to start calling it Long Dune.)

And Cr Michael Neoh now believes Lady Bay should be enough, given an average of only 22 racehorses a day are now using the main beach.

Here is part of what Cr Hulin said via email:

“In light of recent uncovered abuse of racehorses, I have changed my thoughts of the horses being ridden up “Hoon Hill”.

“Not only could this type of training be detrimental to the horse, but also the environment due to the erosion of the dune system. I cannot see how this could be avoided.

“Access to the beach may be also problematic.”

Cr Hulin made clear he was still a strong supporter of the local racing industry and believed horse training could still happen along the Spooky’s foreshore, provided all the rules and safeguards were followed.

Cr David Owen has always been dead against the idea of allowing 160 horses a day into a coastal reserve, so where does this leave Crs Kylie Gaston, Robert Anderson, Tony Herbert and Sue Cassidy?

Do they still think it is a good idea?

Does it still fit with the focus of a council that has declared a climate change emergency, or was that just more rhetoric?

Aren’t we supposed to be aiming for clean and green and looking after our coastal environment?

I don’t know what the other Crs think, as none of them responded. (#itsjustablip)

I do know, however, that it is getting harder and harder to justify why the racehorses need to be there. Weir has gone. McLean has gone. The Warrnambool Racing Club this year made a record profit….

I hope Crs Neoh, Hulin and Owen can convince the council to revisit this issue now, not after the damage is done to Long Dune and that precious wild beach that makes Warrnambool such a special place.

Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story.

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Trainer banned as WCC cracks down on Lady Bay breaches

Photographer Steve Hynes captured this jockey in clear breach of the training rules at Lady Bay in March this year, working two horses at once, no high-vis gear and no identifying saddle cloth.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Well blow me down. The Warrnambool City Council is finally taking action against multiple breaches of the rules around racehorse training at Lady Bay.

Apparently, after quite a lengthy process, one trainer has had their permit cancelled, another has been suspended and another has received a warning.

I don’t have any names but if one of them is Jarrod McLean, then I would say it is the least of his worries right now.

This is the first time any serious action has been taken by the WCC against tall of the complaints that have been reported by the public over the past three years. #notalltrainers

Why now? I can only wonder if it’s connected to the Warrnambool Racing Club continuing with its plans to soon move into Spooky’s Beach, near Levy’s Beach, where up to 120 racehorses a day will be able to train, five days a week.

Another 40 a day will be able to train on the long ‘Hoon Hill’ dune.

Things have gone very quiet on this lately, but I can assure you that all of the work is still very much going on behind the scenes to get the beach ready before Lady Bay is cut off to trainers on December 1.

Perhaps the WCC wants to reassure the public that they will be enforcing the rules around having mass racehorse training in a coastal reserve.

I still find the whole Levy’s/Spooky’s plan unjustifiable.

As it happens, thanks to the Walkley Foundation, I have been doing some Freedom of Information applications into the whole Lady Bay and Levy’s situation.

I will save those stories for another day.

In the meantime, thankyou to photographer Steve Hynes for this image of one such breach (two horses, no id, no high vis gear etc), taken at Lady Bay in March this year.

Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story.

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A record profit for WRC, so let’s leave Levy’s alone

Trap for Fools, trained in Warrnambool by local trainer, Jarrod McLean, won the $2 million Mackinnon Stakes in 2018. Image: Darryl Sherer, www.racenet.com.au

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Remember the doom-and-gloom, Chicken-Little-The-Sky-Is-Falling predictions for local racing if the big trainers weren’t allowed to run horses at Levy’s Beach?

Well the Warrnambool Racing Club has just notched up a record profit – its equity has gone from $8.5 million last year to a cool $10.1 million this year.

That’s right, far from falling in a deep dark hole, things have never looked so good.

“This has truly been an exciting year for the Warrnambool Racing Club,” enthuses chairman Nick Rule in his 2018-19 report to members.

Mr Rule goes on to wax lyrical about a “remarkable financial year” and, in particular, this year’s hugely successful May Racing Carnival: “Extremely strong crowds, record betting turnover and highly competitive jumps racing were the highlights…”

Hold your horses!

Wasn’t the May Racing Carnival under threat of collapse if hundreds of racehorses a week weren’t allowed to pound up and down the dune at Levy’s?

That’s what the racing industry told us, the State Government, and also the Warrnambool City Council which, by the way, still manages to find the money to be listed as a major sponsor of the WRC.

The long stretches of sand at Levy’s Beach, Warrnambool, which form part of the Belfast Coastal Reserve.

The truth of the matter is that no racehorse training has been allowed at Levy’s beach since the end of 2016.

And the sky hasn’t fallen in. That seductive old fox, Jobson Growth, hasn’t packed up and left town.

Darren Weir kept on winning, until he was exposed in January for the cheat that he is, with more charges – enough to make your hair curl – laid yesterday.

Local trainer Jarrod McLean also kept winning – including taking out the $2 million Mackinnon Stakes last year – until he, too, has found himself facing a raft of animal cruelty and corruption charges.

WA trainer Lindsey Smith has moved in to Weir’s stables at Warrnambool and is already racking up winners.

And the Warrnambool May Race Carnival has sailed on as one of the biggest events of the year on the Victorian racing calendar.

So much success and yet not one racehorse – officially at least – has trained on Levy’s Beach in three years.

The lure and magic of the Levy’s beach and dunes has been exposed as pure spin.

Cr Michael Neoh has also been crunching the numbers.

He now personally believes that racehorse access to Lady Bay should be enough.

With the Weir juggernaut no longer in the picture, the number of racehorses using Lady Bay has plummeted: Cr Neoh says it is now averaging 22 a day on the beach, and 14 in the water (April to July). It was close to 100 at its peak.

Lady Bay is where we “share” our public beach and that should be enough.

As it stands, the end of November is the deadline for the racing industry to move into Levy’s, but permits still need to be issued and roads and carparks need to be graded.

Behind the scenes, the traditional owners are also keeping up their fight to be heard, as they always have to do, because their connection to the land can’t be measured in turnover and totes.

The council, having just declared a climate change emergency, could step up right now and show it really does care for the most vulnerable parts of our coast.

Which way will this go in November? I don’t know, but the arguments that propped up the need for Levy’s are collapsing as fast as Weir’s career.

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