Ideas for Harness Racing - no whinging, no negativity allowed withinHarness & Greyhounds

KTQ

Hola

Herewith shall lie ideation on cool ideas for improving harness racing.

No negativity, no bagging the handicapping and no whinging allowed! Theres enough of that already.
Constructive criticism only. Will this post see any traction?

KTQ

Idea #1. At a meet, reduce time between races to 20-25 minutes. To assist trainers, they can register for help at the points in the day they need it. RWWA pays to have 1 or 2 experienced floating staff help as per the registry, whether it be ungearing, washing etc. Speeds the day up, trainers arent under the pump, can fit more races into a program

KTQ

Its been mentioned before but have cup meets as a circuit with a Country Cup King (as per Eastern states). Winner crowned based on points of finishing position in each cup. Cups spaced every 2 weeks. (Not on Monday and then Friday a la Pinjarra, Bunbury ????)
Local papers on board to promote their specific race. Could even limit it to country trained horses

Chariotsonfire

KTQ said:

Idea #1. At a meet, reduce time between races to 20-25 minutes. To assist trainers, they can register for help at the points in the day they need it. RWWA pays to have 1 or 2 experienced floating staff help as per the registry, whether it be ungearing, washing etc. Speeds the day up, trainers arent under the pump, can fit more races into a program

Unfortunately intervals between races are out of RWWA's control with the Sky Race Clock dictating race times. The Greyhounds can run at 20 minute intervals but this can be achieved by virtue of the fact that a race takes 30 seconds to run.

JayJay

Country Cups ....yes, yes, yes.....establish and promote the circuit. Victoria has a high profile program in place. We could even group the cups according to conditions, stakes etc. The $30k FFA Cups, the $20k cups etc etc. At the moment they are all over the place with various levels and conditions and stakes ranging from mobiles and stands with stakes varying from $10k to 14k to 15k to 20k to 30k with no consistency on trophies. It all seems very ad hoc. Country Cups seem to be concentrated around the January to March part of the season, map out the circuit, provide actual Cups as as trophies and pre advertise the conditions.

Restore two or three meetings to Kalgoorlie to coincide with the almost forgotten Racing Round when the town is bursting with racing people. To me, that is a no brainer. Provide plenty of forward notice and I am sure it would be well supported.

Programming needs to reflect your actual horse population that is racing. At the moment, there is much angst about programmed races falling over and 5 and 6 horse fields. Stable return data could be enhanced by adding some indicators of "in work", "spelling" or about to trial or whatever. At the moment, stable returns seem just to list who is training the horse. Reinstating a position of handicapper, programmer, race scheduler to oversea this vital area may be an idea.....or it may be already happening, I don't know....but it seems an area of urgent need.

DEG posted on the now deleted thread about the need for on course stabling and training facilities for young emerging drivers etc who, without family support and connections, find it impossible to set themselves on the training pathway. Real estate prices are prohibitive. Off the top of my head, Pinjarra and Byford, or even broadening the footprint to under utilised regional tracks? I speak to many of the younger drivers who work for established trainers but don't own or train, they just drive.....and the uniform response revolves around set up costs and facilities to train. For industry growth, they must have the opportunity to train as they certainly have the talent and collective experience from having done the hard yards in leading stables. There was also a mention of establishing a "harness school" to attract youth into the industry?

Byford is a huge population centre with a very good track slap bang in the middle of it. Utilise it. Run three Gymkhana  or Picnic or Non Tab or even TAB meetings on a Sunday afternoon to engage the locals. Work with them, not against them, win them over, run it in tandem with food trucks or markets or something similar. Program races for lower class horses, pony trots, country trainers with no work commitments of a Sunday could support it, run a junior drivers series across the three meetings. In fact, run junior drivers races full stop...somewhere. The opportunities for juniors must be enhanced.

Bridgetown did a good thing on Sunday at their Cup meeting, with their losing betting ticket draw, 10 tickets were drawn out over the afternoon, each winner was then able to draw a runner in the Cup and if their horse was successful, they won a holiday to Kalbarri. Do that for all Cups, it engages and attracts on course involvement. Simple but effective. On course photo with the Cup Winner, they will take it home and tell their friends.

Promote the drivers......here we had a low key meeting at Bridgetown and with Richie Bell calling and going the extra yard to name the drivers in the races and make complimentary remarks about the town (and the "forest" lol) .....Voak, DeCampo, Suvaljko etc.... all driving, people crowded around the TV's watching Emily and Jocelyn at Launceston. There is marketing value there which is probably being under utilised. (Pikey buys a bottle of water and The West has an article on him). And what about the success of non metro trainers of late.....Ray Jones in Greenbushes....many would have no idea where Greenbushes is, The Costello's of Coolup etc etc.

Anyway, someone will probably tear holes in all of the above but just my random thoughts as I wandered about feeding up and rolling out hay this morning.....in the dark and cold I might add....days are shortening up.

And finally, we must...repeat must....shift to NR to get some uniformity across Australia. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea and it has obvious shortcomings.....and if and when we do, we will need to adapt it for the local situation but running what we are running and creating a two tiered dual system is beyond belief, it is disastrous for our industry.

