Toowoomba cops rough deal
EACH weekend The Chronicle sport team looks at pressing issues on the Saturday Soapbox.
Q: Does Toowoomba racing deserve to be on the same prize money as other provincial clubs like Gold Coast, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast?
Glen McCullough: It’s a no-brainer. Of course Toowoomba racing participants deserve to on the same level as the other clubs.
There are so many reasons why it is an injustice they are not; it’s hard to know where to start outlining them.
This is not about greed, or racing industry members crying poor.
Neither is it about jealousy towards other racing centres.
It’s about Toowoomba racing supporters – starting with race-horse owners – having an equal share of the pie they all contribute to make.
Ben Drewe: THE Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich and Toowoomba are considered provincial tracks so it makes sense to me to have them all on level footing when it comes to prize money.
If you have Ipswich racing for more money than Toowoomba, you are going to see trainers taking their better horses to the regular Ipswich Friday meetings rather than Clifford Park’s twilight timeslot.
Clifford Park is the second biggest training centre in the state so plenty of horses that run across south-east Queensland learn their trade in Toowoomba.
They are not going to solely run at Clifford Park, but I can’t see the wisdom in making the incentive better for trainers and owners to run their horses away from their home track.
Eventually, that could see owners look to give horses to trainers elsewhere as that is where the better prize money is.
Q: Who will win boxing’s Battle of Brisbane between Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao and why?
Ben Drewe: IT IS hard to see Jeff Horn getting that fairytale win in his home-town.
It will be great to see him take on Manny Pacquiao, but given the Filipino’s remarkable record he should be too good.
There have been questions raised over Pacquiao’s preparation but he has fought at the very top level for years. Surely he knows how to get ready for a fight.
In the ring every boxer is just one telling blow away from a win, so Horn has a chance but I feel the bookies are on the money when they list Pacquiao as a $1.25 favourite and Horn the $4.15 outsider.
Glen McCullough: I reckon Jeff Horn has won the lottery just getting the chance to fight Manny Pacquiao.
But unfortunately I think that’s where his good luck will end.
You don’t have to be a Einstein to work out why Pacquiao is such a short-price favourite to roll the plucky Aussie.
It’s a strange fight on paper.
We have a boxing legend stepping in against a quality opponent who lacks experience on the big stage and a the elite level.
But that’s what makes it such an intriguing contest and why it has captured the imagination of so many.
Almost everyone expects Pacquiao to be too classy for Horn and win easily.
But it’s the unknown factor of how Horn will handle the occasion and how he will go about trying to craft a boil-over result that will have us glued to the action tomorrow.