Harness Racing Victoria chief executive officer Matt Isaacs joined RSN’s Michael Felgate to chat through Monday’s major announcement regarding the new racing calendar model.
HRV has revealed the plan for 2024-25 racing, which is designed to improve participants’ welfare and cut costs while driving wagering.
The model consolidates regular time slots at venues with the greatest horse populations, facilities and wagering performance, while continuing racing at all 28 country clubs.
“Ultimately (these decisions) were guided by three principals,” Isaacs said.
“Principal one: we needed to increase revenue from our calendar. People betting on the sport is ultimately how harness racing, and the other two codes here in Victoria and the other states, are funded. So that’s critical.
“We wanted to decrease harness racing’s cost to put the show on, so whether that’s the cost for Harness Racing Victoria or the cost for clubs and the cost for our participants as well.
“And thirdly, it was around participant welfare. We wanted to ensure that our participants, our drivers and our trainers were minimising the risks of a nighttime on the road and making sure that we were putting them in a position that they were travelling closer to their home base.
“And importantly, the three principals are also designed from a source of data.”
Watch the in-depth and wide-ranging discussion on RSN below.
