I draw your attention to a tragic accident just recently in Tasmania in which 4 racehorses died and which we can all be thankful that none of the 5 young people travelling with them, though some seriously injured, were also killed, though they very easily may have been.
An incident of this nature is not restricted to Tasmania but could equally if not more likely happen in Western Australia as long trips home late at night from the trots are commonplace, as are very early starts as a result of the temperatures for much of the year.
Declining numbers of participants in regional areas in recent years has meant more Perth based participants travelling long distances to fill fields. Likewise increasing urbanisation around Perth has seen participants move further out from Perth and travel further, indeed two of the leading younger generation of trainers have based themselves south of Bunbury necessitating very early starts and very late nights and a 400km plus round trip twice a week to access the metropolitan track at Gloucester Park.
On appearances, as no formal notifications or plans have been released, it seems RWWA intends to build a training centre at Pinjarra to replace the training centre at Byford whilst simultaneously contributing significant funds ($25m) to Gloucester Park to redevelop the stabling area, thus committing more and more participants to travel much longer distances to an increasingly difficult to access outdated racing venue in the inner city.
There is no plan to enlarge the track from its current 800m circumference, yet the evolution of the standardbred horse means they are now capable of speeds not just unheard of but undreamed of in the days when the Gloucester Park was founded. The laws of physics apply to horses, with ever increasing speed racing on small tight turning tracks with insufficient camber increasing the stresses on the animal and their risk of serious and potentially catastrophic leg injuries.
RWWAs apparent intentions fly in the face of both the industry committing to sustainability and action on climate change, the preferences of participants and punters beyond a select group at Gloucester Park, and the welfare and indeed safety of the industry’s participants, equine and human alike.
The Gloucester Park redevelopment plan was passed by the requisite number of members, somewhat less then 200 people. The plan does not have widespread support in the broader industry. Voters in inner city electorates across the country are increasingly voting greens or teal, which are primarily opposed to the racing industry at worst and at best don’t support it.
Indeed not all Gloucester Park members support the proposal either. A former Gloucester Park committee member, Duro Margaretic, has taken court action to prevent the sale from taking place.
There is little doubt there is a more preferable and sustainable option for the industry’s future then the proposals from Gloucester Park and RWWA but leadership from government is needed as it is readily apparent that neither RWWA or the Gloucester Park club have the wherewithal to have a vision for a sustainable future for the industry.
The Gloucester Park club claims other states principle clubs are looking to relocate back to inner city venues. This simply is not true. Gloucester Park also boasts of having the second highest turnover in the country, justifying remaining as they are, yet Gloucester Park’s track size and barrier bias means two barriers win almost 50 percent of races, and the leader/horse outside the leader winning in the order of 70% or more of races. Racing is leader dominated and boring. Field sizes are falling as disenfranchised participants leave the industry.
Additionally the barrier bias and declining field sizes result in a proliferation of very short priced favourites, most of which win, and stifles win and place betting.
So how do Gloucester Park achieve the turnover they claim? Their answer- the short priced favourites encourage punters to bet into the larger and potentially more lucrative exotic pools. And that is very very likely to be true. But at what cost to the ordinary punters? The take out on the exotic bets by wagering companies is much much larger then that of the win place pool. And whilst the prospect of a large or even very large payout lures punters the reality is the wagering companies payout well below the actual odds of the punters winning combinations actually occurring. Plus the corporate betting agencies profile their customers and the most competent/successful punters have their bets limited whilst those who tend to lose can bet in larger amounts. Put simply, more profitable bet types for the wagering companies and a lower return to punters is the benchmark by which RWWA and the Gloucester Park club seek to sustain the harness industry.
Rather then seeking to remain at their inner city venues, much less seek to return to them, as any interest in doing so is fueled by the nostalgia experienced by a few for a bygone era, not a rational plan for the future, the principle clubs in the other states have or are relocating to locations on the outskirts of the city.
Harness Racing Victoria, which conducts metropolitan racing itself in Victoria, moved from its leased track at Moonee Valley to a purpose designed racing facility at Melton, some 50ks from the city in 2009.
