
Originally Posted by
gutwagon
Dot ,for the long term survival of our sport I think we need young people to get involved and stay involved all their lives. I'm not just looking at short term turnover boosts, I'm looking at getting new owners , trainers, breeders and drivers. Of course I would welcome people of any age. The campaign in my opinion seems concentrated on getting people to bet, not get involved. Most of the people that I know in the industry got involved as children, usually through family or friends involvement. I think our horses are our biggest attraction and asset , betting is just a bye product that provides the money to keep it going. I think we should be pushing the sport to young people. They should be pushing the pony trots in schools and trying to show children how good working with horses can be. I'm not suggesting encouraging kids to gambol, I'm suggesting getting them acquainted with horses and horsemanship .
About 20 years ago administration turned their focus almost solely to turnover, they didn't care if nobody turned up at the track to watch the races. The result was increased turnover but decreased attendances. The latter resulted in very few new people getting involved with owning, breeding, training etc.