I know David Martin is trying and putting in the hard yards. He is very accessible and will always listen to peoples opinions. Our sport needs long term plans to improve involvement in breeding and ownership if it is to survive. Part of the problem is that these positions are political appointments and often change each time the state government changes. As a result these people only have a short time to make change so mainly concentrate on short term solutions that will increase turnover. Unfortunately they are mainly judged on turnover not numbers of bums on seats or participation or foal numbers.
I think Martin Pakula and Dale Monteith have been absolute failures with the latter not even appearing to show any interest in Harness Racing and the other being found to have misappropriated government funds (most work places call this stealing) he is hardly the type of person to oversee integrity.
As for getting back on track and becoming significant again some things that need fixing are-
Sky racing, our main showpiece in just not doing anything to help us.
Explore overseas betting on all our product not just some trotting races.
Better advertising .
Pushing more success stories like pony trots and the Hero program.
Women are very successful in our sport, this needs more pushing, aim at attracting the female market.
Syndication needs big support, you can get into our sport for less than half the price of the gallops and you have more chance of winning a race.
Push the social side of a day at the trots. Racing has done a good job at this .
Bigger and better all weather seating at Melton.
Bring back standing starts.
Get rid of the tiered prize money system and improve handicapping and programing to produce more even racing.
Get more horse people on the boards.