Victoria Racing Club announces a $24.2m loss for the 2023/24 financial year

The Victoria Racing Club has plenty of work to do to arrest its financial troubles after the Melbourne Cup custodians announced another huge loss in its latest annual report.

The Victoria Racing Club has announced another huge loss for the 2024/25 financial year in its annual report. Picture: Racing Photos

The Victoria Racing Club’s financial issues have worsened over the last year after the Melbourne Cup host announced another massive loss for the most recent financial year.

The VRC revealed a net loss of $24.2m in its annual report on Tuesday, following on from last year’s loss of $14.9m.

The latest result took the club’s losses to more than $70m in the last four financial years.

The VRC is also laden with a $72.5m debt, which is secured against parcels of land the club owns in the vicinity of the Flemington Racecourse.

• Senior Victorian jockeys demand pay for jumpouts

One of the debts is an interest free loan of $10m from Racing Victoria, with the ANZ Bank holding the rest of the debt.

Membership jumped to a record 34,240 in the 2023/24 financial year but the VRC’s revenue remained similar to last year at $216.6m.

However, expenses rose $3.6m to $222.2m.

Industry distributions and wagering revenue fell by $2.48m while finance costs such as interest payments jumped 49 per cent to $4.3m.

The club’s investment in capital projects around Flemington jumped from $7.3m to $11.1m in the last financial year.

New VRC chief executive Kylie Rogers has the task of reining in the club’s expenses in the 2024/25 financial year. Picture: Jason Edwards

“The club has been subject to increasing costs of doing business, as experienced throughout the broader economy, including Melbourne Cup Carnival-related entertainment, temporary infrastructure and event delivery costs,” the VRC director’s report read.

While the losses continue to mount, the VRC was confident the organisation’s financial outlook would improve as the new broadcast agreement with the Nine Network took effect.

The Melbourne Cup crnival’s resurgence with improved crowds in 2024 is also cause for optimism.

“The Club maintains a positive outlook for the future, which is supported by the recently executed media rights and sponsorship agreement commencing for the 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival,” the report read.

• Golden Slipper favourite drowns in freak accident

“Due to timing of contracted revenues and increased delivery costs associated with the initial period of the agreement, the Club expects to see significant uplift from this activity in FY26 and beyond.”

Speculation has grown in recent weeks suggesting the VRC would make job cuts in a bid to rein in some costs during the current financial year.

Originally published as Victoria Racing Club announces a $24.2m loss for the 2023/24 financial year