Changes to Echuca Harness Racing schedule

This led to a reduction of meetings at regional clubs, with Echuca to hold only six meetings in the 2024-25 season, down 50 per cent from its regular 12.

State Nationals leader and State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, along with Shadow Racing Minister Tim Bull, met Echuca Harness Racing Club in May to discuss the challenges facing regional harness racing facilities.

“At one point there has been talk of stripping clubs such as Echuca back to just one meeting a year and that’s ridiculous — and an insult,” Mr Walsh said in a press release.

“I think while most people would agree there does need to be some reform and change to put the industry in a more secure, long-term position, a slash and burn strategy is not the answer.”

Echuca Harness Racing Club president Shane Gloury met Mr Walsh and Mr Bull and discussed some of the club’s concerns with the move from HRV.

“We understand the big picture and we don’t like what's happened with the big picture but we understand there’s got to be some degree of change that occurs in the industry,” Gloury said.

“We had a number of concerns which is why we wanted to meet with both Peter and Tim and express those concerns to them.”

A halving of the number of race meetings is a clear concern for the club’s ability to sustain itself financially.

“It’s certainly going to affect our viability,” he said.

“We've got some financial commitments; we don’t own the venue, we lease the venue, and if you’re only racing six times a year compared to 12, that makes it hard to meet some of those fixed commitments.

“We have three part-time staff that if you’re only racing six times a year rather than 12, we’re going to have to review the arrangements in respect to those staff which we haven't done at the moment, but we’re going to have to do (that) so there’s no doubt it impacts our viability.”

Since meeting with Mr Walsh and Mr Bull, Gloury has been in discussions with HRV and has worked with them to secure a schedule that makes the best of the reduced meeting numbers.

“We weren’t happy about the fact that we’ve got six meetings and we’d much prefer to have 12 or even a midpoint, about eight or nine would have been nice,” Gloury said.

“But if we’ve got six meetings, and that’s what it is, we wanted to make sure that the six meetings that we had were meetings that gave us a good opportunity to engage with our local community (and) keep local trainers and participants involved.

“We had an initial first draft of dates and we weren’t happy with those dates but we’ve since gone back to Harness Racing Victoria with our concerns and the latest round of dates we’ve got are much better.

“We’re trying to make what is a tough situation at the moment the best that we can for our club, which is not easy, but I’m far more comfortable with the dates that we have now been allocated compared to where I was a few weeks back.”

The club’s final meeting of the current schedule will be on Wednesday, June 26, with the current proposed schedule to see the first meeting of the 2024-25 season on Sunday, September 22.