Southern Harness Racing has entered a new season of harness racing in Southland and Central Otago with all nine clubs in the region signing a heads of agreement in July that changes the historical operating model.
The new agreement will leave clubs as individual entities and still running their race meetings, but Southern Harness will do the race programmes centrally and set the stake levels for each day.
Newly appointed chairman Kevin McNaught is joined by John Earl (Winton HRC) and Murray Little (Invercargill HRC) on the board.
Jason Broad is general manager, joined by administration manager Julie McEwan-Franks and office manager Nichola Hikawai.
All industry funding for the season will be bulk funded to Southern Harness and a per meeting allocation paid to each club.
With 38 meetings in the province (previously 40), stakes and all starter payments will be increased by about $600,000 for the new season.
This extra money will go directly back to owners, trainers, breeders and drivers.
The new model is seen as both positive and sustainable and will hopefully flow through into increased ownership and breeding of racehorses in the region.
A programme subcommittee will work with HRNZ handicapper Andrew Morris.
If the code’s funding from the Racing Board increases in the future, the amount paid to Southern Harness will also increase.
