Strikes to cost $100m

BOOKMAKERS say about $100 million will be lost in betting turnover if TAB racing doesn’t go ahead in Queensland on two of the biggest days on the calendar.

One betting company predicted boycotting both Cox Plate day on Saturday and Melbourne Cup day on November 6 would cost $98 million in betting. Racing Queensland would lose about $4 million in bookmaker levies.

Key racing officials were in talks late last night with the Queensland Government to end the impasse. They have until early this morning if racing is to go ahead on Saturday, although key figures were resigned to the first round of strike action taking place.

Owners, trainers, jockeys and breeders last week agreed to boycott two days of racing in protest to the Government’s refusal to pump money into stakes.

The Government is forecast to earn $70 million in the first year from a 15 per cent tax on bookmarkers, and $100 million in the second.

However, none of the money has been earmarked for thoroughbred racing, the industry’s prime breadwinner.

“We have pretty much put a line through any chance of resurrecting Saturday’s races,” Racing Industry Alliance spokesman Craig Partington said yesterday. More than 50 trainers, including some from the Gold Coast, met on Tuesday. Partington said all backed strike action.

A spokesman for Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said discussions between the Government and Racing Queensland were ongoing but no progress had been made.