Should we be focusing on Grass Roots racing not Melton and Menangle?

[Messenger]

I received an interesting assessment of the Tiered Racing initiative of HRV from Ray Chaplin
Ray suggests that Administrators have been failing for decades because they have been unsuccessfully focusing upon the Melton centric big end of town participants while the sport needs every single grass roots participant to prosper and more new participants in order to survive let alone grow

It made me think about my wish for harness racing to have its own 'Melbourne Cup' type day and I have not changed my opinion on the value of the spin-offs that such a day has but Ray's stressing of the importance of our grass roots participants made me think that there is an easier opportunity than staging a Melbourne Cup that may be just as valuable and is there for the taking. I have always appreciated the importance of country harness racing and have often posted about what they are doing right/doing wrong but I have probably not seen their main events as the opportunity that they are

The country shows have declined in Victoria but the gallops have been smart enough to jump into the breach with their Let's Go Racing/Country Cups circuit. Nowadays you will find some country towns having a half day holiday for their Cup instead of a show. Country towns across Vic love a get-together and are crying out for more events so while I still hope to see a Metro Harness event become a talking point like the Melbourne Cup is, in the meantime we can soup up the Country Cups circuit just like the gallops did.

Some may say that they are already well promoted but I think not. We have to take it to the next level - I want to see more ads on TV and other forms of media. I dont know whether I want people booking on line as the fact that many of ours are free should be a huge selling point BUT I do want people receiving email/texts etc about the next one coming up (which is what happens if you book tickets for a country gallops cup).

I am guilty of not being a big events person (never been interested in the crush of Melbourne Cup day) but last year I did attend some Country Gallops Cups because of a family member's horse.
I also attended Breeders Challenge day at Menangle and thought their efforts were great and probably appreciated that while their numbers were good there was no crush. This year I am going to make sure I attend all the local Cups - Stawell, Horsham, Ararat, Hamilton, St Arnaud, maybe Charlton and Maryborough and see how we are performing.

In the lead up to them I hope other posters are going to tell me how well they are being promoted - I am at a disadvantage there as I rely on VAST and Foxtel for TV reception - thanks to VAST I will be able to tell you when the Darwin and outback gallops cups are on LOL

[Adaptor]

Grassroots racing seems to be working for thr Trots in Canada

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/9-6-16/grassrooters-prepare-playoffs.html

[Messenger]

Cody Winnell from HRV has assured me that "the Trots Country Cups Carnival is shaping as the best ever"

[strong persuader]

Cody Winnell from HRV has assured me that "the Trots Country Cups Carnival is shaping as the best ever"
I'm not familiar with the Victorian set up, but the Carnival of Cups in NSW would be a similar concept and undoubtedly one state copied the other in the setting up of these events.

How can it be beneficial to grass roots racing to "force" a country club to host a large race meeting where most of the increased prizemoney on offer is going to the better performed racing animals and stables?

I opposed the Strategic Plan here in NSW under the simple premise that you won't grow a large tree by pruning its roots. I think we have witnessed a remarkable decline in the number of horses and participants since this adventure down the path of rationalisation, yet, no one is coming out and saying that it was wrong and needs to be revised.

Here in NSW, we have seen the closure of clubs, the limitations placed on other clubs to two meetings a year, with one of those meetings being the aforementioned COC meeting. How this is meant to provide support to the grassroots of the industry defies logic.

[Messenger]

I'm not familiar with the Victorian set up, but the Carnival of Cups in NSW would be a similar concept and undoubtedly one state copied the other in the setting up of these events.

How can it be beneficial to grass roots racing to "force" a country club to host a large race meeting where most of the increased prizemoney on offer is going to the better performed racing animals and stables?

I opposed the Strategic Plan here in NSW under the simple premise that you won't grow a large tree by pruning its roots. I think we have witnessed a remarkable decline in the number of horses and participants since this adventure down the path of rationalisation, yet, no one is coming out and saying that it was wrong and needs to be revised.

Here in NSW, we have seen the closure of clubs, the limitations placed on other clubs to two meetings a year, with one of those meetings being the aforementioned COC meeting. How this is meant to provide support to the grassroots of the industry defies logic.

We need big events Phil that will attract new people. People that have never been to the trots will never become horse owners, without horse owners we have no horses ........

