Racing in Western Australia will be put under the spotlight through a major review to be undertaken by Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA).
The review will be focused on re-examining the state’s current prize money funding model in the wake of a massive $19 million hole in the budget of Perth Racing.
As an immediate repercussion of this debt, Perth Racing announced it would slash prize money offered in city meetings in a desperate bid to re-coup some of its money.
However cuts to prize money alone will not be enough to balance the books in Western Australia.
Currently the RWWA has a total racing investment of $36.8 million with just under $7 million of that making up prize pools for feature races.
The RWWA insist that 100 percent of their funding to Perth Racing is spent on prize money however they have no input on how the money is distributed.
As a result, RWWA chief executive Richard Burt said the organisation would be reviewing the current funding model and he hoped a new model would be in place by August 1st.
“What we want to do is have a model where we can move quickly, if needed, to protect the longer view of those stakes feeding the WA owners and trainers.
“That may mean tearing up the old model and introducing a new process,” he said.
There will be no disruption to any currently scheduled Perth races and betting is offered as normal through Luxbet.
