Fred Hoysted Award - Some Important Facts
We would like to clarify a number of facts surrounding the Fred Hoysted Award.
The Fred Hoysted Award was first introduced in 1998 by Racing Victoria to recognize outstanding training performances on Victorian training tracks during each month in the racing season, culminating in an end of season Award adjudicated by a panel of Judges from the twelve monthly award winners.
The Judges panel comprise: Terry Bailey (Chairman of Stewards), Greg Carpenter (General Manager Racing Operations), Greg Miles (RSN and Racing.com race caller), Shane Anderson (RSN radio host and Racing.com), Michael Manley (Herald-Sun), Tony Kneebone (Winning Post and Best Bets), Patrick Bartley (The Age), Bruce Clark (broadcaster), Tony Bourke (former racing editor The Age) and ATA Chief Executive John Alducci. All the judges are aware of the criteria of the Award.
The judging panel votes each month on what they deem to be the outstanding training performance on Victorian race tracks for the month. The Award has never been confined to Victorian licensed trainers and Bart Cummings, the late Jack Denham, Fred Kersley, the late Peter Hayes, Daniel Clarken and Sheila Laxon, when she held a NZ training license have been interstate and international based trainers to have won the Award. Among the Victorian licensed trainers to have won the Award include; David Hayes, Lee Freedman (twice), Peter Moody (twice), Mark Kavanagh, Tony Vasil, Mike Moroney and the late Jim Houlahan. Many of the winning trainers have been awarded the Fred Hoysted Medal for outstanding INDIVIDUAL training performances. Racing Victoria recognizes the winner of the Victorian Trainers Premiership each season with a separate Award. Interstate trainers have frequently attracted among monthly and season votes and international trainers from New Zealand, the UK, France, Germany, the UAE and Japan have been awarded votes by the judging panel. The Fred Hoysted Award criteria has not discriminated against trainers licensed interstate or from international racing jurisdictions and any restrictions or exclusions based on location have never been raised.
The role of the ATA, since the inception of the Fred Hoysted Award, has been in the administration of the Award, from highlighting monthly performances worthy of consideration by the judges but importantly not excluding performance which a judge or judges deem to be worthy of consideration for votes; to conducting and co-ordinating the monthly and season Award voting process.
Racing Victoria from time to time have tweaked some of the criteria of the Award, the most recent being returning it to a monthly nomination process instead of a bi-monthly process and individualising performances each month rather than aggregating performances by a trainer during the month.
At the end of each season, Racing Victoria reviews the criteria and process of the Fred Hoysted Award and seeks the feedback of the ATA. However as the organization which oversees the conduct and responsibility for the Award and through its role as the regulatory body, any changes to criteria, structure and process are required to be approved by them. It is no different with the other Awards with the possible exception of the media personality award. The review process will again be undertaken prior to the voting process being undertaken for the 2015/2016 racing season.
