Gary Hall Junior (Australia) 44
Giampaolo Minnucci (Italy) 29
Pierre Vercruysse ( France) 21
Santtu Raitala (Finland) 18
Brett Beckwith (USA) 18 
James MacDonald (Canada) 17
Blair Orange (New Zealand) 17
Mats Djuse (Sweden) 9
Michael Nimczyk (Germany) 7
Jaap van Rijn (Netherlands) 5

Some out of this world performances which if you haven't seen, I suggest you have a look. From Judy J in the first winning from the unruly, through to the WDC Heat, what a race that was.

Gus (Turpin/McMullen) put NZ's best trotters to the sword (including Mr Love and the mighty Oscar Bonavena) in the Group 1 Dominion Trot. Came from last and belted them, barely believable performance.

But that was just the entree. Leap To Fame and Kingman simply herculean. Leap To Fame 3 wide the first 700m, happy to go the breeze as Republican Party carves out a 1.58.5 first mile.....Kingman 2nd last until the 1600m, then 3 wide the rest of the trip. They were dropping like flies the last 400m, good horses to but Kingman and Leap To Fame just kept going and going ...30.3 last quarter, they were walking but they were walking faster than all of the others. Haven't seen anything like it since Swayzee munched them all up for breakfast. It really is the best race on the calendar anywhere south of the equator.

Hats off to race caller Matthew Cross, 13 races to call, huge fields, (Number 18 won the first, 15 in the Cup), great caller, no predictions, no barracking, no rubbish, just straight out proper race calling. Exhausting day starting at 7.00am this morning but well worth it.

Provided without prejudice in rounded figures:

Income: $398 Million (up from 384 million in 2024) Increase referenced in the report to a 25% increase in Sports Betting, not from racing. 

Expenses: $576 Million (up from 575 million in 2024)

Trading Loss:  $178 million (down from 191 million in 2024)

Income From State Government (Race field fees and Betting Tax returns to RWWA):

$150 million (equal to 150 million in 2024)

Loss for 2025 after Government returns: $28 million (down from 41 million in 2024)

Cash at hand:  $53 million (down from $84 million in 2024)

Reserves: $80 million  (down from 98 million in 2025)

Total Liabilities: $93 million (up from $84 million)

Code Distributions:  Thoroughbred $135.5 million (130 million in 2024)

                                 Harness  $42.4 million (42.6 million in 2024)

                                 Greyhound: 422.5 million (25.8 million in 2025)

Senior Officer Remuneration: (8 officers, up from 7 in 2024)

$300k - 350k    1 officer

$350k - 400k    2 officers

$400k - 450k    2 officers

$450k  - 500k   2 officers

$650k -  700k   1 officer

Premier of WA  $406k

Prime Minister  $622k

I haven't kept records but lead time errors, incorrect sectionals, failed lead times and sectionals, incorrect mile rates and last 800m times, often highlighted by the race caller as the race is in progress, have been a blight on the landscape for a long time.

Rather than proportioning blame onto RWWA officials, stewards or whoever happens to be in the chain of command, the solution is pretty simple. Fix the problem. Don't get someone to break out in hives on social media over the stuff up, fix the problem.

If the club hosting the meeting is unable provide an adequate, accurate and reliable timing mechanism for the punting public, then that is surely where the blame lies. Club management must move urgently to either fix, or upgrade their timing mechanism so that these repeat failures that occur on a fairly regular basis, cease. Otherwise, transfer the meetings to a club who can provide the desired accuracy.

Bunbury 7 races last Night. Total stakes paid $81,600. Total Tabtouch  cumulative win pools $21,747.

Central Wheatbelt 7 races today. Total Stakes paid (by RWWA without Club funded top up of $7314) $43,680.  Total Tabtouch cumulative win pools $23,550.

Savings to RWWA from not paying the "top up" which would have applied to race 5 (Merredin Cup) was $8,000 - $6,240 = $1,760

According to the RWWA's  reply to an Industry Body that protested the decision to implement the cut, top ups to community clubs were "not supported by a strategy (attracting the states leading trainer would appear to be a strategy to me), top ups were not supported by "wagering outcomes" (and Bunbury was????) and as RWWA is currently running "deficit budgets", it was a cost saving exercise. 

Can we assume cost saving exercises don't apply to Bunbury but only to community clubs?

But yes, it saved money, a massive $1760 today, about the cost of a return airfare to the Broome Cup. We can as an industry afford to splash $35,000 on The Battle of Bunbury (it was $25,000 a few years ago when Lavra Joe won it, more than enough may I suggest) but can't afford $1760 to boost the Merredin Cup.  

The club deserves a medal for what it is doing for the Industry but it is not a sustainable strategy at over $7k per meeting.

I won't list them all but the usual process has been the Geckos invent and then sugar coat some questionable proposition, their flunky mates in the so called media departments, of in some cases, industry owned outlets, jump on board and hard sell the proposal to a fundamentally gullible and increasing desperate industry cohort, desperately looking for straws to grasp. Woe betide anyone who questions the validity of the proposals or the projected "figures" accompanying these Industry salves and whatever you do, don't mention return on investment.

One of the more divisive proposals of late, from a crowded field, was the "stallion tax" that was implemented by HRA to fund the Eureka, another of those Industry "revivers" where all Australian breeders, regardless of what state they resided in, were potentially exposed to the tax, in order to stump up funding for the $2.1 million Eureka Slot race, to be run of course at Menangle. 

HRA CEO Andrew Kelly drove the Stallion Tax bus, batting away industry wide opposition from the breeders. The race, a strange concoction for 3 and 4 year old Australian breds made available by 10 x  $100,000 slots (the rest of the $2.1 Million coming from HRA Industry funding boosted by the Tax), has proceeded each September to about as much fanfare as a Vanuatu verses Namibia ODI. Probably a reasonable night out for Menangle Patrons, food truck and market vendors and the owners of the select few in the race but industry changing?  I think not. A good post race dance party/concert is assured this year with the appropriately named "The Living End", with perhaps just a touch of irony.

With a number of states reportedly refusing to collect the Stallion Tax, and with them having informed HRA of their proposed refusal, and with Andrew Kelly's sudden departure from HRA (with debate, as always, surrounding the status of his leaving on a "pushed" or "jumped" basis), could this be the end of the "Eureka", a term allegedly uttered upon the sudden exposure of a golden bounty by some fortunate prospector? Could the Eureka become the "Lasseter's Reef" of Harness racing, yet another unfulfilled renaissance that has not come to fruition?

In more general terms, might the slot race bubble have burst? What has been the return on investment in WA on the tri-code slot races, the Quokka, the Nullabor and the Sandgroper? With the gap between slot holder contributions widening over the 3 year journey, as in harness's case from $300,000 to $550,000, as the stake increased to $1.25 million, is this the best use of scarce industry funding being directed at the top end of town or may it be better used to start growing the base of the Industry? Valid question I think.

I guess we simply have to wait for the next chapter in the never ending story of failed fixes. As many have said over the journey, it has been downhill since the Mobile drove through the front gate. Too simplistic maybe but close to being a truism.