Over the past 100 or so years, the World has gone through World wars, depressions, stock market crashes, natural disasters, (remember the Christchurch earthquakes – the fallout from that is far from over), and various serious health crises, that we have all read about and seen documentaries on.

The following is a press release from Harness Racing Victoria issued on 16 April, regarding the effects of suspensions on drivers.

While the World understandably focuses on the welfare of the human race, those involved in anything to do with animals will be acutely aware of the effects the current situation can have on their charges.

Like many people at the moment, it’s a bit tough filling in the day on occasions so, after watching my archives of race winning videos (always good for the spirits), and becoming a bit bored with the tedium of the Australian races, I found myself flicking through a few of the old Trotting Annuals put out by the late Ron Bisman.

For those of us who have been around harness racing for a long while, this current situation might be bringing back some long buried memories.

Having been bombarded with information about what trainers and can and can’t do in the last few days, as part of what can only be described as an excellent effort by the HRNZ staff working from home, I thought it might be nice to have a look at another situation that is evolving in another part of the World and (thankfully) totally divorced from harness racing.

There’s an old saying that a week in politics is a long time. It’s fair to say that the past week has been one of, if not the, longest weeks in the history of this Country. So much has happened since last weekend it is almost impossible to comprehend.

Back in 2004, I travelled overseas to Italy and Egypt while the SARS epidemic was the virus ‘du jour’. The only effect it had on myself and my partner (apart from random tests at airports), was to drive away the crowds and improve the services immensely.

As advised last week, a meeting of all starters nationwide was held recently, and from all reports was both well received, and worthwhile. The meeting was hosted by HRNZ’s Peter Jensen and Darrin Williams, who participated from an industry point of view, especially on what could be done to help starts and improve procedure.

The long awaited meeting of Race Starters from around the Country took place last Monday. At this stage, I have yet to hear any feedback, however the Trainers & Drivers were represented at the get together by Northern Chair Jay Abernethy and Jim Curtin.