Holy database Batman - Foal Numbers

[arlington]

My involvement in the industry these days is almost entirely as a breeder. It is a tough game with steeply increasing costs, especially service fees, a multitude of things that can go wrong and feeding into a contracting racing industry. I do believe, however, that the authorities have been outstanding in their support of the breeding industry in recent years and there are many incentives already in place to encourage and support breeders.
Just looking at the example of a NSW bred horse, the breeder is eligible for a $3000 bonus for the first 2YO win, another $3000 for the first 3YO win, 5% of any Breeders Challenge prizemoney that the horse wins and 10% of the total prizemoney for any Group 1 win throughout Australia as a 2YO, 3YO or 4YO.
In the case of owner / breeders, they will also get a $3000 bonus for the first 2YO win, another $3000 for the first 3YO win (potentially $12,000 in bonuses if you breed and own a horse that wins one race as a 2YO and one race as a 3YO).
A substantial increase in the import fees on NZ bred horses is another action taken by authorities that helps to prop up the Australian breeding industry.

In my opinion, the viability of the breeding industry is ultimately dependent upon the health of the rest of the sport. I think the biggest challenge for harness racing is to attract more owners. Improve the reward to owners, (not just financially but also in terms of excitement and overall enjoyment, etc.), and benefits will automatically flow through to breeders, trainers, etc.

+1

[Mark Croatto]

In my opinion, the viability of the breeding industry is ultimately dependent upon the health of the rest of the sport. I think the biggest challenge for harness racing is to attract more owners. Improve the reward to owners, (not just financially but also in terms of excitement and overall enjoyment, etc.), and benefits will automatically flow through to breeders, trainers, etc.

Hi Trevor, and in answer to Trish's question, I firmly believe this is where we need to focus the attention. Breeders are like any other business owner, they provide a product to the market and when demand is high their sales improve. We need to stimulate demand which means increasing the group of owners. How to do this will not be easy, but it has to start with the people we currently have. We have to stem the loss of participants, we have to hold on to who we have and excite them into expanding their involvement. This can only happen by putting an end to the problems we have had, making racing enjoyable, and making it financially viable. It's a lot to do, but it isn't impossible.

Cheers

Mark

[Messenger]

Rarely are people going to walk away if they are able to make a buck and the NSW bonuses Trevor lists, sound promising.

To excite people and have them expand their involvement (Mark), I think we could do with a Mainstream media presence. I do not know what you have in NSW but here in Vic, if you do not buy The Sun and only have free to air TV, you might not know that the trots exist. I get my free to air TV via VAST nowadays so I could be missing out on a few ads - I do remember seeing some to advertise Ballarat in my pre VAST days.

Of course, if you are going to invite people to your show you have to entertain them well which includes dotting every i and crossing every t. I have always been more into criticism than praise - I know when I have done something well and do not need praise and would rather look at how I can do even better. Now when I attend meetings within the 2hr radius around me, I am forever noticing the things that are not done well - replay screens not tuned in, only basic tucker, no hub/lounge where some excitement interest is being created (even if it was only to use the closed circuit TV footage that Mediatec can provide), etc etc. Admittedly I mostly attend midweek day meetings where we are often lucky to have 50 non owners in attendance - but why should they attend if we are not putting on a show and not putting it out there

While we have to hold onto those we have, the fact that many of them are in my 60+ bracket, we really have to start capturing others too. Midweek day meets may not be the priority first up as most people work but there are groups that we could be wooing to them and I am sure you get the gist of what I am on about

The hard working few that run our meets are generally all busy but they need somebody with a critical eye to be taking in what the meeting offers from an outsiders point of view. We are in the entertainment competition

[Messenger]

Only 6 races at Stawell on Monday - I wonder whether they have suffered from tonight's Melton meet having 5 C class races
Of the 44 runners ELEVEN were engaged at Mt Gambier last night so I am not sure the numbers will hold up. R3 could end up a 3 horse race as 2/3 of its Mounties were more than 50m off the pace on Friday, while the other one won.

https://www.harness.org.au/fields.cf...&fromstate=vic

[trish]

October. 12 horse tracks......Menangle (Sat & 1 Sun) 431 horses , 41 races , 10.5 av. Men (Tue) 247 horses , 29 races , 8.5 av. Newcastle (Sat) 350 horses , 33 races , 10.6 av. New (other) 145 h , 16 r , 9 av.
Bathurst 298 h , 35 h , 8.5 av.


10 horse tracks......Penrith 244 horses , 28 races , 8.7 av. Bankstown 48 horses , 6 races , 8 av. Tamworth 244 horses , 25 races , 9.76 av. Young 123 horses , 14 races , 8.7 av.


Wagga 63 horses , 7 races , 9 av. Dubbo 89 horses , 12 races , 7.4 av. Parks 47 horses , 6 races , 7.8 av. Temora 60 horses , 7 races , 8.5 av.

[Messenger]

Another 6 race meet at Hamilton today - sheez

[KTQ]

Maybe it's to do with the handicapping/conditions. We have races in WA that don't stand up and mostly it's because they have ridiculous conditions or are some weird handicap that no horses qualify for. Yet other races have 30 nominations

[Messenger]

I wish that was it Katie but I am afraid it is not

[Messenger]

In my opinion, the viability of the breeding industry is ultimately dependent upon the health of the rest of the sport. I think the biggest challenge for harness racing is to attract more owners. Improve the reward to owners, (not just financially but also in terms of excitement and overall enjoyment, etc.), and benefits will automatically flow through to breeders, trainers, etc.

A bit over $9k for a Metro win in Vic is close to pathetic nowadays so we really have to make the owners feel special.
Getting people (future owners) to the track has to be the first step so we need not just exciting racing but a whole event

[trish]

November NSW.


273 races across NSW.......of those races 44 had NTD.








Will keep an eye on that & let everyone know.