NSWs principal club, moved its venue, Harold Park from the inner city suburb of Glebe to a location on the city’s outskirts in Menangle Park in 2008 with a handsome return from the sale of its inner city land to fund its activities well into the future. Harness Racing NSW has since built a co located training centre at the venue improving horse welfare and work/life balance and safety for participants. Plans are afoot for Infrastructure NSW to acquire the site of the Penrith Club in Western Sydney with the club to rebuild in a less urban area or more likely race at Menangle Park.
Indeed HRNSW has moved to a racing hub model across the state with new tracks being built at Bathurst and Wagga in the last decade and with a training centre under construction at Bathurst and in planning for Wagga. Tamworth whilst still an older style small track is having on course stabling built. The Newcastle track is planned to be relocated into a rural area and also include a training centre.
All of the new tracks in NSW have been designed and constructed specifically with the intent of maximising turnover from all types of wagering, participant preferences and the safety of drivers and our equine athletes.
On course training facilities are crucial to the future of the industry as they provide a pathway for young people to become trainers, something that is virtually impossible for those not born into the industry because of the prohibitive price of land and cost of establishing their own training facilities. Prospective new trainers must demonstrate assured access to training facilities before RWWA will even consider granting them a trainers license.
Additionally the QLD government has just released the not unexpected and in fact widely anticipated plan to relocate metropolitan harness racing in that state to a rural location midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast adjacent the fastest residential growth corridor in the country. The new venue will, like those in NSW, incorporate a joint racing venue and training centre with an expected 200 race meetings a year conducted at the venue.
This change to relocating racing venues outside of the inner city with co located training centres are affirmative action for the harness industry in turns of its own sustainability, welfare of human and equine participants, and action on climate change.
Sadly the WA harness industry lags well behind with its principle club, Gloucester Park, and governing body intent on continuing a racing model from 50 or more years ago that is out of date with today’s technology, or compatible with climate change. It is simply unsustainable.
Our industry is no longer reliant on a large on course attendance physically betting in cash with a bookmaker. Our target market extends much further then just the immediate surrounds of Gloucester Park, there is no firewall at the city limits, or indeed the state border. Gloucester Park meetings are predominantly run in time slots that are late at night and extend into the wee small hours of the morning in the eastern states, stifling rather then enhancing wagering from the much larger populations in the east.
In addition to relocating their venues other states have markedly upgraded the quality of their racing broadcasts incorporating many new features available in the digital world into the broadcast and extending their reach not just throughout their own states but across the country and potentially the globe.
I have been able to watch all Victorian trots races live and free on HRVs trotsvision on my digital device for around 8 years, and wager online with a number of providers if I wish. I cannot even listen to WA harness on the radio at my home in Byford as I do not have reception.
Although a relative latecomer to industry it has been my passion for over 25 years. Whilst originally from interstate the last 7 of which have been spent as a property owner and resident, and industry participant on the Byford trotting complex
The complex and adjoining training properties were established some 50 years ago, and like all things, including Gloucester Park on which the complex’s training track was modelled, is coming rapidly to the end of its life span.
The large professional trainers of yesteryear are long gone with the training complex predominantly utilised by hobbyists and retirees, and perhaps a handful of working age trainers who make their living in the industry. Many of these reside elsewhere and float in between once and several times a week to use the track. The median age of the still largely trots orientated people who own the blocks adjoining the complex would be eligible for retirement or beyond. Indeed Serpentine Jarrahdale Shire Councils rates survey would show just how many of the properties are still utilised to make a living in the horse industry. Council has already permitted building in the supposed buffer zones surrounding the complex……
Byford is not the rural community it once was, it is a rapidly growing urban area with the aged trotting complex almost at its centre, and an increasing interaction in the joint public spaces between the old and new populations which brings about an increase in the risk of harm to people on both sides, and the horses that trotting people have such passion for.
Ask RWWA what their plan is for the future for the Byford trotting complex and their answer is as, they told Hugh Jones and Shire president Michelle Rich not so long ago, they have no plans to sell Byford in the short to medium term. And that is the problem, RWWA should have a clear vision for the sustainable future of the harness industry in Western Australia and a plan locked in for future of the Byford trotting complex in accomplishing that future.
