Austrotforum

"TROT TACTICS"..14/01/2012..

Coming off the back of her third successive "Club Driver Of The Year" title at the mini-trots,and representing Queensland at the 2011 Inter-Dominion Carnival in Auckland,Lauren Jones is in transition mode,on her way to what she hopes will be a successful association with the standardbreds of now and the future.Based at Lockyer Waters,LJ posted scores of 19 and 24 wins in two season and,for the most part,was hauled to victory by "Pony Of The Year",Twebby Twotter.Given that the minis get about two races per week,the strike rate is pretty impressive.However,once a mini driver takes out a trials licence,that is the end of the pony days.Jones Junior has had four trials drives,the first on December 29th.Father Peter is supplying the motive power from his revamped team of pacers,and Lauren who sported the purple with pink star when teamed with Twebby Twotter,will appear in purple with pink sleeves and white stars in full size mode.Happily,she has that all important family support to help her up the ladder of success.Next week we should have a look at a joint initiative between HRNSW and their mini group which is designed to stem the loss of the kids whose families cannot help them bridge the gap between small and large in the harness horse world.

When one takes one or a number of extracts from a document to illustrate a line of thought,or support an opinion of that document,there is always a risk that those extracts will be labelled as "out of context"in any action by the authors to defend the document.These two extracts are taken from a letter by Bob Bentley (RQL) in reply to Bob Lutherborrow (Queensland standardbred Breeders Association) who requested that RQL take into consideration the viability of a number of high profile sporting enterprises which actually make no money at all from their core business.Bob Lutherborrow argues that harness racing's poor financial situation should be addressed from "outside the square"..

Bob Bentley replied (in part),"with wagering revenues under significant pressure,and in decline,it would be a reckless control body that did not take into account pressure on its revenues when determining future budgets..Harness racing itself has been heavily subsidised over the past decade by the thoroughbred and greyhound codes.It has largely ridden on the coat tails of these codes,and it is far from folly to argue that the development of the greyhound code has primarily borne the cost of this cross code subsidy.Each code must remain relevant,and,in doing so,each code must have market appeal."

"Many are of the view that harness racing has had its time,and,had it not been for cross code subsidy in the last decade,it would have failed before now.RQL is not about to allow harness racing to fail,however,it has a keen interest in future allocations to each of the codes in Queensland in accordance with the performance of each of these codes,One code should not necessarily bear the brunt of another code's poor performance."

"Out of context".I don't think so.Harness in Queensland is about one minute from midnight on the Doomsday Clock.

Resultsville..Gold Coast 06/01..nil...Albion Park 07/01..nil...Marburg 07/01..Bullimore (Lola Weidemann for Steve Benham)..Lucky Bunny (Lola Weidemann for Ricky Gordon)..Biancas Luck (Ray Cross)...Albion Park 10/01..Cold Ideal (R.Gorman for John McMullen)..Cold Shoulder (R.Gorman for John McMullen)..El Charro (Brad Cowen for Shane Sanderson)...Redcliffe 11/01..Greenmans Valley (Gary Whitaker for Shane sanderson)..Lady Lager (Brad Cowen for Shane Sanderson)..The Twin Rivers (Chantal for Tony Turpin)..Party In Paris (Narissa McMullen for Ron Sallis)...Gold Coast 12/01..Lila Von Beltz (Adam Richardson for Darrel Graham)..Pemberton (Chris Petroff for Lynn Braeton)..Longwoods (Natasha Day for Mark Rees)...