In the near-decade since I wrote about why you should passionately hate the Melbourne Cup and the horseracing industry more generally, none of the problems I described back then have gone away. The racing industry still kills its workers — ten jockeys have died since 2014. Horseracing still slaughters horses — two died at the Melbourne Cup immediately after I wrote the original piece, another four have died at cups since then, and the number of horses killed on racetracks nationally in 2022-23 hit a new record of 168.
The industry is still infested with organised crime and money laundering — probably more so now given casinos have been forced to rein in their money laundering practices. Guardian Australia revealed last month that anti-money laundering laws do not cover racehorse investment, a key area of money laundering by criminals. Even media advocates for the industry have warned that racing must take urgent steps to prevent organised crime from extending its role within it.
And despite industry claims about how popular racing is, it’s still dependent on massive handouts from state governments, which give tens of millions of dollars to the industry on the basis of alleged, though never demonstrated, benefits to tourism.
Corrupt, cruel, fatal and unviable. But hey, don’t you love a little flutter on the gee-gees?
If you have no interest in the systematic torture of animals for the amusement of thousands of drunken cretins in stupid hats, your main exposure to the industry is likely via the websites of commercial media, where advertisements articles extolling the industry are impossible to avoid. It’s particularly odious in The Age, which today offers such quality content as “‘Thought we were mad’: The race that changed the Melbourne Cup forever“, “Race-day deadline: Call on Oliver’s Cup ride will go down to the wire“, “Melbourne Cup 2023 virtual sweep generator” and of course the really important gossip articles about who is attending and what they are wearing, such as “Corporate pecking order at the Cup: Who’s in and out of the Birdcage” and “From diehard punters to fashionistas, meet the Melbourne Cup tribes“.
While The Sydney Morning Herald’s coverage is decidedly lower key, that august organ is still recovering from the splurge of free publicity it offered for the “Everest”, a horse torture festival of more recent vintage touted as a glitzy Sydney alternative to the Melbourne Cup, which generated dozens of stories in the Sydney paper.
Much of this racing ephemera, unrelated to the actual mechanics of which horse owned by which syndicate and trained by which professional horse torturer will be brutalised by which jockey at which time, has to be read to be believed. If there’s an opening for artificial intelligence to replace working journalists, it’s surely in producing such drivel as “‘You’ve got to be joking’: Gai rails against shorts for men during Cup week“, “Grilled octopus with Vegemite? What guests will be eating at this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival” and “Kentucky Derby plan for Everest as officials eye record 50,000 crowd“.
None can hold a candle, though, to the majesty of “‘The quicker I can get there the better’: Why King Charles could be at The Everest“, a piece from early October so awesomely vacuous as to constitute anti-news, a black hole of non-information that would suck the value out of anything that might appear near it. “King Charles III, who ascended to the throne in September last year after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II,” the journalist “informs” us, ensuring that we don’t get confused with the 18th century’s King Charles III of Spain, “who was a horse racing fanatic, has been invited to watch The Everest, the world’s richest turf race, in Sydney next year.”
It’s soul-destroying enough to think that grown adults typed this shit, let alone that some unfortunate bugger subedited it and someone else published it to the websites of allegedly serious newspapers.
It’s worse than a profound abuse of journalistic resources, though. That sort of pseudo-content has a purpose: to mask what the industry is ultimately about, which is gambling, and particularly problem gambling. According to an Australian Institute of Family Studies study in 2017, 41% of regular horserace gamblers have had gambling problems and 41% of race gambling revenue comes from problem gamblers. While online gambling may have eaten into horseracing’s share of gambling addiction since then, that indicates the extent to which gambling addiction is important to the business model of the racing industry.
Media coverage about the fripperies and trivia surrounding the industry, however lacking in substance, serves to legitimise and glamorise what is a cruel, corrupt industry reliant on gambling addicts. Ditto with the wall-to-wall coverage you’re being exposed to right now. It’s rotten content. The effects are even worse.
Anyone affected by problem gambling can get immediate assistance by calling the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Do you have a problem with the Melbourne Cup, or the role of media and government in propping it up? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Thanks, Bernard, for this article’s evisceration of the mainstream media, especially the Nine press. The drivel, as you describe it so aptly, is almost as sickening as the cruelty to horses, but perhaps in another way. Our governance seems so unceasingly dependent on revenue from the corrupt gambling industries it can no longer even pretend to be called a democracy.
So also does the current Federal Labor Government which owns four pokie venues in Canberra, and our law-abiding friends at The Roman Catholic Church own a massive share of the pokie machine revenue in NSW. ……What hope do we have?
Good article Bernard. I’ve thought the same since my teenage years (being a young 56), never understanding the obsession by so many over this circus. Particularly repugnant is the swooning over fashion and glamour to hide the unsavoury gambling problems and links to organised crime. At least someone is exposing this rubbish, although I suspect the younger generation’s rejection of this crap is helping to undermine its appeal.
A ban on advertising of online gambling would be good. Now, if possible. The deluge of ads for gambling apps is making sport without gambling unimaginable for kids.
Yes, around prime time they are incessant on commercial media. I feel offended when all I want to do is watch the news.
Why would you want to watch commercial ‘news’ anyway? It’s only there to get you sit through the ads. Coming up, after the break…
Bernard, I cannot put into words just how much I wholeheartedly agree with every word you have written here!! Congratulations on telling it how it is!! Believe me, I am one of those who not only passionately hates the Melbourne Cup but the whole horse racing industry for the very reasons that you have so eloquently outlined.
Your passionate essay is a reminder to us all that decency, justice and morality is not dead in the community.
Because of this article, I may change my mind and renew my Crikey subscription which I had intended to allow to lapse because I am so utterly pissed off at not being able to comment on articles like the one written by Guy Rundle that precedes yours. Not only that, no reason has been given (as far as I am aware) by the ‘powers that be’ here at Crikey for that being the case.
My final comment is only that when you get a community that has a gazetted holiday to ‘celebrate’ this ‘event’ (and let’s not forget the holiday declared for a football game), is it any wonder that such a community elects the politicians we get?
I suspect the reason no comments are allowed on the Rundle articles is that Crikey figures moderation would be too much of a headache. The London Times allows them, and we need a corrective!
Hear Hear. So annoying not to be able to comment. Makes Crikey a much less attractive publication.
Maybe it made sense back in the days when horses were an essential part of day to day life. Bathurst for the 19th Century, sort of. Today it makes about as much sense as snake oil medicine. Which is what the industry is really selling, I guess.
I think horses, like sheep dogs and cattle dogs, have huge value on farms. With the cost of oil and environmental awareness, I expect they’ll make a bigger comeback, though probably heavy horses (Clydesdales, etc.) rather than race horses.