Pizemoney drop????

[trish]

Do you think that the NSWHRC want to buy our horses . We'll just tell them their New Zealanders . Can't be any worse than camels

[Race For Fun]

Prizemoney is very good at Menangle but they have trouble attracting full fields on Saturday nights, yes less horses in winter but hard to justify $20,000 races for 7 or 8 horses when country clubs are racing for $3,000 & $5,000. It costs exactly the same amount to feed country grade horses as city. The differance is too great. Yes good horses should get good money but the price of feed, fuel, and the fact that you can't get days off work every week makes it hard for country trainers to go to Menangle as often as they may want. Not sure racing at Menangle just because they pay good unplaced money grows the industry but i understand what Dave means.

[djgood]

I live nearly 3 hours from menangle so the cost to go there for me is $100 ( includes tolls) so on Tuesdays I make $40 minimum on Saturday nights $140 minimum I won't win on Saturdays but that covers the feed bill , I am training a C3 pacer for a couple blokes and the unplaced prize money at menangle will cover their $100 a week bill ,

[Mister JayKO]

The building of Melton & Menangle have multiple angles to it. In NSW, it gave the sport the chance to upgrade all of its infrastructure and upgrade prize money as a one off. Melton was built a legacy by the outgoing Chairman. Both were built with longer term aims in mind and the commencement of works on the training centre at Menangle should already give you the heads up. Massive training centres will be built at both locations and eventually, the vast majority of horses in the state will be trained at these locations. NSW seems to be mirroring the V3 approach taken by HRV centralise regional locations into state of the art venues ie. Bathurst (Central West), Tamworth (North), Newcastle (Hunter) and Wagga (Riverina). Anything outside that will need to survive on whatever fumes are left over. Bookmark it that mini training centres will pop up in these locations in the future.


In Victoria it's a little bit more perplexing and politics has interfered with the plan. V3 was also about rationalisation to state of the art centres, but pressure applied to the Libs/Nats by the disaffected has meant a turnaround of sorts and we have seen tracks reopened and upgraded that were previously marked for deletion. If ever there was a mixed message this is it. Most funding application these days are based around maximum utilisation of the facilities, thus at Menangle you have Bulli merged in there and ever so slowly, despite the efforts of those in charge, Bankstown cannot expect to be maintained. Melton hosts a meeting for every club in the state throughout the year and over time you would expect that to increase. Warrnambool Racing @ Melton hardly features any trainers within the normal catchment area, particularly when it is a restricted meeting.


So within each state we have different agendas and not a common approach and plan that everyone can follow, worse still like the Billy Connolly business plan - the plans keep changing.


The decline in owners willing to pay up and the decline in available horses should be concerning everyone at every level, but it appears to fall on deaf ears.


There is definitely a two to three speed economy in the game right now in both states. I am seeing more and more semi-pro trainers drop back into the hobbyist category, in simple terms they don't have the horses or the economies of scale to compete. Well and good to use Mark Purdon as an example of what they should all be doing but unless you have big financial backing (owners) it is a luxury that none can afford. In scanning the Trainers/Drivers directory you come across many names that have scaled back and even more that are missing entirely, understanding that there will be ins and outs but probably not to the level that is being seen.


It's always interesting to watch the trots in New Zealand and I can remember being at two ID Grand Finals (Baltic Eagle & Elsu) and marvelling at the variety of carts and Horse Floats in the Car Park. I understand that you can still use wooden cats in the shaky isles and I am reliably informed that particularly on grass they "give" a much better ride than the stainless steel versions or the latest US style carts, but the technologist in me suspects that other on grass tracks, the new carts provide a definite advantage over the old stainless and wooden versions.

[Messenger]

"In scanning the Trainers/Drivers directory you come across many names that have scaled back and even more that are missing entirely, understanding that there will be ins and outs but probably not to the level that is being seen."

Perusing that link to the Directory you provided the other day Stu, I estimated there to be about 1200 Licensed people in Vic, if many have gone missing, how many were there once?

[jackthepunter]

"In scanning the Trainers/Drivers directory you come across many names that have scaled back and even more that are missing entirely, understanding that there will be ins and outs but probably not to the level that is being seen."

Perusing that link to the Directory you provided the other day Stu, I estimated there to be about 1200 Licensed people in Vic, if many have gone missing, how many were there once?

Here you go kev state by state down down.
http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual...regn_state.pdf

[jackthepunter]

Victoria and harness racing industry going nowwhere.
http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual..._state_vic.pdf

http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual...vices-comp.pdf

http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual...foals-born.pdf

http://www.harness.org.au/hra/annual...prange_all.pdf

[trish]

Down Down everythings Down.

[Lethal]

It's not only down. It's DOWN & OUT. and not just U2 it's me too.

[Danno]

It's not only down. It's DOWN & OUT. and not just U2 it's me too.

Poor old Lee, mate Status Quo!!