Cranbourne Turf Club - Annual Report 2008-09

Cranbourne Turf Club Inc Annual Report 2008/2009

– Annual Report 2008/2009

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Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting of the Cranbourne Turf Club Inc, will be held in the club buildings, Cranbourne Recreation Reserve on Wednesday 2 December 2009 @ 6.00pm.

BUSINESS 1.

Apologies

2.

Confirmation of Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 11 December 2008

3.

Chairman’s Report

4.

Treasurer’s Report

5.

To receive and adopt Financial Statement and Auditors Report for season 2008-2009

6.

To appoint Auditors for 2009-2010 season

7.

To elect three members to the committee

The following Members of Committee retire pursuant to the rules of the Cranbourne Turf Club and have re- nominated -:Messrs: S Birman, A Brumby, S Marinelli

8.

To consider and if thought fit pass the following resolution as a Special Resolution:

That the Constitution be amended by : a.

deleting the existing rule 22.6; and

b.

substituting the following Rules:

22.6

Conduct of Postal Vote

(a)

A Postal Vote, if required by Rule 22.5(c), is to be conducted in accordance with the By-Laws or, in the absence of any such By-Laws then as the Committee determines, but subject that the By- Laws or the determinations of the Committee are not contrary to these Rules.

(b)

Postal Voting Papers must accompany the Notice of General Meeting sent to each Voting Member.

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Annual General Meeting Cont... (c)

The completed Ballot Paper must be posted to the Returning Officer or deposited in a secure ballot box provided for that purpose at the Office.

(d)

The sealed envelope containing the completed Ballot Paper must identify the Voting Member but no such identification shall be recorded or marked on the Ballot Paper.

(e)

A Postal Vote will remain open for the minimum period set out in the By-Laws or, in the absence of any

such By-Laws then as the Committee determines, but subject that the period is reasonable for Voting

Members to give due consideration prior to casting a vote and it is adequate for the return of Ballot Papers to the Office.

(f)

A Postal Vote must close prior to the commencement of the Annual General Meeting at which candidates will be declared elected.

22.7

Informal Ballot Paper

A Ballot Paper will be considered informal, and excluded from any count of votes, if:

(a)

it is received by the Returning Officer or at the Office following the close of the Postal Vote;

(b)

the envelope containing the completed Ballot Paper does not adequately identify the Voting Member casting the Postal Vote contained within it;

(c)

the Ballot Paper fails to indicate a conclusive voting preference for one candidate over the other candidate or candidates;

(d)

the Member casting the vote is not entitled to do so by virtue of Rule 18.4; or

(e)

there is reasonable evidence to indicate that more than one Ballot Paper has been completed and submitted in the name of a Voting Member;

but a Ballot Paper will not be considered to be informal solely because the envelope containing the completed Ballot Paper was not sealed or the Ballot Paper displays other marks or annotations in addition to the vote cast.

22.8

Returning Officer

The Returning Officer is responsible, immediately following the close of a Postal Vote, for: – Annual Report 2008/2009

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Annual General Meeting Cont... (a)

checking off each Postal Vote received against a list of eligible Voting Members drawn from the Register of Members;

(b)

determining if a vote is to be classified as an informal vote;

(c)

counting and tabulating the votes cast for each candidate; and

(d)

declaring, in writing, the total number of votes cast for each candidate and providing the declaration to the chair of the Annual General Meeting.

22.9

Checking and retention of votes

(a)

Following the checking of Postal Votes against the list of eligible Voting Members by the Returning Officer, the counting of votes and their tabulation may be checked by a representative appointed by each of the candidates (if any representative is so appointed) and by the auditor of the Club or a delegate of the auditor.

(b)

Postal votes, including votes deemed to be invalid, shall be retained by the auditor of the Club until the following Annual General Meeting and may then be destroyed.

22.10 Equal number of votes

In the event that there is an equal number of votes cast for two or more candidates in respect of a single vacancy on the Committee, then the election shall be determined by a ‘drawing of lots’ conducted by the chair of the Annual General Meeting.

