The herald sun don't give a stuff about harness racing Adam fought for evry column inch, newspapers in general don't give a stuff about racing if they weren't paid to publish form guides and racefields they wouldnt.

Valuebet.

Its only on the Big Race meetings they do it.
Me and my Mates always load up on it.
Everytime they have doubled their money.

Marketing in HRV needs a Huge lift they need to realise we are in 2012 and not 1990s

no wonder trots are going backwards.ouside 10 drivers the rest are ordinary
look at race 4 charlton the bloke on the leader didnt no how fast he was going

Agree, Aachen.

I've been to a meeting twice in the last seven years. Both times, I had a runner interstate, once at Mildura and once at Moonee Valley.

the most popular game in the country couldnt make it work when they built a stadium at waverly, how the f!ck the trots going to do it by building a track at melton ffs

"see more"???

Face the reality, Jim.

If you can't SEE them ALL you can't compare them.....your MIRACLE APP needs it's

own TV broadcast to function.

Any luck with the TVN mounting yard vision sponsorship?

Cheers

There....Is....No....Spoon

Ziggy, I disagree with the Waverley scenario. It's not the boonies like it was even 10 years ago.

Population around and further out has exploded.

People would make the journey en masse, imo..... with one proviso.....

Like anywhere, poorer clubs/**** games would struggle for bums on seats..even more

Cheers

get a grip dooksy r u serious, have a think about the most succesful sports stadiums in every major city around the world.........and spoon it is still the boonies, ffs melton, altona if u lived there you would move

28 mins by train ..city to melton

population has grown from 25,000 23 yrs ago to around 120,000 today. the beauty of the place 36ks from town is fresh air. you cant get that 36ks out in the south or east.

in 20 years the erea is going to be the hub, my prediction

Thats why oncourse punters will increase

can't doubt you there, Jim.

Current number is apparently ZERO


After a few years practice

I think you're approach to Gen Y may need tweaking

And the TVN sponsorship?

Doesn't matter if its Melton or Bourke Street. Harness racing is a sport of yesteryear !

interesting thread

the only track in sydney worth going to imo was Penrith.

They had the ring outside with a couple of bookies and people would come up from the stables and it would be a focal point with the regular crowd which was there.

then they moved the two bookies upstairs to some drab room to make everyone warmer i guess - just killed the atmosphere

went last thursday just terrible - no one there at all and that focal point gone and the bookies who were there even a year ago gone

are we talkin horses or me, .........if its me im interested

Ill stick up again for Melton.

Meltons Facilities smash the Valley.
Crowds double than what was going to the Valley.
Cost to run at the Valley was insane.
Valley will be full of houses in 20 years Time.
Wont be a Racetrack there.

We are in 2012. The Game has changed.
Its a TV, Home, Internet Betting or Pub Betting now.
Dogs, Gallops and Trots. Nobody goes anymore.
Pools are good.
Id be happy they ran there every day instead of all the country tracks.
If they where smart they would have a Room on a Saturday to Cater for Vip Punters with all Corps working out of there for Gallop Punters. Live Oncourse Odds.
Throw in a Restricted meeting for the Trots. $500 races, Oncourse betting only. Good old Bacchus Marsh days.

There is so much more that could be done.

why does it matter where the population is in 20 years? should be looking at next 5 years tops

if you accept that not many people will ever go

then you have to build a track for the horses and trainers

look at all the money being spent on the members and public

that rarely go to the thouroughbreds in sydney.

i ask why???

The best place for a butcher or bakery would be in the Bourke st mall but you don't see many there. You position your business where you can make a profit. Trots may be better off in the boondocks where the overheads are low.

The trots are stuffed. Never been to Melton but know quite a few who have gone and said it is a good facility, but no one goes. Menangle is woeful as a venue. No one goes unless a big race day or night. As for my local Albion Park. It is a farce. You could detonate a bomb at the base of the grandstand as they are scoring up for a $100k race and you would be lucky to kill anyone.

As others have said in this forum it is not about being at the track anymore. It is a TV lottery for mugs to play outside the smart players here. When you add the recent NSW scandal to the mix even the lottery players don't want to play anymore.

The relevance of harness racing in the Australian sporting landscape is where it deserves to be - near zero. Thanks to the quality people that have run the sport into the ground (and that goes for board people, the shonks and there are heaps of them, and others who only see harness racing as a means to make a quick buck at the expense of the sport).

In 10 years we will be talking about the halcyon days of getting 500 to a Friday night meeting at Melton or 150 to a Sat night meeting at AP.

True for greyhounds and the cheats on seats. Not the gallops in general. Gallops still resonate with the public and while they get a lot of young people to go, most are there for the day out. no one goes to the dogs or trots for the night out or day out like they used to. Albion Park is a graveyard. Yes very close to central Brisbane. Harold Park I hear no one would go in the last 10 years of its existence except for Mir Mile and those special nights they promoted. Forget what they called them. There was some call to build a track in SA which would have been solely for TV product. They have got that now anyway. But trots are suffering even more because of the desire for the quick fire lottery. Like the dishlickers. Thats why they want these shorter and shorter races in harness. Takes too long.

From article on Peter Vlandys. Spent the majority of his time there, but article summed it up perfectly.

He sold the restaurant after about two years, making “a reasonably good profit” and was (probably) only 26 when he became the general manager at Harold Park Paceway, a rising star in the declining firmament of harness racing. After 17 years fighting for a sport that struggled to hold the public's attention in the age of video games, he switched codes to become chief executive of Racing NSW in February 2004.