Many years ago, the pioneering British comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience pointed out that “horseracing is a sport unique, because it exists entirely for the purposes of betting”.
After all, take away the gambling element, and what have you got? “A bunch of horses, all running very fast… and at the end of the day you don’t know which of them can run faster than the others."
Not exactly riveting stuff – “Come on, let’s see the physical limit to which equine quadrupeds can go!” The consequences of this solitary purpose became tragically clear this week, when it was effectively declared that South Australian horseracing had a gambling problem.
Or, to be more specific, a credibility problem that could threaten its suitability to hold a gambling licence.
An independent legal assessment of vote-rigging allegations at the highest levels of the South Australian Jockey Club found cause for CEO Steve Ploubidis to be sacked and the entire board to stand aside pending fresh elections, to be overseen by the State Electoral Office.
These recommendations were echoed by the sport’s governing body, Thoroughbred Racing SA.
The powerful Independent Gambling Authority, which had pushed for the inquiry to be conducted, said it would enforce the recommendations if they were not adhered to voluntarily.
IGA director Robert Chappell, who has little regard for Ploubidis, says once these changes are made, horseracing will be effectively clean, rehabilitated.
But nagging questions persist.
Long-time critics of the decision to sell off Cheltenham say that vote may have been compromised by election-stacking.
Labor’s former federal member for Port Adelaide, Rod Sawford, is adamant on this point; he was at the crucial meeting, and insists there were hundreds of unfamiliar faces there, who voted “like robots” for the sell-off.
Sawford’s intractability on this point has not endeared him to his party, members of which have enjoyed close relationships with SAJC officials.
Sawford goes further; he thinks the rot may stretch back as far as the muchmaligned sale of the TAB in 1998.
He wants a royal commission into the entire recent history of thoroughbred racing in this state.
He is unlikely to get it, of course, since the Government is so firmly against the notion.
In fact, the speed with which Labor has washed its hands of this entire affair has been stunning.
Having forwarded the Lipman Karas report to police, the official Government line is that it will not comment on anything that could prejudice a police inquiry.
Fair enough, although it should be noted that the Government hasn’t traditionally shied away from commenting on matters under legal scrutiny.
Labor would have us accept that this whole affair is a little local difficulty within a private industry, which should be left alone to tend to its own garden.
But racing has been the beneficiary of many millions of dollars of public money over the years, and the Government has had a hand in almost every key and controversial decision, from the redevelopment of Cheltenham to Victoria Park to the upgrade of Morphetville.
The Opposition wants a parliamentary inquiry, in the form of an Upper House Select Committee, to publicly open the whole can of worms.
Effectively, it wants to hold its own royal commission.
It will be the best witch-hunt since the Ashbourne-Atkinson affair; witnesses will be called, harangued and dismissed, their reputations invariably diminished.
No charges will ever be laid, and the inquiry will quietly wind down without fanfare after a couple of fruitless years, but not without the Libs garnering a few headlines and claiming the odd scalp.
Chappell and Throughbred Racing supremo Philip Bentley, a Rann Government confidante, both argue that the public release of the Lipman Karas review will not serve justice, as several people surrendered information on the promise of anonymity, and a “media circus” will ultimately derail the prospect of any criminal charges being laid.
Perhaps, but there are too many unanswered questions to simply take everyone’s word that justice is being served.
The TRSA’s extensive media release this week took great pains to explain that the Lipman Karas review had nothing to do with the sale of Cheltenham or the decision to vacate Victoria Park.
And yet, Bentley acknowledges that an earlier draft of the report contained references to Cheltenham that were later expunged.
Sawford says he and others raised their allegations of vote-stacking over the Cheltenham sale years ago, and were dismissed as “not credible”.
He is bitter about this; he believes there was a deliberate campaign to cement his impression as a crank and a troublemaker in the public mind.
He and others deserve these matters to be examined.
The Opposition’s solution is flawed, and there are valid arguments against a royal commission.
But the Government can no longer run away from the fact that this state needs an Independent Commission Against Corruption.
As long as secrecy veils this report and its recommendations, the stench of innuendo will tarnish everyone who has had a hand in racing in SA.
The board will meet within days, and is expected to vote itself out of existence.
Ploubidis, however, says he won’t go without a fight; clearly it is a fight his enemies are spoiling for.
There was an unfortunate detail on the TRSA’s aforementioned media release this week.
The document spent four pages detailing the nadir of South Australian racing, and each page sported the SAJC’s logo and advertising slogan.
Thus, on every page, following line after line of scandal and misery, there sang the cheery legend: “It’s Playtime Trackside!” It may be playtime trackside, but the bloodletting and boardroom games may yet continue for some time.
n Read Steven Ploubidis’ full statement at www.
independentweekly.com.au
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