Harness boss warns regional racing is on the way - but it’s too soon for all the details

When harness racing does resume in New Zealand you can take it for granted that it will be based on a regional model, says the code’s boss Peter Jensen.

Just exactly what that might mean for trainers and their horses has yet to be finalised but Jensen says work is underway to introduce a framework similar to the one which starts in Victoria on Thursday.

Harness Racing Victoria has divided the state into six regions, and will conduct meetings on only nine tracks, with participants in each region unable to race elsewhere.

The Inner West region will race at Melton and Ballarat, West at Terang and Stawell, East at Kilmore and Cranbourne, North West at Mildura, Central at Bendigo and North East at Shepparton, with three tiers of stakemoney.

The changes are designed to limit travel by participants, in line with public health recommendations on slowing the spread of coronavirus.

Jensen says work on adopting regional racing here was underway even before the shutdown a week ago.

Jensen said it was too soon to detail the regions and couldn’t specualte on whether the six designated provinces might be Southland, Otago, Canterbury, Manawatu, Waikato and Auckland.

He could not say yet whether that might mean racing is completely centralised at Ascot Park, Forbury Park, Addington, Palmerston North, Cambridge and Alexandra Park or include a few other tracks.

Horse populations in each area would need to be established, particularly in centres like Palmerston North, which is not due to restart until October and relies on visiting horses, and further north where numbers are already low.

Peter Jensen … “the fewer venues we race at, the more you can control this.”“Our handicapper and senior racing club managers are processing that this week, talking to trainers, but the fewer venues we race at, the more you can control this. Most people accept we’re racing at too many venues.”

In Victoria, every participant has been assigned a specific region in which they are allowed to compete.

Jensen says it’s more likely that the movement of people between regions would be restricted here, rather than the movement of horses, in line with the ban on inter-island travel by personnel that was instituted while racing was still going ahead with only essential people on course.

“There will be clear protocols on those tracks that we race on.”

Jensen says with horses from public training tracks out spelling and others being worked only slowly on private tracks, racing won’t be able to resume immediately even when the COVID-19 alert level drops to three.

“We won’t have a fit horse population but after talking with the trainers we’ll have a better understanding of how much time they think they’ll need.”

While truncated race meetings could be held with say only 50 or 60 horses, it was important that they remained profitable.

“It’s important to have product available but we’re working in conjunction with the TAB to make sure the affordability makes sense.

“Our first priority is a resumption of racing and the second is what next season and beyond will look like and what the financial implications are.

“We’re consulting stakeholders to find to what can work for the industry and the TAB.”

Just how HRNZ tackles the issues of feature races and revised prizemoney will be keenly awaited by trainers and owners alike.

Sensible for survival

Trots Clubs Victoria president Tim Scala said the regional model made sense.

“We want to survive as an industry and come out the other side of this.

“It will mean that some clubs will have their racing transferred to another track or region, but we need to be happy that there will still be clubs operating.”

Victorian Trainers’ and Drivers’ Association president Lance Justice welcomed the move.

“Naturally there will be some who would like to have been assigned to another region or race at other tracks,” Justice said. “I understand that, but we must unite to support this model so we can continue earning prize money and paying the bills.”