No Harness Jewels in sight and racing at only half the usual venues next season

The immediate future of the Harness Jewels is uncertain with no provision made for the industry’s showcase meeting in the draft set of dates for the new season.

Harness Racing New Zealand Chief Executive, Peter Jensen said it was not possible to confirm the meeting with funding levels for next season yet to be confirmed by the Racing Industry Transition Agency.

The Harness Jewels had to be cancelled at Cambridge this year through COVID-19 and with nine age group races and stakes of $1.275 million, it may be a port too far for a cash-strapped industry.

HRNZ is proposing to race at only 16 venues in the 2020-21 season, down from 31 this season, with the number of meetings dropping from 259 (originally programmed) to 246.

Forbury Park, Manawatu Raceway and Timaru have not been allocated any meetings and it is proposed Southland consolidates to two tracks from four.

Jensen said while not totally unexpected in light of the pressure that the industry is under, he understands it will be a huge blow to the harness racing communities in the affected areas.

“HRNZ was left with little choice. To repeat the recent comments of the Minister of Racing, Covid19 has highlighted some serious underlying structural issues within the industry and more tough decisions will be required in the future,” he said.

The changes are designed to better align meetings with regional horse populations and to improve wagering income by racing more often at the higher performing venues. It also reduces costs to owners with more horses racing locally and allows RITA to reduce costs by servicing fewer venues.

“The importance of the very successful South Island Christmas racing circuits, and also key training and trials hubs, were taken into consideration when these difficult decisions were made.

“COVID19 has been the catalyst to accelerate the pace of change, but the reality is that the proposed changes are required to help harness racing become more sustainable, through increasing turnover, improving club’s stakes to funding ratio, and decreasing costs for RITA, clubs, licensees and owners,” he said.

Addington raceway is the big winner in the new season’s draft calendarThe Met gets 77 meetings

The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington will host 77 meetings in the new season, compared with 36 for 2019-20.

The greater Canterbury area has 47% of the total pool of standardbred horses in training and will now host 45% of meetings, up from 36% this season.

The continuing decline in horse numbers is also a major reason for the decrease in race meetings planned for the new season.

“In the 2005-6 season when 245 meetings were run, there were more than 3500 individual starters and 2820 foals bred.

In 2018-19 these numbers had fallen to 2811 and 1670 respectively and this has been reflected in field sizes in some parts of the country.

“The venue plan is the first phase of a change programme focused on addressing these issues. HRNZ and the wider industry needs to change and reposition itself to make it attractive and relevant to a wider audience.

“RITA is also undergoing significant change, and when this change is confirmed and the impact at both code and club level is understood, other possible changes, including at HRNZ, will be decided.”

The early part of the season assumes that racing will continue on a public-excluded basis. These dates/venues are subject to change if government guidelines allow a different approach.

There will be an opportunity for those affected to make submissions on the draft calendar to the RITA Dates Committee with the consultation period running through to June 15.

The draft calendar can be viewed at the following link:

https://infohorse.hrnz.co.nz/dochr/hrnz/2020.21-Draft-TWO-Racing-Calendar-for-Industry-Consultation.pdf