Outgoing Victorian Shadow Racing Minister Tim Bull says what slice Harness Racing Victoria gets from any sale of the Melton complex and surrounding land is critical to the future of the sport.
The future of Melton has been a hot topic since HRV and the Moonee Valley Racing Club ruled out a return to The Valley for harness racing.
HRV “owns” the large parcel of land, which includes the current Melton track, but legislation change in 2019 means HRV, as a statutory body, would depend on the State Government for what share of any proceeds it gets.
As it stands, all proceeds from any assets sold by HRV or any statutory body, would be returned to the Treasury as general revenue and the Government would decide what amount, if any, went back to harness racing.
Estimates of the total value of the Melton land range from $250 to $300 million.
As it stands, HRV is reported to owe the State Government between $80 and $85 million. That consists of $45 million of long-term debt to purchase the land and build the track, plus $35 to 40 million of solvency funding as part of HRV returning to profit this financial year.
“The (harness racing) industry took the risk in moving to Melton and both deserves and needs a large portion of any profits to come from any sale,” Bull said.
“I am and always have been fairly firm in my view on that. Once the state debt is repaid, the remaining funds should go back to HRV to secure the future of the sport.
“This is not a handout to racing, it would be coming from the sale of an asset owned and grown by HRV.
“Victorian harness racing’s survival is going to depend on realising a significant part of the benefit from any sale.
“All (racing) codes in Victoria have their headwinds at the moment, especially harness racing.”
Bull, a National Party MP, finished his stint as Shadow Racing Minister earlier this month. He will not contest the next Victorian election on November 28.
Fellow National Party MP Tim McCurdy has taken the Shadow Racing Minister role.
At a time Victorian harness racing is struggling, realising some serious capital from the sale of all or some of Melton is critical.
“This issue dates way before my time (as CEO) to 2019. We are fighting for the right outcome for harness racing in this state,” HRV CEO Matt Isaacs said.
The two options are just to sell the excess land to the west of the track (about 75 hectares) alongside the track or sell the entire complex, including the racetrack, and look to key regional venues like Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton and Cranbourne to share the “metropolitan” meetings and feature races.
“No decisions have been made, we haven’t even sat around the board table and discussed things, but we have to ask ourselves whether the land where the Melton track is, as well as nearby land where trainers are based, may be worth too much not to sell,” Isaacs said.
“We may have to look at other options. We have 27 venues throughout Victoria, including Melton, and we could look at focusing on tracks on crown land.”
