Protest review to stay secret

Queensland integrity officials have declared they will not release the full report into the farcical upheld protest at Beaudesert in March, saying only their brief summary of the controversy will be made public.

The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission said the much anticipated report handed down by former Victorian chief steward Des Gleeson will remain confidential, but confirmed the recommendations from it have been implemented by stewards.

It comes as the brief summary provided by QRIC, which offers no opinion from Gleeson on whether the correct decision was actually made, received scathing reviews from the industry and demoted trainer David Murphy, saying it has only confused the situation further.

The Thoroughbred Alliance has issued QRIC commissioner Shane Gillard with a please explain over the issue and said it has only embarrassed Queensland racing watching it play out.

“(We are) extremely disappointed and confused with the outcome of the review done by QRIC into the protest decision from Beaudesert,” Australian Trainers’ Association Queensland representative Cameron Partington said.

“It’s very rare for a protest decision to garnish so much industry (and outside industry) interest, hence the Alliance felt QRIC had a need to explain the decision and support it or otherwise.

“We are all fully appreciative that an individual’s judgement and human error can influence decisions – in the same way a referee can in many sports.

“What the industry deserves to know, is if there was a judgement error made, or was the decision comfortably in the reasonable range which could have us to expect similar situations to produce a similar result.”