Last week V Landys and Racing NSW announced prizemoney increases of $20 million annually.
With this came the introduction of a new $100,000 Midway Race exclusively for horses from small to mid-sized NSW metropolitan and provincial stables, one that will be added to metropolitan Saturday race meetings.
So from July 1, this Midway race will add a tenth race to Saturday metropolitan meetings.
While the concept of a rich race for smaller and mid-sized NSW stables and increased prizemoney, particularly for country races, is a positive, it’s hard not to think that this is just another win for owners, trainers and breeders at the expense of the punting public.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys, by his own admission, credited punters as being largely responsible for funding the $20m hike in prizemoney, yet they’ll be left to bet on tired, biased tracks, in high percentage markets, while paying huge tax.
For many punters, it’s not a case of if there will be a tipping point, it’s simply a question of when."Can 12 months of wagering data during a once in a 100 year pandemic really be used as a baseline for the future? "
TOM HAYLOCK, THE TRIAL FILES
Can 12 months of wagering data during a once in a 100 year pandemic really be used as a baseline for the future?
Unlike almost every other sporting code,
Australian horse racing flourished over the past year.
Racing in Australia, to the credit of all participants and stakeholders, thrived and continued - with the exception of a few days - largely unaffected.
With this, wagering figures on horse racing soared in 2020, defying the downward trends of years past.
To base a $20 million injection into the pockets of owners, trainers and breeders, on these inflated figures seems questionable at best.
Sports wagering had been the biggest source of competition to racing in recent years, however that was brought to an abrupt halt by COVID-19.
With millions of people forced into lockdown and sporting codes around the world called-off, Australian horse racing was the one constant - and the big winner.
If your favourite bakery kept raising their price year in, year out, no matter how good their pies are at some point in time you will make the call and go next door - and what if their prices were rising yet the quality was slowly deteriorating.
Without doubt, this tenth race on a Saturday metropolitan program will have higher turnover than if it were held midweek or on a Friday night - wagering figures would show this.
Message to Peter V Landys from Joe "The Mug" Punter.
Hey Peter,
Take your head out of your backside and spend some money on the very ordinary race course tracks in Sydney and NSW rather than on prize money.!!
Wet track after wet track, race meetings abandoned or postponed, and significant track bias at every meeting - week in, week out.
Surely some of this money would be better served getting the product right?
And regardless of the success of the measures taken, it's hard not to feel like punters have once again been forgotten about ...