He issued a statement on social media spelling out the problems the funding cuts will cause, pointing out that racing generated more than $400 million in economic benefit to Adelaide and the regional centres every year and underpinned 3,600 jobs.

He believes that the entire future of racing in SA is under threat as a result of the prizemoney cutbacks at a time when stakemoney in other rival jurisdictions is increasing.

''It baffles us that other states in Australia are receiving tens of millions in increased support from their local governments, while ours is taking away from the thousands of passionate participants.

''What percentage of those jobs will be lost, and how many new jobs will be created elsewhere,'' he asked.

Many Victorian trainers run horses in Adelaide on Saturdays where the competition is generally not as strong as it is in Melbourne on the weekends.

Racing Victoria's media arm, Racing.com, also has a deal through which it shows SA races as a complementary product for its main Victorian-based menu.

There are many storied races in SA - the Goodwood, the Adelaide Cup, the SA Derby and Oaks and the Sangster Stakes amongst them - which draw high class fields.

Black Caviar twice went to Adelaide, winning the Sangster and Goodwood in the autumn of 2012 and packed out Morphettville in the process. Many Melbourne Cup winners and winners of other big races in the eastern states have been prepared in South Australia earlier in their careers.

Without the government support Morphettville - the only racetrack left in metropolitan Adelaide after Cheltenham was sold off and Victoria Park given over as a base for the V8 Supercar race each March - will be the only mainland state not to have a $1 million race.

In a statement on Friday, South Australian racing chiefs said the cuts were due to the impact of a consumption tax imposed on the sector's activities, a tax that, they claimed, brought in the government some $16 million a year.

Frances Nelson, QC, the chair of Racing SA and Thoroughbred Racing SA, said all states that had introduced the extra wagering impost - known as a point of consumption tax - had returned something to the industry bar SA.

"The cuts we have announced are the initial steps and we will have to consider removing some race dates as part of our longer-term strategy, and this will hit our regional areas hardest," Nelson said.

"All we want is a level playing field to ensure the South Australian racing industry can compete sustainably on its own terms and protect its own future."