Harness Racing Victoria branding Hot to Trot

[David Summers]

http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=103487

Good on them for making this innovative move. Ask the average non-racing person what "harness racing" is and most would not have a clue. Ask what are "the trots" and you get are far more positive answer. Anything that will centre on promoting our great sport has to be a good thing.

Let the other states please follow. Go "THE TROTS" !!!

[aussiebreno]

http://www.harnessracingforum.com/showthread.php?3842-Hot-to-trot

I thought being a Super Moderator would have required reading the threads lol !!

[David Summers]

The article in the link in my first post appeared in Harnesslink just this afternoon. This is the first time I had heard about it.

Thank you for your free character asssessment Brendan :-) Unlike some people , it seems , I actually do have another life away from the forums and do not spend my time 24/7 in the forums reading every thread in detail and knit picking. (No offence meant Brendan, just being silly here)

Getting back to why I even bothered starting this thread, what is your actual opinion of this initiative ? I don't see any great words of wisdom from posters or any real comment about it in that other thread.

[Greg Hando]

Good move it has always been the Trots for me.

[RFlensing]

As lovely a move as it is, I don't see how changing the name of something changes the nature of that thing.

I'd hope that the heads of harness racing are aware that confidence and trust in both the participants and stewards is at pretty low levels, from the point of view of the general public. Whether this is a fair or true assessment is largely irrelevant. Based on the NSW stewards scandal, they might want to think about focusing less on changing the name of the sport, and focusing more on swabbing every winner, and every horse that's well in the market in preliminary betting. If they're looking to improve the standing of the sport, they might look further than giving the sport a mere facelift.

[aussiebreno]

The article in the link in my first post appeared in Harnesslink just this afternoon. This is the first time I had heard about it.

Thank you for your free character asssessment Brendan :-) Unlike some people , it seems , I actually do have another life away from the forums and do not spend my time 24/7 in the forums reading every thread in detail and knit picking. (No offence meant Brendan, just being silly here)

Getting back to why I even bothered starting this thread, what is your actual opinion of this initiative ? I don't see any great words of wisdom from posters or any real comment about it in that other thread.
You mean there's life away from this forum? Absurd!

It might get a bit more attendance from people in country areas, but I'm not sure how many people outside the industry will see and take note of the advertising. Rather than advertising the trot.com.au website via harness websites (or is that trot websites) and the Herald sun, I'd rather see some advertising for the trots in local media. Not living in Vic I don't know if that is happening.

[thepacingman]

http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=103487

Ask the average non-racing person what "harness racing" is and most would not have a clue. Ask what are "the trots" and you get are far more positive answer.

I'm not sure you'd get a positive answer. Mention the trots and you're an even money chance of the reply being, "ah yeah the RED HOTS!!".

With all the systemic problems with the industry now, is it any wonder with hogwash like this taking up admistrator's time.

The saying "Fiddling while Rome burns" seems very apt.

[broncobrad]

They don't call the gallops the gallops...they are simply called the races, and the dogs don't seem to have any problem with their moniker 'the dogs'.
I sure don't say lets go to the harness races tonight. They are the trots, they have always been the trots and that is what they always will be. The industry needs to get the message out to the public that what was once seen as common rorting is not tolerated to the extent that we have experienced in years gone by. As Roger Flensing alluded to, the NSW Stewards scandal that came to light about 18 months ago, still resonates loudly with any punter, but those players have been removed. Some will say there are still plenty of operators still in the game and that may well be the case, however I doubt if we will ever see anything of that magnitude ever again tainting officialdom. Ideally the industry would love to see more swabbing done but again (and without looking at any figures) the numbers of animals being swabbed in NSW has definitely increased in recent times, with plenty of swabs frozen for further analysis as testing improves in time. It is the cost thats the killer. The general public would be completely in the dark as to the state of racing in NSW at the present time, whilst some punters would have some idea.

HRV I think should be congratulated for embracing the only name that most fans really relate to. They are after all, only attempting to improve attendances with a hook that punters can relate to, "The Trots"

As far as being Hot To Trot, its like our old friend Steph...if you pay enough cash, she will let you harness her in anyway you choose (not that I know first hand), but Toohard might be able to shed some light on that.:) (She turned up on an old Youtube clip today I was looking at, Ross Ryan. She is a tenacious little bugger, and go figure...she is still 2.8kms away)!:rolleyes:

[clumsy]

They don't call the gallops the gallops...they are simply called the races, and the dogs don't seem to have any problem with their moniker 'the dogs'.
I sure don't say lets go to the harness races tonight. They are the trots, they have always been the trots and that is what they always will be. The industry needs to get the message out to the public that what was once seen as common rorting is not tolerated to the extent that we have experienced in years gone by. As Roger Flensing alluded to, the NSW Stewards scandal that came to light about 18 months ago, still resonates loudly with any punter, but those players have been removed. Some will say there are still plenty of operators still in the game and that may well be the case, however I doubt if we will ever see anything of that magnitude ever again tainting officialdom. Ideally the industry would love to see more swabbing done but again (and without looking at any figures) the numbers of animals being swabbed in NSW has definitely increased in recent times, with plenty of swabs frozen for further analysis as testing improves in time. It is the cost thats the killer. The general public would be completely in the dark as to the state of racing in NSW at the present time, whilst some punters would have some idea.

HRV I think should be congratulated for embracing the only name that most fans really relate to. They are after all, only attempting to improve attendances with a hook that punters can relate to, "The Trots"

As far as being Hot To Trot, its like our old friend Steph...if you pay enough cash, she will let you harness her in anyway you choose (not that I know first hand), but Toohard might be able to shed some light on that.:) (She turned up on an old Youtube clip today I was looking at, Ross Ryan. She is a tenacious little bugger, and go figure...she is still 2.8kms away)!:rolleyes:

There has been a lift in swabbing from 5 to 30 per cent. This would explain why we are getting more positives.

[aussiebreno]

Front page herald sun today. Hot to trot. Only problem is it has Gai Waterhouse on the cover.