No doubt most of you will have seen in the media the talk about race fixing in Perth racing. Most of these claims are from anonymous sources and it seems they are disgruntled with the industry for whatever reason. I have myself reviewed the races that have been highlighted and I take the same position as the stewards that no rules of racing have been broken and anyone who knows me would know that if I thought a rort was going on in any form that gave someone an advantage over others, I would be the first to speak out and confront those people involved. I think the comment by Richard Burt CEO of RWWA, when he invites anyone to come forward who has knowledge or proof of wrong doing, is the right one but because someone has anonymously made claims and won't appear in the stewards' room to be challenged on their charges makes it very difficult to quell these innuendos. The stewards have the best vision, not only in screen sizes, but have many more angles of races than anyone else, so when someone speaks of corruption or race fixing, to view the stewards' patrol films in the company of the stewards, who watch many, many more races than anyone else, and to put their point of view to the stewards, who are the experts, and let them talk through the charges, should be the first thing they do and then I'm sure we wouldn't be in this race fixing dilemma.
During the time I have trained horses, which is nearly thirty years, I honestly believe that this time in racing is the fairest and least controversial time I have seen. Therefore, I believe that investing in racing in Perth is as fair as it could be. Racing, like most sports, is won and competed for at the margins. For example, horses win and lose by a nose, cricketers are given out for catches or lbw decisions when replays later can show that the decisions were wrong, and who could ever forget the hand of god, or Maradona, sinking England's chances in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
I lay down a challenge to the letter writers and snipers in the social media to find two or three champions of their cause and have the guts to go to the stewards room and have their accusations put under scrutiny by the stewards and licensed people. My phone number is 0417966712 and I'm sure Brad Lewis would warmly invite them in.