‘Does it matter if they're not a Group 1?’ - Scott dismisses Pattern fears as semantics

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”.

*The Melbourne Cup could lose its Group 1 status under renewed pattern guidelines according to former Racing Queensland CEO Jason Scott. (Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)*

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.

The administrator, who is now entrenched back in the wagering sector at betting company The Booki Group after his stint at RQ, says the ramifications of such a dramatic scenario were overstated by those lobbying against the new proposed protocols.

“Does it matter if they’re not a Group 1? My practical way of looking at it is it doesn’t matter if the Melbourne Cup or the Everest or the Golden Eagles are Group 1s or not,” Scott tells this week’s Straight Talk podcast.

“You’re not going to sell one extra bet, have one extra eyeball on it, or get one extra horse not travel from the other side of the world to race in the race.

“So, to me, I think a lot of it is semantics.”

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Such a statement puts Scott firmly at odds with many sections of the racing industry who have strongly campaigned against the current proposal which is on the agenda for the September 2 Racing Australia board meeting.

But Scott argues that industry participants have modernised the way they assess races and pedigrees since the Pattern was first introduced in the 1970s.

“It used to mean a lot when we talked about the page at the sales. Well, that’s when we had the page to look at. Now that we’re a lot more sophisticated,” he says.

“Everybody might look at a Cox Plate, but there are strong Cox Plates and weak Cox Plates. And when people are going back, they’ve got the videos, they’ve got the fields, they’ve got all this data they never had before.

“So, the page and saying that you’ve won a Flight Stakes into an Oaks, into a Caulfield Cup, into a Melbourne Cup for a broodmare probably isn’t that important, those race names, and what their actual Group (status they) are, because people don’t have to look at the quality of the race now (by black type).

“You can’t underestimate the amount of work that both the buyers and the breeders are doing.

“So, look, I tend to think it’s a bit of a brouhaha about nothing.”

*Former Racing Queensland CEO Jason Scott. (Photo: Supplied)*

The Straight reported on Monday that the black type impasse would almost certainly remain after next Tuesday’s Racing Australia board meeting and it’s a position shared by Scott.

“Look, I went to my last meeting of RA in May, and the way things move in the machinations, a lot will have happened between May and August. So, I’m not the right guy to ask if it’s going to be resolved in the short term,” Scott says.

“I know there’s a meeting next week, and I’m not sure how close NSW and Victoria are.

“In the end, Racing Australia is completely controlled by those two states due to the right of veto that they have. So, where it gets to … well, I know we’re not going to go back to the traditional Pattern model that a lot of the industry would like to have seen happen.

“We’ve got RA, Victoria, and NSW and we’ve got legal advice from three different firms basically saying it (The Pattern) a breach of trade.”

The new Black Type Guidelines proposal, with the framework based around the legal advice sought by Racing Australia, was first put to the national body last October, before PRAs, including Victoria, stepped away from the reforms due to vocal opposition from stakeholders.

Despite the retreat by the majority of the PRAs, Racing NSW went it alone, adding or upgrading 17 stakes races last season in defiance of the failed reform.

NSW’s The Everest and Victoria’s All-Star Mile did attain internationally recognised Group 1 status via the Asian Pattern Committee ahead of last season’s editions.

Scott’s position on the Asian Pattern Committee was taken by Rob Rorrison.