by Kyle Galley
Another "all $4000" prizemoney meeting is scheduled for the Warragul trots meeting on Monday, April 7th.
After the embarrassing situation of having an identical fixture abandoned in February due to a lack of entries, local officials have organised extra incentives to make up for the shortfall of stakemoney allocated on Monday.
The Victoria Harness Racing Club (racehorse owners association) will provide a $1500 bonus to the owners of all race winners on Monday, and a $500 bonus to all race winning trainers, providing they are paid up members of their association.
When entries close on Wednesday afternoon club officials will have a good indication of whether the Logan Park meeting will go ahead.
Monday's meeting comes as local officials also nervously await the release of the draft calendar of race dates for the 12-month period from July 1st this year.
Harness Racing Victoria officials have stated that one race meeting timeslot will be dropped from the weekly calendar statewide, a reduction of 52 meetings yearly from the overall calendar as the organisation continues to attempt to improve its overall financial performance and cut expenses.
This writer's gut feel, based on years of experience and observation, suggests that up to eight Victorian clubs currently allocated six meetings per year, will be offered far less than that in the new calendar as part of the planned cuts, and our locals will probably again bear the brunt of this reduction in racing in the name of progress.
Hopefully I am proven wrong and it's not a case of "you read it here first!"