I saw HRNSW released its strategic plan yesterday.


I feel it touched on a number of important areas, albeit it was light on for detail (i.e. "savvy promotion to show the affordability of Standardbreds and try to lure new owners to industry through syndications and partnerships" is just too general for me).


I do feel that it demonstrated little regard for one of the critical issues that has been mentioned on the forum before: handicapping, programming and field selections. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of control trainers/owners have in placing their horse and the lack of certainty around race programs. The report effectively reads as though the new handicapping system was implemented successfully and now just needs to be tinkered with ("optimised"). My view is that there are wholesale changes required where standardized race programs (i.e. 2yo, 3yo, c0, c1, c2, c3, c4+ races) should be set so that class actually means something rather than handicappers deciding where / when / who you race based on their views of form - this type of subjective field selection should only be utilised when splitting nominations of same-class horses for the same race.

I am interested in what everyone's thoughts are?