Its time to poke the bear!
Reality has to hit home soon, the current emphasis on more product (for turnover purposes) at the expense of quality is simply degenerating Harness Racing into the lowest form of gambling usually associated with poker machines. The sad part is that based on the current infrastructure it certainly isn't going to change in the near future.
TabCorp now run Harness Racing, nobody can argue that. All media personalities try and pretend they have the best interests of the industry at heart but 99% of them are employed with a TabCorp subsiduary in some capacity so clearly cannot speak candidly on certain matters. I would imagine that if Adam Hamilton for example wrote a scathing article about the TAB in the Herald Sun that he would surely be heavily censured by his "other employer". Therefore, even if they wish to comment about certain elements, they are hamstrung as if they do they are putting their livelihood at risk. Surely the controlling bodies in Victoria and New South Wales can act independently though as should be their charter but wait, their home tracks are now both called TabCorp Park!! Just to reinforce things, all Harness Racing coverage on TV (SKY), radio (SKY, Sport 927) and state committees are indelibly linked to Tabcorp and there is no independent voice apparent anywhere.
Harness Racing in the United States is really struggling with flagship tracks such as the Meadowlands now forced to lower stakes and nearly all tracks relying upon income derived from slots or by increasing the parimutual takeout to around 25%. This should have alarm bells going off down under but it will fall on deaf ears as the only way to correct the problem is to change the current race format and TabCorp isn't going to do anything that may impact their bottom line in the short term.
There are a couple of success stories in the USA where tracks have turned themselves around by primarily thinking of Harness Racing as being in the entertainment game and not purely another gambling stream. They have implemented novel ideas to bring back the entertainment side, they market their trainers and drivers so they have a public profile, they have embraced the technological era and now utilise electronic media options and they take note about what works with similar industries and implement it to suit their format. As far as I can see, Harness Racing in Australia still has the same grading system, meeting format, timing of races, race distances and betting options that it did 20 years ago.
There is one huge problem though and that is that TabCorp has established itself a monopoly on the broadcasting of Harness Racing in all formats so any ruling body who dares to break free will simply be cut off from being shown on TV and that would be suicidal the way the punting landscape is currently set up. Clubs have to run meetings when TabCorp say they can or not get the TV coverage and by extension turnover so it would surely be the death knell of any club to go it alone in the current format. I can appreciate that its a bit of a be damned if you do and damned if you don't dilemma but it is slowly slipping away and changes do need to be made. Any changes however do need to be done with the full support of the industry but is there anybody out there willing to poke the bear?
To succeed in anything nowadays, you have to provide a quality product yet Harness Racing reminds me of the old adage that "nice guys come last". We are trying to spread the wealth around by running tons of lower class races to try and assist the battler when in essence all that does is showcase too many substandard meetings and drivers. If changes were made, it might hurt a few in the short term but it has to be done for the greater good and long term sustainability of the caper. My belief is to succeed long term that there are two key steps that need to be taken.
Firstly lets get serious about the professionalism side of things. We need to cull a few meetings and put more money into the top end of things as I am sure that by increasing the quality of those races that turnover on those meetings would in time easily exceed what is currently being earned by running a heap of substandard races. Plus the public perception increases and sponsors start appearing wanting to become involved but at the moment who would want to have their name associated with an industry that hasn't evolved since the 1960s. We also need to market our stars so they are not faceless individuals and the public can identify with them, have an elite set of drivers who travel the country driving at major meetings and really crack down on who can get to drive at marquee meetings. It sounds simple but if you really want to be seen as a professional entity then first you have to act professionally. Look at some of the incompetence that is rampant in the industry nowadays, group 1 races are clashing between states, the InterDominion format sems to change every year and group 1 races are regularly marred by incompetent driving performances by people who should never be allowed to compete in feature races.
Secondly, lets embrace the electronic age. Over 90% of Australian households have a home computer nowadays and a lot have the capability to stream directly to their television plus countless other mediums exist to allow people access even when out of the home but Harness Racing has missed the boat on this front. HRV have recently introduced an weekly preview available on You Tube and joined the social networking sites but it took far too long for this to happen and I am not even sure if NSW has done either to be honest. Its the ideal medium to showcase your product just by uploading a daily newsclip, interviewing participants, having a weekly form wrap up, etc and it just seems a "no brainer" to me. Heck, I could even do it myself its that easy but I would like to think that a multi million dollar industry might actually take the lead on that front.
Its a simple case of short term pain for long term gain.
