Identity crisis: How harness sold its soul for futile goal and how rediscovering roots can lead to redemption
ANALYTICALLY speaking, when the subject of harness racing’s demoralising economic decline is discussed, myriad contributing factors have had significant, enduring impact.
Few could argue that changing demographics – driven by increased urbanisation, broadening consumer alternatives, and a vastly diversified wagering landscape have all played their role.
It’s also patently obvious that cultural characteristics, including greater focus on animal welfare, have created new and difficult challenges along with recent restrictions on government support.
Equally burdensome, from first-hand experience, is what seems an unfair yet painfully inescapable reputation for scandalous deeds.
Deeds which exist in every sport, everywhere, very often with far greater prevalence than evident in harness racing circa 2024.
Here’s the kicker though.
While every imposition outlined above remains verifiable and valid; dwelling upon such burdens, and, even worse, harbouring them to justify helplessness is weaker than deeply diluted urine.
For several decades now, many charged with administering the trots have heinously hidden their multitudinous failures behind a cowardly veil of feeble victimisation.
I’m not getting religious here, but those same leaders – indeed all invested in harness racing’s future – would do well to remember what’s known as ‘The Serenity Prayer’.
It goes a little something like this.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
At the risk of outlining a patently obvious truth, the overwhelming preponderance of obstacles referenced early in this yarn – barring animal welfare and historical reputation – are well beyond our control.
So put them aside; accept them then forget them.
Once that’s done, you see, a much clearer picture emerges.
Despite its clarity however, this picture remains far from pretty at first glance.
Liberated from economic, environmental excuses, one rapidly recognises the horridly masochistic role harness racing, in broad terms, has played in its own precarious circumstances.
And in almost every instance, this masochism has emanated via three malignant evils.
The first is an almost incomprehensible feeling of inferiority, and a consequent willingness to be bullied and disrespected over many, agonising years.
The second is an almost unholy sacrifice of our great sport’s idiosyncratic identity as a direct result of the inferiority complex outlined above.
And the third is represented by many – not all, but many – of harness racing’s so-called guardians who, sometimes through ineptitude and sometimes through political megalomania, have surrendered the sport’s soul in a futile Faustian Pact.
Once upon a rainbow, before the genuine emergence of greyhound racing, and, of course, sport, as serious players in the Australian wagering market, this wide brown land was dominated by the trots and the gallops.
In many ways these regal sporting leviathans were very similar, but in far more critical criteria, they were also very different.
Thoroughbreds were faster, they possessed somewhat more glamour, their champions permeated public consciousness a little deeper and, of course, they had the Melbourne Cup.
Standardbreds, however, harboured their own unique advantages.
They were tougher and more versatile, they competed more often and enjoyed longer careers, they reflected the brutal nature of Australia’s national identity, and the greatest among them, like Maori’s Idol, produced performances that defied both logic and reason in ways beyond thoroughbred imagination.
Staggeringly, however, and surreptitiously, almost all of harness racing’s competitive edges have been marginalised and corrupted.
Often – almost always – in the pursuit of appeasing overlords with no intention of returning the favour, or further aligning the trots with the gallops, for reasons only explainable by the inferiority complex and identity crises earlier referenced.
When most thoroughbred races became shorter in trip, harness racing slowly followed.
When age-restricted racing boomed in thoroughbreds in pursuit of luring owners eager for earlier return on investment, the trots aligned once more.
When galloping punters blew up at retail venues about their favoured runner being held-up, we added sprint lanes.
And when standing starts became a mark of shame, pilloried and mocked by overlords mentioned above, they were sent to Hades (for Vic pacers at least).
So, after all that, what are we left with?
The thoroughbreds are still faster, still more glamorous, still capable of better permeating the public consciousness, and, still in ownership of the Melbourne Cup.
All the while, standardbreds now have few, if any, opportunities to showcase their toughness and versatility, they generally enjoy shorter careers courtesy of the focus on age-restricted racing, and there’s infinitely less scope for fireworks or other-worldly heroics resulting from the addition of lanes and the partial abolition of stands.
And, would you believe it, our sycophantic compliance to the will of others has only fuelled their willingness to treat us with contempt.
What’s that old saying?
‘If you don’t respect yourself, no one else will either’.
No matter which way you slice it or dice it, harness racing’s road back to the relevance and reverence it so richly deserves – if successful – will be both long and arduous.
But we won’t win this war worrying about things we cannot change, and we won’t emerge victorious by dressing up like we’re something we’re not simply to appease others and fit in at school.
Have your say. Tweet @PacesettersAU and @JasonBonnington on Twitter/X