Originally Posted by
Amlin
HRV CEO John Anderson will be live on RSN Racing and Sport tomorrow (Tues) morning at 9:20am discussing the latest in Victorian Harness Racing.
Over on Facebook RSN are inviting followers to post their questions to John - here is the response so far (all from one interested person)
Q1) HRV COO Brant Dunshea stated in an interview with Shane Anderson on RSN earlier in the year that the montes were not being conducted to increase betting turnover but to increase participation in harness racing. How many new licensed participants have the monte races brought to the sport since they begun?
none, it's just pandering to the European market. Very few of the participants want it or will support it.
Q2) The standing starts at the moment have no set starting procedure in Victoria, punters are not certain if the standing starts will be walk up starts, vault starts or traditional standing starts, have HRV thought of having one system of standing starts to increase punters confidence?
there are set procedures but each starter seems to have their own view on what they are and no 2 stand starts are ever the same
Q2a) On at least a weekly occurrence the strands fail to release in Standing Starts at various tracks, why does this regularly happen and what have HRV done to remedy the situation? Has HRV considered making all Standing Starts hand held to fix the problem?
this is generally a club based problem. They should be tested prior to each meeting. Can't see hand held starts coming in its just too many variables with multiple handicaps.
Q3) What did it cost HRV to bring out 'racing ambassadors' Chantel Sutherland & Corey Callahan for the Great Southern Star? Do HRV think they got a good bang for their marketing buck from these two US racing people, people the average person in a Melbourne street would never have heard of?
it cost lots but I think promotions like that are worth it as one offs. It got a lot of promotion in main stream media that we never get anymore. We need to do more to promote our own people as stars though.
Q4)Have HRV considered having their major metro meeting each week on a Saturday night instead of a Friday night, currently NSW, QLD & SA have their metro meetings on a Saturday night? If Saturday nights are not the best night to have metro meetings then why do HRV run their major meetings such as the Hunter Cup, Victoria Cup and the Great Southern Star on a Saturday night?
there reason for this is turnover is better on Friday nights but people go on Saturday nights. Naturally they want crowds at there biggest meetings but couldn't give a stuff the rest of the year as long as people bet.
Q6) In the last 5 HRV annual reports, HRV has lost a combined total of over $8 million, in a business with an annual turnover of approx. $70 million dollars, what changes have HRV made to their future budgets to ensure that another $8 million is not lost over the next 5 years?
not even going to attempt that
Q7) Harness Racing New South Wales has disqualified several trainers for cobalt use. Does HRV have a threshold for the use of cobalt? If their is a threshold in Victoria why have no trainers been caught using cobalt?
we do have a threshold but apparently we aren't testing for it because its too expensive!
Q8) After 10 years at the helm as CEO, what new fresh ideas does Mr. Anderson think he can bring to the sport?
Q9) Currently in the deal with Betfair, HRV receives .65% commission from winning bets while RVL and GRV receive 1.5% in commission. Why have HRV signed up to such a bad deal?
another terrible management decision
Q10) In Mr Anderson's time as CEO at HRV he has seen 10 different tenures of Chief of Stewards, why has there been such a merry-go-round in the position over the last 10 years?
