At last a year a little closer to normal has been experienced around the world to the extent that COVID 19’s impact had been greatly reduced although we lost a long serving monarch and world leader in Queen Elizabeth II and watched in horror the situation that unfolded in Ukraine.
On an overall happier note, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all loyal Harnessbred followers of my weekly articles including those who view them through Facebook, compliments of the festive season. Comments, observations and additional contributions regarding my articles that appear on the Facebook pages, many that add to everyone’s knowledge of harness racing history worldwide are much appreciated.
To the dedicated pockets of readers who place comments on Facebook or simply indicate favourable viewing of articles and especially those that share the articles through Facebook pages with others, I very much appreciate you doing this. Special thanks to you all and especially Bendigo’s Noel Ridge for his supportive comments. It was also heartening to read the comments made concerning the Melbourne ID articles – thanks to all involved.
Throughout this latest year I have endeavoured to continue to incorporate an Australasian element as often as possible (NZ Cup, Annual Stats/Awards, Interdominions, racetracks, Australian mares etc) together with North American content – the series on North American tracks is a major one, state by state, closed and live racing venues. I would encourage you all to read them as what is often unearthed about them is quite fascinating even if it is not possible to cover all relevant aspects of local history in the racetrack series but at least it will provide some content for future reviewers.
Special thanks go to my wife Catharine for her proof reading prowess especially in correcting my grammatical blemishes. Once again to Dean Baring, my appreciation for the opportunity to provide you our readers with a variety of articles covering a range of harness racing history, award functions and more.
In the seven and a half years that I have been contributing regular weekly articles to Harnessbred (over 410 articles), readers have been provided with a range of historical stories from throughout the world together with topical NZ based issues in my column.
Looking ahead to what can you expect next year in 2023 (current planned articles to be written) : continuation of the Racetracks of the World feature series – North America will likely be completed with maybe at look at South America and Asia prior to commencing those of Great Britain and Europe (more likely 2024); further Australian broodmares of note; Wyndham HRC centennial plus regular features such as NZ Awards; Addington Harness Hall of Fame inductees; a NZ Cup article; NZ Broodmares of Year/Excellence Award winners and a series on past Brisbane Pacers Interdominions and anything else that might be appropriate to appear in my regular weekly column.
Following a brief break from writing over the festive season, contributions will recommence with articles early in the New Year.
All the best for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Peter Craig
21 December 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
