THE future of harness racing in Broken Hill hangs in the balance after two race meetings have had to be cancelled as the season starts.
Newly elected president of Broken Hill Harness Racing Michael Honson said Harness Racing NSW (HR NSW) in November last year changed the number of nominations his club needed to hold a race meeting.
“They told us it cost too much to send a steward up,” Mr Honson said.
HR NSW wants the local club to have 40 nominations, which would make it at least eight horses a race.
“They said with only six horses a race; it was too expensive to send a steward and pay for their accommodation.
“But I don’t know what the difference between six horses and eight horses is.”
Mr Honson said HR NSW had a verbal agreement with the last local board that the target of horse nominations only had to be 30.
“They had a three-year deal where we had a CPI of only 30 horses,” he said.
“But that was a verbal contract. We can’t seem to get anywhere with them.
“We’re only getting at least six horses per race; last season we had a race with five horses.
“They sent a steward for that, but they told us they were under the impression last season was our last season.
“I don’t know where they got that from.”
Mr Honson said to fill the nominations they needed to get horses and trainers from out of the city.
“In Broken Hill, some of our trainers could try and get more horses, but we’ve got about 18 in town,” he said.
“We usually see about 10-12 horses from away.
“We have 10 horses that are ready to race in Broken Hill. That means we have to look for 30 horses.
“This weekend we had 12 horse nominations from away. But because of the heat, not many wanted to come.”
Mr Honson said they have asked to delay the season, so it won’t be run during the hottest part of the year.
“They said it was organised with the previous board and has to stay that way.
“We’re a restricted meeting, we’re not a TAB meeting, so I don’t know why we can’t postpone it.
“We have a big trotting community in Broken Hill, we get a lot of people to our meets.
“More so than the trots in Sydney, unfortunately our horse numbers aren’t as big.
“This situation is putting doubt in a lot of people’s minds.
“They don’t want to invest in more horses if they think we won’t go ahead.
“There are races in Sydney that don’t have eight horses.
“But Sydney have said to us that’s it.”
Mr Honson said they have spoken with Federal MP Mark Coulton and met Council as well.
He said the club had started on the backward foot as there were a lot of safety upgrades that were needed that they weren’t aware of.
“The front fence in front of the grandstand is 900cm and we need to get it up to 1200cm,” he said.
“We needed to erect new steward’s towers and Council has helped in the past; but said they weren’t able to now.
“The future of harness racing in Broken Hill is in doubt.”