22.11 Declaration by the chair

A declaration, by the chair of the Annual General Meeting, of the results of the Postal Vote shall be conclusive and final, and shall be recorded in the Minutes.

NEIL BAINBRIDGE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – Annual Report 2008/2009

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Chairman’s Report

As Chairman of the Cranbourne Turf Club it is my honour to present this report for the 2008-2009 season.

The Cranbourne Turf Club had a very successful year posting a profit $56,189 and we look forward to continued growth over the years to come.

The 2008-2009 season will be remembered as a year of change for the Cranbourne Turf Club. The Club made a significant shift with its racing product

now exclusively on Sundays, with meetings every second weekend. The shift away from the traditional calendar that mixed weekday meetings with weekends has been on overwhelming success. After completing our first Sunday only season, it’s rewarding to see the great benefits the new structure provided. Profitability from our racedays increased 60% in the last twelve months, whilst significant gains were also realised in other key performance areas of Sponsorship profit up 16%, Hospitality profit up 112% and Membership income increasing by 22%. The continuity of our racing product over time will further raise the awareness of our racing calendar throughout the racing industry and importantly the vibrant Casey community, ensuring its growth and success.

year, including Cranbourne Cup Day, I Love Frankston Cup Day, Christmas Carnival meetings over 3 days and our unique Tricodes Event in partnership with the Cranbourne Greyhound and Harness Racing Clubs. An additional 8,597 patrons attended our meetings during the season, up 27% on the previous year.

This season we also opened our new Sports Bar at the northern end of the Grandstand. The Sports Bar has been an outstanding success both on racedays and non racedays and many thanks to Tabcorp for supporting this development.

During the 2008-2009 season the Club took over the management of the Cranbourne Training Complex on behalf of Racing Victoria. I am delighted to say that the support from the Cranbourne Trainers and Training Whilst consistent crowds attended race Complex staff has been terrific and we meetings across the entire Sunday look forward to working closely with racing season, once again our feature Racing Victoria and all participants for events provided strong highlights for the

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Chairman’s Report Cont... the betterment of thoroughbred racing I would also like to congratulate our and training in Cranbourne. premiership winners this season and The 2008 Browns Sawdust and thank them for their support of racing Shavings Cranbourne Cup was won at Cranbourne. Leading trainer for the

by Majestical, trained by Matthew second year in a row was local trainer Enright and ridden by home town hero Michael Kent, whilst Chris Symons was Craig Williams. The form from the race our leading jockey and Nicholas Hall proved very strong during Spring with the leading apprentice for the season. the runner up Barbaricus finishing a close third in the Caulfield Cup a week later, and then running second in the group 1 McKinnon Stakes.

It was the fourth year that Scott and Linda Brown from Browns Sawdust & Shavings sponsored our clubs premier event and I thank Scott and Linda for the generous and wonderful support of racing in Cranbourne.

A sincere thank you to all sponsors that contribute to the success of racing in Cranbourne. Without their valued support racing in Cranbourne would not be in as strong a position as it is today.

To our members, I thank you for your ongoing support of our great club.

Increasing membership continues to be a strong focus for the club and I’m pleased to announce that membership numbers grew significantly over the past twelve months. As a committee we will continue to improve facilities and benefits for our members, with this season providing members with a complimentary beverage on all racedays and also holding our successful members raceday on Sunday 28 June 2009.

a contact point to our members and Casey community throughout the year.

We are very pleased to announce that profitability of TRIOS increased by 25%, which is a fantastic result and on behalf of the committee I congratulate Brian Asley the General Manager and his staff.

I would also like to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of all our committee members and in particular thank Vice-Chairmen Geoff Whiffin and Andrew Brumby and our new Treasurer Silvio Marinelli. We welcomed Silvio to the committee during the year and I look forward to working closely with Silvio for many years to come.

