Racing reels after stakes setback

CUTBACKS to stakes money risk leaving the Tasmanian racing industry on the brink of collapse, leading figures say.

The industry has been rocked by news Racing Minis- ter Jeremy Rockliff will ignore their pleas to continue the indexation of stakes money.

One of the state’s top thoroughbred trainers David Brunton said racing could not afford for stakes money to no longer rise in line with CPI.

“If they do that they will kill racing,” Mr Brunton said.

Fellow trainer and prominent thoroughbred breeder Graeme McCulloch said there had to be another way savings could be found.

“We can’t survive on any less than what we’ve had at the moment ... the industry cannot afford to go backwards,” Mr McCulloch said.

Mr Rockliff, pictured, has reconvened a meeting of the Racing Industry Working Group, which prepared a report into the sustainability of the Tasmanian racing industry, later this month.

Industry sources said he had called the meeting to tell them stakes would not continue to rise with CPI.

The Government has refused to release the report, which is understood to recommend indexation continues.

Mr Rockliff would not directly address the industry’s concerns yesterday.

“As I’ve made clear on numerous occasions, we will not provide additional funding for the industry given the Budget circumstances we inherited and our commitment to reinvesting in health, education and public safety,” he said.

“The Government will make an announcement about our response to the wellknown challenge the industry is facing later this month.”

Mike Jones, treasurer of the Tasmanian Pacing Club and secretary of Light Harness Tasmania, said stakes needed to be increased so the industry could keep up with the yearly rise in costs.

“The industry needs stakes to survive, how can you keep up with your costs?” he said.

Stakes are the lifeblood of racing, an industry that returns $104 million to the Tasmanian economy each year and provides 1000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The former Labor government devised a funding model for racing after its sale of TOTE Tasmania in 2011. The industry had been largely selffunded by TOTE revenues previously.

The central plank of this model is a 20-year funding deed that is indexed annually at a rate of CPI less 1 per cent and is now close to $30 million, and includes a stakes allocation of more than $22 million.

But there has been strong evidence to suggest this funding and Tasracing’s other revenues are not enough to sustain the industry.

Opposition racing spokesman Scott Bacon said if stakes weren’t increased it would be a broken promise by the Government.

“A February 26 press release said ‘boosting stakes across all three racing codes will be a priority for a majority Liberal Government, as this is the key to driving growth in the industry’,” he said.

“Presumably the Liberals’ announcement this month will be an increase in stakes money. Anything else would amount to another broken promise.”

A 2013 Tasracing discussion paper identified saving strategies that included not increasing stakes by CPI, reducing feature race stakes and reducing base stakes.