Thanks for your input Rick. As most people know from the public forums earlier this year, the industry benefits from almost every single $3500 race regardless of where they are run. Hence, without taking money away from the other prizemoney tiers, I'm an advocate for more $3500 races. I don't see that it's an argument as to if they should be at Melton or in the country. It should be (and needs to be) both. There are lower grade horses across the state, so if there are enough of them, we'll run more races. That's been our approach for splitting of $3500 races with strong nominations (wherever they are), and addition of supplementary races, etc. We continue to listen and adapt where opportunities arise, and one of those relates to the date previously occupied by the APTS sale (8 April). We have spoken with Bendigo with the intention that a meeting will be added, with predominantly (or totally) $3500 races. Hopefully that will help with the issue you have raised.


In regards to the decreasing number of foals, I agree that the increase to $40m in prizemoney on it's own is unlikely to stimulate an increase in breeding. There are some who have expressed the view that until recent changes, the future looked pretty bleak so they had held off breeding, but with an improvement in the Vic industry performance they are feeling more optimistic. We did talk to HBV about initiatives that we could afford, and made the decision to waive the $89 DNA fee. We also announced an increase in the quantum of VicBred races to better support this vital program. There's definitely more we would like to do (e.g. consider reducing foal registration costs, etc.), but unfortunately that wasn't possible in the current financial year. We are on track to achieve a significantly more profitable outcome in FY2017/18 and hopefully that enables us to do more in FY2018/19. I would welcome your views (and that of others) on any particular initiatives that we should be considering.


Cheers, David