I was fortunate to consider myself a friend and confident of RWWAs former harness manager Kerry Hanks, who’s decision to leave RWWA over the principle Club, Gloucester Park, constantly undermining her decisions and ability to put the good of the whole industry ahead of the narrow interest of one club, was a huge loss to harness racing.
From Kerry I know she on behalf of RWWA was involved in negotiations from around 2018 to purchase land adjacent the Pinjarra track upon which to build a training centre.
In 2016 in response to a question from Paul Papalia in a parliamentary committee hearing, buying land at Pinjarra for a training centre is exactly what then RWWA CEO Richard Burt answered RWWA would do if the land at Byford became “too valuable for housing”. This answer from Mr Burt, was less then 2 years after RWWA accepted the Metropolitan Equne Assets Task Force report recommending spending $9m on Byford building on course stables and beautification………
From both the BOTRA (Breeders Owners Trainers and Reinsmans Association) president, Donald Harper, and Byford Club president Craig Murphy, who are amongst my neighbours, I know that RWWA has completed the land purchase at Pinjarra. Yet as an industry participant, and a resident of Byford, I along with all other participants and Byford residents, and indeed it appears the Shire Council and member for Darling Range are being kept in the dark as to RWWAs intentions for the Byford trotting complex.
The Byford trotting complex is now “too valuable” for housing, and more so then ever before with an affordable housing crisis engulfing the state, indeed engulfing the country. Byford is an ideal suburb for the government to invest in affordable housing and the trotting complex which occupies some 22 hectares (54 acres), and a similar amount of land again adjoining it still owned predominantly by trotting industry participants and potentially available is ideally located in close proximity to Byfords growing services and amenities on which to develop a new affordable housing estate.
Indeed the government already recognises Byford’s potential for affordable housing with the Beenyup Grove estate development undertaken by Development WA and a private company in its final stage, being of similar size and located just 2ks from the Byford trotting complex.
I’m certainly not suggesting the trotting complex just simply be sold off for housing some time soon by RWWA but that the development of the trotting complex be a component of a genuine plan by government to provide a safer and sustainable future for the harness industry and affordable housing for West Australians. Quid pro quo….
Pinjarra, much as I enjoy the track and amenities and racing there, the area is under serviced and just simply too far away from Perth and the major residential growth corridor along the Kwinana freeway to be a viable replacement for Byford, or Gloucester Park any time soon or at all. Additionally the Pinjarra venues limited space and noisey highway frontage location precludes it being used, as a venue in more spacious park like rural surrounds could be, to maximise the benefits to mental health of open space and natural environment to the residents of more densely populated adjacent suburbs seven days a week in addition to the raceday entertainment and jobs it could provide.
What I propose is that the government develop the Byford trotting complex site, which by virtue of RWWAs ownership the state government owns, for housing and replace it with a new trotting training complex located in a rural area at a suitable site in the Serpentine Jarrahdale shire, a predominantly rural shire which is very much in favour of equine industry’s within its boundaries. I would suggest a location near Byford and the Tonkin Highway extension or in proximity to Baldivis or Rockingham and the Kwinana Freeway. And that this site be suitable also for the construction of a co located racing venue to replace Gloucester Park, which in turn could be developed into a new residential/commercial/tourist and desperately needed student accomodation precinct in Perth.
I take little credit for the suggestion, I am simply applying the models being adopted by government and governing bodies in other states as a sustainable future for their harness industry to WAs harness industry, geography and population growth, and to provide more housing in inner city/urban areas
The trotting industry gains a new racing and training venue in a rural area designed to optimise the welfare of horses and participants and reduce the industrys impact on climate change. It would be close to either residential or rural housing options for participants, and the people in the adjacent residential growth areas gain a new recreation, entertainment and employment venue which is also sufficiently close to Perth to draw visitors and tourists as well. And around 400 or more new affordable homes can be built in Byford, and a whole new precinct developed in inner Perth.
