Table talk the first step to progress

[Chief Stipe]

A week ago the racing industry was reacting to the news that the Waikato Racing Club was pulling back from a possible Greenfield project to modernise the regional racing landscape.

Various reactions were expressed, the majority of them disappointment that a way forward also involving the Cambridge and Waipa clubs could not be found. A week later that has all changed, the result of sensible minds getting around the table to talk things through and come to a resolution.

In this case it takes the form of a Heads of Agreement signed between the three parties, clearing the way for a feasibility study and ongoing negotiations with the aim of enhancing racing in the region and in the ultimate outcome, the national landscape.

Tomorrow morning (Friday) racing clubs, stakeholders and interested parties in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty region have been invited to a New Zealand Thoroughbred  Racing-convened venue strategy meeting at the Matamata racecourse.

In the first instance the hope is that all clubs and kindred bodies will be represented in what is another opportunity to engage as the racing industry attempts a restructuring intended to secure its future.

Other similar meetings around the country have already taken place or are scheduled in the near future, all with the same theme.

Whether these meetings of minds are a cross roads, a T-intersection or an S-bend that’s difficult to negotiate, only time will tell. Excuse the metaphors, but what it can’t be is a dead-end road, one with no outcome, because there is no turning back.

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