General News
4 September, 2024
Sack the board: Clubs seethe at financial management revelations
BOORT Trotting Club is confident its traditional March cup meeting will be allowed to offer top prizemoney in 2025. The wait comes as Victorian clubs call for new leadership of Harness Racing Victoria. Boort officials have been in talks with the...
BOORT Trotting Club is confident its traditional March cup meeting will be allowed to offer top prizemoney in 2025.
The wait comes as Victorian clubs call for new leadership of Harness Racing Victoria.
Boort officials have been in talks with the embattled Harness Racing Victoria since a handful of country clubs, including Wedderburn, lost half their meetings in a HRV shakeup.
Those talks have finally seen the club keep its tradition first Sunday of March date for the cup.
“And we are expecting confirmation this week that there will be no change to the prizemoney we can offer,” said life member and vice-president John Campbell.
“The pacing and trotter’s cups each have been run with stakes of $12,000 and other races on the card have until now had prizemoney of between $6000 and $8000. Keeping stakemoney at the same level is important for the number of horses entered, the number of races and the number of people from the local community and the industry who attend.”
Campbell said the club had been relieved when told it could keep the March cup date.
Boort’s wait on HRV’s stakemoney call comes as more than 450 members of clubs met in Bendigo on Sunday to discuss the financial turmoil faced by HRV.
“We learnt more things on Sunday and learning things we don’t like,” Campbell said.
Key concerns include:
Since 2016, the number of full-time employees at HRV has increased by 51 per cent.
Employment costs at HRV have surged by 72 per cent in five years.
Administration and operating expenses (excluding stakemoney) have risen by $9.2 million in the past two years.
HRV has 103 full-time staff, compared to 50 at Harness Racing New South Wales.
“HRV is now projecting severe stakemoney cuts of anywhere between $10 million (22 per cent) and $18 million (40 per cent) over the next three years,” said the Victorian Harness Racing Club after Sunday’s meeting.