Congratulations to this year’s Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame class. The contributions to the standardbred industry of Dr. Ted Clarke, Bill Galvin, the late Robert Murphy, and Wally Hennessey, as well as the outstanding equine careers of Albatross, Rocknroll Hanover, and Dreamfair Eternal, detailed elsewhere in this issue of TROT, have truly earned these inductees their place of honor.
Canadian Tire ran, what I thought was, a great commercial during the Winter Olympics this year. Essentially the message was that there is no such thing as an unassisted goal, and that the success of an Olympic hockey player like Jonathan Toews was due to the many people who impacted upon his career along the way. It recognized the important contribution of the parents who drive their kids to that early morning practice, and the many volunteers who resurface the ice, staff the canteens, and coach the teams.
There are no unassisted goals in our industry either. Ask any one of the Hall of Fame inductees and they will no doubt tell you their success is due to a lifetime of family commitment, and a lot of “assists” along the way. It does, and will take the efforts of everyone to succeed.
For our overall industry to prosper we must focus on building the partnerships with Government that are essential to sustain the industry into the future. In many provinces elections are either currently underway or will be so within the next year. You can best assist your industry by being informed and speaking up on why building or enhancing a relationship between Government and harness racing is so important. What our industry cannot survive is Government disregard for our business, and our disunity as an industry.
For each and every one of us, we can assist by getting to know the candidates running in our districts in the upcoming Provincial elections, and if you feel comfortable doing so, volunteer on campaigns. And when that knock on your door comes, tell your candidate that harness racing is important to you, and explain why it should be important to that candidate and their party.
Our message to any Government on why they should partner with us is a positive one to tell. We have an industry with a century old tradition, which brings together rural and urban Canadians, and that has a significant impact upon our local communities. The breeding, raising, and racing of horses provides jobs from feed mills to automobile dealerships, from accounting firms to City Hall.
In many areas the special events held at our race tracks are the biggest public attractions staged each year. The estimated crowd of 20,000 people who gather annually at Red Shores for the Gold Cup and Saucer Final in a province of 140,000 is testament to the public appeal of harness racing.
Please get informed and get involved. At this critical time in our industry, we need all the positive voices we can have, speaking on our behalf.
You may think that your voice does not have influence, but always remember, on election day, all “X’s are equal.