On funding, RWWA proposes to spend near $25m of the industry’s funds on just raceday stalls and lighting at Gloucester Park. The Gloucester Park proposal is dependent on it. In NSW the new tracks and amenities at Bathurst and Wagga, including enclosed purpose designed spectator pavilions and race day stalls housed in a barn complex were constructed by HRNSWs for around half that. The budget for the training centre adjacent the track at Bathurst is currently under construction and budgeted at $3.5m. The training centre at Menangle which is larger and incorporated an additional track was around $10m.
Land sales in Beenyup Grove would tally up in the vicinity of $85m or more. The landmass of the trotting complex and adjacent private properties would be very similar in size. And the site is located significantly closer to the Byford town centre amenities, the new rail extension and station currently under construction, the Catholic School and Government Secondary school, then Beenyup Grove.
Additionally the trotting complex is almost adjacent to the Byford Meadows estate which is approaching its final stages. Contained within that estate is a proposed new primary school, the location of which is adjacent to the most northern properties of the trotting complex.
Gloucester Park have refused to release the valuation of their land, but propose to sell a portion of it to Hesperia, a director of which has familial connections to the clubs executive Vice President, for an amount of around $40m. The new grandstand is proposed to be built on the river side on crown land that is subject to flooding. The club have admitted in their proposal that their grandstands and ammenities are derelict. Presumably the whole Gloucester Park site would be worth considerably more on the open market, but still just a fraction of the $2.1b that international students contributed to the Western Australian economy pre pandemic and will again if they can be accommodated.
By comparison the harness industry, from RWWAs currently available report, has a total value added worth to the state of $175m, with just $40m of that contributed by RWWA and Gloucester Park being located in Perth. Wagering accounts for another $399M, which would not necessarily be reduced and likely even enhanced by a move to a new purpose built venue designed for optimised wagering returns.
There’s no reason why these objectives could not be achieved, it makes sense to do so. But it will not be achieved if left solely in the hands of the current RWWA and Gloucester Park administrations who do not have the vision let alone ethos to make the necessary significant changes for a better and sustainable future for the industry and benefits for Western Australia as a whole. Government needs to intervene.
The trotting industry participants living adjacent to and using the Byford trotting complex, some now in the twilight of their lives having given some 40, 50 and even 60 years in service to the trotting industry deserve to know RWWAs plan for the future of the trotting complex in order to plan their own.
RWWAs track record in this regard is appalling with both the Golden Mile Trotting Club in Kalgoorlie in 2018 and Geraldton Trotting Club in 2010 both effectively shut down by RWWA and the resident trainers abandoned, on a few months notice when RWWA advised both those clubs that they would not be allocated race dates in the new season on the basis that the lack of local participants made racing there uneconomically viable.
It is rumoured in the industry that RWWA plans to no longer allocate meetings to four more regional clubs in the near future…..
Byford trotting complex is not a racing venue, and does not hold race meetings, only trials (practice races) which in itself is a major inefficiency in economics for participants and RWWA alike. RWWA reputedly spends in the order of $500,000 plus per annum on maintaining the Byford trotting complex, an amount that exceeds what they contribute to most if not all other clubs for facilities. The Byford Club itself leases only the clubhouse on site and as its membership and revenues decline RWWA has assumed an increasing number of the clubs financial commitments. The most recent, transferring all the clubs Sunday morning trial races staff and volunteers into paid casual positions with RWWA, adding significantly to what they already spend on Byford.
Will RWWA just come out with a few months notice to participants using Byford and tell them, as they did at Kalgoorlie and Geraldton, that it’s just not economically viable anymore? History shows that is exactly what RWWA will do.
The participants of the industry deserve better, the residents of Byford and the shire council deserve better. The people of Western Australia deserve better planning for and utilisation of a government asset and management of an industry for the benefit of all Western Australians.
Will you do better Premier/Ministers? I urge you to give careful consideration to what I have detailed here.
At the very least, RWWA should reveal its exact intentions and timing for the future of the Byford trotting complex.
I welcome your response.
