Australian Harness Racing is quickly establishing a global reputation based on incredible times being run at the new Tabcorp Park Menangle Paceway.
The new facility, officially opened in October last year, is the result of a five year, $30M project that saw the NSW Harness Racing Club (NSWHRC) move its major metropolitan track from Harold Park in Glebe to the new western Sydney home.
NSWHRC has owned Menangle Park since 1952, but in recent years it had only been used as a training facility. In 2007 the decision was made to make it the new headquarters and a major overhaul of the site commenced.
“The first thing we did was build a new metropolitan standard race track,” explains Operations Manager, Bruce Christison. “A 1400m track was built which is now the largest in Australia. The bigger the track, the faster the times, so the times the horses run here now are comparable with North America and Canada where harness racing is very strong. From a breeding perspective the rest of the world is taking notice of our horses because we’re suddenly running these incredible times.”
Early in the piece Tabcorp came on board as naming rights sponsor. The 10-year contract was instrumental in financing the move, allowing the upgrade of facilities at Menangle Park to commence while the sale of Harold Park was being finalised.
In addition to the world class track the site has welcomed new track lights, two new grandstands and 12 food and beverage outlets with a seated dining capacity of 1500. All serviced by a fully integrated RedCat solution, the venue includes a 350 seat restaurant, 4 function rooms, 2 permanent marquees and a number of bars, cafes and kiosks.
The Menangle team was clear on what they were looking for in a POS solution for the new site. “It had to be centrally controlled and have good networking capability to connect our outlets across the complex,” explains Bruce. “We wanted full EFTPOS integration, stock control and integration into our existing reservation and membership system. And of course it needed to be reliable and price competitive. Redcat ticked all the boxes”.
The Menangle Park and Redcat teams have worked closely over the past 6 months to get the system implemented in between the busy racing schedule. “I couldn’t ask for more as far as the support I’ve had from the Redcat team. They’ve been onsite for every race meet that I’ve asked them to attend in the roll out phase and implementation process.”
Bruce cited full integration of the POS service as the biggest game changer for them. “A price change for example, now flows through the whole network. We don’t have to run around to every register across the complex to make a change, we now manage it from one central computer.”
Redcat’s intuitive interface has also been a big positive. “It’s really user friendly which has been great for our staff. We have a core team but also employ a lot of casual and agency workers, so the ability for them to pick it up quickly on race days is a real bonus.”
Based on the success of the initial implementation Menangle Park are looking forward to adding the Redcat loyalty module in the new financial year to further develop their member rewards and discounts program.
