Hope for racing future

By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE Amateur Racing Club committee members are stunned at a proposal to reduce its meetings from seven to four each season.
The proposal is one of a number put forward by Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) and Country Racing Victoria (CRV) under the draft Victorian Racecourse and Training Facilities Directions Paper. The paper, released for comment in December, looks at the future requirements for training, club sustainability and viability and the racing program for the next five to 10 years.
While the Yarra Valley Racing Centre in Yarra Glen would benefit from an additional two meetings under the restructured program, Healesville stands to lose three races. It’s a move HARC president John O’Neill says will be detrimental not only to the club that was named Picnic Club of the Year last year, but to racing in general.
Standing before a record crowd of more than 4000 people on Saturday 10 January, Mr O’Neill said the proposal defied logic.
“This is the living proof that we are doing it right,” he said. “As a voluntary committee we have to do all the same work to run four meetings as we have to run seven but we will effectively have our income reduced by between 35 and 40 per cent.”
Mr O’Neill said the seven meeting season gave the club the opportunity to recover if races were washed out, or had a lower attendance.
“If you have seven meetings and it rains on two, you can recover, if you have four and you lose two, you go out the door backwards,” he said.
A spokesman for the Rotary Club of Healesville told the Mail any reduction would impact on the community.
Rotary Club members are paid by the club to manage parking.
Rae Church of Rotary said that money was passed on to Healesville Interchurch Care.
“Why would you cut something like this, that is so successful?” he asked. “It’s a wonderful picnic atmosphere that is affordable for families and we make some money out of it which goes back into the community.”
The club also donates money from the Punters Club to HICCI, Riding for the Disabled and the local pony club. The Lions Club of Healesville also raises funds each race day.
Paul Bloodworth, RVL manager racing operations, said clubs would only lose meetings that were considered to be under-performing and retain those that were successful.
He said the proposed reduction in meetings was based on figures taken over a minimum of three years.
“It’s all about giving these clubs the chance to have longevity and ensuring that the meetings they do run are all successful,” he said.
“This is one of the smaller planks in what is a pretty big plan,” he added. “We’re happy to be corrected if people think we’re wrong.”
The closing date for submissions has been extended to 27 February.
Mr O’Neill says the club is hopeful that logic will prevail.