Deafening silence from leaders at world trotting ‘holiday’

Does any harness racing follower know that there was a World Trotting Conference being held last week?

No information is available on any official website in New Zealand, Australia or the United States.

Canada was the only official jurisdiction reporting on this Conference.

Held every two years The World Trotting Conference is a place to try to keep the World Of Harness Racing in the public eye around the world but to the majority of stakeholders, it is a silent Conference with no planning or organising that is seen anywhere.

I have heard that New Zealand has two representatives there in Germany where it is held this year, and the cost to Harness Racing New Zealand is exorbitant. Especially when I’m led to believe the travelling party is being treated to first class air travel.

My trip to the 2005 World Trotting Conference in Rome 2005.

I was in Toronto in 2005 at the Standardbred Canada Office meeting with the CEO Mr Ted Smith who told me that they are going to the World Trotting Conference in Rome, Italy, the coming weekend with 17 Standardbred Canada members and friends, for not only the World Trotting Conference but also the World Driving Championships.

Jody Jamieson was the Canadian Driver who was representing Canada.

Ted told me I should go with them. I was standing there in deep thought wondering if I could possibly go. In the back of my mind I thought what a great opportunity for me.

For one, I am a Roman Catholic, so I thought what a great chance to see the Pope and the Vatican! Is it possible for me to go? I immediately rang my wife to ask if she thought I should go to Italy with a large group of supporters. She encouraged me and the rest was history,  I went.

A couple of days to get organised and I was on my way.

What an unbelievable trip I had. It was a full eight days with a group of outstanding harness racing Canadians and others. We arrived in Italy on a Saturday night with a free day on Sunday.

We all stayed in a sensational Hotel that held the World Trotting Conference on a hilltop overlooking The Vatican.

I remember late Sunday morning rushing down in a Taxi to try to get to see The Pope who I was told comes out daily at 12 pm for the Angelus. I got there a few minutes late, missed the Pope but heard the huge crowd in St Peters Square calling out to him. I then went to a Mass in St Peters as there were Masses on the hour at St Peters in those days.

Onto Monday the first day of the World Trotting Conference. Ted Smith, the CEO of Standardbred Canada and his deputy Mr Pierre Guillemette registered me as an observer participant in the Conference as he thought I could add some value in one of the many committees that are held in the first few days of the Conference.

Well here was my first shock!

The two New Zealand delegates made an objection to John Curtin from New Zealand becoming a participant in the Conference. Fortunately, Ted Smith, the CEO from Canada advised the Conference organizers that John Curtin would be a great participant because of my background both as an international bloodstock agent, and also being the principal of a then burgeoning Harnesslink.com. Ted felt I could add a lot of value to any of the appropriated working committees held in the coming week.

The HRNZ delegates must have disagreed, because they did not approach me once throughout the conference. I tried to make contact with them but it was quite clear they didn’t want to talk to me. I could not believe the way they carried on. I mean I was a New Zealander like them but because I was invited by the Canadians to be there, they seemed to take umbrage at that fact. I was so embarrassed with the way they acted and how they were perceived throughout the week by many delegates from other jurisdictions.

To be fair, the ‘Kiwi spirit’ got off to a bit of a rocky start for which needs some explaining.

Prior to the Conference starting on Monday a group of Maltese delegates campaigned with much vigor with all delegates, trying to convince them that they should hold the next World Conference in Malta. Malta was prepared to pay all expenses for two delegates from each participating Country if they could hold the next World Trotting Conference. At the time, I was unaware that New Zealand was in line for its turn to hold the next World Trotting Conference!

I told them that it was a sensational offer that few could deny. I told them that I am sure New Zealand would agree as it would be a big saving for all concerned. And it would be so helpful for Malta who were trying to encourage harness racing in their country.

Once the Conference officially got underway, the first discussion held was who was to host the next World Trotting Conference.

Mr Rob Pollock, a tremendous ambassador and delegate from Australia, brought up the subject that New Zealand was the next Country in line for holding the next Conference. He asked if there was any change or objection to this.

Mr. Pierre Guillemette got up and suggested that the Conference should consider the Maltese request to host, and John Curtin from New Zealand said his country would have no objections to the Maltese proposal!

Well that really caused confusion as I was not a voting delegate and the NZ delegates jumped up to dismiss John Curtin as having any say in the matter.

To me I was largely embarrassed but at the end of the day, how could any country dismiss the Maltese offer to cover all expenses for each country and its delegates. Nothing more was said, and New Zealand was given the next Conference in 2007.

To me it was a disgraceful decision by the New Zealand delegates. Why they could not wait until the cycle to host was beyond me. When the costs of these Conferences are taken into account why would any country deny the Maltese offer? Anyway, without further objection or submissions, New Zealand was voted to hold the next World Trotting Conference.

The experience of being an observer was an interesting one, and why the current situation causes me so much angst. From what I witnessed in the public meetings and seminars over the course of the week, the New Zealand delegates never once throughout the week spoke publicly to any of the discussions on anything. Why they were there was beyond me.

The Australian delegate John Bagshaw did a big job on showing the Conference the danger of “Betting Exchanges”

I was in attendance at the select Breeding Committee that the Australian delegate Rod Polock was in charge off.

I took the opportunity to promote a universal pedigree dollar throughout the world of harness racing. I wanted to stop the ridiculous exchange rates between the different countries as the USA and New Zealand played that game with converting dollars when a horse travels to another country. The USA and New Zealand still do today. I suggested with technology it is easy to keep the dollars universal when a pedigree is written. Why complicate this when exporting a horse to another country?

Surely the amount a horse has won should be the same wherever it travels to.

Today a horse can race in four different countries and have four different amounts of earnings depending on who is showing the pedigree.

The USA and New Zealand are the only countries that do that sort of thing.

New Zealand changed the rules in 2001 when Jim Wakefield was in charge of Harness Racing New Zealand because he was bringing a mare back (Sparks A Flyin) from the USA and wanted the mare to show more dollars earned with the exchange rates in favour at that time.

This whole exchange rate situation with pedigrees is a joke, but that is a story for another day.

My belief that the Maltese proposal should have been accepted was vindicated when the World Trotting Conference and its delegates arrived on our own shores. It was a complete waste of money with no tangible gains or benefits whatsoever.

The Canadians that were delegates for the New Zealand Conference (held in Christchurch) spent the first two days at the Conference, before packing their bags and leaving as they thought it was a complete waste of time, period.

I personally looked after them in the North Island for the remaining three days of the Conference.

The point I am trying to make is that we as an industry cannot afford to be wasting industry money or resources for what amounts to little more than an all-expenses paid holiday for a couple of board members every couple of years.

The hierarchy talks about consulting the stakeholders it purports to represent, however what examples are there of any such thing being done prior to departing under a cloak of silence?

In the current economic climate, every dollar spent needs to be properly accounted for and travelling half away around the world to exchange pleasantries bi-annually is not cutting the mustard.

If it weren’t for the language barrier with the global representatives, you would like to think the jurisdictions could do better than wait two years to re-hash the same industry problems in person. The same problems we face today are the same problems we faced when I attended back in 2005, only worse. We should be engaging each other more reguarly, and at a very minimum have a list of actionable items from topics discussed that are progressed beyond the meeting rooms.

How many of the proposed ideas from 2019 have been actioned or initiated?

Is that the best we can do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent getting into a room with one another?

Perhaps this letter will see a public address from the New Zealand representatives, in which case is better late than never. But we as an industry are doomed for failure if we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, and to the best of my knowledge, very little has changed in the 18 years since I was in Rome.

by John Curtin, for Harnesslink