Industry Indicators - Good, Bad & Ugly

[gutwagon]

I'm not disputing the quality of the facilities or how financial the club is at Cranbourne. HRV has indicated over and over again that only turnover matters, they are not interested in bums on seats so the population of the area is irrelevant in their eyes.
Any club that constantly fail to get full fields should have their meetings reduced.

Trevor that freeway has too many people using it and is constantly blocked, trainers have voted with their feet. Yes even Melton is hard to get to from many parts of the city but the horses are coming from the north and west and it's not to bad for them. I gave up going to Melton on Friday nights due to traffic.
The future of the sport is about people betting from home and pubs and clubs, or watching on their phones. The best thing for horses and trainers is to run the races where the horse population is. And that currently is North, West and central Victoria.
Seems a bit unfair to me to give them extra Sunday meetings and make the horses and trainers travel further , just adds extra costs to owners and drives more away.
If they continue down this path I can't see our industry surviving.

[Showgrounds]

I'm not disputing the quality of the facilities or how financial the club is at Cranbourne. HRV has indicated over and over again that only turnover matters, they are not interested in bums on seats so the population of the area is irrelevant in their eyes.
Any club that constantly fail to get full fields should have their meetings reduced.

Trevor that freeway has too many people using it and is constantly blocked, trainers have voted with their feet. Yes even Melton is hard to get to from many parts of the city but the horses are coming from the north and west and it's not to bad for them. I gave up going to Melton on Friday nights due to traffic.
The future of the sport is about people betting from home and pubs and clubs, or watching on their phones. The best thing for horses and trainers is to run the races where the horse population is. And that currently is North, West and central Victoria.
Seems a bit unfair to me to give them extra Sunday meetings and make the horses and trainers travel further , just adds extra costs to owners and drives more away.
If they continue down this path I can't see our industry surviving.

Sounds like we'll all be doomed then! I've got plenty of flies so perhaps we can legalize and televise betting on flies crawling up a wall. Can be done via Skype from any greasy kitchen in the world!

[gutwagon]

The problem is that there are plenty of other things to bet on ! All sports codes, horse and dog racing all over the world, elections even. The TAB wouldn't care if harness racing died in Australia in fact I think they are hoping it does !

[Messenger]

The problem is that there are plenty of other things to bet on ! All sports codes, horse and dog racing all over the world, elections even. The TAB wouldn't care if harness racing died in Australia in fact I think they are hoping it does !

Thus, why we have to get the public to care about harness racing

[gutwagon]

Thus, why we have to get the public to care about harness racing

And running races at Cranbourne with only 5 or 6 runners is not doing that !

[Messenger]

And running races at Cranbourne with only 5 or 6 runners is not doing that !

I don't think that having only 6 runners in a race determines if people care about harness racing Rick (I am talking more about promotion/media actually)
I would be happy for the Miracle Mile to have only 6 runners (those that settle in 7th and 8th position have no chance)

[gutwagon]

Look at this weeks Monday meeting at Shep - 12 races with 8 or more runners in every race. Will help the industry much more than last weeks Cranbourne snooze fest ! It seems I'm in the minority that think running meetings where the horses are located is a good idea !

[Messenger]

I don't think you are in the minority Rick
We do have horses in the east too - just not enough

[arlington]

Talking about Shepp today, it's going to be a wet first race in a few minutes.

If push came to shove Rick, I'd find it hard not to raise my hand or bring down my hand on the south east. But even being in the Shepp area, am prepared to see how the Sundays go.

[Beltane]

What Gutwagon wrote above about the tyranny of distance in Melbourne is replicated in Sydney with Menangle being a hard place to get to unless locally based thanks to the traffic congestion.

Menangle's attendance is sparse and the quote "The future of the sport is about people betting from home and pubs and clubs, or watching on their phones" is already here.

Recently visiting a country club, in their sports bar, I noted the Sky 1 and 2 big screens seemed unusually crisp and clear compared to the standard definition reception at home via Optus' Foxtel package for Sky Racing. And there it was in the top corner in tiny writing was "HD" for high definition.

And checking on Tabcorp's website "Sky Thoroughbred Central (FOXTEL channel 521) will commence broadcast of high definition Australian racing in time for Championships Day 1 at Royal Randwick this Saturday (1st April).... The high definition version of Sky Thoroughbred Central is available to FOXTEL customers with a HD subscription. Customers with a HD subscription will have immediate access to the HD version of the channel from April 1."

This high definition product looks very impressive, so there will be plenty of bums on seats watching and betting on the racing product, but just not at the track.