Canberra Racing posts $1.1 million financial loss

The heavy loss, which grew to $1.6 million with depreciation, was the club's second in a row and saw its cash reserves more than halved.

Canberra Racing chief executive Darren Pearce attributed the loss to building the new synthetic Polytrack, which cost about $5 million, a series of costly washouts and "re-engineering" the budget to return to a profit this financial year.

Pearce said Thoroughbred Park had three race meetings washed out last year, with a further two partially abandoned due the rain. Four of its 25 meetings weren't rain-affected.

It all added up to a tough year financially, outlined in its annual report released ahead of Friday's Tony Campbell Cup meeting.

The race club's current assets dropped to $2.5 million, largely due to using $2 million of its own funds to partially pay for the Polytrack.

Their current liabilities climbed to $3.1 million off the back of the loan taken out for the track.

Pearce had no concerns about the club's solvency due a new sponsorship deal with the TAB and new TV rights deal with Sky Racing.

The Polytrack should also help the club cope with wet weather, with race meets to go ahead regardless.

Washouts and wet tracks both lead to less revenue through reduced betting turnover on their races.

Pearce said other changes, like reverting back from the two-day Canberra Carnival to a Super Sunday format - with the Black Opal and Canberra Cup back to being held on the same day - should also improve their bottom line.

"It's basically a year where we deliberately wrote things off - like the [old] track to build the new track and we had significant impact from wet weather that washed out the best part of five meetings," Pearce told The Canberra Times.

"We did a bit of re-engineering during the year to go forward this year, so we've budgeted to return to profit this year.

"So we've done our new media rights agreement, our new sponsorship agreements, changed the two-day carnival to a one-day carnival and in doing so we're increasing prize money.

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"The year's gone. We're focused on getting the business right to go forward this year and ... we're showing great early signs in the first three months."

In a boost for the club, the ACT government listed Canberra Racing's proposed development of Thoroughbred Park as a "key site" in its Inner North and City District Strategy Plan.

It's a massive turnaround after the government dropped a bombshell on Melbourne Cup Day announcing they were considering scrapping the race track altogether.

Now the club's proposed development is listed as a "category two change area", which meant it could happen within the next "zero to 10 years".

Pearce said "we like the sound of zero", with the hope the club's master plan would be approved by the end of this year.

"It means that the government's thinking is aligned with our master plan and we're working hard behind the scenes with them to try and get our master plan re-zoning approved in the next few months," he said.

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