Standing starts will be off the menu for pacers in Victoria harness racing from September, but the traditional starting method will still be a part of the New Zealand harness racing scene for the foreseeable future.
The bold announcement from Harness Racing Victoria yesterday means the end of the standing starts which dominated the Australian scene until the first regular mobile starts in New South Wales in the 1960s.
The writing had been on the wall for standing starts in Victoria, having decreased in number from 190 races in 2010-11 to just 86 in 2014-15.
Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) chief executive John Anderson said the HRV board had been reviewing standing starts for ‘‘some time'' from both a wagering and image perspective.
"On both counts the board has viewed standing-start races as harmful to the viability of the industry,'' Anderson said in a statement.
"It is imperative that HRV acts in the best interests of the industry and at times that means decisions such as this have to be made for that purpose.''
Harness Racing New Zealand racing manager Darrin Williams was
yesterday surprised to hear of HRV's decision, describing it as "brave'', but said there was still a demand for standing starts in New Zealand - both from trainers and punters.
"That's fairly bold if that's what they're doing,'' Williams said.
Harness Racing New Zealand had examined turnover between standing starts and mobile starts and found no major discrepancies between the two forms of starting a race.
"Sure, there's nothing worse than having a bet then your money's done cold straight away, but if you look at the lead-trail scenario people go on about in mobile racing, you can be three-back on the fence and get no run anyway. Variety is the best thing for us at the moment, I would have thought.''
Williams said there were always ways to improve standing starts, with the Racing Integrity Unit set to meet race starters from around the country shortly, but nominations for standing-start pace and trot events were still strong.
Handicap paces are still a useful tool for handicapping a race, especially with the tightest-assessed classes being thin on numbers.
"There's always discussion over standing starts - there probably always has been,'' he said.
"As time has gone on, we've probably got a few more mobiles than we used to before . . . but there is still demand for standing starts. There are trainers who still train their horses to go away [from a standing start] and they nominate for them. People say to us why don't you get rid of standing starts and we say there's still demand for them.''
Harness Racing Victoria figures from July to December last year showed a drop of 27% in wagering between mobile and standing starts.
Williams said New Zealand figures for harness racing against the other two codes - thoroughbred and greyhounds - were holding steady.
"We're maintaining about a 29% market share against other codes in New Zealand,'' he said.
"In Australia there are places where it's less than 15%, and we know what that would do to everyone's income and stake money if we got to that level.
"We have some very large bettors betting into our market at the moment and I guess they'll tell us whether they want to bet on those sort of things.''
Williams pointed out the biggest turnover race in New Zealand was the New Zealand Trotting Cup - a standing-start pacing race.
