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Whatever Happened To "The Trots"?
Harness & Greyhounds
JayJay
7,629 posts
Call it Covid-19 boredom or lack of a life but after reading Mitchell Woodcocks column on Michael Grantham in this mornings paper, and his reference to Michael being a "trotting" trainer with two "trotters" in work, I thought whatever happened to the time honored moniker of "The Trots"? I have no idea who Michael is or what his background is, and some may say he is not well versed in correct terminology but carry on Michael, everyone reading your column knew exactly what you were on about.
In terms of public recognition and alignment, "the Trots" has a lot more traction than the awkward term of "Harness Racing". In fact from a marketing point of view, the switch has been hopeless. In the past, we went to the "races" or the "trots", the "trots were conducted by the WA Trotting Association and we were familiar with, for example, the Northam Trotting Club, not the Northam Harness Racing Club or the Gloucester Park Harness Racing Club. Yes, yes, it was not technically correct with the differentiation between the pacing or trotting gait but the "Red Hots" was what it was. It was what people identified with, a Friday or Saturday night out at the Trots or off on a country jaunt to the Bunbury Trots.
When anyone asks me about my horses, they say "how are your trotters going?" or I say, "yeah, I've got a couple of trotters" - explaining the nuances of the different gaits is not worth the trouble of saying "Well, actually, I've got pacers, not trotters". The casual punter couldn't give a toss about that, it's got a cart behind it and it runs around in circles at the trots. If you want to really confuse them, intersperse your answer with references to spiders, sulkies, gigs and carts.
When we are finally allowed to head back on course as owners or punters, we will be heading back to the Trots, at the Trotting Track, to watch and bet on our Trotters. Lets drop this Harness Racing terminology and get back to promoting and reviving the Trots. The square gaiting aficionado's might disagree but from my experience, young and old still align with going to the "Trots".
Comments
Thunderstruck, Yilgarna likes this post.
Tabtouch betting options are Races, Trots, Greyhounds and id say everyone knows of them and refers to them as that.
Plus most punters of reasonable knowledge even if races are their preference know of the difference between a pacer and a trotter.
Yilgarna likes this post.
Harness Racing ( Technically Correct )
But Logic would be the TROTS all day every day.
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