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David Martin's Roadshow starts this Friday and the following link gives you all the dates
http://www.harness.org.au/media-room...?news_id=36896
It would be great if any members attending one could post what they found of interest (especially for those unable to attend)
No doubt different questions will come from the floor at the various venues so we can't have too many posters in this thread (nor any thread for that matter)
Do they do this in every state? What are the distances between the tracks in VIC?
I know in WA, Albany to Perth is about 400kms, Busselton to Perth is 250kms, Kalgoorlie to Perth is 550kms. Perth being the epicentre of the world in terms of WA harness. I'd think if they had these forums in WA, they'd all be held in Perth - to hell with the country peeps.
A joke - right?Quote:
Originally Posted by KTQ
As Melton is our metro track I will treat it as our 'Perth'
The furthest roadshow from it is Mildura which is 515km away
It seems this is the mentality of our administrators with less and less country races and closures of country tracks, the most recent being Golden Mile.Quote:
Originally Posted by Messenger
My dad said recently that he withdrew horses from a GP meeting because he needed a break from the driving. GP twice a week, Pinjarra once and Bunbury once takes it out of you. With the closure of Harvey a year or two ago (which was one of our go-tos) and many other country tracks plus preference to GP as a "country track" meeting replacement, it's harder and harder for country folk to be a part of racing in WA. Not sure how hobby trainers with real jobs do it.
Apparently for Golden Mile they invited industry participants to join the convo but I heard they didn't ask the track admins nor local trainers to attend.
WA racing is going to be pretty bland when there's only 10 trainers left
Hi Katie,
We're not closing tracks in Victoria. Birchip and Elmore re-opened as full Tab/Sky betting/viewing tracks within the last 18 months, and both had good community involvement. That's particularly the case for Birchip which has had over 1000 people attend their two Cup meetings since re-opening. As you indicate, regional tracks help maintain participation levels across the state. It's a challenge with the cost of infrastructure, ageing population, horse numbers, etc., but we need to have strategies to address those items.
Cheers, David
I would be interested in hearing what the participants have had to say about having to race for $3,500 more often than they did in the past
The Hamilton and Shep gathering have already happened - any posters attend?
Hi Kevin,
There was no particular negative feedback about the $3500 races. This is because a substantial number of participants like running in these penalty-free races. The most frequent complaint over the last 14 months in regards to stakemoney levels pertains to the $5000 level, primarily because it involves 'taking a penalty'. We're conscious of that, but need to live within our means for now, however where possible we have taken action to address this concern, i.e. in May and June this year, all 110 x $5k races will have a $1k winners bonus.
Small crowd at Hamilton, but a big bigger turn-up at Shepparton. Both groups were quite engaged in discussion, sharing their views openly which made for a good night. I look forward to seeing more people from this forum at future forums.
Cheers, David