Winning Post - Letter Of The Week Archive

The general consensus among punters arising from Mike Baird’s decision to ban greyhound racing in NSW seems to be, “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
The theory is that animal-rights types will never be satisfied. Having scored a victory with the yappers, they will renew their campaign against jumps racing. If the politicians blink there, they’ll go after all horse racing.
What’s the point, they say, in making adjustments to your sport to appease those who will never support it or even condone it?
Moves such as padded whips and restrictions on whip use are therefore seen as pointless.
I don’t agree with this approach.
Racing can’t endure if it exists in a bubble, only appealing to those who already love and understand it.
Constant infusions of new blood are required — you can’t keep going back to your base.
It’s a bit like the US presidential race. Donald Trump won the Republican nomination by appealing to that party’s ultra-conservative “base”, but is highly unlikely to win the general election because the base is not enough.
It’s true that you’ll never get hardcore animal activists on board as racing fans or punters.
But there is a much wider constituency of Australians who regard themselves as animal lovers. They won’t be found picketing race meetings or breaking into laboratories, but they hate to hear about animals being mistreated.
Racing needs to win the hearts and minds of these Australians by getting on the front foot when it comes to animal welfare.
Yes, many of these people are hypocrites. They will happily feed canned horse meat to their dogs, but don’t want to be confronted by the sight of a horse dying from an injury sustained in an activity as natural as jumping.
However, hypocrites or not, racing needs these people.
It might be a cliché but it’s all about perception.
That is why the efforts of racing authorities to regulate these aspects of the industry are more than just mindless control-freakery and political correctness gone mad.
The goal must be to improve the perception and the reality.
If you’re in any doubt as to the consequences of inaction and complacency, ask a NSW greyhound trainer.