Harness Racing

Currently I feel Harness Racing in Australia is dire straits.
I’m writing this without any knowledge of any official data from wagering, *yearling sale averages or HR own KPI’s this is my gut feel.
At a time when we have some sensational horses providing sensational racing and individual performances, with one (Lazarus) even being compared with immortals of era’s past, prompting passionate debate, all of these positives for the sport can’t gain traction becausevof the ongoing race fixing scandals. Even the punt on anything brigade are turning their nose’s up at betting on harness! Obviously this will decimate turnover figures, in turn stiffling any prize money increase while also keeping hands un-raised at yearling sales.
*I have since heard the averages were down at Melbourne sale. Unofficially at time of writing.

All I’ll mention about the integrity issues is they need to be dealt with swiftly, by Harness Racing Authorities before waiting until the civil judicial process is heard.
Breaking the rules of harness racing themselves is not breaking the law.
Then apply penalties to make any other contemplating doing wrong to think better of it!
As for the scandals overall damage one only has to look at the Greyhound industry and what nearly happened to it. Don’t think HR is too big to be allowed to fail!
Take solace in the greyhound industry’s ability to overcome the adversity it faced!
Greyhound racing in Victoria had a helping hand from within by having over 10,000 registered participants at the time, GRV offered an easy avenue to increase these numbers by allowing interested parties a simple and free online application process to become a registered participant!

The Industry needs to be better served by its Broadcast Partner Sky Channel. The coverage of last week’s Hunter Cup was poor. They had all the harness media on course so why didn’t they use them better? The time allowed to Jason Bonnington in his pre race stable interviews wasn’t long enough for him to interview connections of more competitors!
I have tweeted suggestions about using social media platforms such as Facebook Live or Twitter’s Periscope to offer a hosting panel with time to hear from more connections.
I’m obviously unaware if there are broadcast stipulations that prevent this from being done.

I was initially critical of the marketing of the Cup but on review that wasn’t just!

The marketing of the race during the week was extensive on FM Radio stations and in mainstream print media, it was obviously sufficient enough to attract, what was it? 5,900 on course spectators. It was the coverage on the night that needs tinkering with, another medium to engage with those the pre-race marketing has reached but were unable to participate with their presence on the night.
Another thought on the presentation of the racing product is use of Go-Pro type cameras in the actual race! The footage doesn’t have to be broadcast live although that would be better, it can certainly be used in reviews of the race and in possible stewards investigation’s including protest hearings.

Another way I think could re-invigorate the Harness Racing economy overall is having more participants, HR needs facilities to offer a lower cost alternative to having to invest in your own training property. Shared facilities within a designated training hub.

.
Inside all these big stables are some very talented horsemen and women working as stablehands and foremen. Now if these people had the opportunity to set themselves up as trainers they would be more than capable of doing so! Starting with a few horses they’ll attract investment from family, friends and supporters, to survive they can offer pre-training services or breaking in depending on their skill set and contacts.
In my time on harness training farms in America these farms were run as a business some with 40-50 maybe more registered trainers, some with a very small team could actually share a barn to suit their numbers. As a business an empty barn earns no money! all the facilities were there for their use, at a cost of course. Day paddocks could be rented in morning afternoon or in all day periods, use of the pool or water Walker, feed suppliers delivered weekly with just the right amount of feed per horse per day charged at a daily rate, farriers were abundant it was a whole community within a community.
There would only need to be one of these to start with, ideally being adjacent to a existing track would be beneficial but there are other options, a property within half an hour drive of towns like Horsham, Hamilton, St.Arnaud Charlton or even as far out as Birchip. Towns like these offer affordable housing with mediums under $200,000 and rents are also commensurate with the lower house prices.
Increases in populations to these towns also benefit the township overall, there could also be some government incentives some of which are already available for rural relocation and 1st home buyers grants, so im sure if you did the figures 10 trainers could provide up to 100 horses to the racing pool with an accompanying increase in participants to the racing, these participants get a chance to establish a foothold in the game and can set roots in a township/community instead of being itinerant workers, taking them here and there to the next best job offer.
The industry could also help by programming more claiming races across all grades and claiming prices giving new trainers an option to purchase already racing stock for new owners and for other owners to turnover their charges even for themselves to take that chance to reinvigorate an old crock thus showing off their training talents!

How many registered participants does harness racing have? The Dale Monteith audit stated that over a period 4 years 2010-14 Harness Racing Victoria lost over 200 trainers nearly 15%

I’m intelligent enough to know these ideas are not without flaws, coming from a half mad sometimes narky nearly old fool. However you are quite welcome to point these flaws out through the comment section or on twitter @wrouty

PS

I can say that in 6 years when I’m 55 and looking for a tree change I could not think of anything better than trotting off to my stable every morning and being as one with an equine athlete!