Lizzy Arthur, Racing Queensland - Rural Racing Roadshow (17 March)

0:00Welcome back. Rural Queensland today. There is a rural racing road show happening in Longreach this Sunday, and she's they need some support that a lot of water through that neck of the woods. Lizzie out there from racing queens and joins us this morning. Good morning. Lizzie. Great to chat. How are you today, double? Really well. Thank you. How are you? Wonderful. Racing. Queensland is making sure that the rural and regional Queensland is not forgotten. That's been one of the big eaters. We've seen some initiatives like the Battle of the Bush, and this Sunday, you have a rural racing road show. What is it and how excited are you to be holding that in Longreach? Make thrills to get out there. Great people sold of the earth, and it's wonderful for racing queensland to be able to get out there. A to head out to the Longreach Jockey Club for game day as well, we're going to the races on the Saturday. So it'll be wonderful to see what's in his team of volunteers doing what they do so well.

1:00And watch the horses go around, which is exciting, because there has been a lot of disruption to racing with the current weather and flooding and roads and all that sort of thing. So to be able to see our people do what they do there is terrific. But the rural racing road show is a terrific opportunity for racing queensland to get in front of clubs in their own backyard. It's a really important opportunity for us to be able to sit down and let's have a talk about the issues that clubs do. And the problems that are arising and also really importantly, celebrate the wins that they have as well. Mate, it was the big thing about it is celebrating the wins. We probably don't sing it enough. And that's the bush, isn't it? Like we just don't talk about how good we've got it. And I suppose in a lot of ways, that's your role now to make sure that the country racing is front and center. It is seen and heard a bit about.

2:00Absolutely. So though, I don't live in Brisbane. I live regionally myself. I ran the Tourmeter Sub for many, many years. I was at the week. You got me to the week would kevy walkers and I kevy walkers and I were only talking about it yesterday on our podcast that you got us to the week would one day. Yeah, many years ago. Anyway, go on. No, it's fantastic to be able to get in front of those people and do it in a more relaxed environment. Rather than around a boardroom and we all sit there and that sort of thing, this is an opportunity to really cut the chase and have a good yarn and do it in that more casual environment. I think it's people are far more open to that sort of thing. Yeah, and that's the big thing. How do we strengthen racing? I mean, jockey shortages, you know, distance and we're talking fuel at the moment as well at all. They all come in. And prize money, obviously. But the core of racing is community in the bush.

3:00And the core of community is having your district go there in support. Now, race clubs need funding, race clubs need that and you need to make them TAB. And you see what what's down in Long Beach. You see what man eyes is doing. And you see where are the meats. But, you know, we talk about the alpha camera races or we talk about, you know, black all or how do we make sure that they stay sustainable and that they happen? Dovo, I wish I had that magic silver ball that I think everyone does. But the most important thing for me in my role as I guess club development and working with the country race club is ensuring that they feel. Like they heard they, you know, fundamentally most race clubs all have the same issues. It's just about scale. And what we are finding right across the board in this, let's face it, this massive state of house, this huge footprint that we have to cover is that the volunteering mentality is slowly dying away. Dovo, it's really difficult for clubs to be able to bring on the newer generation.

4:06Unfortunately, the newer generation are time poor and and that volunteering part of things. It's actually probably there's probably more volunteers in the West than there are anywhere else in the state, you know, that are putting their hand up. It's generational it. You know, race clubs generation by generation continue to take up the mantle. But, you know, fundamentally that is a huge problem. Yeah, and that's the big thing. Would you say there's more interest and there's an appetite from racing Queensland, Lizzie, that there is certainly an understanding that we need to make it sustainable and keep it. Absolutely sustainability is 100% of priority because as we said, I mean, you mentioned the word community before, dovo. 100%, a race club that is a once a year, like a, a biduri or an alpha or someone like that, that once a year, that is the social event of the year.

5:09At the time for, you know, the community and the district to come together and celebrate and all that sort of thing. Those things, they're show stoppers and they've got to continue. Yeah, they certainly have and that's the, that's the big thing that it's got to continue. We've got to make sure that we have it all the time. We've got to make sure that we've got races. What times the road show start? So the road show, it actually starts at eight o'clock because we've got, we've actually got a brand new rock ticker and tractor demo. So clubs, it's going to be based at Longreach, which is fantastic, a wonderful asset for clubs out there that can use year round. So there's going to be a, I guess, a tick off the competency for the rock ticker for clubs that are going to be using it, which is wonderful. But at 9 a.m. at the Longreach Regional Council Disaster Coordination Center, 9 a.m., that's at 1 o'clock for Magpie Lane. We're going to be there and we're going to have a great session. We're going to talk to, you know, clubs and track staff and stakeholders racing Queensland's acting Chief Executive Lockwood Murray will be there.

6:17The Queensland Chief thoroughbred Stuart Josh Adams, who's going to join us by a team. He's going to have a chat about the heat policy. That was also a, you know, played a big part during the summer months as well. We've got some great information coming from Luke Spicer, who is one of our track guys. He's going to talk about maintenance and things like that. David Horn, who is the country racing manager. He's also going to be there and talk about race programming and the race calendar and things like that. I get to talk about the really fun stuff like governance and administration of these things. Cool. You know, just what you want to talk about. The back of the line. Yeah, exactly. Obviously, it's in the back of the line. But as I said, to be there and to sit down and have a young with people like Watson and Helen Morton and those guys is gold. Gold. Yeah, we have to do that. So we're really excited about getting out there. Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to it. I think it's fantastic. I think it's awesome that racing Queenslander are implementing this. I think it's special.

7:18I hope it goes well and we'll talk to you throughout the year because there's lots of positive stories to share about racing in the country. You bet. And we need to talk about them more. I really appreciate your time, Liz. You thanks so much for being with us this morning on Rural Queensland today. Thanks, job, oh. Good on you. We're going to take a break. Plenty more to get through. This is Rural Queenslander Day on the Resonate Broadcast Network.