Cambridge takes the initiative with forums to explore solutions to North Island harness woes

The Cambridge Raceway board is taking the initiative and organising forums to hopefully find solutions to the myriad of issues facing harness racing in the North Island.

Chairman Graham Bowen and CEO David Branch today sent an open letter to all participants, urging them to attend forums to be held in Palmerston North and Pukekohe in early February.

The move comes after another week of turmoil in the industry when Cambridge lost its two feature races on tonight’s programme, Harness Racing New Zealand ruling there were too few nominations.

In its letter, the Cambridge board says in recent months it has been concerned about a number of factors affecting harness racing in general and the North Island in particular.

“Among the major issues are race programming, stakes funding distribution, the racing calendar (dates and number of meetings), the declining number of horses racing in the north and subsequent falling turnover.

“We also feel that there has never been more of a divide within the industry which seems to turn on itself and default to criticism without solutions.

“This is a time when we as an industry need to be united and working together to find solutions for the future.”

Bowen and Branch say the forums will have a clear objective of looking for solutions and new ideas that can be presented to HRNZ for action.

“Our intention is to have an experienced independent facilitator to run these meetings. This will not be an opportunity for blame or criticism of past actions, current processes or HRNZ and attendees will be expected to stay strictly within the bounds of the objectives of the meetings.

“We encourage everyone interested to attend and contribute in a positive and respectful manner in what we believe will be a critical step forward for harness racing in the North Island.”

Details of the forums will be released in the next two weeks but it is hoped they can be scheduled before the yearling sales.

More questions

Meanwhile, more questions are being asked today about just how HRNZ rules on what constitutes a minimum number of starters.

When Branch tackled HRNZ handicapper Andrew Morris earlier in the week about a precedent having been set after Auckland was given the OK to run the Lincoln Farms’ Franklin Cup on New Year’s Eve with only four starters, he was told the Group status of the race saved it.

$1.20 favourite South Coast Arden beats Kango a nose in the four-horse 2022 Cambridge Classic.But the $17,200 Cambridge Classic was not a Group or Listed race when it was run last January 27 with only four starters.

That race, which had one scratching, was taken out by the $1.20 favourite South Coast Arden, co-owned by HRNZ CEO Gary Woodham.

Branch recalled arguing hard to retain that race because it was a lead-in to the Sprint Classic at Auckland on the fledgling Harness Millions night two weeks later.

The Sprint Classic carried Listed, not Group status, and was run for $43,000 with just five starters, and won by the $1.10 favourite Self Assured.

The Charlie Hunter Free-for-all, which was canned tonight because it had only five runners, was a crucial lead-in to the Group III $30,000 Trotters’ Flying Stakes at Cambridge on January 12.

HRNZ might be on a fresh cost-cutting footing after having to take $2.1 million out of its reserves to offset the TAB’s $15 million payout cut to the industry, but if that was the case how could Cambridge’s offer to drop its two features to only $15,000 be rejected so summarily by the handicapper?