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Page 54 Thursday, 6 February, 2014
Connecting people and communities PN
Sportingbet Pakenham Cup Sunday, 9 February, 2014
Inside track on race move demise of the current racecourse in that it prescribed that Pakenham would revert to five race meetings per annum and would be among 19 training centres closed state-wide as part of that industry plan. DN: Can you explain what the next five, 10, 20, 30 years would have looked like for the PRC if this move wasn’t made?
AFTER 138 years of calling Racecourse Road its home, the Pakenham Racing Club will this Sunday host its final Pakenham Cup in the heart of town. The PRC will then, until March 2015, go into a raceday hiatus while its new home at Tynong springs from the ground. So why move... why sell the iconic venue to superannuation company ISPT which will develop the current site, and change a town’s landscape forever? And why move a town’s heartbeat, a town which grew with the thundering of hooves in its blood and with the characters that make the racing industry so very unique? PRC chief executive Michael Hodge knows better than anyone why the move is being made and sat down with sports editor DAVID NAGEL to explain the past, the present, and what the exciting future holds for the club, its members and the local community.
MH: As part of the plan the trainers would have been relocated to Cranbourne, training would have closed, full-stop. And the club would have been left with just five event days, the Pakenham Cup, Oaks Day, the Christmas race meeting, Kids Day Out and probably Guineas Day. We would have become known as an events club only with no turnover meetings. DN: So, what does the future hold now that the move has been made in regards to race dates, a synthetic track and night racing?
David Nagel: Michael, can you please explain the moment in time when the PRC realised it had to look at alternatives to Racecourse Road and why?
MH: In regards to the issue of night racing, the club is really advanced in regards to putting itself forward to the racing industry as the next option for night racing should RVL choose to expand the existing night racing circuit, which they have indicated they want to do in their plan for racing heading to 2020. The club’s been very pro-active in this area with the engineering, lighting design, and conduits under the track all ready to go. We can provide the volume that is required due to the nature of the synthetic track
Michael Hodge: It was when Rob Hines, the then chief executive of Racing Victoria Limited, came to Pakenham and announced the new RVL plan back in 2011. That really spelt out the
and our set-up is commercially attractive because we use the same poles, same conduits, same cables and same network capacity coming in from the front gate whether we’re lighting the grass or synthetic track. The club has secured 17 race meetings for the remainder of the 2014/2015 racing season, to be run over a four-month period, April, May, June, July. Our racing program is phenomenal and who would have thought we’d be looking at a situation where RVL have programmed seven meetings at Pakenham in July 2015, that’s more than we would have been racing in a year. In its rawest terms, we would have been racing five times and now we’ll be racing 50. DN: The PRC is now structured along three distinct business brands, Racing and Training, Hospitality and Gaming, and Land Development. What is the driving force, the vision that has propelled such a monumental move forward in thinking? MH: All of that’s come about as a consequence of the racing funding model and this committee’s view is that we can’t sustain ourselves as a world-class racing and training centre just relying on revenue and income from the racing industry, and from race meetings. That’s why gaming is the engine room that secures the future investment of a major facility like this. It’s one thing to spend $70 million, but you need to be able continue to update
and reinvest and maintain the facilities that you’ve got. Land development is an important issue that the club needs to recognise, drive and maximise, because there’s an enormous amount of land holdings and future wealth in the land that the club owns. To explain further, the club has cut-up 30 acres, of the 150 acre residential sub-division, to build the current 18-lot sub-division, which can potentially realise $5 million in sales. That leaves substantial acreage and potential wealth for the Pakenham Racing Club as we move into the future. DN: What can people expect when that first race meeting takes place in March 2015?
believe there’s a much greater reason to become a member of the Pakenham Racing Club at this new facility. Our members’ area will be exclusively for Pakenham members only, it won’t be open to industry participants from other clubs. We’re currently formulating our entire membership package which will soon be launched after going to the board for sign off. We’ve had a lot of meetings to discuss important issues like pricing and the critical thing of member benefits. In regards to transport, the club has always provided a shuttle service to the track and that will continue. We have driveway that is 800 metres long, so we would still need a shuttle service even if we had a train station at our front door. DN: How is the club working with trainers to make the transition to Tynong a success?
MH: The key is the standard of the facilities. We’re trying to move the Pakenham Racing Club to a worldclass standard across a heap of different facets, whether that is a world-class grass track, a world-class synthetic track, or whether it’s an ultra-modern events centre. It’s a much bigger and better offer for our local racing community. DN: The nuts and bolts of getting to, and getting into the races. Transport, membership, those types of things. Where is the club heading in those areas?
MH: The club is liaising very strongly with the Pakenham Trainers Association, which the club regards as the voice of the trainers. General Manager of Racing Mark Graham is conducting meeting’s every fortnight with an advisory group to deal with all the stakeholder and communication issues emanating from the relocation.
MH: The best position on the racecourse and in the events centre has been reserved for our members. We want to deliver a premium offer for our members; the club is committed to driving its membership numbers. We
There are regular tours on site, to discuss and make decisions in regards to infrastructure and operational type aspects. We’ve got the process right, we can’t do it any other way.
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