Hi David. The letter was written prior to your appointment. The letter was written to the integrity dept and not the Chairman of Stewards. As I mentioned earlier, minister of sport and the then CEO was given a copy. Mr Anderson was the only party who did not reply
The letter was written due to a 2 yr old trotter, Crown Dream continually being banned, either stood down or disqualified. I would email you a copy but I can’t find it.
We as a stable continued to suffer undue treatment. Leroy tried time and time again to get his A grade trainers license only to be continually denied. Leroy bought this up with David Martin when David took the time out to come up and introduce himself after Cown Dream won the Ararat trotted cup. With David ‘s support he was granted the license upgrade the following week.
This last month has been difficult. He gained a drive for the Kerryn Manning stable, only to face the banter of a HRV employee telling him he does not belong in those colors.
Take the Bendigo race that Imprincessgemma won recently. Maybe she was not meant to win but we are not in the loop and rarely bet. Clearly the best horse in the race. Wins and pays over $8.00. We had 2 in the race. Imprincessgemma flies the gate and we knew she would lead. Our other horse drew 1. Made sense to get the sit behind the good horse but the stewards wanted to know why. The driver who also wanted the sit was not questioned into why he drove his horse so vigorously. Could not prove what they thought but told Leroy the horse will be swabbed again in 2 hours. One week later Imprincessgemma is leading again, pressure applied by a leading driver at the bell, his horse drops out, nothing said.
David, little things like this do get to people. All anyone can ask for is a level playing field.
Just a story regarding HRV promoting their favourites, mainly Melton or Shepparton trainers and drivers. Leroy coached the Western Division of the Charity football day. He was on apprentice wages. He hired a bus, drove however he could get to the footy and in some cases owed these people a favor. Every year the same junior drivers were seen promoting the day. Leroy got nothing out of the day except pride in being able to help the kids the charity was for.
For those interested, Leroy is off to Katherine plumbing. He will return to harness racing as he has an unremitting love for horses. Also it seems we have a CEO who listens and may well understand that the raceapacer program should be supporting young trainers who are struggling to get a break. For the record Crown Dream will race in Zac Steenhouse, (wrong spelling), colors along with a nice CUF gelding.