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Fremantle Cup Field and Draw

Harness & Greyhounds

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  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    An idea from left field....Contact Fremantle Footy Club before the Freo Cup.....give them 1000 free passes (or even 2000) to offer to members.... Wear your dockers jumper of merchandise and two bucks off your first drink or a free 5 buck betting voucher...get Nat Fyfe to present the Cup, put some Freo back into the Freo Cup, feature replays of past cups on the big screen, light up the Bridge in Purple....look, some of those things might be impractical but get people there, they will spend and you will get food sales, drink sales, on course turnover even if they are two buck punters, a "purple" fashions in the field....just do something, repeat the deal for Eagles Members on Pacing Cup night.....I know zilch about marketing.....but the accoustic musician and the bouncy castle seems to be as adventurous as it gets. Link it up with Railway stakes day....show your Railway Stakes day entry ticket for free entry.....yes, that may be prostituting the product but maybe that is what we have to do to survive.  Am sure others have better ideas and I know budgets for promotions are miniscule but c'mon, lets have a crack.
  • sonnysonny    1,054 posts
    How about paying Sky 2 for a spot in prime time . Interview the trainers /drivers, owners breeders  etc.. Matt Young does a great job on Tuesday but its only on Tab radio..
  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Watched a movie recently on Foxtel.
    True story based in the sixties.
    New York City hierarchy were forcing poor multicultural population out of city high rise living because the value of the land was so high.
    Interesting ????.
  • VillageKidVillageKid    2,275 posts
    edited November 2020
    JayJay said:

    An idea from left field....Contact Fremantle Footy Club before the Freo Cup.....give them 1000 free passes (or even 2000) to offer to members.... Wear your dockers jumper of merchandise and two bucks off your first drink or a free 5 buck betting voucher...get Nat Fyfe to present the Cup, put some Freo back into the Freo Cup, feature replays of past cups on the big screen, light up the Bridge in Purple....look, some of those things might be impractical but get people there, they will spend and you will get food sales, drink sales, on course turnover even if they are two buck punters, a "purple" fashions in the field....just do something, repeat the deal for Eagles Members on Pacing Cup night.....I know zilch about marketing.....but the accoustic musician and the bouncy castle seems to be as adventurous as it gets. Link it up with Railway stakes day....show your Railway Stakes day entry ticket for free entry.....yes, that may be prostituting the product but maybe that is what we have to do to survive.  Am sure others have better ideas and I know budgets for promotions are miniscule but c'mon, lets have a crack.

    All very good ideas JJ.
    These days the only "Fremantle" in the Fremantle Cup is the name.
    Surely the old FTC members and board must be sickened by what has become of their 92 year old Cup in recent years since the merge with the WATA to form GPHR?
    Absolutely no promotion whatsoever bar a bit on Tab Radio that has a small listenership and preaching to the converted already anyway.
    I like your idea in regards to maybe asking a FFC identity be it Fyfe, Walters, Mundy, Longmuir etc and maybe in conjunction with Bowers or similar from the Freo AFLW team (in which the coach is a WA trots identity) to be involved in the Cup promotion, this year would have been the perfect opportunity with no overseas travel allowed surely they would be home in their holidays but no yet another opportunity missed. The GPHR CEO being from NSW probably has no understanding of the huge popularity footy has here (not rugby) and the connection footy and the trots have had over the years and Freo being one of the bigger areas of it.
    Remember the old pony trot races that were had between WAFL coaches Mal Brown, John Todd, Ron Alexander and others over the years that were huge successes down at the port RR and at GP.
    Now the only tool left in their GPHR marketing bag is the fireworks and Italian/Chinese nights.
    The old hugely successful Christmas carnival is now long gone, not 1 pacer from E/S here for the Cups in 2020 when you would have a number of champions come over regularly in the past to compete for our Cups- Gammalite, Westburn Grant, Franco Ice, Franco Tiger, Impressionist, Our Sir Vancelot etc.
    Will be watching closely the next fortnight in the lead up to the WA Pacing Cup to see what sort of promotion is put into it, but even when you get them there the food and drink prices turn a lot of potential regular punters away, make it reasonably affordable for goodness sake $9 or $10 for a stubbie is daylight robbery!

    JayJay likes this post.

  • PictureSon1973PictureSon1973    138 posts
    Surely you would also get South & East Fremantle Footy Clubs Into a joint promotion.
    Free Tickets to all Juniors playing in The Fremantle Football Zone will get the whole family
    to G.P .
    Better Still Free Tickets to any Junior Sporting team in the Fremantle Catchment.

    JayJay, VillageKid likes this post.

