Where the Cuts Have to Come From – Oh Victoria, This Mess You’re In
There are 26 race tracks in Victoria. They are expensive to maintain and race at, and most don’t bring in enough consistent revenue to make it worthwhile. The number of tracks will have to be reduced to about 10. To do that the tracks that remain will have to be centered in regions, and take […]
The Grim Reality of Victorian Harness Racing’s Present and Future – It’s a Nightmare
One simple way to read the balance sheet of an unprofitable business to find out what’s gone wrong is not to worry about the dollars, but rather to look at what percentage of the organisation’s income is spent on each category of expense. To get the real picture you need to look at the organisation’s […]
Dale Monteith’s Grand Ideas For Victorian Harness Racing
In 2015 Dale Monteith conducted an audit of harness racing commissioned by the Victorian State Government. Monteith made 18 recommendati0ns, which were accepted by the government and introduced. One of them was the reconstitution of the board. That resulted in Monteith shortly after being appointed as HRV Chairperson. Good recommendation that one. Here they are […]
Ten Salient Facts About HRV
Fact 1 HRV’s wage bill is $20.3 million. Harness Racing NSW’s is $7.1 million. Fact 2 HRV spends 19.2% of its income on wages and salaries. HRNSW only spends 8.8%. Fact 3 HRNSW spend almost twice the amount on swabbing that HRV does. Fact 4 HRV spends just $291 000 a year on animal welfare. […]
The HRV CEO Pours Petrol on a Fire, and Turns it Into a Blaze
Victorian Harness Racing is in crisis. For years under the watch of Chairman Dale Monteith and his CEO Dayle Brown the principal body HRV spent vast amounts more than it earned, and covered the difference by racking up debt. It was living beyond your means writ large, a near decade spent surfing credit cards and […]
The HRV CEO’s Response to the Industry Translated and Dissected
Harness Racing Victoria states in the strongest terms that what has been expressed only creates fear and uncertainty among the stakeholders the bodies are meant to represent, distracting from the collective efforts to resolve the financial complexity that we all face. Translation: It’s all the Kindred Bodies fault. They aren’t representing their members. They are […]
$64 Million Burned at the Stake in Just 7 Years – Numbers Don’t Lie – This Bum Monteith is the Worst Leader of Harness Racing in History (First Published November 2023)
Dale Monteith is the worst Chairman of a harness racing authority in Australian history by panels and bar none. It’s daylight the rest. The numbers tell the story. In the 12 years prior to Monteith’s appointment in 2016 HRV had made an aggregated profit of nearly $6 million dollars. In the 7 years that he […]
As Predicted – HRV in Financial Disarray – What a God Awful Mess
Dale Monteith, the genius who as HRV Chairman presided over the financial disaster WE, the Presidents of the Victorian Harness Racing Kindred Bodies, are issuing this urgent and united statement to express our profound concern over the future of Harness Racing in Victoria. A meeting we requested last week with Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) has […]
Victorian Harness Racing is a Basket Case – Be Warned, the Pain Has Only Just Begun
If you think the massive reduction to prizemoney for the Breeders Crown series announced yesterday is the only crack on the chin that Victorian harness racing participants are going to cop this year, then I’d suggest you think again, for the pain has only just begun. There is no alternative, for as we’ve been trying […]