Rocket_Reign

JayJay said:

Country Cups ....yes, yes, yes.....establish and promote the circuit. Victoria has a high profile program in place. We could even group the cups according to conditions, stakes etc. The $30k FFA Cups, the $20k cups etc etc. At the moment they are all over the place with various levels and conditions and stakes ranging from mobiles and stands with stakes varying from $10k to 14k to 15k to 20k to 30k with no consistency on trophies. It all seems very ad hoc. Country Cups seem to be concentrated around the January to March part of the season, map out the circuit, provide actual Cups as as trophies and pre advertise the conditions.

Restore two or three meetings to Kalgoorlie to coincide with the almost forgotten Racing Round when the town is bursting with racing people. To me, that is a no brainer. Provide plenty of forward notice and I am sure it would be well supported.

Programming needs to reflect your actual horse population that is racing. At the moment, there is much angst about programmed races falling over and 5 and 6 horse fields. Stable return data could be enhanced by adding some indicators of "in work", "spelling" or about to trial or whatever. At the moment, stable returns seem just to list who is training the horse. Reinstating a position of handicapper, programmer, race scheduler to oversea this vital area may be an idea.....or it may be already happening, I don't know....but it seems an area of urgent need.

DEG posted on the now deleted thread about the need for on course stabling and training facilities for young emerging drivers etc who, without family support and connections, find it impossible to set themselves on the training pathway. Real estate prices are prohibitive. Off the top of my head, Pinjarra and Byford, or even broadening the footprint to under utilised regional tracks? I speak to many of the younger drivers who work for established trainers but don't own or train, they just drive.....and the uniform response revolves around set up costs and facilities to train. For industry growth, they must have the opportunity to train as they certainly have the talent and collective experience from having done the hard yards in leading stables. There was also a mention of establishing a "harness school" to attract youth into the industry?

Byford is a huge population centre with a very good track slap bang in the middle of it. Utilise it. Run three Gymkhana  or Picnic or Non Tab or even TAB meetings on a Sunday afternoon to engage the locals. Work with them, not against them, win them over, run it in tandem with food trucks or markets or something similar. Program races for lower class horses, pony trots, country trainers with no work commitments of a Sunday could support it, run a junior drivers series across the three meetings. In fact, run junior drivers races full stop...somewhere. The opportunities for juniors must be enhanced.

Bridgetown did a good thing on Sunday at their Cup meeting, with their losing betting ticket draw, 10 tickets were drawn out over the afternoon, each winner was then able to draw a runner in the Cup and if their horse was successful, they won a holiday to Kalbarri. Do that for all Cups, it engages and attracts on course involvement. Simple but effective. On course photo with the Cup Winner, they will take it home and tell their friends.

Promote the drivers......here we had a low key meeting at Bridgetown and with Richie Bell calling and going the extra yard to name the drivers in the races and make complimentary remarks about the town (and the "forest" lol) .....Voak, DeCampo, Suvaljko etc.... all driving, people crowded around the TV's watching Emily and Jocelyn at Launceston. There is marketing value there which is probably being under utilised. (Pikey buys a bottle of water and The West has an article on him). And what about the success of non metro trainers of late.....Ray Jones in Greenbushes....many would have no idea where Greenbushes is, The Costello's of Coolup etc etc.

Anyway, someone will probably tear holes in all of the above but just my random thoughts as I wandered about feeding up and rolling out hay this morning.....in the dark and cold I might add....days are shortening up.

And finally, we must...repeat must....shift to NR to get some uniformity across Australia. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea and it has obvious shortcomings.....and if and when we do, we will need to adapt it for the local situation but running what we are running and creating a two tiered dual system is beyond belief, it is disastrous for our industry.

Couldn’t agree more about a complex for trainers, been saying it for years it’s such a no brainer for getting someone that wouldn’t usually have a horse in work to having a couple to play around with after work.

bookielover

I know you asked for no negativity. 

I hadn't seen this thread when, I  named Gloucester Park as my favourite track on the racing forum. 

I don't have anywhere near the knowledge that Jay Jay and others have when it comes to HR, but I do know, that you need to look after the public's needs if you want them to come to the track.

So, at my favourite track. 

You want me to have a bet on an interstate meeting on a Friday night, or on an away harness meeting, at Bunbury on the same night, then how about you put the sound on when the races are being run. The TV's are under the grandstand, they don't need to be on full volume, just enough to hear the commentator. 

If you are going to have a singer/singers between races, then turn their volume down. Aside from maybe a few family members of theirs, we aren't there to listen to them. We want to enjoy our conversations with each other, or study the form for the next race, or concentrate on what bet we are going to have on an away meeting.  Turn up the volume for the punters, not the singers. 

A bloke goes out and interviews the drivers prior to a race. Now THAT'S another time when we want the volume turned up. We can't hear clearly what the drivers say.

If it hasn't happened already, unless it's a carnival night, Fremantle Cup, Inter Dominion, Group 1 night, make entry to the public free on a Friday night.

We haven't been since February 2020, and they were the main faults with an otherwise great evening. I hope they have done something to fix those issues as I see them before we get there in November, Covid permitting.

