G.P &Bby

sonny · November 2025

G.P..r1n2...r3n1lay n11..had something on n2 @ 120s..r4n10...r9n4...
Quad..1.2.3.12/1/7.8.12/6.8..
BBY..early quad..4.5/4/1.5/4.9...Quad..4.9/1.3.5/2.6.8/1.5..
Good Punting

Chariotsonfire · November 2025

Spent an enjoyable evening at GP at Golden Nugget night. I was seated between Des Parr who trained the 1993 winner Valley Champ (driven by G Hall Snr) and John "Down by the palms" Hunt who called the race.

Not easy to find winners but some good value available if you coukl.

warrenrobinson · November 2025

The good old GP Propaganda Department was in full swing Friday night inviting the old rent a crowd and the three ministers of government. Hopefully with begging bowls in place to extract Government money to help fund the redevelopment of GP, current estimate to be around 100million.

Markovina · November 2025

I think it is very good in a way - that those 7-8 leading gallops trainers have said publicly together that harness Racing is being propped up by the govt unfairly and to the detriment of the WA Thoroughbred industry and it puts that industry at risk

WA Trots have had a dream run fund allocation for many years , in respect of their turnover , something now has to give

Youve only got to see what has happened in Victoria , the govt has said no more handouts and you have to stand on your own 2 feet - as a result big clubs like Kilmore Geelong Balarat , Bendigo , they are running plenty of 4k and 6k races

And unless they get some win fall from a sensible redevelopment or complete sale of GP - then i can see some 4k and 6k races being run at Bunbury Pinjarra and Northam

JayJay · November 2025

Been said many times but the controlling body RWWA doesn't own Gloucester Park, the Government doesn't own Gloucester Park. Any "windfall" from it's entire sale or partial sale would remain in the hands the Club and it's 313 members, not in the hands of RWWA or Government. Gloucester Park, like all other clubs, run meetings on dates allocated at the behest of RWWA and for the stakes supplied by RWWA (and in the case of some country clubs, stakes that are topped up from community club funds, after recent cutbacks on feature race funding was applied to country clubs).

The potential for 4k and 6k races will not be determined by Gloucester Park but by RWWA based on turnover numbers. Anecdotally, since the adoption of NR Handicapping, a lot of the KPI's associated with increased turnover are looking positive. Field sizes are way up, the number of odds on favourites is way down, the average winning starting price is up, the average starting price of favourites is up and, although only indicative, win pools on TABtouch are up and are sustaining longer into the programme.

However, the term anecdotal is the only one that can be applied here as frequent repeated requests for actual data from management are generally met with fairly limited responses if any. if there is a good story about emerging "green shoots", then why and the hell wouldn't you want it told?

Clearly, the partial sale is not going to be enough to fund the redevelopment (which will still have a hopelessly out of date 800m track and the unigue feature of looking into the sun with a winning post far away from the new members pavillion), clearly the $24.7 million that RWWA put on the table 3 years ago (based on artists impressions) has been eroded by inflation, a rise in building costs, trades person availability etc. It is not unreasonable to assume that if it ever proceeds, it will require significant external/ tax payer government assistance. More hospital beds or a handout to a race club makes for an interesting conundrum that I am sure the opposition would find irresistible.

Figures vary as to what the whole site would be worth. Some suggest that what they are getting for the partial sale is way unders, everyone you speak to has a figure but when pushed, the old "commercial confidentiality" card gets played when asking for actual numbers. When asked at the recent AGM what the value of the total site was worth, the question could not be answered. The president "We don't know". Brilliant. That answer was confirmed after the meeting by the Vice President.

The members were promised at the AGM that the redevelopment would proceed as first envisioned. With Papalia, Saffiotti and Carey in attendance on Italian Fireworks night, a night that traditionally actually draws a higher attendance than the deserted lawns of a standard meeting (public patronage has become bulimic), thus creating a very favourable impression on the pollies, and with the new primary school construction under way, can we assume that a request for assistance from government will need to be successful for this project to proceed?

Something needs to give because John's Fun Palace is falling into significant disrepair. Just ask the dead roses surrounding the presentation dais and the statue of San Simeon.

Chariotsonfire · November 2025

Carey and Safiotti both had a ride in the mobile for a race start.

Frog · November 2025

WOW Just think what it would be like if Peter was CEO of GP,

Friday night was buzzing the punters club I had no bad feed back.

The development was just a joke from the start how people voted

yes just amassed me to flip the track into the sun plus have poor parking

for members and trainers (very little) and 4000 crowds max.

With the WCCA and new school plus optus stadium the only

value for GP is parking. Do a deal with Wilsons. Collect the

parking costs everyday.

savethegame · November 2025

Frog Agree 100%.time for change.
Remember when Rob Bovell, Joise Caputo,Kerry Hanks,Sian Hughes,were at G.P. having a Red Hot Go Been downhill since.
What about a Consortium leaves Perth whether it was made up of G.P Personal and RWWA. some one will know.
Head to NSW with the sole intent of canvassing ideas and what was put in place for opening night for 2010 interdomion. to help with the planning of 2012 inters to be held in Perth.

