Are HRV broke?

[Messenger]

I could/should have put this in USA but seeing how clever administrators work/protect their industry seemed relevant here at this present time

In the Sunday July 30 edition of Harness Racing Update a statement appeared blaming the SOA of New York for its role in negotiating with NYRA and the NY OTB’s establishing various benchmark revenue protections for the NY harness racing industry. Those protections, were negotiated to insure that NY’s revenue stream remained in place, or were added, when NYRA and the NY OTBs wanted to take out of state thoroughbred signal at night. That would have hurt New York harness racing which traditionally operated in the sole New York market — nighttime. All New York state harness track operators and horsemen supported those protections.
the provision that does not authorize NYRA BETs to take other than NYS harness signals at night

https://harnessracingupdate.com/2023...nd-jeff-gural/

Imagine if only harness was allowed to be televised at night

[Messenger]

VTDA President Anthony Butt has said

“There are a lot of a great minds out there who are passionate about the industry and we need to find a way to give that a voice and to use that knowledge to ensure we do find a way out of this,” he said.

https://harnesslink.com/australia/pa...imple-answers/

I hope Anthony does not walk away from the meeting (that must be happening soon) without a plan as to how the best minds in the business, especially creative ones, are going to be used

ps I also hope that he and other association heads do not go into the meeting accepting that $3.9m has to be cut from prizemoney. To do so is to accept that the industry participants have zero input.

[Messenger]

Gareth Hall did a good interview with Anthony Butt and CEO Matthew Isaacs on Thursday

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QC...VqyBAlGYo&nd=1

I nearly did not bother listening, thinking it would just be a repeat of Paul Campbell's interview but this is more informative. Anthony's input was interesting. Briefly, some points:

I was disappointed that Anthony just seemed to accept that we have to accept cuts but he did raise some interesting opinions. He clearly thinks that we should be racing more at Melton as it produces greater turnover.

Gareth was suggesting we should only have tracks where we have horse populations. The three of them appreciate our regional heritage but acknowledge that if you were setting up the industry now, you would not have 28 tracks and that the capital expenditure maintaining them is a big expense.

While saying that prizemoney cuts need to be across the board, I thought Anthony was somewhat dismissive of the value of 'average' horses (by this he is meaning 'below average') and their contribution.

Overall the glaring deficiency in the interview was around product or where new ideas are going to come from. Gareth is a big fan of a racing.com type TV product and of slot races.

The CEO said that they were expecting feedback from the participant bodies by Thursday. Maybe this was referring to today's meeting which has received a post from Shane Gloury (HRV) on the AHRI facebook page which I will comment on and quote in the next post

https://www.facebook.com/groups/236380660102847

[Messenger]

From today's meeting

At the conclusion of the meeting and after considerable discussion from all parties, the Kindred Bodies advised HRV that:

1) We are supportive of new CEO Matt Isaacs and want to work with him to best position our sport in a highly competitive landscape and protect the future of our Industry;

2) Our Industry has every right to expect that HRV as the Controlling Body will have an efficient administration structure in place. We believe that there are opportunities to drive savings and efficiencies within the administration of HRV and expect the CEO and the Board to drive these opportunities.

3) We need HRV to have a far greater focus in the future on prioritising returns to Industry stakeholders and do not believe that this has been their primary focus in recent times. We expect that the CEO will drive this change so that Industry participants are at the forefront of scarce resourcing decisions.

Emmy Mazzetti - President Victorian Harness Racing Club
Paul Rowse - President Trots Clubs Victoria
Anthony Butt - President Victorian Trainers and Drivers Association
Anne-Maree Conroy - President Victorian Square Trotters Association
Nick Hooper - Harness Breeders Victoria

Why was it accepted that $3.9m had to be cut from prizemoney? I don't think Pt.3 should just be about the future, it should be about now!
There is no way that the leaders of the participant bodies could have gained a thorough understanding of the financial options in a mere three hours. They could have asked for HRV expenditure details and said that they would get back to the Chairman and CEO next week.
I think cutting prizemoney is a dangerous precedence that will likely have severe consequences for ownership and thereby all other sectors of the industry. The kindred bodies should have been properly consulted before the decisions were made not today!

Most importantly, who has been appointed to turn things around? Is it just the new CEO who misled the media that the kindred bodies had had input or are there other new minds (because the previous have failed). What guarantee of kindred body input was secured by the leaders of the participant bodies?

[Messenger]

From the Victorian Harness Racing Club - I am 'snipping' this so it will be spread over a couple of posts
No thought of Participant Power in this first quote:

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The breakdown

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The feature races

[Showgrounds]

Yap all they like, the HRV Board is appointed by the Victorian Government. It has failed in it's governance duties and should be replaced. It has allowed the its staff levels to grow and developed unprofitable initiatives, all while being propped up by Government COVID 19 grants in recent times.

Those grants have now dried up and a new CEO has realised the biggest issue is falling betting turnover. The solution? Cut stakes and penalize participants that put on the show that HRV is legislated to oversight? Has there been any mention of restructuring HRV, preferably with a butchers nice to remove the deadly layer of fat that is strangling the industry?

[Messenger]

The proposed tiering structure is outlined below:

Country (NR ceilings)
Up to 49: $4,500
50-51: $6,000
52-55: $7,000
56-64: $8,000
65-74: $9,000
75+: $10,000
Maidens - Open: $7,000
Maidens - Age: $7,000
Age races: $7,000


Metropolitan (NR ceilings)
Age metropolitan: $17,500
No metropolitan wins (NMW): $15,000
Metropolitan NR79: $15,000
One metro win (1MW)/Two metro wins (2MW): $17,500
Metropolitan NR89: $17,500
Metropolitan NR105: $20,000
Metropolitan NR120: $24,000

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/art...-announcement/

Now it is most important for the ideas people to make this short-term. Good luck kindred bodies in the vital role you will have to play. Last year we were bemoaning people having to race for $4,500 - now we are supposed to think the sport is lucky to have retained them. In these inflationary times, earning less has to be very painful for those whose existence is solely harness.

The whole article also outlines the reductions to some features

[Messenger]

Once again, I was thinking how embarrassing it is that we have a Gp3 race tonight worth only $30k when I realized it is 99% likely it will be worth less next year