The rebuttal – taking a stand for standing starts

If John Curtin is in possession of a bonnet then it would appear he’s got a rather big bee in it over the use and quality of standing starts in New Zealand harness racing.

As outlined in this article (click to view) from last week when Mr Curtin proclaimed “standing starts should be a thing of the past if we want our industry to survive” while adding various examples of botched standing start events and their subsequent stewards reports.

A few thoughts regarding standing starts, at least in New Zealand.

Currently the New Zealand harness racing scene really does have the best of both worlds.

The combination of different surfaces (all-weather grit and grass) along with a number of different race conditions (both stands and mobile events over varying race distances) ensures a truly dynamic, broad and competitive racing environment that caters for the entire New Zealand race horse population.

Any change in that offering runs the risk of having a negative effect for an industry that is already under pressure in terms of breeding and racing numbers.

It’s evident looking through the racing careers of individual horses that without that variety in race conditions many horses would find themselves redundant to requirements – unable to remain competitive. A local NZ example – think of big Victor Tango from a few seasons back, he couldn’t go a yard from the arm but if you put him in behind the tapes he found a little niche for himself and his connections – indeed all of his placings came from standing starts!

Many horses race records show a large performance bias towards standing starts, indeed there’d be hundreds of horses in the New Zealand racing scene that have found better success for the their respective ownership groups from behind the tapes rather than behind the mobile arm.

Do we really want to discriminate against a major percentage of our racing athletes by taking away a method of starting that they produce their best results from?

The same argument could be made in the training ranks. Within the Canterbury region the Gavin Smith, Colin and Julie DeFilippi, Ivan Court and Robert Dunn barns (along with a plethora of smaller one-horse or hobby operations) all spring to mind as stables that carry support when presenting horses from behind the tapes. They are trainers that can get their horses away swiftly and onto the speed from the stands. Of course they find success from the mobile arm too but we shouldn’t underestimate standing starts and the role they play in generating income for a myriad of training establishments.

Educating a horse to stand and start a race effectively should be something that’s encouraged. It remains a valuable skill and is a sign of good horsemanship.

Then you have the practicalities. Currently the NZ trotting ranks simply couldn’t operate effectively with mobile-only events. Handicaps from standing starts are the only effective way of offering a “fair” racing environment with preferential mobile racing invariably becoming imbalanced when getting up in the grades.

You can then add in the fact that a large amount of NZ feature events are, and have always been, standing start affairs. Can you imagine the Dominion Handicap or NZ Trotting Cup starting behind a mobile arm? History is made and honored by maintaining traditions over time, not by changing it on a whim through the influence of contemporary trends or opinions.

From a punting perspective it should be noted that punters that back animals that are known for breaking from the tapes are making a conscious decision to do so and that tote prices often reflect a “margin-of-safety” or increased odds factor when assessing a poorly mannered horses chances under standing start conditions. That being the case If a punter chooses to wager on a standing start halfwit and is disgusted when it displays its usual wayward behaviour then bigger fool the mug who punted it in the first place.

Then there’s the well documented fact that summer and grass track racing (that invariably has a strong standing start component to it) currently attracts strong support from punters with consistently high turnover figures – high turnover figures the New Zealand harness scene desperately needs more of!

If, as Mr Curtin has eluded to, standing starts are limiting Australian TV exposure of New Zealand based harness racing (along with any opportunities further afield) then authorities should explore an outlet (and I do believe this has been explored before) for a product that does so without threatening the status quo. In my opinion Ashburton Raceway mile racing (you could include Cambridge here too) is underutilised and a mid-morning NZ time start for racing cards that capture the early morning Australian betting market could have the potential to produce desired results.

A couple of final thoughts. The quality of standing stands should be improved, on that I agree – steps should be taken to produce better standing starts . I’d like to see a standardized method of starting used nationwide, a type of ”crouch , bind, engage ” format that’s used in rugby for the initiation of a scrum. Maybe a “into lines, walk forward, stand, go” command structure approved by drivers should be implemented? Along with this the mandatory “one clean trial” rule for all animals that gallop immediately after the tapes fly needs to be enforced in full. At the moment the stewards tend to be too lenient which only leads to repeat offenders being given too many chances to prove themselves under race conditions.

Overall the case for supporting standing starts remains strong – there really should be no argument for the abolishment of them at all. Simply put standing starts are far too important to the New Zealand racing scene to even think of getting rid of them!

And if you need further convincing that standing starts can deliver all the entertainment and drama you’d ever want on a race track watch the race below. It’s race 10 from Addington Raceway on the 12th of November 2013. On that occasion a champion threw his toys when the tapes went back, stuttered around like a drunk before finally settling down, caught up with the pack, circumnavigated the field to obtain the lead with a lap to go, and then, to the amazement of all in attendance, defied both his race rivals and logic to capture a third New Zealand Cup title. The horses name was Terror To Love and he gave us that magic moment from a glorious standing start.

Ben McMillan