Abbie Chatfield’s thoughts on horse racing just another thing about her we don’t need to know
Media stars Abbie Chatfield and David Campbell bagged it and our Premier stayed away. We must stop killjoys killing our Cup.
Opinion
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Premier Daniel Andrews has a very odd way of promoting the great state of Victoria.
At the end of last week, he made a huge fuss over spending $15 million of your hard-earned tax money on netball.
A four-year deal was done with the national side, the Diamonds, that lost that same amount of sponsorship money because some didn’t like terrible things the father of Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, said in the dim, dark past.
Netball, domestically, is a broken sporting business model bleeding money and now surviving on the largesse of Victorians. Despite what the Premier said at the time, we have seen no evidence of any other state or territory rushing in to save netball.
The Premier’s explanation of what a perfect fit this all was with Visit Victoria — the body charged to promote our state — is very hard to believe.
Netball is a big participant sport, a little like Dan’s hobby of golf and the sport of lawn bowls, but it doesn’t attract massive crowds.
To think sticking Visit Victoria on the front of a netball uniform will drag in interstate and overseas tourists spending up big is nothing more than a fantasy. Netball competitions between Australia, New Zealand and Britain are substantial events but the game is barely played in our biggest market of Asia.
After tossing in $15 million he doesn’t really have, you would think Andrews would at least make time to attend one day of the Spring Racing Carnival at Flemington.
The four days – Derby, Melbourne Cup, Oaks Day and Stakes Day — are the biggest four days of sport staged in our city outside of the Australian Open tennis in January, the Grand Final and the Boxing Day Test.
For the first time since 2019 crowds have been allowed back following the barren Covid years of 2020 (no crowds) and 2021 (strictly limited patronage).
But where was Premier Andrews on Cup Day as 80,000 people packed Flemington on a day of appalling wet weather? Well, with his eye on the election in three weeks’ time - he travelled to Shepparton for a photo opportunity.
Surely if sporting and major events being promoted by Visit Victoria are so important that we can splash $15 million on netball, the Premier could at least make some effort to turn up and spruik our tourist-drawing events?
His non-appearance and the sudden attention being given to interstate so-called influencers and TV presenters bagging racing and Cup Day has me worried. The Cup and racing in general is in the sights of the cancel culture crowd.
Sydney, with its ‘throw money at races with no history’ attitude – think Tuesday’s nonsense The Big Dance or even Derby Day’s Golden Eagle – has always been jealous of our Spring Racing Carnival.
Premier Andrews’ no-show doesn’t help this false narrative that Cup Day is about cruelty to animals and problem gamblers drinking too much.
Take a Sydney-based, night-time radio host, nationally syndicated, who’s made money out of flogging sexual aids and wearing very few clothes at boring awards nights.
Her name is Abbie Chatfield and she uses social media to tell us all things about her life we don’t need to know.
Things like who she’s in a relationship with, who she’s not with any more and her loose attitude to sexual activity.
Chatfield made the hard-to-believe claim that she was offered “lots of money” to turn up at Flemington – never naming by whom — and naively said, “guys, I thought we were done with the races”.
Does Chatfield really think anyone cares what a former Bachelor star thinks about the Melbourne Cup or her posting pictures of herself on Bondi Beach last Tuesday?
There is, however, a darker side to the social media attempts to paint the Cup Carnival as something to be avoided at all costs. Police are investigating someone claiming to be a problem gambler who allegedly sprayed an oily substance on the track early Tuesday.
Protests over animal welfare have tried to paint the event – indeed paint all horse racing – as cruel, ignoring the fact that thoroughbred horses are the most pampered in the world.
These same killjoys conveniently ignore that fact that there have been no Melbourne Cup horse fatalities for the past three years, including last Tuesday’s race.
The nonsense of some of the Cup’s critics is breathtaking and most of it seems to come from a jealous Sydney. Take Nine’s Today Extra host David Campbell.
On his official Twitter feed at 1.20pm Tuesday, he tweeted “nup to the cup.”
Twelve years earlier, with microphone in hand and yellow rose in his lapel, he was proudly belting out the national anthem at, you guessed it, the Melbourne Cup.
Presumably that was a paid gig and if his employers - the Nine network - had the TV rights he’d be back at the track hosting Today Extra.
Melbourne and Victoria need to aggressively protect our racing carnivals at Caufield, Moonee Valley and Flemington.
They survived crowd less Covid meetings, so they can survive the jealous whinging of a few killjoys.
It would help if Dan Andrews did his part.
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