Messenger
11-09-2022, 04:23 PM
"RT New Zealand Trotting Cup Day should have been an occasion remembered for our heroes of the harness racing track.
Instead, the day was mired by the announcement of another licensed New Zealand trainer and an associate being caught administering on race day."
"The social license of the harness racing industry is hanging by a thread, and yet we have an apparent culture of apathy and tolerance when it comes to license holders who are prepared to administer substances to defenseless animals for nothing more than sheer greed.
The public perception of harness racing is an industry that is rife with corruption. And while that might not be the case, it’s getting bloody hard to defend this sort of behaviour.
Let me remind you that the three trainers to have been caught in the last three years have all had to be caught in the act.
I’m not saying it’s rife.
But the public perception is just that.
And when you have former Chair’s and acting CEO’s publicly going into bat for a ‘kid’ (full grown adult) with a tough upbringing who once again has shat the bed, where too now?"
"If we as an industry can’t come together and condemn this sort of behaviour publicly, a culture of tolerance and acceptance will inadvertently perpetuate and continue to rot us from the inside out.
Our own people are the single biggest threat to our industries survival. Not the left. Not the greens. And not administrative decisions made by the governing body."
https://harnesslink.com/new-zealand/apathy-and-tolerance-are-killing-our-industry/
Instead, the day was mired by the announcement of another licensed New Zealand trainer and an associate being caught administering on race day."
"The social license of the harness racing industry is hanging by a thread, and yet we have an apparent culture of apathy and tolerance when it comes to license holders who are prepared to administer substances to defenseless animals for nothing more than sheer greed.
The public perception of harness racing is an industry that is rife with corruption. And while that might not be the case, it’s getting bloody hard to defend this sort of behaviour.
Let me remind you that the three trainers to have been caught in the last three years have all had to be caught in the act.
I’m not saying it’s rife.
But the public perception is just that.
And when you have former Chair’s and acting CEO’s publicly going into bat for a ‘kid’ (full grown adult) with a tough upbringing who once again has shat the bed, where too now?"
"If we as an industry can’t come together and condemn this sort of behaviour publicly, a culture of tolerance and acceptance will inadvertently perpetuate and continue to rot us from the inside out.
Our own people are the single biggest threat to our industries survival. Not the left. Not the greens. And not administrative decisions made by the governing body."
https://harnesslink.com/new-zealand/apathy-and-tolerance-are-killing-our-industry/