No More $4,500 race meets at Melton please

[Messenger]

Melton is our premier track
It is supposed to be our Flemington
What are we doing tarnishing it with $4,500 race meets

They race at Menangle today for $9,180
They race at Gloucester Park tonight for $7,500
They race at Albion Park today for $7,500+ (7 races) and $4,100 (2 races)

[Showgrounds]

At Melton the winners did not cop a penalty, I suppose that is the difference. But I agree with you, it is a bad look. The 4.5k races evolved from the non-tote picnic meetings that trials clubs used to run. I looked up an old horse I was associated with the other night, he won his first race at Bacchus Marsh. It was worth $100!

I don't know why those clubs were robbed of their meetings but I suspect it was to cater for the quest for the almighty dollar. It is a shame, because those meetings were a great day out at the grassroots of racing. HRV gave up on attracting new fans the day they started racing these meetings with TAB coverage at regular racetracks.

The restricted, non-TAB meetings came about in the late 70's as a result of an "illegal" race meeting (as the Board labelled it at the time) run by the forward thinking Kyabram Trotting Club. While it was promoted as a gymkhana it resulted in 28 races (!) consisting of 18 heats and 10 finals. No stake money, though the connections of winners of the finals were delighted to take home their brand new work carts. And their was a huge crowd.

[Messenger]

The $4.5k races/meetings were all from ex CEO David Martins cost-cutting measures

[Showgrounds]

The $4.5k races/meetings were all from ex CEO David Martins cost-cutting measures

True, but by cost cutting the non-penalty races increased from $3,000. I have no way of checking how many 3 grand races there was in a season but intuition says fewer than the number of $4,500 races we are witnessing now.