QLD Racing Minister won’t shake trainer Ben Currie’s hand

It’s the meeting that kicks off Queensland’s winter racing carnival, but an icy standoff is looming at Saturday’s Weetwood Handicap day in Toowoomba and it could rock the sport.

THE Queensland winter racing carnival will start in Toowoomba on Saturday amid high drama with the state’s Racing Minister refusing to present a trophy to the state’s leading trainer.

Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s office has confirmed if the controversial trainer Ben Currie wins the time honoured Weetwood Handicap (he has the favourite Mishani Hustler) or any of the feature races he will not present the trophy under any circumstances.

The boycott would be a wise move on several fronts, most notably for pragmatic political purposes.

If you were a politician would you want to be seen sharing a smile with Currie on the nightly news?

Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe who will not be part of any presentation to controversial trainer Ben Currie today.

Currie is facing a staggering 37 charges by stewards on a range of alleged offences, including race-day treatments and use of a jigger, plus four more for swab abnormalities.

The instant the minister and Currie got photographed together that shot would become a defining image of a saga that has become too big and complex for the local industry to handle.

You don’t reckon the opposition might bring that photo to the next show and tell session in parliament?

But secondly, and, more importantly, the trophy boycott will recognise that Currie — and his horses — should simply not be allowed to be there.

This column makes no assertion Currie is guilty of any charges but the fact he is allowed to stay front and centre in the Queensland racing industry while he has so many charges against him has turned the Queensland industry into a nationwide subject of derision, especially after Melbourne trainer Darren Weir was recently stood down within days of jigger charges against him being laid.

Hinchliffe deserves some credit for his boycott — but he cannot be painted as a hero because the system he presides over has allowed Currie to be there in the first place.

The system has let down the sport.

Horse trainer Ben Currie (right) with his legal representative QC Jim Murdoch arrives at the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission.

Rugby league has recently introduced a “no fault’’ clause where if you are facing extremely serious charges you are automatically stood down pending a trial.

Yet racing is more tolerant. Currie has twice been stood down by stewards but twice won a stay of proceedings through QCAT.

Some call this justice. I’m calling it an utter embarrassment.

Today is the one-year anniversary since Currie’s stables were raided in Toowoomba and the case has moved like frozen treacle.

A year on Currie has not been found guilty or innocent of anything — again, we make no assumptions — but as the charges and his winners mount up, the reputational damage to the industry magnifies.

Some industry participants appear more ruffled than others.

Former jockey Bernadette Cooper was spotted interviewing Currie on Sky Channel after he won a race and there was not a mention of the tsunami about to hit shore.

Good ol’ racing … don’t you just love those probing trackside interviews?

I must declare a long held soft spot for the Weetwood Handicap.

Having started my career at The Toowoomba Chronicle in 1980 today’s events sadden me because anyone who has lived in Toowoomba knows the grandeur of Weetwood Day and what it means to the city.

But today’s meeting is special for all the wrong reasons.

I have a mate who said he would refuse to watch the Weetwood because of the Currie saga, claiming “Queensland racing can get stuffed.’’

I told him I thought it already was.