The media has been awash with shock, horror news articles describing the perilous financial state of the the Queensland racing industry and Racing Queensland’s new acting CEO, Ian Hall has been given the task of facilitating a pathway back to prosperity.
There has been lots of commentary about possible cuts to prizemoney, abolition of funding to country race clubs and breeders incentive schemes etc with most media attention being focussed on the thoroughbred side of the industry.
This is not surprising as the thoroughbred industry generates 75% of Racing Queensland’s revenue stream (2014-2015 annual report).
Certain individual trainers who are members of the Australian Thoroughbred Trainers Association – Brisbane branch have been quick to back possible cuts to prizemoney at country thoroughbred race meeting as long as Metropolitan prizemoney isn’t touched.
However the media, Racing Queensland executive management team and ATA – Brisbane branch have all been very low key in their comments about how the performance of the different racing codes has contributed to the overall RQ net operating loss of $11.18 million for the last financial year.
It is true that the thoroughbred industry produced a net operating loss following depreciation of equipment of $2.86 million. This is not brilliant but considering the upheaval to betting revenue caused by major track refurbishment programs and closure of racing at Eagle Farm, Queensland’s premier race track, and also Townsville for a large part of last financial year, it is not total gloom and doom.
The greyhound industry also generated a net operating loss following depreciation of $1.2 million and it is certainly prudent that a thorough analysis of cost savings for this code also be investigated.
Howver the major financial problem becomes apparent when one looks at the harness racing industry result. Harness racing is haemorrhaging money and on life support. It generated a loss of $7 miillion dollars before depreciation of assets and after depreciation a net loss of $7.1 million.
This performance by harness racing is totally unsustainable and the industry requires radical surgery if it is to survive at all.
For anyone with even a passing interest in harness racing or the “trots” as it was once affectionately known this is a very sad situation.
However harness racing has been a very sick and stagnant industry for well over a decade now with no real cure in sight.
The glory days for harness racing commenced in the early 1970’s with the public flocking to the new spectacle of night racing often referred to as the “ribbon of light”.
Queensland developed regular night trotting at Albion Park, Gold Coast, Redcliffe, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsvile, and Cairns.
Saturday afternoon trotting at Rocklea, Toowoomba, Charters Towers and Innisfail, offered opportunity for battlers and beginners to either get a start or remain connected to the sport.
Crowds at the “trots” on Saturday nights continued to grow and the betting rings were packed with bookmakers and punters. Townsville boasted a ring of in excess of 20 bookmakers during the heady days of the late 70’s. The Rockhampton opening night for harness racing at Callaghan Park in May 1974 was huge with a crowd of thousands cramming the course facilities to the brim.
Harness racing continued to grow in popularity to such an extent that thoroughbred racing adminstrators in many locations were quite worried that there would be a drift away from the races on Saturday afternoons and consequent reduction in betting turnover.
The trots reached a peak in popularity in the late 80’s and since then has been in decline mode.
One could speculate what went wrong and there are multiple reasons.
For one. poker machines were legalised in Queensland and there was a huge growth in lavish facilities at clubs and pubs which offered various forms of additional entertainment and incentives to woo patrons.
Queenslanders no longer needed to sneak south of the the border to have a flutter on the pokies and enjoy a different level of entertainment.
The harness racing industry itself also lost it’s way. The focus moved from smaller circumference tracks which held a certain fascination for the public who could be close to the horses and action. Harness racing on small, tight cornered tracks, often at a showgrounds, held a certain type of comparison to Roman chariot racing and the public loved the skills displayed by reinsmen in this cauldron atmosphere.
However harness racing administrators and breeders in particular developed a fascination with speed and the magical 2 minute mile barrier. New larger size tracks were developed and racing took on a different feel with the focus all on speed racing. Funny thing is the punting public didn’t really care as to whether a horse won in 1.58 or 2.03 they wanted a close exciting contest and a run for their money. This new style of racing often ended up with a procession of follow the leader racing with short priced favourites. The punters simply uned out. Stewards jumped in and imposed penalties on drivers if they didn’t carve out minimum set times when leading. The days of rating a horse to give it the best chance of winning were gone. If a driver tried to stack the field up and sprint home, catching his opponents napping he would be fined and ran the risk of suspension for multiple infringements. As far as intergrity went it was open slather. As one reinsman at the time said to me – “if I want to get a horse beat what better way than to just cut him loose early knowing he’ll tire, all with the stewards blessing”.
Harness racing was widely labelled as the “red hots” with many industry participants were up to their necks in shenanigans. The probelem for harness racing was that the punting public were not completely gullible and decided to move their gambling investment to other avenues.
As the stagnation continued harness racing authorities over time closed all tracks across Queensland except two, Redcliffe and Albion Park in the South East corner. The statewide support base withered and the industry has become very closed and insular. It has almost lost the support of mainstream media and for most Queenslanders they wouldn’t even know a harness racing meeting was on. There is limited publicity and nil free to air coverage of races. Even the Interdominion ( Harness racing’s equivalent of the Melbourne Cup) barely gets a mention these days or even a few seconds replay of the final on TV news channels.
It’s hard to say if harness racing is terminal but at present it continues to decline whilst requiring constant life support funded by revenue generated by other racing codes in Queensland.
Ian Hall was quoted in the Sunday mail newspaper on 20th Septemer 2015 as saying he thought that cross subsidisation of codes was acceptable and it was not likely that the various codes would be split to operate under individual umbrellas.
This might be ok in the short term. However it is imperitave that he and his management team at RQ enunciate a vision and strategy which will assist the harness racing industry to survive on it’s own revenue stream without additional support.
Howver in order to formulate a strategy and then implement it effectively, perhaps they should do a lot more comprehensive market research and business analysis to determine if harness racing will ever come off life support.
In order to find the answers they really need to talk with the public and punters and find out why they have shunned the “trots’ – they alone will determine the harness racing industry’s future survival.
Time will tell if the RQ team actually has the will or the intellectual and business skills to carry out such a comprehensive study and then has the intestinal fortitude to act on any findings.
The thoroughbred industry’s future prosperity relies heavily on their actions in regard to harness racing’s viability.