Racing syndicates key to success

By TOM CLARKE

Making it easier for people to become owners of harness race horses is one of the objectives of Greg O'Connor, who is joining Harness Racing New Zealand as marketing and ownership promotions manager.

Mr O'Connor is promotions manager for the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington in Christchurch.

"We need to have a younger base of owners to ensure the success of harness racing in the future," he says.

"Ownership through a syndicate-type format, where it doesn't actually cost a lot to be involved but which does provide for active involvement, is one of the keys to the future of the game.

"If you get 20 people together and put up $500 each and $50 a month for training, it's not a big burden, whereas if there's four of you and it costs you $2500 each to purchase and then you're paying $250 a month each in training fees, you'd think a lot harder about it."

Mr O'Connor says there are not many people in the younger age bracket - 25 to 35 - who are able to do that.

One successful Auckland-based system, the Trot Power Syndicate, offered 50 shares at $1500 each, from which three horses were purchased at the Australasian Classic Yearling Sale at Karaka last year.

The syndicate had two of the top two-year-olds last season and one of them won more than $200,000.

Mr O'Connor hopes to use the Trot Power Syndicate concept in other parts of the country to increase participation in the industry.

Although he says horse racing generally is struggling in the face of other gambling activities, and particularly the casinos, he is confident about the future.

"Harness racing is holding its own pretty well," he says.

"The decline in involvement has got to a point where it has planed off and it's now at a level where it's maintaining its position in the market place.

"We've got a great sport that probably doesn't receive the exposure that it should and with the contacts I've gained in six years at Addington, and with the ideas I have, I think I can increase the level of awareness and help the clubs.

"But, at the end of the day, it still comes down to individual clubs doing whatever is necessary to attract more people to the races."

Horse racing in New Zealand employs more than 30,000 people full-time, ranging from club administrators to stablehands, he says.

Mr O'Connor, who takes up his new position next month, has been promotions manager for the Christchurch club for the last two years. He previously spent four years in a similar position with the three clubs that merged to form the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club.

He has also worked as assistant golf pro at the Templeton Golf Club in Christchurch and spent a year running his own courier van business.