  • MarkovinaMarkovina    2,889 posts
    GP - sounds like the curtain needs to be called 

    Or a top administrator is needed - sung the praises of Vlandys often for his job at HP - got 25000 patrons into that sardine can at Glebe for the Miracle Mile one year 

    Best administrator over here - was the bloke at Pinjarra - who bred Preaux Chevalier - had real enthusiam and passion 

    For the Fremantle Cup - why not have a parade of past champions - or Im TheMightyquinn to lead the field out onto the track 

    It seems like the promotion is non existent their - i  can remember one night out at GP - their was a match race - with FRK driving one of his pacer - against this top amateur athletics 800 metre runner - FRK was on a huge handicap - and he came with a big booming run - they  hit the line together - the crowd got right into it

    But the current admin - as Peter Morris once said ( after they lost his appeal documents in their office ) - they are good at picking up their wages and thats about it

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • PictureSon1973PictureSon1973    138 posts
    I must admit Markovina The Powers at G.P on Face Value seem to be either total deficient in improving morale within the industry I don’t know if they’re being undermined from RWWA but
    proactive they’re not at the moment.
    I hope they can prove me wrong with a big announcement forthcoming which has nothing to do with
    a sale of any kind.
    Arrogance is a perception that is starting to gather in regards to the GP Hierarchy they must
    improve in there Public Relations and start coming up with new ideas if stale they have to move on.

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • OffthebitOffthebit    597 posts
    JayJay said:

    An idea from left field....Contact Fremantle Footy Club before the Freo Cup.....give them 1000 free passes (or even 2000) to offer to members.... Wear your dockers jumper of merchandise and two bucks off your first drink or a free 5 buck betting voucher...get Nat Fyfe to present the Cup, put some Freo back into the Freo Cup, feature replays of past cups on the big screen, light up the Bridge in Purple....look, some of those things might be impractical but get people there, they will spend and you will get food sales, drink sales, on course turnover even if they are two buck punters, a "purple" fashions in the field....just do something, repeat the deal for Eagles Members on Pacing Cup night.....I know zilch about marketing.....but the accoustic musician and the bouncy castle seems to be as adventurous as it gets. Link it up with Railway stakes day....show your Railway Stakes day entry ticket for free entry.....yes, that may be prostituting the product but maybe that is what we have to do to survive.  Am sure others have better ideas and I know budgets for promotions are miniscule but c'mon, lets have a crack.


    Hoping and praying that this post is shown to the right people at GP and RWWA
    That was post number 5943 from jayjay and it is by far your best.
    Keep up the good fight jayjay
  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Sorry Offthebit but if you are thinking this will spark a reaction you are sadly mistaken.
    You will get crickets and lip service.
    Nothing can explain the lack of promotion of our second major race particularly given the field and clash between CB and Shockwave, no disrespect to the rest of the field.
    The pacing industry is in total disarray and appears between GP and RWWA they are happy with our current situation.
    Whether we like it or not its about turnover and bums on seats, yet no advertising/news stories to increase either for the Fremantle Cup. 
    How is this acceptable, is anyone asking questions internally, i doubt it.
    Im beginning to wonder if there is actually a marketing department between RWWA and GP at all.
    By JJs comments i assume we may have had a crowd of 1500 people max.
    This is where we have got to and its now accepted as the norm.
    As  far as im concerned this is about people jockeying for position for what's to come.
    The sale of GP is a conversation that needs to be had before its over before it began.
    The pacing industry participants need to control their own destiny on this subject.
    If those affiliated don't like it then lift your game, the current performance is simply not acceptable.
  • Rocket_ReignRocket_Reign    841 posts
    I’ve said this before but I think regardless of where and when trots are crowds just aren’t going to show up anymore the times have changed, it’s much much better from a punting/viewpoint to stay home everything can be done from the couch, social media interviews and access to up to 10 different online bookmakers, regardless of what’s offered on course you’re better off staying home

    Cant_Refuse likes this post.

  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Did the full house at Ascot on Saturday think that Rocket.
    The same meeting that had 2 weeks of build up in the West Australian.
    Oddly nothing for Fremantle Cup, and don’t get me wrong but this is the result of 15 years of a “not a level playing field”.
    Stakes distribution is allocated on turnover. The longer the “not level playing field” goes on the bigger the turnover gap gets. Hence 15 years in the making.
    I’m am blowing my own trumpet here but I predicted this years ago (2006) at one of RWWAs promotional tours in Kalgoorlie, it fell on deaf ears, although at the time it was a “great point”.
    I also predicted this situation some time ago with my first post on this forum.
    Now it is actually happening and I am probably considered negative but so be it.
    Pisses me off that these people get paid to be so incompetent.

