VIC change to COT policy

[Messenger]

http://www.harness.org.au/news-article.cfm?news_id=33925

The intended notification of driving tactics provided by connections, approved by Stewards and then publicly declared are to be confined to either one of the following options:

Further forward at the start;
Further back at the start;
More aggressively after the start;
Less aggressively after the start.

[Messenger]

Nobody has commented on HRA giving COT the flick

http://www.harness.org.au/media-room/news-article/?news_id=37265


HRA Members Approve Deletion of 'Change of Tactics' Rule
15 May 2018

HRA Members today approved the deletion of Australian Harness Racing Rule (AHRR) 44 relating to Tactics

[gutwagon]

There has been a lot of talk about this on twitter with some big punters not being happy about it. As an owner I am happy to see it go, tactics should always be confidential.
The biggest problem with the rule was inconsistent enforcement by stewards. As an example I have been following a horse lately that in it's last 10 starts it has been driven further back 8 times and driven forward from the gate 2 times. Not once has it had a COT put in and not once have stewards commented or fined the trainer. The same horses previous trainer was fined several times for not putting in a COT. So punters , owners and drivers really were never certain if other horses were going to stick to their usual tactic.

[Richard prior]

Confidential is good in my IMHO and yes the COT wasn’t being policed correctly

[aussiebreno]

Brilliant. :D

One of the fun things that go in to the reading of a race include what you think drivers will do. If some punters are so incapable of making a judgement on what you think is best for the horse and what the driver you will do consider something else to spend money on. (Sometimes the driver will stuff up but at least if you've done the form you have some level of credibility hurling abuse from the armchair!)

From an owners/trainers view as well, could you imagine the AFLs best forward Charlie Curnow :p telling his opponent when and where he is about to lead to! Bizarre!

As long as stewards are capable (which is itself a problem) any suss tactics should be dealt with harshly.

[Messenger]

Are you chasing brownie points Brendan? One day I hope Charlie will be the AFL's best forward. At this stage I would compare him to a Derby winner looking like he could be a future Inter winner

[Bonnie]

Are you chasing brownie points Brendan? One day I hope Charlie will be the AFL's best forward. At this stage I would compare him to a Derby winner looking like he could be a future Inter winner

A Poster Boy ! ��

[aussiebreno]

Are you chasing brownie points Brendan? One day I hope Charlie will be the AFL's best forward. At this stage I would compare him to a Derby winner looking like he could be a future Inter winner
No brownie points Kev, I am a Carlton fan too!

[Danno]

One would hope this STUPID rule gets the flick across the board the imbeciles who facilitated its installment had the vision of a wombat at noon.

[Richard prior]

I love your way with words Dan

[David Martin]

Hi everyone, HRV is pleased that this rule will soon be removed. It is something that we requested 12 months ago, but there were insufficient other States who supported the request, so the National rule remained. HRV then made a local change to rules in Vic which started this conversation thread. When the matter was tabled at a HRA forum this year, there was unanimous agreement that the rule should be removed. As the HRA notice indicated, each State body needs to work through their processes to formally rescind the rule, and HRV is currently in the midst of that. Shouldn't be too long now before HRV formally advises an end to this rule in Vic! Cheers, David

[gutwagon]

That's good news David, thanks for keeping us informed. I think the issue causing more problems for our industry was the inconsistent enforcement of the rule. This was leading to the very often heard saying "it depends who you are" . We need consistent enforcement of all rules to give the image of a level playing field.

[Dot]

Whilst I'm not a fan of the COT rule as it stands/stood let's not forget it was introduced in an effort to curb certain practices in races that were not at the time being stamped out by the other rules in place. Those would be the same rules that are now once again anticipated to be used to negate the need for the change of tactics rule.