by Keith Anderson

A dark cloud is hanging over the future of harness racing at Warragul.

Warragul Harness Racing Club manager Des Hughes said the industry's governing body, Harness Racing Victoria, had allocated the club only one race meeting date next year, a cut from six this year and as many as 14 in the past.
Mr Hughes said Warragul was a pioneer club when harness racing started in Victoria in the late 1940s and was now one of numerous clubs whose futures were under threat.
The two other harness racing clubs east of Melbourne have also been hit by the latest cuts to racing dates - Yarra Valley, like Warragul, has been allocated just one meeting in 2026 and Cranbourne will have a reduction of six meetings.
Mr Hughes said despite the major blow to the Warragul club the committee was determined it wouldn't fold.
Victorian Harness Racing Kindred Bodies, that represents trainers, clubs, breeders, owners and drivers across Victoria, blamed HRV financial decisions for the situation.
And Paul Rowse, president of Trots Clubs Victoria representing the 27 regional clubs, said changes were needed because country clubs had been "substantially defunded" by HRV with cuts to prize money.
He said at a recent Warragul meeting the club had used funds it raised independently to boost prize money by $1000 per race to attract participants.
Mr Hughes said one meeting a year created significant financial strain on the club with the track and other assets at Logan Park still having to be maintained.
"That currently costs about $25,000 a year but in future will need to be work carried out by volunteers".
There also is annual rent to be paid to Baw Baw Shire council, he said.
Warragul Harness Racing Club was a pioneering club in the state when formed in 1948 and during the 1950s to 1970s its regular night meetings on Tuesdays were a major part of the district social scene.
A large ring of bookeepers fielded on the races as well as a totalisator in an old double-decker bus.
Mr Hughes said prize money in the state had not kept up with industry costs and since late last year the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) had withdrawn its on-courses betting facilities at Logan Park for the harness racing and the Warragul and District Greyhound Racing Club that stages at least two, and sometimes four, race meetings per week.
"All we now have is one bookmaker that fields at our harness meetings, he stated, with most of the 200 to 300 people that attend the trots held on weekdays in the older age category that is not conversant with betting via their mobile phones."
We try to provide them with "a bit of fun" by running raffles and spinning wheels, he said.
Mr Hughes said the one remaining meeting this season and the one allocated by HRV for next year would include the club's two feature races - the Warragul Pacing Cup and the Eddie Evison Memorial for trotters.
The late Mr Evison and his wife Marj bred one of Australia's best performed pacers in the 1960s and 1970s Amlin (Nilma spelt backwards) at their Nilma property.
It won 46 times from 212 starts and spent its last three racing years in the United States.
The industry's kindred bodies group foresees further tough times ahead.
It believes stake money will continue to fall following HRV's heavy losses over the past three years including $24 million in the 2024 financial year.
The kindred bodies claimed HRV increased its full-time employees by 30 per cent over the past three years and employment costs surged 72 per cent in the past five years.
In his annual report late last year Mr Rowse called for HRV to be placed in administration and its operations undergo an urgent review, highlighting HRV had signed over its 95-hectare property at Melton in Melbourne's outer north-west where it has its metropolitan track and racing headquarters to the state government after using it as collateral to borrow more than $40 million to keep the industry afloat.