Outspoken former Racing Queensland chief executive Jason Scott claims the importance of black type racing in Australia is overplayed and the current bunfight between stakeholders about the Pattern is a “brouhaha about nothing”.
Scott was Australia’s representative on the Asian Pattern Committee until he finished his two-year tenure at Racing Queensland earlier this year and his comments come just days out from the latest bitter attempt to overhaul the national black type system, which has been stuck in dysfunction since 2018.
If the reforms were enacted, Scott suggests races as significant as the Oakleigh Plate and a number of Derbies and Oaks across the country could be stripped of their Group 1 status under a new black-type regime.
And even the Melbourne Cup, the nation’s most iconic horse race, could also be in danger of losing its Group 1 tag under a ratings-based black type grading system which is to be voted on by Racing Australia next week, Scott says.
There were 32 Australian Group 1 races listed on the Longines Top 100 rated races in 2024 and the Cup wasn’t one of them.
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