JayJay

Just had a silly thought .....what about planning a Match Race for November/December.....Lavra Joe, Magnificent Storm, Shockwave, Chicago Bull......showcase the world class talent we have. Aim for all 4, if two come on board, it's promo time. Then again, some would suggest that I should not have skipped my afternoon nap.

Chariotsonfire

JayJay said:

Just had a silly thought .....what about planning a Match Race for November/December.....Lavra Joe, Magnificent Storm, Shockwave, Chicago Bull......showcase the world class talent we have. Aim for all 4, if two come on board, it's promo time. Then again, some would suggest that I should not have skipped my afternoon nap.

The Pure Steel/Satinover match race was a promoters dream leading up to the race and a huge crowd on course. Betting and opinions were so diverse that Bookies bet black odds both runners at various stages in betting.

KTQ

JayJay said:

Country Cups ....Programming needs to reflect your actual horse population that is racing. Stable return data could be enhanced by adding some indicators of "in work", "spelling" or about to trial or whatever. At the moment, stable returns seem just to list who is training the horse. .

I requested they add "horse status" to harnessweb purely so bigger stables could filter to the horses they have in work rather than have a huge list that includes broodmares, foals and spellers. They actually have added it (!) So now you can report your horse as spelling, racing, pretraining etc. HOWEVER, I used 1.5hrs of the drive to PJ yesterday and barely updated a thing because it is such a tedious time consuming click and wait click and wait process. And then I realised that if you update horse status, it doesn't then autopopulate as a stable return so you then have to go in and do it all over again. Ugh.

KTQ

bookielover said:

I know you asked for no negativity. 

I hadn't seen this thread when, I  named Gloucester Park as my favourite track on the racing forum. 

I don't have anywhere near the knowledge that Jay Jay and others have when it comes to HR, but I do know, that you need to look after the public's needs if you want them to come to the track.

So, at my favourite track. 

You want me to have a bet on an interstate meeting on a Friday night, or on an away harness meeting, at Bunbury on the same night, then how about you put the sound on when the races are being run. The TV's are under the grandstand, they don't need to be on full volume, just enough to hear the commentator. 

If you are going to have a singer/singers between races, then turn their volume down. Aside from maybe a few family members of theirs, we aren't there to listen to them. We want to enjoy our conversations with each other, or study the form for the next race, or concentrate on what bet we are going to have on an away meeting.  Turn up the volume for the punters, not the singers. 

A bloke goes out and interviews the drivers prior to a race. Now THAT'S another time when we want the volume turned up. We can't hear clearly what the drivers say.

If it hasn't happened already, unless it's a carnival night, Fremantle Cup, Inter Dominion, Group 1 night, make entry to the public free on a Friday night.

We haven't been since February 2020, and they were the main faults with an otherwise great evening. I hope they have done something to fix those issues as I see them before we get there in November, Covid permitting.

Ive been thinking the same thing lately re: TV screens and on track interviews.

KTQ

JayJay said:

Just had a silly thought .....what about planning a Match Race for November/December.....Lavra Joe, Magnificent Storm, Shockwave, Chicago Bull......showcase the world class talent we have. Aim for all 4, if two come on board, it's promo time. Then again, some would suggest that I should not have skipped my afternoon nap.

I reckon time trials would be better. Less bias to inside horse.

JayJay

A recent plus is the addition of Ashley Paikos providing excellent reports on the Country Meetings for the HRA News site. Very good broad based coverage and a welcome boost for both the clubs and the participants.

aussiebattler

would be good to have the fields for midweek trials out earlier , ie the Day before  would be good so can plan ahead better ,especially for those that have a couple hours travel time to consider 

capgun

Why is it that in our current climate which is screaming out fir horses and participants, are we restricting participants who have come back from disqualification. Why does anyone care how many horses they train? If they are good enough to be in the industry for five horses why not 20?

Please don’t give some sort of “integrity” or “ keeping up appearances “ answer as that’s not gonna fly.

There are a bunch of people out there begging to get back in and RWWA are making it needlessly difficult.

P.s. I’m not being negative ;)

Royboy

Capgun that’s exactly why we have zero following from the general public. 2 disqualifications for performance enhancing drugs = life

capgun

That might be the case however RWWA already crossed that bridge by allowing them back in game. Why not just use them as much as possible and allow them to train as many as possible.

RWWA have become comfortable with being flacid cocks regarding integrity so why not take adavantage?

Markovina

One thing which does amaze me - and im a fair poster - if its good i give credit - and if it is bad i will  bag it

But running a GP day meeting on Good Friday ( only trots meeting in Aust ) is just beyond dumb 

Many years ago when i was young - i helped 2 blokes i went to school with  train pacers before work - 5am start - basically realized then that horses can take over your life - they need to be attended to every day

So give the paticipants their public holiday - Good Friday off - so they can do the minimum at their stable - and put their feet up - and enjoy their  public holiday 

No they run a day meeting - a joke in my opinion 

freodockers

Don’t get it Marko.
Assuming all TABs will be closed.
Or are there race meetings during the day so TABs are open.

sonny

Where did they train? Marko,,

2lifetimewinners

Hobart is on too