Hello Arch
It’s Syd from south Australia.
In reply to Bill from the Barossa.
I whole heartily agree with the prizemoney increases being a sleight of hand.
First any increase is great for the game, but let us put reality into the equation here.
Average prizemoney in winter in SA per meeting in the past 5 year blocs is thus:
2008 = $39 500 = todays equivalent = $55 796
2013 = $43 920 = todays equivalent = $51 176
2018 = $46 250 = todays equivalent = $55 988
1/7/2023 = $53 994
So when we talk in real money terms we are back to where we came from 15 years ago.
Meanwhile our market share has fallen from approximately 12-14 percent of betting back in 2008, and is now at approximately 6 percent.
During this time the cost of keeping horses has grown exponentially.
It is of note that the bread and butter races so to speak on a Monday arvo (the ones that the hobby owner trainer dream of winning ) have barely changed at all.
Dean Elliot in his press release is saying there will be 4 x $3k races from next week, when in fact for the next 3 Mondays in a row they have between 6 and 7 x $3k races programmed on each meeting.
More to follow as the HRSE editing department dissect one silly story into four.
Keep up the good work
Syd from SA