Country racing in Victoria faces a dramatic overhaul following the announcement of Racing Victoria Limited's blueprint for the sport on Thursday.
But RVL chief executive Rob Hines dispelled fears Racing To 2020, the governing body's vision for the state's racing industry, could sound the death knell for several country clubs and racetracks.
His reassurances came as RVL announced a raft of measures it hoped would revolutionise racing in Victoria in the manner Twenty20 and one-day international cricket had changed Australia's biggest summer sport.
Among the talking points arising from RVL's five-pillar plan designed to address racing's sustainability were the:
-possibility of more night meetings to help tap into the giant Asian market;
-welfare of horse and jockey;
-creation of multi-purpose racing venues;
-replacement of Sandown with a new quarantine facility to house international Melbourne Cup aspirants
In a bid to cut costs, Hines said RVL would look at closing possibly half of the 36 training centres in the state to about 20.
Hines and officials from Country Racing Victoria will visit clubs individually in December to assess which venues would continue to receive funding and remain a training centre, while those that do not will become a multi-purpose racing centre.
Hines said clubs hosting only a handful of meetings a year needed to consider installing facilities such as sports grounds in the centre of their tracks to optimise use of land.
"We will look at each of those clubs and each of those venues and see how well attended they are, how well supported they are by the community, how many race dates they can support, whether they should be event based or TAB turnover or picnic days," Hines said.
He said tracks would not be closed 'if the communities support these race tracks'.
"What I'm looking for is a more efficient administration of racing," said Hines.
Hines also encouraged clubs whose tracks were located close to each other to consider a merger.
"Let's look at streamlining the administration for the good of the industry," he said.
Victoria racing minister Rob Hulls failed to guarantee there would be no closures but said country racing was the 'backbone' of Victorian racing.
"You don't have strong metropolitan racing without strong country racing," he said.
But opposition racing spokesman Denis Napthine, who described the vision overall as good, said he was 'very concerned' about the future of some clubs.
He said calls for clubs to merge or 'rationalise' was 'code for closure'.
Hines also foreshadowed there would be more night meetings in the next racing program which will be released next April.
"We're looking to introduce new and innovative racing events," he said. "We want to do for racing what one-day cricket and Twenty20 did for cricket."
"Racing hasn't changed for a hundred years and we need to re-invent it."