Following an announcement last month to form a body to act as the single operator of racing in the province, progress is rapidly being made toward the founding of Harness Racing New Brunswick.
On September 12, 2008, New Brunswick harness racing industry stakeholders decided to move forward with the concept of forming a single non-profit corporation that would lease racetracks from the current owners, and then act as the single operator of racing in the province. A working group consisting of Ross Galbraith, Glen McEwen, John Breau, Ian Donald, Jamie Hachey, Albert Goodine and Robert Roach was formed to tackle the initial work required to create the new organization, to be known as Harness Racing NB.
Standardbred Canada director Ross Galbraith reports that things are proceeding at a fast pace. "The working committee has met twice, and we've had very productive meetings. One of the first things we did was hire the facilitator from the September 12 meeting to help us develop the Governance Structure for HRNB, and to work with us as we build an action plan. He has a successful track record on this with other organizations and we want to keep up our momentum. In addition, Jeff Malloy from the Department of Agriculture is working full time on the project until we get it off the ground."
Galbraith is very pleased with the progress so far. "We've spent a lot of time working on the best structure to help HRNB be successful as we move forward. We've formed a committee to seek out the best individuals possible, with the right mix of skills, for the initial board. In addition to knowledge of the horse racing industry, we're going to be looking for people with strong backgrounds in things like marketing, customer service, revenue generation, management and property development."
"There is a lot of work to do, but we're moving very aggressively on this. Right now, we are planning to have the founding meeting of Harness Racing New Brunswick in early December. There's a lot of work to be done before then, and the new Board and staff will have a lot to do afterwards, but we will be ready.
"The key thing is we are going to have a strong program of racing in New Brunswick in 2009. Obviously we are in a transition period, but on behalf of HRNB, the current owners have applied to the Maritime Provinces Harness Racing Commission for the same number of race dates as this year. The Chairman of our working group, Glen McEwen, will be attending this weekend's stake date meeting along with Jeff Malloy. In 2009 we are going to host a full slate of Atlantic Sires Stakes as well as other stakes like the Maritimer, Williamson and Quigg. The racing industry in New Brunswick has a very bright future."