That night 7000--7500 attended G.P
Well at first round of heats in Sydney
3500--4,000 attended. Take into account, population discrepancies.

bookielover · November 2025

savethegame said:
Frog Agree 100%.time for change.
Remember when Rob Bovell, Joise Caputo,Kerry Hanks,Sian Hughes,were at G.P. having a Red Hot Go Been downhill since.
What about a Consortium leaves Perth whether it was made up of G.P Personal and RWWA. some one will know.
Head to NSW with the sole intent of canvassing ideas and what was put in place for opening night for 2010 interdomion. to help with the planning of 2012 inters to be held in Perth.

That night 7000--7500 attended G.P
Well at first round of heats in Sydney
3500--4,000 attended. Take into account, population discrepancies.

savethegame said:

savethegame said:
I was at the inters in 2012. 8 bookies fielding including the late Bob Howatt, and you could get on for plenty. The atmosphere was fantastic and has never been replicated. I know those days are gone, at the races, trots and dogs, but I still love reading about what WERE actually the good old days, the big bookies and punters, the plunges, the colourful characters. I was lucky enough to enjoy the period between 1966 and 1995 when up to 40,000 From1966, to around 1985, attended at a regular Saturday race meeting.

savethegame said:
Having said that, you would get 8,000 to 10,000 at a Flemington mid week meeting which back then in the 80's weren't held that often. Just to give you an idea of the betting at a meeting like that, it was around 1982 and my old man who was on the rails, was losing 45,000 coming to the last. The favourite went up 5/4. My old man immediately put up 7/4 and got swamped. I was on the bag and nearly got knocked off my feet. The punters were winning and decided to go for the big lick of the ice cream.

savethegame said:
The first bet was 10,000 cash, which I passed on for counting to one of our clerks, then a credit bet of 10,000 from Melbourne's biggest ever punter, Michael Pitt came from the members side of the rails, followed by numerous cash and credit bets. We got 55,000 out of it and turned it off as other bookies also went 7/4. It was an 8 horse field and my father, being a hard gambler, decided not to lay another horse. So we were looking at a loss of around 130,000 as my old man would call it, at a shitepot midweek meeting. The was backed for a fortune, and started at a solid 5/4 favourite, and didn't run a place. The race was won by the third favourite a 6/1 chance. We went home winning around 12,000 after expenses. We went out for dinner which never tasted so good.

savethegame said:
That those days of knee trembling, heart stopping gambling are gone, deeply saddens me, not so much because I won't see them anymore, that's part of how things don't always change for the better, and at least I got the chance to live through it, but that young blokes who like a bet, like Train who used to post here who never misses a meeting, I assume he's survived and still punting, will never know the excitement those years provided.

savethegame said:
Anyway, with the advent of Sky channel and changing demographics , and the lack of promotions by race clubs and many other reasons, the game went downhill very quickly. Then the Corps arrived.

savethegame said:
As far as GP is concerned, if they do redevelop it, it will take years, and probably not be much better from what JayJay says. You will get three or four nights of the curious going, then it will be back to tumbleweeds.

bookielover · November 2025

I don't know what happened there, I will leave it to the moderators to fix it up. Sorry.

savethegame · November 2025

Bookie all good, you just got overracing,couldn't come off the bridle.

Love them old stories regards the punt you were lucky you never fielded at the trots from 63--78.you would have been waiting for the soup kitchen on a daily basis.

bookielover · November 2025

savethegame said:
Bookie all good, you just got overracing,couldn't come off the bridle.

Love them old stories regards the punt you were lucky you never fielded at the trots from 63--78.you would have been waiting for the soup kitchen on a daily basis.

:))

STG, I'd love to know more about that period of time and how many bookies didn't survive.

What I do remember, is when bookies led by Mark Hayter, I think it was, were complaining bitterly around 2005, please correct me if I'm wrong, about the number of favourites that were winning and intimating that the races were effectively rigged. Chariots will also correct me if I'm wrong, but the Stewards appointed former trots bookie, Ross Coooer to the job of investigating the accusations, and that may have included checking betting sheets etc and interviewing drivers and bookies.

What I am pretty clear on, is that Lucky Khalaf when asked by a reporter for his views, said, it's just part of the game. You get these runs of favourites winning. At the time, I thought that he was pretty casual about the whole thing because the bookies had taken a beating, in fact Hayter gave the trots away, and thst made me think that perhaps he knew a lot more than the Mark Hayter's of the world knew.

savethegame · November 2025

Bookielover unable to help regards anything on bookmakers in that period, well before my time.No disrespect bookies were the Nazis, growing up. (ha ha)

But did learn what took place in that period with stable X, and how some other stables off setted there advantage sometimes in the same race of the pea, there was punting done away from track for extra 1or2points provided it wasn't money on a stable X horse. As you know that era was all about the punt. Things got harder to implement after 78,79,

Best to let sleeping dog's lie.

bookielover · November 2025

I googled Mark Hayter bookmaker and the article about the stuff I posted above came up. It was actually in 2002. Both Hayter and Steve Mulhall refused to field at GP. The article makes for fascinating reading. Lucky is quoted extensively along with others that you would probably know.

G'day Punter!

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