    Offthebit, AbbysAce likes this post.

  • Rocket_ReignRocket_Reign    841 posts

    Did the full house at Ascot on Saturday think that Rocket.
    The same meeting that had 2 weeks of build up in the West Australian.
    Oddly nothing for Fremantle Cup, and don’t get me wrong but this is the result of 15 years of a “not a level playing field”.
    Stakes distribution is allocated on turnover. The longer the “not level playing field” goes on the bigger the turnover gap gets. Hence 15 years in the making.
    I’m am blowing my own trumpet here but I predicted this years ago (2006) at one of RWWAs promotional tours in Kalgoorlie, it fell on deaf ears, although at the time it was a “great point”.
    I also predicted this situation some time ago with my first post on this forum.
    Now it is actually happening and I am probably considered negative but so be it.
    Pisses me off that these people get paid to be so incompetent.




    Comparing gallops and trots is apples and oranges, not sure what you mean by not a level playing field

    freodockers likes this post.

  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    That’s ok Rocket each is entitled to his or her opinion.
    Just hope in a couple of years time your as good at training racehorses as you are at training pacers.
  • Rocket_ReignRocket_Reign    841 posts

    That’s ok Rocket each is entitled to his or her opinion.
    Just hope in a couple of years time your as good at training racehorses as you are at training pacers.




    I’ll take that as a compliment although it was backhanded haha

    freodockers likes this post.

  • VillageKidVillageKid    2,275 posts
    edited November 2020
    FD wasnt the selling of Richmond Raceway supposed to be the panacea to all of the trots financial issues for centuries to come? 
    Well only 29 years later some are now calling for the same of GP but it is so short sighted it is not funny.
    That area around EP and the Burswood Peninsula will be full of apartments in the next decade with the Causeway development on the old Trinity rugby fields and the Belmont Park land that was sold off to GRD.
    That area is becoming a sporting and entertainment hub.
    The problem is those in charge of GP/RWWA do little to no promotion or marketing of GP or the trots in general to anyone outside the converted, how hard would it be (and cheap I might add) just to do a flyer drop around the City, EP, Claisebrook, Burswood area letting residents know the trots are on Friday (and Tuesday) nights it could become a social hub for those in that area or at least an alternative to the bustling Crown & Optus Stadium & Camfield, Royal etc.
    It is almost like they have given up the ghost on promotion and marketing except for the twice a year fireworks and are just happy to trot (so to speak) along off into the abyss!

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  • freodockersfreodockers    2,667 posts
    Agree entirely VK re Sale of GP.
    Unfortunately that is where IMO it is heading.
    By design or not is the million dollar question.
  • maybesomaybeso    84 posts
    At the last outreach session, it was said RWWA is hoping to spend shed loads of money upgrading GP. Whether that comes to pass, dunno. They were talking serious money, though.
  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    My initial thought on hearing they are spending "shed loads" on GP was that it would be a misdirection of funds. Lack of facilities, stale as they are, is not the reason for lack of patronage and the money would be better off spent on improved stake money.
    After thinking about it a bit more, until GP management show that they are capable of running something more substantial than a message, I would still put it into stakemoney or spend it on other venues that actually attract patrons.

    freodockers likes this post.

  • Rocket_ReignRocket_Reign    841 posts
    JayJay said:

    My initial thought on hearing they are spending "shed loads" on GP was that it would be a misdirection of funds. Lack of facilities, stale as they are, is not the reason for lack of patronage and the money would be better off spent on improved stake money.
    After thinking about it a bit more, until GP management show that they are capable of running something more substantial than a message, I would still put it into stakemoney or spend it on other venues that actually attract patrons.



    Some new race stalls would be nice the current set up is awful in winter
  • MarkovinaMarkovina    2,889 posts
    No - i would be selling GP - but id be waiting 3-4 years - hopefully the property market might be a bit more buoyant . Its a different world these days - no one much goes to the track - plus the track is unfair - too small and out of date 

    All that capital tied into GP - as Jay Jay said the participants need higher stakemoney - thats the name of the game 

    NSW is a perfect example - it was dying a slow death - all that useless capital tied up into Harold Park - then they sold it and had plenty of money - got a huge windfall - and suddenly stakemoney went up right accross the board

    Perfect example was last Friday night - Wagga and Newcastle held the Western and Eastern Region finals for both filliys and colt - for both 2 and 3 year old - so each venue had 4 - 30k finals - plus the heats they ran to qualify for the finals - were 10k heats - nice money 

    See thats what you can do when you have actually got money - WA havent got any - because its all  tied up in that white elephant called Gloucester Park
  • JayJayJayJay    7,629 posts
    RWWA determine prizemoney Marko, from TAB distribution,  they don't own GP, the club does. The complexities of selling GP with its Heritage listings, and where the money would go and who would control it is way beyond my understanding of how things would work out. Any redevelopment of GP would have to come from either RWWA or Government as I imagine the club could not afford to do it.

