Junior Champs

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Junior Champs

NZ Harness Trainers & Drivers Assn
Published by Pete Cook in News · Friday 17 Jul 2020 ·  1:30
It seems an age ago now when the announcement was made that there would be no Junior Drivers Championships this year, due to the pandemic and the likely travel restrictions. At that time, there were dire predictions that we would be lucky to be racing again before August at the earliest.

Thankfully, due to the enforced lockdown, harness racing and the Country are in a much better place a lot sooner than most of us thought would be the case. Of course there are those coming out now, with the advantage of that wonderful tool called hindsight, who are saying we over-reacted and things could have been done differently and better, and while in some aspects that may be true, looking across at what our neighbours across the ditch are currently going through, the short term pain was well worth it. Of course if we hadn’t acted as we did, those same critics would be asking why we didn’t go into complete lockdown. That’s politics!
 
Anyway, one of the positives that have surfaced since racing resumed was the announcement that, thanks to the efforts of some of our leading Juniors and generous sponsors, the Championships are back on, to be staged next week at Addington. For the young people in our Industry, this is the highlight of the year, their equivalent of the Harness Jewels, so it would be great to see owners and trainers get behind the event and enter horses for the relevant races to ensure that all drivers have their chance to shine.
 
Pete Cook



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