By Michael Guerin
The emotion of Ashburton losing the Harness Jewels next season is vastly different from the reality of the decision.
HRNZ voted that the hosting rights for the code’s second biggest day will go to Addington next year after Ashburton has held the South Island-based rights to the meeting since 2007.
Cambridge will hold this season’s meeting, which rotates between the North and South Islands, on June 2 and no decision has been made on the northern host for 2020.
But if Cambridge have a successful meeting this season, and the early indications are very positive, then they will almost certainly retain their hosting rights.
Ashburton losing the Jewels will be an emotional decision for many who believe the $1.275milion meeting sits better at a provincial track rather than at the major city tracks like Addington.
And that emotion is understandable. Jewels days at Ashburton have produced some magical moments on the best mile racing track in the country.
But off the track the day had started to feel stale, with few new innovations in recent seasons to suggest the day was moving forward.
However it has emerged that is not the reason the Jewels will move to Addington next season, rather it is a glaring hole in the Ashburton club.
The area is a strong hold of New Zealand harness racing but the actual club has no full-time administrator at present.
The club’s long-time boss Fiona Stuart stood down last season because of ill health while her assistant Gareth Murfitt has taken a job at Riccarton.
So there is nobody actually working in the office at Ashburton and while next season’s Jewels are 13 months away it would have been foolish, bordering on a dereliction of duty, if HRNZ has voted to retain the Jewels at a club with effectively no employees apart from a track manager.
Ashburton’s proposal indicated they would employ a project manager to oversee the Jewels for four or five months but most major race clubs in New Zealand start their planning and build-up to their major carnival the day after the last one finished.
To put nearly $1.3million of the industry’s money and its second biggest day after New Zealand Cup day in the hands of a club without a paid employee to start planningimmediately would be unprofessional.
HRNZ boss Edward Rennell realises the move will be unpopular is some quarters of the industry although that is nothing new as barely any decision in harness racing these days meets with universal approval.
But he says the door is far from closed on Ashburton hosting Jewels day again.
“The Ashburton club have been through some changes and will obviously go through some more but they have a lot to be proud of over the last decade of holding the Jewels and I hope they come back with a bid for the series in 2021,” said Rennell.
“But we are also lucky as an industry we have Addington coming on board because we know they can run a big event, they don’t come any bigger than New Zealand Cup day.”
The move to Addington will see the first Jewels races run not over the mile distance, with the nine group one races to be staged over 1950m next season as Addington’s mile start point is ridiculous.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
