Announced on October 1, the new round of measures, which include a reduction in base prizemoney allocations and a scaling back of the Vicbred first win and breeder bonus schemes, are set to come into effect from January 1, 2025.
In May, HRV redistributed race meetings for the 2024-25 season, increasing frequency at larger race facilities like Shepparton and Bendigo and cutting dates at regional clubs, including Echuca Harness Racing Club.
HRV chief executive Matt Isaacs said the savings were critical steps towards harness racing in Victoria’s sustainable pathway.
“No racing authority wants to reduce participant returns, but Harness Racing Victoria pays two-thirds of its revenue to prizemoney, which is unsustainable,” he said.
“We need to move to a model that is in line with Victoria’s gallops and greyhound codes and return about 50 per cent of revenue to prizemoney and bonuses.
“I appreciate this will not be the news the industry wants to hear and I empathise with those who are already doing it tough, but these decisions are needed to ensure we can sustain harness racing in Victoria long into the future.”
Meanwhile, Echuca has had its regular 12 meets cut down to six for this season.
Highlighted among the changes was a reduction of prizemoney in the lowest band of competition, with base prize awards to be reduced from $4500 a race to $4000.
A significant portion of races held at Echuca are at this base level.
Seven of the eight races at the club’s September meet had prizemoney of $4700 or less.
“It's harder for everyone in the game,” Echuca president Shane Gloury said.
“It probably just means that there will be a little less stakemoney on offer at our remaining meetings throughout the year, which is not great, but unfortunately that’s just the world that we operate in.”
Harness Racing Victoria makes a base stake contribution to a race’s prizemoney, with the host club able to supplement that amount if it wishes.
“We understand that cuts need to be made, but we think that they’ve cut too strong at the bottom end of the spectrum and that they need to cut more at the higher end,” Gloury said.
“We think that some of the feature races (stakes) can be cut rather than the base stake races and bonuses.”
As part of this round of cuts, HRV also announced $1 million in cuts across 46 feature races.
Also included in the cuts were reductions to the Vicbred first win bonus for Victorian-bred horses and the removal of breeders bonuses altogether.
Previously on a three-tier system that could award as much as $12,000 to the breeder of a horse’s maiden win, the Vicbred system has now been standardised to a flat $5000 for three-year-olds and $3000 for four-year-olds.
“It probably doesn’t affect us as a racing club in the immediate term, (but) there's a big concern that we have from the wider industry point of view,” Gloury said.
“If stakemoney is reducing and Vicbred bonuses and breeder bonuses are reducing as HRV are proposing, the returns out there for owners, trainers and breeders are less.
“That concerns us in four or five years’ time where the industry will be looking.”
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