Well said Fiona Tonks

In this weeks Harness Racing Weekly Fiona (Racing Manager, Ashburton Raceway) is asked a few questions by the publications editor and one reply in particular is worthy of comment:

Q. If there's an issue in harness racing you'd like to address, what is it?

A. To stop the continual harassment from politicians in regard to the industry receiving money from gaming when they are not prepared to help racing financially themselves. It would be good to have a Minister of Racing who doesn't continually make statements such as "the industry needs to get its house in order" and "the industry needs to take a good look at itself and then Government will assist"


I'm sure this echos the feelings of the majority involved in harnesss racing, whether as direct participants or purely as punters.

Comments guys......

As a worker in the Health Industry and a participant in the Harness Industry, I was amazed that each minister (Health and Racing) gave almost identical speehes about 2 months ago. Each said "we are in charge of our future destiny" "the government will assist to achieve the goal provided we lead the way" and several other cliches that I have heard over and over and over again. It could of been very easy to interchange the words Health and Racing, such was the exactness of the speeches.
Yes well said Fiona! Sad thing is though a couple of years ago we had a minister of racing who was not only assisting the racing industry but also leading it. And we as a industry let him down.