Racing Victoria cites growing turnover and community engagement as key factors behind summer programming
Racing Victoria has shut down trainer David Eustace’s criticism of an unprecedented weekend of twilight and night racing, claiming growing turnover as a significant factor in new timeslot.
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Racing Victoria rejects trainer David Eustace’s criticism of its summer programming, pointing to surging turnover and an appetite for innovation as key factors in scheduling a cluster of twilight meetings this weekend.
Eustace slammed RV’s fixturing over the next two days, when there will be six meetings staged — with only Friday’s Geelong program to be held as a traditional day meeting.
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The three meetings on Friday are spread from 1pm for the first race at Geelong to 10pm for the last race at The Valley, with Moe running from 2.30pm to 6.50pm.
Flemington will hold a twilight meeting on Saturday, with the first race at 3pm and the last at 8pm as the Victoria Racing Club unveils the first of its summer fixtures.
Wangaratta starts at 3.56pm with a 7.45pm finish, overlapping Cranbourne’s 6.25pm to 9.45pm program.
“Having three such meetings on Saturday with no racing during the day seems totally nonsensical,” Eustace wrote in a statement published on Twitter.
“Who decides this?
“This weekend with only the President's Cup (golf tournament) to compete with in Victoria this Saturday, surely a perfect opportunity to showcase the sport during summer in the day time.”
Eustace asked for transparency from administrators over the financial benefit of hosting twilight or night meetings because later start times impact on the ability of a stable to function with added costs and quality-of-life consequences.
“I understand there's a place and requirement for twilight/night meetings,” Eustace wrote.
“However, it would be good to get some clarity re the actual financial benefit compared to day meetings and, if the effort required by participants to support such meetings is warranted by that quantified benefit.”
Eustace also said he believes offering inferior prizemoney at Wangaratta for their Saturday twilight meeting in comparison to the Cranbourne card later that evening was “an insult to all participants”.
RV’s Greg Carpenter said both Wangaratta and Cranbourne are “well-established event meetings in these timeslots which showcase our sport to the local community and provide the clubs with an opportunity to capitalise on the Christmas party market.”
“Both meetings have been developed to suit their local communities and will again be well supported this weekend with Wangaratta expecting a crowd of over 3000 people and Cranbourne around 4000,” he said.
To the powers that be @RacingInsider @Racing @m_felgate @RacingPost @Mattunchained @Blood1971 pic.twitter.com/EUBCszNmxD
— David Eustace (@eustacedj) December 11, 2019
“These are successful meetings that are being embraced by the local community.”
Carpenter said the change to the Flemington meeting from a 1pm start to 3pm came after wide consultation with relevant trainers and jockey groups.
“The VRC, after consultation with the ATA and VJA, announced in October that they would trial the meeting as a twilight in a bid to attract new audiences and grow engagement in the pre-Christmas market,” he said.
“We were very happy to support the trial on this basis. There is a positive vibe around the meeting and we look forward to it being embraced by members, fans and punters.
“As always, we’ll look at the attendance, wagering and club profitability across all three meetings once they’ve been conducted to determine their level of success and factor that into our planning for the 2020/21 race dates.”
Total turnover on Wednesdays incorporating twilight meetings grew by 12 per cent in the 2018-19 season
Thursday night meetings in the 2018-19 season averaged 15 per cent more turnover per meeting than Thursday day fixtures.
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Price said the “industry should prioritise them (stable staff) a little better, rather than paying jockeys these ridiculous bonuses”.
Pointing to Racing NSW’s 2018 decision to introduce a 1.5 per cent split of prizemoney for strappers, Price said racing was duty-bound to recognise a group who “have no voice”.
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