2018 Victorian Interdominion

[gutwagon]

I only just found out we are having 3 rounds of heats. All the publicity seemed to point to 2 rounds. The question of the sprint lane at Ballarat should have been answered by now ! I thought the lack of a sprint lane at Ballarat would have ruled them out.
Personally I'm hoping all sprint lanes will be closed just for consistency and better racing. But I bet they will just not have one at Ballarat.
As for the traffic issues I hope they run the heats on Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday nights and the final on the following Saturday night. Cranbourne could have the Wednesday night one .
These are just suggestions Mr Martin , not criticisms . And bringing back the trotters was just obvious and should never have been taken away.

[Messenger]

Then just run the other set at Melton rather than Ballarat if you don't want to go too far from 4m pop. I would probably prefer all heats be at the Metro track, but if the idea is to run heats away from the Metro track to bring in a greater audience, then you need to widen the horizons.

If the idea is "We need to run heats AWAY from Melton because reasons" I would have thought you run the heats AWAY from Melton and not select the two closest tracks to Melton.

I agree with your thinking Breno - normally I would say that the whole event should be at your Metro track but our problem is that Melton is West Metro.

I cannot see the industry moving from Melton (too many participants who live there would howl it down for starters)

If we really want to appeal to the whole of Melbourne or at least have a crack at it, I only see 2 solutions

- a sister Metro track which can have an 'easterly' aspect but would ideally be closer than Cranbourne

- a city racecourse like MV where we run about a dozen feature meetings. I know this is one that Ray Chaplin advocates. I fear it could only be possible at MV and with their redevelopment plans it may be too late even if we started jumping up and down tomorrow and then it may have to be grass racing (which Ray would not mind)

[Messenger]

I only just found out we are having 3 rounds of heats. All the publicity seemed to point to 2 rounds. The question of the sprint lane at Ballarat should have been answered by now ! I thought the lack of a sprint lane at Ballarat would have ruled them out.
Personally I'm hoping all sprint lanes will be closed just for consistency and better racing. But I bet they will just not have one at Ballarat.
As for the traffic issues I hope they run the heats on Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday nights and the final on the following Saturday night. Cranbourne could have the Wednesday night one .
These are just suggestions Mr Martin , not criticisms . And bringing back the trotters was just obvious and should never have been taken away.

Decisions already made Rick - see the link

http://www.harnesslink.com/Australia...er-Dom-returns

Not surprised you didn't know as I still cannot find it in the HRA site's News loop

[David Martin]

I only just found out we are having 3 rounds of heats. All the publicity seemed to point to 2 rounds. The question of the sprint lane at Ballarat should have been answered by now ! I thought the lack of a sprint lane at Ballarat would have ruled them out.
Personally I'm hoping all sprint lanes will be closed just for consistency and better racing. But I bet they will just not have one at Ballarat.
As for the traffic issues I hope they run the heats on Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday nights and the final on the following Saturday night. Cranbourne could have the Wednesday night one .
These are just suggestions Mr Martin , not criticisms . And bringing back the trotters was just obvious and should never have been taken away.

Thanks Rick. We did initially state only 2 rounds of heats, as that was what was agreed by Vic/NSW/NZ with HRA. We later changed that so all three jurisdictions will run the traditional 3 rounds of heats. In 2018, the first night will be at Melton, then Ballarat, then Cranbourne, with the final at Melton. 7 clubs provided submissions, with Ballarat and Cranbourne successful. The Board has flagged it's intention for the non-Melton heats to be conducted at other clubs in 2021, etc. We will advise in due course about the conditions for the ID, including sprint lanes, etc. As always, I appreciate your input and suggestions. Cheers, David

[Exhilarator]

pity our top horses going around at cranbourne who have the worst home turn in the state

[Amlin]

I thought you were a Sydney-sider Breno
You need to understand that the demographic centre of Melbourne is not the CBD - it is Glen Iris which is 25 min to the East, 25 min that you need to add on for them and you would already have read the difficulty of CBD workers/dwellers of getting out of the CBD to Melton (thus the criticism of Melton as our Metro track ), imagine having to get right across it

It gets worse because Glen Iris is just the midpoint - HALF of Melbourne's population is to the east of them THUS making Melton well over an hour away

66% of Victoria's population is in Melbourne - that means 33% of the states pop is in Melbourne to the East of Glen Iris (E, NE, SE). We are talking a couple of million people without even counting Country East who may consider going to Cranbourne if we can get it right

This the demographic that we are targeting - Glen Iris and the East of them who only have to travel half an hour or less to Cranbourne Not over an hour to Melton

A large portion of members of the old VHRC when they had their own area at MV were from the Eastern suburbs, these people would have dropped the sport long ago. Have not been to a Cranbourne meet for over seven years so I cannot say if they have been attending their Sat night meets in droves.

They should program a country meet the day after the Cranbourne heats at Warragul to encourage carnival visitors to spend the weekend in Gippsland. Extra exposure for the sport and given that Warragul has discussed perhaps a dual code meet with the greyhounds at that time of year, latching on to such publicity could only assure a great success!

[arlington]

A large portion of members of the old VHRC when they had their own area at MV were from the Eastern suburbs, these people would have dropped the sport long ago. Have not been to a Cranbourne meet for over seven years so I cannot say if they have been attending their Sat night meets in droves.

They should program a country meet the day after the Cranbourne heats at Warragul to encourage carnival visitors to spend the weekend in Gippsland. Extra exposure for the sport and given that Warragul has discussed perhaps a dual code meet with the greyhounds at that time of year, latching on to such publicity could only assure a great success!

[gutwagon]

Having a heat at Ballarat on a Wednesday night will stop many people going due to traffic problems. The ring road and Western Highway on a week night add 30 minutes + to most peoples trips, add some road works and a crash and that could be 2 hours. There is basically only one way for Melbourne traffic to get to Ballarat. Cranbourne would be easier for most people to get to in peak hour on a week night. Did they consider this ?
I rarely go to Melton on Friday nights due to the fact it takes me too long to get there from the northern suburbs. I would miss the first few races. I quite like the place when I do get there even with its issues.
Thanks for the link Kevin. I'm astounded that the sprint lane issue was not sorted before deciding the clubs !

[Amlin]

I imagine Cranbourne would be awful to get to for those across town in weekday peak hour. It was bad enough driving home from work in the City in 2004 so guessing it is worse now!

[Messenger]

I am down in Melbourne on one of my regular trips right now and every time I say to my wife:

"This city is stuffed" (in relation to the traffic)