RACING NSW CONFIRMS 2011-2012 RACE DATES (14/05/2010)

Racing NSW has now confirmed race dates for next year commencing 1st July with the Broken Hill St Patrick's Races scheduled for Saturday 19 March 2011.  

RACE DATE TO CHANGE (MEDIA RELEASE 30/03/2010)

Traditionally the meeting has been held 2 weeks before Easter, which has been the case since 1966 except in 2002 and 2003 when at the urging of the TAB and Sky Channel the date was changed to provide the club with full TAB meeting status.

President of the St Pats Race Club, Margaret Corradini said the committee has studied the proposal and has given in principle support, providing it will benefit the club and race goers;

“ The main line of thinking is that we would race as close as possible to St Patricks Day which is 17th March, this would mean a race date in 2011 of 19th March which is 5 weeks before Easter but in 2012 we would actually race on St Patricks Day.”

In the 45 year history of the club a race meeting in Broken Hill has never coincided with St Patricks Day.

Part of the ongoing discussions with Racing NSW Country, TAB and Sky Channel has seen Racing NSW Country provide an assurance to St Pats that the meeting would remain a TAB event and would be covered on Sky.

A percentage of the total New South Wales betting revenue both on and off course is paid to St Pats and according to Secretary / Manager Cheryl Krutli it is vital for the future of the event;

“ We are in a situation where the funding required to stage a country race meeting like St Pat’s depends on racing industry payments from Racing NSW Country and sourced from wagering on the TAB so we are bound in many ways to meet their requests in order to maintain vital revenue to conduct the event.  Having said that though we will always strive for what is best for St Pat’s and the people who attend the races.”

Mrs Krutli said the club had also been assured that their race meeting would always be aligned with a Group One event in Sydney on the same day, “ This is a real attraction for punters because it means they can go to our race meeting and bet on the tote or with our oncourse bookmakers on a major metropolitan race.”

While some finer details still have to be finalised Mrs Krutli said Saturday 19th March 2011 seems the most likely date for St Pats next year:

“ It does mean change from a traditional date, but if it helps guarantee the future of St Pats we will go with it, this means we will be racing 5 weeks before Easter which is quite late next year but we see any date in March as appropriate as long as we still have the full support of Racing NSW, the TAB and Sky Channel.”

JULIE HELPS CELBRATE ST PAT'S 45TH BIRTHDAY  . . . 

Julie Hart is the latest member of her talented family to supply the artwork for a St Pat’s race meeting.In 2010 as the club celebrates its 45th year the Hart name will once again help spread the word of Broken Hill’s largest annual social and sporting event.

The first time a Hart was involved was in 1984 when Julie’s late father, Pro provided a painting of the infamous 'Ring In' ; in 1990 a compilation of works was provided by Pro, his son Kym and daughter Raylee Marie, the third Hart contribution was in 1995 when Pro provided a painting depicting the betting ring and members stand and the last one was in 2006, again Pro supplying a painting titled  'St Pats Races'.

“With 45 years of St Pat's, the Club intends to celebrate it as a significant milestone and much emphasis was placed on the artist and artwork. “ We think 45 years is something worth acknowledging"  said Race Club President Margaret Corradini,  “ Over the journey we have had many wonderful local artists involved with the poster and we feel given the talent of Julie Hart and the historical involvement of her family it was a natural step to have Julie paint next year’s artwork”,

As for being asked by the Race Club to provide the artwork, a modest artist deflected any praise, “ I am just happy to have been asked and with St Pat’s being such an important event for Broken Hill if through my art  I can help promote it then I am only too happy to do so”.

As part of the 45^th celebration those trainers that attend in 2010 won’t go away empty handed, each will be given a signed gicleé of the Hart painting “Race Winnings”, this gesture an initiative of Julie’s, “I just see next year as an achievement for the club and by offering these limited anniversary gicleés, it will give these trainers something they can remember about their visit to St Pat’s and Broken Hill.

It won’t only be trainers though that can obtain a slice of the artwork as a series of gicleés will be offered up for sale both through Julie’s gallery and St Pat’s, this will be complimented by a run of prints of the 2010 poster.

“These should be ready for purchase early in the new year"  Mrs Corradini said.  With the races 18 weeks away and the St Pats office staffed all week, Mrs Corradini said the phones are starting to ring, “ We generally find that  people start calling about all aspects of our event once the Melbourne Cup Carnival is over, even at this stage over 50% of our picnic sites are sold and interest in bookings for the Gary Radford Pavilion is at an all time high”.

With preparations for the release of the poster and membership brochure close to being finalised Mrs Corradini said the Club is now in the process of confirming race and corporate sponsors for 2010.

 

 

                       

 

Survey Results 

The St Patricks Race Club is delighted with the strong response to its recent survey.Over the past 3 weeks people have gone online to the club’s website to answer questions about the race meeting and have also utilised the survey form which was published in the Barrier Daily Truth.

After collating the information 93% of respondents rated the day as satisfactory or better. Some of the suggestions on how to improve the event include:

·         An upgrade to the Members Bar

·         Replace umbrellas in the picnic sites with shade sails

·         Have a larger variety of mid and light strength beers on course

·         Advertise / market more next year the availability of pre purchasing general admission tickets

·         Increase number of on-course TAB outlets

·         Provide a live band for entertainment at the end of the last race

·         More toilets 

The response from race goers has pleased the club and according to President Margaret Corradini will help build the platform for next year’s meeting, "It is always pleasing to get positive feedback but we also welcome constructive criticism, some of which we received from the survey and the committee is only too happy to take on board any suggestion people have".

Mrs Corradini said an upgrade to the Members Bar is something the club will discuss with the Trust that is responsible for the racecourse "As most would be aware St Pat's hires the facility each year for our meeting so we will meet with the Trust and see if some work can be put into improving the Members Bar". 

Other suggestions including more on-course TAB outlets which will be implemented and Mrs Corradini said the club is looking at increasing the variety of mid and light beers available, "This is one thing that came through in the survey so we will get the wheels in motion. We had a meeting with our Bar Manager Dave King and he is across this and will have discussions with the Brewery about their product range" she said.

The issue of no heavy beer was mentioned in 17% of the survey forms. The general feeling is still that St Pats controls whether or not this line of product is available. Mrs Corradini has again reiterated that this is a stipulation of the licence, "I have said this several times and I will say it again, our club has to adhere to the requirement of our licensing agreement as set out by the Police and we have been told that heavy beer will not be allowed at our meeting".

"I realise this has upset some of our patrons but it is all part of the changes to liquor licences for country racing, we have spoken with a number of race clubs from around NSW from Scone to Louth and they are all facing the same restrictions. According to information we have received all country race clubs in NSW will face the heavy beer ban in the next 12 months".

Other results from the survey:

·         89% rate facilities high for a country racecourse

·         12% said the club needs to do something about dust in the car park

·         18% of respondents requested a more diverse range of wines

·         22% wanted more shade

·         7% want ice available in smaller bags

·         12% of males want a price differentiation between cost of mid and light beer

·         1% of males requested "more women" 

The club held a meeting last Thursday night ( 2^nd July ) and discussed a number of initiatives for the 2010 meeting, "We made the effort to conduct this survey and we now have the responsibility to put into place as many recommendations as we can to make St Pat's better.  This was discussed our meeting and we are determined to make next year a bumper event"  Mrs Corradini said.

The online survey can still be accessed on the clubs website. "Although we have collated the information from what we have received, we will leave the survey posted and welcome any suggestions people have", Mrs Corradini said.