I acknowledge Rob McNab our Racecourse Manager who commenced in 1993 and finished up with the club after 16 years of dedicated service to the club. On behalf of the committee I Our clubs investment in Trios Bar & wish Rob every success in the future.

Bistro continues to provide outstanding Thank you to all our staff who over the returns and provides the club with season have worked extremely hard

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Chairman’s Report Cont. to ensure that racing at Cranbourne continues to enhance its reputation as one of Victoria’s leading country clubs.

Whilst the advent of exclusive Sunday racing has placed increased workloads on the team, it’s very rewarding to have obtained the results we have in our first season.

Victoria and Country Racing Victoria have committed to Cranbourne with a significant capital investment, the club is diligently working on a number of key issues to ensure that the proposed works can commence in the coming months.

and very exciting. I would like to thank both Racing Victoria and Country Racing Victoria for sharing our vision and also to the City of Casey for their support in working closely with us to grow participation and visitation in this wonderful thoroughbred racing In partnership with Racing Victoria industry. and Country Racing Victoria, the Cranbourne Turf Club is developing a detailed Master Plan that will look at all aspects of the Racing and Training Precinct with a view to creating a world class equine centre that offers unparalleled facilities for customers and participants. The Master Plan will also explore the consolidation of Racing and Training activities to one site at the Cranbourne Training Complex, and ROBIN DALEY the potential future use of the existing CHAIRMAN racing site at the Cranbourne Turf Club.

2009 will also be remembered as the year that Racing Victoria Limited released its Blueprint for the Thoroughbred Racing Industry. The Blueprint makes a clear commitment to the future of racing and training activities in Cranbourne. The Blueprint highlights the need for the industry to expand into night racing and to grow its wagering product in the Asian markets. Cranbourne has been chosen, along with Geelong and Moonee Valley to occupy the night timeslot. The addition of night racing will open up new and exciting growth opportunities and realise a dream of The future of Racing and Training in former committees to establish night Cranbourne looks extremely bright racing in Cranbourne. Whilst Racing – Annual Report 2008/2009

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Racing Report Cranbourne Turf Club became the Victorian Thoroughbred Racing Industry’s Sunday venue with race meetings scheduled exclusively on Sunday’s with fortnightly intervals.

Strong Sunday programs became a feature with starter numbers increasing across the year ensuring a quality racing program.

Also pleasing to report that larger crowds over the season drove on course wagering up. The accessibility of Sunday Racing proved a big winner with horse owners with attendance figures increasing by 17% for owners. The Clubs close proximity to the metropolitan area and rapidly growing City of Casey makes Cranbourne the ideal Sunday Racing venue for the industry.

The continued, consistent pattern of our racing calendar in the 2009/2010 season will no doubt further drive crowd numbers up, along with stronger racing product as more trainers take advantage of the accessibility of the Cranbourne Racecourse.

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Racing Report Cont.

BROWNS SAWDUST & SHAVINGS CRANBOURNE CUP

CRANBOURNE TRAINERS

The Browns Sawdust & Shavings Cranbourne Cup would prove to be a strong race. Matthew Enright trained Majestical won the Cup from Barbaricus. The win had a sweet local flavour with star home grown jockey Craig Williams guiding Majestical to victory.

Cranbourne trainers again performed very well on their local track winning 39% of the races and providing 812 of the 1849 starters at the race meetings.

Barbaricus would continue his good form later in Spring with placing’s in two Group 1’s the Caulfield Cup and McKinnon Stakes, before running third in an event in Dubai of February 2009.

– Annual Report 2008/2009

Michael Kent lead the way preparing Sadalbari to win on four occasions during the year, the most number of wins of any horse at Cranbourne this season. Stablemate Philda also saluted on three occasions, along with the Danny O’Brien trained Lord Pyrus, Peter Moody’s Pass Me By and Peter White’s Escape Artist.

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Racing Report Cont.

PREMIERSHIPS

Trainer

Congratulations to our 2008-2009 premiership winners.

