Victoria's new Racing Minister puts HRV on warning

Herald Sun interview from yesterday

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/su...-1227151663783

I listened to his interview on RSN this morning, which was potentially more encouraging than I had initially thought. If HR is to survive it most probably needs some assistance from the other codes in terms of beefing up of integrity, but I'm not sure that will happen. What I took from the interview is that there will be changes at the top.

Let's hope Mr Pakula has a real and genuine desire to see harness racing prosper and he can convince the Party to keep their hands of the unclaimed divi's.

“At least we got some publicity, which is better than none,’’ - a quote from the top of the tree in today's lengthy Herald Sun piece on the perceived decline of trotting in Victoria and beyond.


Online the story is surrounded by photos of racehorses and ads promoting betting on gallops so perhaps some of the issues outlined in this piece regarding lack of promotion could be addressed from the paper's end first?


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/su...-1227161240438




Matt Stewart investigates harness racing’s decline over the past two decades


LEGEND has it that when Vin Knight took his life, he took harness racing with him.
Knight, who died in his car on a roadside near Kilmore in April, 1991, was the flamboyant face of a sport teetering between eras.
Knight was the electric horseman, driving Popular Alm with a smirk and reckless abandon, goading a 1980s crowd at Moonee Valley that they had their “heads up their bums’’ when they booed Bag Limit’s form reversal to win the Winfield Cup.
Three years before Knight whipped up a near riot, 48,000 fans squeezed into the Valley for Preux Chevalier’s win in the 1985 Inter Dominion Final.
It is the biggest ever crowd at the Valley, Cox Plates included.
The bookies’ ring at the trots used to be as vibrant as the fruit and veg stalls at the Vic Market. It hummed. If was also full of bookmakers. Now, there are none at country meetings and maybe one at Melton.
Trots peaked at the Showgrounds, where a 17,000-strong full house was almost a given during the 1950s, 60s and early 70s.
While filming On The Beach in Melbourne in 1959, Hollywood star Gregory Peck was often seen mingling at the Showgrounds, seeking out tips from a young Jim Houlahan.
Harness racing appeared regularly on Mary Hardy’s Penthouse Club and was a World Of Sport fixture until the early 1990s.
They wrote songs about Paleface Adios, immortalised the great backmarker Cardigan Bay in the vernacular (“got more work to do than Cardigan Bay…”) and Mount Eden and Maori’s Idol were as famous as Gunsynd.
But that was then — before Knight died, before pay TV, corporate bookies, all-sport betting, a failed bid to plonk harness racing back at a renovated Showgrounds and the move from high-rent Moonee Valley to Melton, accessible for $100 via taxi from the city.
The glory days also preceded the racing of greyhounds ad nauseam — three dog races are run to every harness race — allowing it to gallop past harness to second in wagering on the three racing codes.
Former top bookmaker Bill Hutchison said the decline in profile and popularity of the trots was sad, but he defended the sport.
“No sport is as big as it once was because of increased competition — not the gallops, not even the AFL,” Hutchison said. “We’re doing as well as we can under the circumstances. It’s just evolution.

“There’s too much comparison with the past. We’ll never get it back.’’
Harness racing’s perceived problems are greater than its real ones, according to embattled Harness Racing Victoria chief executive John Anderson, who meets new racing minister Martin Pakula today to explain last Saturday night’s Ballarat “sulkygate’’ fiasco, in which six horses were scratched from the Cup over minor breaches of a sulky rule.
“At least we got some publicity, which is better than none,’’ Anderson said wryly of the Ballarat scandal, which prompted a “RIP harness racing’’ tweet from one angry fan.
Pakula already had put harness racing on notice, citing criticisms of the HRV board, poor communication, poor retention of stewards and integrity “issues.’’
Integrity, or trust, has always been an issue for harness racing and those on its fringe. Trots have been regarded as a testing ground for illegal drugs that find their way into the gallops.
A legendary NSW trainer said when the cops jailed a group prominent gangsters the prices plummeted at the yearling sales because many of the big bidders were in the clink.
Anderson refuted many of Pakula’s claims — “the last steward we lost was three years ago’’ – and said drug testing had never been more sophisticated.
He said the sport had “never been better off” for wagering and stake money, but desperately needed more exposure and bums on seats. An average Melton crowd was about 1500.
Anderson said the trots had lost its “mainstream profile’’ and improving the on-track experience and luring greater international competition were major goals.
Blacks A Fake won a record four Inter Dominion Finals from 2006-10, yet his deeds did not resonate beyond the isolated harness world. Ditto Smokin’ Up, the fastest ever harness horse.
The sport’s human champions are anonymous beyond the track, relentlessly traipsing around the state for lean pickings.
Lance Justice trained two of harness racing’s greatest champions, Shakamaker and Smokin’ Up, and barely covers costs.
“If I was a thoroughbred trainer with the same success I’d live in Toorak with four Mercedes,’’ he said.
Trainer Rick McLean said: “I took three horses to the races a few weeks ago, had a winner, a second and a third and got $4000 in prizemoney. I don’t know how some survive.’’
Justice and McLean said the “system’’ stank, that the sport they loved lacked innovation.
Justice proposed a change to the front and back row system for lower class horses in a bid to entice betting confidence and was met with a brick wall HRV board.
“I was frustrated to buggery,’’ he said.
McLean said the handicapping system was unfair. His great mare Broadway’s Best was retired out of frustration because, under the preferential draw, she always drew 13.
“About 33 per cent of her races she just couldn’t win,” he said. “Imagine doing that to Black Caviar. Broadway was one of the best mares of all time but they kept making her lose.’’
Trainer Andy Gath said haphazard standing starts were a confidence-sapping “millstone’’ attached to a sport in which men and women chased each other in carts, a betting spectacle most outsiders struggled to grasp.
There are positive signs. Victoria must be more attractive than other parts because Kiwi Anthony Butt and interstaters Luke McCarthy and James Rattray recently have set up shop here.
The sport is dead in some states, thriving in others. They say Gloucester Park, on Perth’s city fringe, buzzes like the Showgrounds used to.
The current crop of champions — Beautide, Christen Me and others — are faster than Popular Alm.
The magic trick for a sport without profile is to bring them to life.

Thanks Kyle
I reckon I might have to copy it into this thread
http://www.harnessracingforum.com/sh...ees-to-Step-Up