Cost-cutting set to impact Werribee Equine Centre

The future of the Werribee Equine Centre is in doubt due to University of Melbourne’s cost-cutting measures.

Dr Chris Whitten who is the head of the Equine Centre has confirmed cuts could be made to the facility’s medical services as the University of Melbourne considers cost-cutting measures across its faculties.

“There are discussions going on how we deal with the substantial shortfall in income based on the loss of international students,” Dr Whitten said on RSN927.

“The University of Melbourne, through all its faculties, have to look at saving money to cover the loss of international students through the COVID crisis and it would be naive to think the Equine Centre would be immune from that.”

The cost cutting measures would affect the facility’s medical services which will be detrimental for the racing industry in Victoria.

“It’s critical to keep this system operational for the racing industry,” he said.

“We’ve invested in it and Racing Victoria and the University and the State Government are invested in this for a reason and it is a real important pillar in our research program and our clinical assessment of racehorses to reduce the risk of injury going forward.

“We do a huge amount of work with Racing Victoria and for the racing industry, in particular our advanced imaging services with our scintigraphy and CT systems are really important for injury prevention and as we know that’s a really important issue at the moment.”