Member for Morwell Russell Northe today threw his support behind the dedicated group of volunteers at Latrobe Valley Racing Club, in their efforts to secure more race meetings at the Traralgon Racecourse. “This group of volunteers and its members have been advocating for the return of a minimum of three scheduled race meetings annually; however this has so far fallen on deaf ears”, Mr Northe said.
“The Latrobe Valley Racing Club Committee (LVRCC) have worked tirelessly on building and hosting quality events, and this has been supported by strong patronage, and positive feedback from the local community and business community at the Club’s race meetings,” Mr Northe said. “It was a real kick in the guts for the Club to lose another race meeting in recent years, particularly given the hard work and dedication of the LVRCC, and the support they have from the Gippsland racing fraternity.
“Not only this, but the Club also endured the insult of having no funding for training purposes due to the Club having less than the threshold of three race meetings per year”, Mr Northe continued. “The industry is constantly expecting higher levels of track presentation and improvements to facilities, but the Latrobe Valley Racing Club are finding it very difficult to raise the revenue needed to improve standards, when it only has two meets per year”.
“I call upon the State Government to increase the number of scheduled race meetings for the Latrobe Valley Racing Club back to a minimum of three”, Mr Northe said. “The benefits of additional meetings would allow this fully volunteer organisation to generate extra revenue, host more local events and functions, and enable access to training funding which is on offer to racing clubs who host more than two race meetings per year”.
