The time to adopt driver colours is now

Amongst the euphoria of the massively successful Ultimate Driver Championship, there was a clear message to the harness racing industry.

While our horses are the key to the sport, our drivers are our most marketable commodity.

And, as such, building their brands and profiles must become more of a priority.

Look at the aura around Swedish great Bjorn Goop, US Hall of Famer Yannick Gingras and the Kiwi-born but now US-based Dexter Dunn during their time in Brisbane for the inaugural championships at Albion Park.

In Sweden, where harness racing is the nation’s third biggest sport, Goop is on billboards and enjoys rock star status.

Simply, however big our champion jockey James McDonald is in Australia, multiply it by 10 and then you’ll get some idea of Goop’s profile in Abba’s homeland.

It’s different in the US, but in “their” world, Gingras and Dunn are megastars, too.

They are more important to the sport than any champion horse because their brands are enduring, they’re not whisked off to stud after a couple of great years on the track.

They are easily recognisable, even to the casual follower; Gingras (aka the Green Hornet) in his largely green driving suit, and Dunn (aka Double Dee) in his red, black and white get-up.

Tune into any big US or Swedish race from anywhere in the world and you can’t miss them. They’re always in their designer gear.

It’s a quirk of harness racing Down Under, our drivers often wear three, four or five different outfits during a race meeting.

It’s an own goal, such a missed opportunity.

Yes, I can hear some of you … “what about us trainers?” or “how about us owners?”

In no way am I saying the drivers are more important than owners or trainers. That’s not the point here.

But the drivers are the most visible and by far the most marketable asset the sport has.

Harness racing, despite contributing about 10 per of Australian racing turnover, accounts for about 40 per cent of the airtime on Sky Racing because of the length of our races, the score-ups and the all-too-often messy and delayed standing starts.

All that aside, harness racing still gets massive airtime and it must take advantage of that.

Bring in driver colors now. Don’t do it in states, make it a national thing.

Give us the chance to build brands, build heroes and get back to the day when I first started following the sport when people like Vinny Knight, Gavin Lang, Brian Hancock, Brian Gath, Teddy Demmler and others were household names.

In Sweden, people go to the races wearing Bjorn Goop merchandise, or that of other top drivers.

That shouldn’t be a surprise. How is it any different to kids wearing Lionel Messi tops, LeBron James singlets or Patrick Dangerfield footy jumpers.

Yes, drivers might have their own stable colours, but look at someone like James Herbertson. He’s the leading driver in the land and you’ve got to scramble to a website to find what gear he’s wearing from race to race.

I know it’s an emotive one, but I implore owners and trainers to explore other ways to promote their brand and involvement.

Look outside of self-interest and at the bigger picture. Help the sport promote itself.

I’ve marveled for years how they do it in the biggest harness racing places of the world, but we don’t.

It was so cool not to have to scramble for my race book to see what colours the drivers were wearing from race to race in the Ultimate Driver Championship.

Let’s embrace it and start to build the brand of our most visible stars outside our own bubble.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria