Originally Posted by
cyclone george
Mitch while I'll agree with most of your points ,the thought of closing down tracks has been our biggest mistake in Victoria. About ten years ago hrv decided in there great wisdom that the punting dollar was the be all of everything and as long as people were betting on there phone accounts there would be always plenty of money but what they forgot was patrons generally end up owner who bring there friends and so on . Traralgon is the classic example ,that area now has over 200000 people ,no trainers left,galloping track( we're the old 800 track was) have picnic meetings every couple of months and average 5-10,000 people. if you think hrv were interested in patrons why would they build a track with a parade ring behind a stable complex,no roof over a grand stand,and function rooms that don't even face the track ,shit weren't they keen on getting people to the track. The cost of lack of participation in small country towns far outweighs the small costs of maintaining a few tracks each year. The little brown jug is on the worst track I've seen,run down facility's ,but is the best day I've spent on a race track maybe they should close it down.