Ben Dorries’ comment: Racing in Queensland will miss Jason Scott more than it knows

Senior racing writer Ben Dorries believes the racing industry in Queensland will miss Jason Scott more than it knows and he will be missed on a national level as well.

Ben Dorries says racing in Queensland will be poorer without outgoing Racing Queensland CEO Jason Scott. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Sometimes in life, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Outgoing Racing Queensland CEO Jason Scott – a diamond in the rough – will be missed by racing in the Sunshine State more than it knows.

With his refreshing open door approach, with his phone always on, Scott was probably never going to go on past his current contract in an incredibly taxing role.

And then you throw in the ridiculous bureaucracy which often envelops racing in Queensland, considering the code is unfortunately so heavily tied to politics.

* Jason Scott announces shock departure from Racing Queensland

Scott is an action man and a man of intent who just wants to get things done.

He was never going to sit idle behind his desk while decisions which should take six days could sometimes take six months to be rubber-stamped by government.

In three decades as a journalist, I’ve dealt with dozens of CEOs.

Some good, some bad, some dreadful.

But almost all of them have a political bent – or at least they know in which direction the breeze is blowing.

Scott doesn’t have a political bone in his body.

His mantra was as simple as the profile of his LinkedIn page, which reads: “Improving racing in the Sunshine State.”

It meant he called a spade a spade and told you what he thought with gun barrel straight honesty – like it or lump it.

That didn’t endear him to everyone, particularly some snipers in club land who could whinge for Australia and would somehow find a dark cloud on a day of beautiful sunshine.

But Scott pushed on with a head of steam, not afraid to make strong decisions, and given his background as a wagering guru, he was ahead of the curve of the wagering lull and saw the ramifications in advance.

He was at the forefront of putting the national tote back on the agenda in a bid to reinvigorate the dying parimutuel betting model in Australia.

Scott, who once worked for the world’s biggest betting syndicate run by leviathan Australian punter Zeljko Ranogajec, knows how supercharged tote pools would see liquidity skyrocket and encourage more investment.

That dream now looks closer to becoming a reality, although let’s hope it doesn’t come to a standstill without Scott fearlessly advocating for it.

Jason Scott. Picture: Richard Walker.

Closer to home in Queensland, he leaves a great mark.

One of his legacies will be how he has the racing industry as well as the Racing Queensland staff and board thinking about things differently.

Now they are thinking more critically and often left field, rather than “we’ve always done it like this before.”

Some of Scott’s achievements include being behind brokering the deal with Hong Kong that got Queensland Derby day and Stradbroke day into the world pool and he led the way with wagering by optimising the racing schedule and working with broadcast partners to maximise airtime.

Scott regularly went into bat for Queensland and promoted important issues on a national level, regularly being interviewed on southern media platforms that many of his predecessors generally avoided.

He was happy to sing Queensland racing issues from the rafters rather than cower in a corner and he didn’t want to let the big southern states run roughshod.

Never one to sugar coat an issue and always open and transparent with stakeholders, Scott created a culture of being highly analytical, data orientated in his decision making and was able to find efficiencies to ensure the racing codes operated in a leaner fashion.

There are now whispers that the new Queensland Government is unlikely to release any extra racing funding while a review into the industry takes place.

That review is set to kick off in the next month and it’s a concern that racing may have to effectively sit on its hands and not move forward while that takes place.

Another risk is that the Government defaults to a bureaucrat when they replace Scott.

If the next Racing Queensland CEO has even half of Scott’s racing passion and intent to get things done, it will be a good result.

Originally published as Ben Dorries’ comment: Racing in Queensland will miss Jason Scott more than it knows