Racing: Sydney Autumn Carnival may struggle to maintain high stakes

The rich Sydney autumn carnival came to an end at Randwick last Saturday, but all is not well within the state's multibillion-dollar industry.

"From the point of view of all race clubs, we are struggling to maintain prizemoney levels set by Racing NSW," Gosford Race Club chief executive James Heddo told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The Australian Jockey Club made a decision to lop A$4 million off its prizemoney list and it has been evident at the autumn carnival. That was just to balance the books, and this is only a forerunner of things to come if a new funding model is not delivered.

"We put a A$150,000 race on last Thursday for the industry but there is no return to the club. We only received eight acceptances for the Gosford Guineas and two horses were scratched."

The Guineas meeting attracted fewer than 1000 patrons and proved a financial disaster. On Sunday, Gosford held its traditional Anzac Day meeting, with half the expected 7000 turning up.

"There was no comparison, financially," Heddo said. "Even with the rain cutting into a crowd yesterday, we will make money on the meeting."

Heddo said there was "no incentive for race clubs to continue that level of feature race prizemoney" dished out for the Gosford Guineas.

"We also need to manage our business responsibly," he said. "Most race clubs in NSW, including ours, recorded significant losses last year and unfortunately this trend will continue until new revenue streams are achieved. I realise Racing NSW is working hard on securing revenue streams through its court battle with the corporate bookmakers but will it be enough?

"Going forward, there will need to be incentive and rewards for race clubs to put these feature races on with prizemoney levels maintained."

Heddo said one of the key facets of the recent Asian Racing Conference in Sydney was race clubs asking punters and patrons what they wanted. "The crowd we attracted for today's Anzac meeting do not see the quality of racing as important as they do the social aspect," he said.