[Mark Croatto]

We need big events Phil that will attract new people. People that have never been to the trots will never become horse owners, without horse owners we have no horses ........

Hi Kevin, I don't disagree with you in respect to the need for big events, however, as Phil infers, big events do not on their own grow the grassroots, and from my experiences they seem to have little effect in attracting new people.

I firmly believe the most likely way to grow the sport is to instil in the participants we presently have the belief they can make ends meet. New people come into the sport through the people we presently have; very few come into it off their own bat. As an industry we have to make it viable for those we have now, and that means a broader spread of the prize money, and a racing programme in which these people can see a realistic opportunity to participate and succeed, and as I've already said, the belief they can make ends meet.

I've met Phil a few times and he is precisely the type of participant that should be incentivised to take on an extra horse or two. Those who are already in the sport all have friends and acquaintances who are not involved; motivating these participants to go out and form ownership groups to buy a horse or two is the most realistic and cost effective way of growing the sport; that should be the industry's primary focus.

Having said that, I do believe the NSW Carnival of Cups initiative has been outstanding, and while I do appreciate Phil's thoughts about a 2 meeting per year club having to host a Carnival of Cups meeting and its value when it comes to supporting the grassroots, I also believe there are ways to maintain the Carnival of Cups and also have those small clubs work to support the grassroots.

Regards

Mark

[Messenger]

I think we disagree although I am not totally sure when reading your last paragraph Mark

I started the thread to suggest we need to concentrate on our grass roots areas. If making each individual club/track the centre of attention once a year is a bad thing then I am perplexed

I think one big cup meet in a country town can attract more people to the track than all the local trainers do in a lifetime (unless they have a Maoris Idol). If Cups are not attracting a good proportion of the town then they are failing. How many are new, I am not sure of but heaps of them would likely be once a year attendees. Each year they walk through the gate is a new year and an opportunity to win them over by staging a great event and displaying a good product, every year their circumstances may be different - age of children, disposable income, etc etc. and may be the year that motivates them to be regulars. If they do nothing more than attend that one meeting a year, the consolation prize is that it is at least keeping us front and centre in the region

I do not know how NSW works but if you are only having 1 or 2 meets a yr, wouldn't you want the excitement factor of one of them being called a Cup
As for how you distribute the days prizemoney - that is another question in my opinion. Maybe it is the conditions of the race that need addressing.
If the concern is having the big boys that you never see for the rest of the year turn up and dominate, I do sympathize - see my NZ sentiments.
At least you know that the big names improve off-course turnover
We need to work on promoting our stars to get the attraction factor drawing people to our courses. Our horses are not well known but that is what we have to develop - far more bucks spent on media placement. In between time we have other avenues eg Vic tracks should be going all out to attract people like Kerryn Manning to their Cup meets - a promoters dream being able to say "Come and see the World's leading female driver, winner of 3000+ races ..."
If the next biggest race at the cup meets rewarded their regulars (most qualifying points order of entry) that would be a good thing

It is good to get a bit of discusssion going

[Amlin]

All levels of the sport are critical, especially now.

Everyone should have the opportunity to compete with their horse at either the top or bottom level, for profit or pleasure.

[strong persuader]

Here I am trying to be short, sweet and concise :)

Kev, Mark answered your question as well as I could.

Carnival of Cups is a great concept, my only criticism is the reduction of racing opportunites it creates for the lower levels of horses and participants. Sweet answer would be, to give the smaller clubs 3 or 4 maybe even 6 meetings a year.

I feel that being a regular event is critical to long term survival, and at 2 meetings a year, very few clubs can establish the necessary profile to engender excitement amongst non trotting folks.

High class racing is great, but most people are realists and concede that getting a horse of that calibre is nearly akin to winning the lottery! But most horse people aren't greedy, if they can have fun with their ordinary neddy and maybe even celebrate that win of a maiden at Woop Woop, they are more likely to continue to chase that lottery win. As it stands now, too many are finding that their horses have no place to compete and therefore choose not to compete at all.

[Messenger]

Hi Phil,

I was an owner for short while decades ago and have no understanding of the NSW set up but I hope things are not that grim. In Vic I cannot imagine having a harness horse that could not find anywhere to compete right now. I am a bit of a pet person and any future horse would be a well bred mare with breeding as my back up