M Kent

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Local Cranbourne trainer Michael Kent won back to back premierships, winning from Mick Price and Danny O’Brien.

Michael had 70 starters for the season with 30 of his runners finishing in the placing’s.

M Price

8

3

3

D O'Brien

7

6

6

R Smerdon

7

4

4

R Douglas

7

2

4

Highly promising apprentice rider Nicholas Hall won the Apprentice Jockey’s Premiership, whilst Chris Symons enjoyed an ultra consistent year winning the Jockeys Premiership with ten wins and 22 minor placing’s.

Wins

Seconds Thirds

Apprentice Jockey Wins Seconds Thirds N Hall

8

4

3

I Gundogdu

7

3

3

L McGill

2

2

3

W J Egan

1

2

M Walters

1

1

1

Senior Jockey Wins Seconds Thirds

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C D Symons

10

10

12

D Gauci

8

4

5

C Newitt

8

1

5

M Allen

7

9

6

D Brereton

7

8

7

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Treasurer’s Report The Cranbourne Turf Club recorded a profit for the 2008/09 financial year of $56,189, an improvement of $155,963 on last year. This is the best result the club has achieved in four years.

Food & Beverage

300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000

The Sunday racing strategy has resulted in a 60% increase in profit from racing. There were significant gains in key raceday revenue headed by food & beverage +45%, admissions +38%, raceday packages +28% and raceday sponsorship +11%.

100,000

Income from oncourse wagering has fallen 3% on last year and has now dropped $75,000 in the past 5 years.

This is due to reduced commission paid by the industry, the abolition of commission paid on TRIOS turnover on racedays as well as a 3.3% fall in oncourse turnover for the year across the state.

140,000

50,000 0 2004/05

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

Admissions Income

120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 2004/05

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2005/06

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

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Treasurer’s Report Cont.

With the Sunday racing strategy, some costs as expected, have risen.

These include payroll costs through Sunday penalty rates and increased marketing and advertising to promote the “racing every second Sunday” strategy.

The club realises the importance of creating non-racing revenue streams, which has lead to the expansion of the non raceday catering and functions department. The club now operates catering functions for both the Greyhound and Harness clubs, which in addition to generating new income, has led to a number of efficiencies within the club.

The granting of management duties of the Cranbourne Training Complex has resulted in efficiencies through the shared use of equipment and labour. We expect cost savings will be realised in coming years for both Cranbourne Turf Club and the Cranbourne Training Complex.

– Annual Report 2008/2009

Raceday Packages

500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 2004/05

250,000

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

Raceday Sponsorship

200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

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Treasurer’s Report Cont.

For the fifth consecutive year, the club returned at least 100% of industry funding to owners, returning a record $3.35 million in prize money, trophies and other benefits. This again ranks the Cranbourne Turf Club as one of the top payers of prize money in country Victoria.

The club invested a further $187,000 in capital expenditure during the year.

Key items include the redevelopment of the Sportsbar and upgrade of the Owners & Trainers Room. The club is committed to providing improved customer facilities and has invested significantly in the track and track equipment including a new Iseki mower. As a consequence of these investments, cash reserves of the club have reduced.

4,000,000

Returns to Owners

3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 500,000 0 2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

2008

2009

Net Assets

16,000,000 14,000,000 12,000,000 10,000,000 8,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 0 2005

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2006

2007

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Treasurer’s Report Cont.

The Cranbourne Turf Club has achieved some significant financial improvements during the 2008/09 season. The club has budgeted for conservative growth in revenue for the 2009/10 season in light of difficult economic times, however we have confidence that decisions made and strategies implemented over the past two seasons places the club in a strong financial position.

SILVIO MARINELLI TREASURER

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Cranbourne Turf Club Inc Grant Street, Cranbourne 3977 Tel: (03) 5996 1300 Fax: (03) 5996 4972 Email: info@cranbourneturfclub.com.au www.cranbourneturfclub.com.au ABN: 72 001 641 203

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