Brisbane Racing Club Meets with Jockeys and Trainers
Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) Chairman, Kevin Dixon, met this morning with several leading Brisbane trainers and jockeys.
Mr. Dixon said, “There has been conjecture regarding various cost cutting exercises at BRC.
We thought it important to provide information to and get feedback from some key stakeholders.
BRC believes that the prizemoney, programming and race date allocation scheme in Queensland is the best model employed by any state in Australia.
However, the current scheme has been in place for a number of years and some of the balances and incentives need to be addressed to ensure racing prospers.
BRC recognises that all clubs in Queensland are under much the same pressures.
However, it is significant that Eagle Farm and Doomben have had their raceday operational funding halved, whilst all other TAB venues have had no change.
Despite all SEQ TAB clubs receiving roughly the same raceday operational funding, there is significant disparity when the number of race meetings run at the different venues is taken into account.
We would like all clubs and stakeholders to be involved in assisting Queensland Racing Limited with a review of the operational and capital funding of racing.
Trainer Rob Heathcote said, “I was extremely encouraged to be involved today. It was a great initiative the club took to let us know of the predicaments faced by racing in Brisbane.”
Leading jockey Jason Taylor said, “The opportunities to market racing in Queensland are enormous. The jockeys are very keen to assist wherever we can.”
