Joey hands over the presidency reins

Respected country harness racing club administrator Joey Thompson reckons seven or eight years is about the right length of time at the helm of any organisation – but, fair to say, Thompson crams more than most into the years!

Although he’s the first to say his club is far from a one-man show, as president, he’s undoubtedly played a major role in the phenomenal development at Charlton HRC, in north central Victoria.

Thompson is stepping aside, motivated in part by ongoing health challenges that he’s wanting to focus on – but regardless, he says the time is probably right to hand the baton on to energetic marketing officer Andrea O’Gorman.

“I think we are in a pretty good spot and even if I wasn’t crook, I think seven or eight years is around the mark to look at succession. You need fresh energy and new ideas, and I think it’s good timing to have a change,” Thompson said.

“It’s been a helluva busy few years – but the fun is in the challenge, not the profit…if it was all about the profit, we wouldn’t have horses!” he laughed.

Thompson starts his latest round of treatment this week and is also putting a hold on breaking-in youngsters for outside clients, although he will continue training his own team.

“I just wanted to get myself clear of commitments. If you don’t feel well, you can always push through but it’s harder to bounce back and I want to just be able to look after myself for the next little while,” he said.

“I’ll still be on the committee, and I’ll still be around to support the club, but I really just wanted to step back from the obligations of being president.”

In the time Thompson has led the progressive club, it’s completed a long list of developments and redevelopments that have made it one of the best resourced and vibrant in country Victoria.

Charlton Training Centre is a lively training hub, with 50 horses in work from an impressive community-owned and volunteer-run facility.

The club has achieved some of regional Victoria’s best raceday facilities, leading the way in a project for a regional sporting and community hub known as Charlton Park.

And the club achieved a $250,000 redevelopment of its raceday barns at little cost to the harness racing industry by accessing grants and funding streams outside the sport.

“We’re pretty frugal here, we can turn on a dime pretty much, but it does take a lot of work and persistence and good connections in the community, but that’s what we’re all about,” Thompson said.

“In addition to the big developments, we’ve put a shed in the middle of the training track, we’ve bought a couple of new tractors, we’ve got a new horse ambulance, a new mobile, a track conditioner for the training track and another water truck.

“Not all, but a lot of those have been really at minimal cost to the club or the industry.  Our relationships in the local community, and the fact that we’ll do a lot of legwork ourselves and call in our mates and volunteers means we can be pretty frugal.

“Things like a tractor deal through our sponsor, committee members stepping up to do jobs like refit the horse ambulance – it all makes a huge difference to the bottom line and our operations here.”

And for Thompson, the integration of the Charlton HRC with the community, partly through the Charlton Park development with other sporting groups, has been one of the biggest wins for the club, and its pathway forward.

“We can say all we like that the trots was great in the 80s and it was.  But that’s not where we are now.  We need to get people excited about being involved again, and I think some of that starts at the community level.

“We have young trainers and drivers based here now at the training centre. We’ve got  Luke Dunne and Tori Hutchins, Zac Steenhuis and Brittany O’Brien and Michael Gadsden all based here now.  Tori is coaching under 14 netball this coming season, Luke is playing footy for Charlton, and he’s brought another young driver into the team, Ben Xiriha.  Zac and Brittany are really sociable people and have a young family and have fitted right in here and Mick’s established in the local community.”

Thompson said membership of the club had gone from around 200 to 700, with the goal now to reach 1000.

“Being immersed in the community has been a big focus for us – we value the community but now they are valuing us, I think,” Thompson said.

“The little things are the big things. We make a point of going back for a drink after every race meeting, participants, volunteers, the committee – usually everyone just nicks off after a race meeting, but we think it matters that it’s fun and a bit social,” he said.

“It all builds interest and energy and brings new people into the sport. You’ve gotta dream big.  If you don’t achieve it, then just be happy with improvement, but if you don’t try, you’re finished before you start.”

The new Charlton officebearers are: President Andrea O’Gorman; vice president Janice Boyle; Secretary Troy Heenan; Treasurer Hayley Soulsby.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink