Originally Posted by
Dot
The rate of Melbournes growth Kev means that affordable land (if it existed) for horsekeeping is rapidly being consumed by development in all of those outer Melbourne locations Kev meaning the racing population will increasingly need to be shipped in from locations in the north and west of the state at an increasing cost to owners in money and trainers in time and ensueing safe work issues as accessing those venues becomes increasingly difficult as traffic density increases, all for what in many instances will not be more then a handful of people attending for live racing as they too will experience traffic congestion and of course have the option of viewing and betting via other means then being on course.
I suggest that Melton is not a true metropolitan venue, and as has been pointed out is near inaccessible from the eastern suburbs, and now that venue attendance records are being kept whilst adequate for most meetings is too small to hold sufficient people and distant from the centre of the city to achieve the sort of returns in attendences that spending the amount of money in marketing as was spent on the ID warrants. The good old days may be gone but for our biggest days if we are going to justify spending hundred of thousands of dollars on marketing we need a venue that is readily accessible to the majority of Melbournes population and can hold 10 to 20 thousand people comfortably, otherwise we are spending too much on marketing for too small a return in attendance and potential flow on involvement in the industry. With Melbournes population heading towards 5 million Melton can hold comfortably not much more then 5000, or .1% of Melbournes population.
We need to address these issues with larger scale thinking and a longer term plan. Those outer Melbourne venues should be Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton which are more accessible to the raceing population in the future, both human and equine, resulting in a reduction in stress for both attending racemeetings, and horse welfare will become an ever increasing concern in the future, and those venues upgraded for both attendees and more particularly for the production of a high class visual product for broadcast and a deal done to also brand these venues as “Tabcorp Park” which would no longer denote a metropolitan located venue ( the concept “metropolitan” will be particularly out of date when ratings replace the old class assessments and a Metro assessment for a horse no longer exists) but the premium venues for harness racing in the state, and particularly for wagering.
It maybe the impossible dream but I also think it imperative that if there is to be ongoing harness racing in metropolitan Melbourne then the powers that be have to be convinced of the benefits of including a harness track in the Moonee Valley redevelopment and our biggest feature meetings at the very least be worked in with the gallops calendar and held there.
None of this will happen overnight but if it does happen then relinquishing the Melton venue should be part of the plan. Whilst there is talk of a Melton training centre I don’t see how this could effectively work out. Unless the training centre is full costs recovery it would in effect be subsidising a small percentage of the states trainers against the majority who maintain their own facilities, and if it is full cost recovery would owners be willing to pay the increased cost of having their horse trained at Melton versus at a private regional facility.