    VillageKid, Cant_Refuse, thefalcon likes this post.

  • Rocket_ReignRocket_Reign    841 posts
    Markovina said:

    No - i would be selling GP - but id be waiting 3-4 years - hopefully the property market might be a bit more buoyant . Its a different world these days - no one much goes to the track - plus the track is unfair - too small and out of date 


    All that capital tied into GP - as Jay Jay said the participants need higher stakemoney - thats the name of the game 

    NSW is a perfect example - it was dying a slow death - all that useless capital tied up into Harold Park - then they sold it and had plenty of money - got a huge windfall - and suddenly stakemoney went up right accross the board

    Perfect example was last Friday night - Wagga and Newcastle held the Western and Eastern Region finals for both filliys and colt - for both 2 and 3 year old - so each venue had 4 - 30k finals - plus the heats they ran to qualify for the finals - were 10k heats - nice money 

    See thats what you can do when you have actually got money - WA havent got any - because its all  tied up in that white elephant called Gloucester Park



    I’m under the impression stake money is ordinary at menangle? Let alone the fact that track produces the most boring racing in the country.

    VillageKid likes this post.

  • VillageKidVillageKid    2,275 posts
    Marko not a cent has been spent on GP in a decade or so not sure where you get your information from that "WA havent got any money because it is all tied up in that white elephant"?!
    I would be asking what has happened to and where has all of the money from the sale of Richmond Raceway gone?


  • ChariotsonfireChariotsonfire    2,829 posts
    In reality the sale of Richmond Raceway produced a pittance and those funds were invested in and probably still are in properties that produced income.

    To say that not a cent has been spent at GP in over a decade is very misleading as the Beau Rivage was upgraded at considerable cost and the restructuring of the track camber was also not incidental.

    The latter was not as successful as it should have been due to vested participant influence reducing  the camber recommended by the track engineer.
  • ChariotsonfireChariotsonfire    2,829 posts
    By the way all of the funds for the above projects were provided by RWWA and to that can be added the infield tote indicator and vision facilities.
  • savethegamesavethegame    2,786 posts
    Who sanctioned Burt;s salary at over 800k. was it rwwa----- What is the new CEO  Salary surely we can get it down to half. that and spent  the .other 400k at  g.p. Esp. when the premier is only on about 400k.

    thefalcon likes this post.

  • maybesomaybeso    84 posts
    it was also said at the outreach meeting that RWWA is planning to upgrade the lights at GP, Bunbury and Northam to LED lighting. That wont be budgeted for for two, three or four odd years. I cant recall the exact timeline.

    Harness needs money being spent on infrastructure. We are seriously deficient on money being spent on the venues that conduct race meetings. The gallops and dogs dont appear to be lacking in funding for improvements in their codes. 

    I would like to see RWWA invest in automatic digital timing at all harness tracks. I cant see why there cant be a mobile system that goes to each venue for each meeting. It seems punters are screaming for accurate times, and we rely on someone hopefully pressing the buttons on a stop watch at the right-ish time. Provided the distance markers are in the right spot to start with.
  • ChariotsonfireChariotsonfire    2,829 posts

    Who sanctioned Burt;s salary at over 800k. was it rwwa----- What is the new CEO  Salary surely we can get it down to half. that and spent  the .other 400k at  g.p. Esp. when the premier is only on about 400k.

    The RWWA Board  signs off on the CEO salary after consultation with a private sector remuneration specialist that takes into account business turnover, responsibilities, staff numbers and comparisons with other businesses nationally. The figure is not just plucked out of the air.
  • savethegamesavethegame    2,786 posts
    Mark Mcgowan salary must have been worked out in cambodia in charge of 2 mil. people --400k. Burt in charge what 500 people at rwwa.----- 800k. you don;t have to be dead to be stiff.

    Offthebit, JayJay, thefalcon, Cant_Refuse likes this post.

  • KTQKTQ    319 posts
    The $10mill they are considering would go towards making GP safer. There would be no upgrades to help racing like auto timers. This was confirmed to me at the outreach sessions.

    If harness racing had money, they should hire a marketing/media planning agency who actually understand harness racing and the barriers we face, and promote the sport.

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