You know something Brad, and this is just a gut feeling I've had zero confirmation of, I suspect there is a significant element of rationalisation across the board in the future planning of The Board. Although it is not being directly aimed at them right now I think it includes some current participants. If I'm reading the Tea Leaves correctly they would much rather a somewhat smaller Industry in terms of individual participants and with that an Industry that has fewer but much larger stables & one that races more often at fewer venues with horses being drawn from those stables. That will certainly be true of the Metro area anyway. Rightly or wrongly, I reckon that's where we are ultimately heading. If it is the case then with it there'll be a need for very significant and widespread investment in NSW Country racing so as to keep the horses flowing to the Metro area racing venue/s.
I don't know the boards plans but how do you think that fewer stables resulting in multiple representation in races would boost punter confidence in the industry? Isn't turnover paramount to the future?
Perhaps Jamie instead of reading tea leaves its time to open a new thread and people can put forward their own ideas on the direction the industry should go in.
Triple, don't you think your a bit like your mate "Albo" spruiking the credentials of a track at Eastern Creek, it's like the debate over the Airport being located at Badgery's Creek,Wilton or Williamstown. What we have uncovered is that the "powers to be" need to release a blueprint for the future of harness racing. If it is like the airport debate, then Bankstown and Penrith should both stay, and need to be supported! This is prime real estate, and both are easily accessible!
Harold Parker had some great input on here and his vision of the ID format I thought was excellent, but his vision of a band of X amount of large stables and a professional pool of metrop drivers left a bad taste in my mouth. I have said before that economic rationalism isn't the be all/end all, sometimes you have to put the people first. Initiative and good solid planning to strengthen and protect the industry and its participants is what is needed right now, not grandiose visions of a replicated USA style of harness racing. There is no soul in it.
If I was in the hotseat (and I am glad not to be), I would be sorting out the smaller issues that are holding us back right now (eg corruption, swabbing, poor staffing of stewards, better gradings for more even fields, promotion of the breeding industry, SOME type of promotion that can reach new fans etc). Just because you just found a stack of money under a rock, doesn't mean you have to blow it on stuff we don't need. We ain't never gonna be the thoroughbreds, but we can cerainly project a much better image of ourselves than the one for which we are treated with disdain by the punting public as we are now.
Why don't we get Gai Waterhouse to train a few horses for the Number One Club???
I like the idea of having a half mile track somewhere in the metro area, just for variety of racing.Originally Posted by Triple V
As for the amalgamation of clubs I am unsure. I'm a minor participant in the industry being just a punter and owning a very small portion of a filly, so I am happy to read the opinions and views of those more heavily involved (at the coal face if you will) and learn a bit. Which is why I get frustrated having to wade through the tripe that belongs elsewhere.
I may form an opinion at some point but until then I don't believe I can add anything to the debate, so I have sat on the sideline.
One doesn't need to be Einstein to work out where you get you're info Jamie, I was talking to him some time ago and he mentioned how successful the Qld HR scene was integrated as it is into a small number of clubs with a similar reduced number of trainers...SUCCESSFUL????? bit of news Jamie, the answers to harness racing's woes are not copying the disaster in Qld, if you want to choke a business slowly to death... then follow their example! as i've said before..we should learn from old lessons and complement that with fresh thinking. The QLd thing is a bloody disaster, no other way of accurately describing it.
cheers,
Dan
Apart from the fears of rigging...a small crop of horses eg Tasmania, SA, Dubai inflates punter confidence through the ease of reading line form.
At the Wagga HRNSW forum Sam left us in no doubt that the board is extending the number of clubs that run TAB meetings, sure they may be taking these meetings from clubs already running TAB meetings but it ensures that these small clubs stay alive. This year in the Riverina West Wyalong held its first TAB meeting, Cootamundra and Griffith have also been allocated a meeting. It has been 5 years since Griffith have raced.
Do not ascribe to me motives or statements that I have not put forward or made.You are the one who breaks under pressure on the turn and goes off course.Your political opinions may be of great importance to yourself but mean diddly squat to me,and I suspect to others as well.
To the subject of the thread,I come from an era when Wayville (home track) and Melbourne Showgrounds were the go.Wayville was very central to most of Adelaide's population by public transport,cars were the exception rather than the rule in those days.The racing was tight,exciting and also very frustrating because if you weren't in the first four around the home turn you were r**sh**t.May I digress for a minute,if you think we have some suss races now,how about a horse who won an Interdom getting beaten in a Free for All (long odds on) one week and then comes out the following week and is backed from 7/2 to 4/6 from 60 yds in a fast class handicap and brains them.Crowd goes absolutely berserk and the driver simply doffs his hat to the crowd.Boos and hisses turn to bottles, rubbish and anything at hand being thrown at driver.Stewards enquiry,Ha Ha.
To the subject.Harness racing in Adelaide goes from Wayville to Globe Derby.(Question,was the land at Globe owned by an interested party?) New track touted as the best thing to happen to the trotting game since Jesus played centre half back for Sturt.Anything sounding familiar.What are the South Australians racing for?,$1500 in some cases and they cannot afford to run an Inter.No forward planning,nothing done in the way of marketing,country clubs gutted,grass roots ignored,game stuffed.Wonder if the catering company is making any money?
To Vic.The showgrounds always had a crowd and it was helped by the catering company,Denisses I think, running a programme of bringing in works social clubs (remember them) as a great night out.It was great racing and always exciting.I never went to Mooney Valley but have been to Melton,once,never again.If I want filthy cutlery,glassware and a completely uninterested staff I will dine at home.How visitor unfriendly is that place?
H.P. v Menangle?Loved H.P. but understand the reason for selling.Menangle has been built,committee takes a bow,great opening,committee takes a bow,great track,committee takes a bow,great times,committee takes a bow,s**t h***e racing,committee cares less,non-existent crowds,committee cares less,members get no benefits for membership,committee cares less,marketing is non existent (see last major meeting),committee cares less.I have been involved one way or another for 60 years,I could care less.
To Penrith v Eastern Creek.This is a typical public servant attitude to "doing something".Take a club that is well placed,well run, well patronised and by almost any set of KPI's gets an A mark.Close that club down and start a brand new one somewhere.No feasability study,no plan,no real reason,no marketing plan.
Now I may be totally out of order here but I do not see where there is a plan, any plan that encompasses the industry as a whole.
I offer an apology for rambling a bit here as I can only see three lines at a time and cannot judge continuity,never mind,Collingwood are two goals behind and look like rabble.He,He.
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