Handover of Presidency Ceremony
Mauri SaloHonoured Conference Delegates and Guests
Ladies and GentlemenAs the president of the International Trotting Association I have the honour and pleasure to welcome you to the biennial World Trotting Conference, which is now commencing.
The last conference took place in Finland for two years ago. The Finnish summer was at its most beautiful, and I hope our guests enjoyed their stay there and took good memories of Finland with them to home.
In Finland the conference had such themes as the ethical questions of harness racing and youth in harness racing, among others. We must continue discussing about the ethics of harness racing. Soft values and the nobleness of the horse are aspects that people find positive. The treatment of horses must be correct. Driving manners, especially using of the whip during the race are matters that make people talk – using of the whip is not accepted among the audience. Anti-doping activities are also becoming increasingly important in view of social acceptability, competitor equality and credibility of betting.
Another important theme for two years ago was youth in harness racing. For the future it is essential that we are able to attract young people to the sport, as breeders, owners, trainers, competitors, spectators – without them there is no continuity.
Competition of audience and getting new people into the industry is becoming harder and harder, therefore the national controlling bodies of harness racing are facing a great task to make harness racing more and more interesting. Why do streets become empty, when the Formula 1 broadcast in television begins? We have a lot to learn here. Harness racing is a product, which has to be developed further, and which has to become more attractive. How this is done, I do not know, but hopefully we can take a step forward in this matter during the conference.
More or less all member countries have to deal with insufficient income formation of horse industry. Popularity of horse betting varies a lot between the different continents and countries even between neighbour countries. Horse betting by exclusive right has been a national resource, but times are changing also in this respect. In the modern information society, access to and transfer of information is simple and fast. In the betting market, a parallel market has developed, and it efficiently imbibes betting income beyond the reach of harness racing industry. The development of information technology has been more rapid than the development of legislation, and therefore we are now far behind, when it comes to copyright. Competition in the betting market is acceptable, but the use of start lists for horse betting without appropriate compensation to the organiser of the race is unacceptable. Preparing international legislation to safeguard copyright is anything but easy, but we must keep on fighting. In this respect, it is delightful to know that the Board of the U.E.T. has started preparations in order to create an agreement of copyright.
This conference, now commencing, has its own agenda, full of challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to express my thanks to Canada for taking over the responsibility of hosting the conference. I also wish the new president the best of luck and success in taking care of his duties. May this conference make far-reaching alignments and decisions for the good of horse industry and harness racing.
I formally pass the presidency to Dean Leifso.
Welcoming Address
Dean LeifsoKudos Mauri. I appreciate those kind words. Conference delegates, ladies and gentlemen, bienvenue and welcome to Canada to the 18th Conference of the International Trotting Association.
This is the 3rd time that the Conference has been held in Canada. We hope that you will find our program informative, stimulating and entertaining, and most of all I hope we live up to the high standards set by Finland and prior to Finland, Australia. We’ve lived some of the stories, and actually have heard excellent stories about them as well.
In 1967, Marshall McLuhan, a then relatively unknown Canadian, wrote that the new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village. I doubt if Mr. McLuhan was speaking about or had heard about harness racing when he wrote those words, but all of us here today know that our racing community is in fact a global village. Simulcasting is not limited to a single country or continent but is truly international. In Canada, we can bet on races in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, France, any country in the globe and vice versa. This was driven home to me about 2 or 3 months ago when I had a horse racing in Mohawk and I went on the internet to watch the race and to my disgust what I found was Australian racing, I shouldn’t say it was to my disgust because Australian racing was great but I was trying to watch Mohawk and this was the Mohawk site. What was worse of course was it was Australian thoroughbred racing. I sent a couple emails to Woodbine and apparently Mohawk was shrouded in fog. And I guess the next best alternative was Australian thoroughbred racing. But again it just illustrates the fact that no matter where you are, no matter what country you’re in, or what small little community you’re in, you can pick up racing from around the world. And with the telephone account betting, Internet betting, we are all very much interdependent upon each other. Even with that we have barely stretched the potential both good and bad of the Internet.
This association, our association, has a vital role to play an encouraging, facilitating and ensuring the accuracy of the exchange of breeding data, race records, and wagering information. It is our responsibility and duty to aggressively assert and protect the copyright of our horsemen and our racetracks and our product. I only can echo Mauri’s words that we must be proactive in enforcing our rights. It’s a difficult situation when it is International. The people that are pirating our broadcast are in many cases, shelf corporations. We are dealing with countries that have no racing and in some cases no respect for law. But nevertheless, if we wish to preserve the integrity of our product and maintain our income and our support, we must do something. It is not nearly enough to sit around and talk about it because if we do that, we will be doing nothing but putting on our shoulders, what other people benefit from.
We are fortunate this week to have with us a wide range of guest speakers whom I think you will find knowledgeable and informative. As always, the key to any successful presentation is participation with you, the delegates. Questions, alternate points of view, discussion, are all welcome and encouraged.
As most of you know, the World Driving Championship is being held at the same time as this Conference, and we all had an opportunity to meet with the drivers last night and I expect we will be able to meet with them again. I was impressed last night with the relative youth of most of the drivers. I think it is a very encouraging sign for our industry when we have gentlemen that are that well-spoken representing us. Three legs have been completed. We will be attending the 4th leg at fabulous Flamboro Downs this afternoon and the final tomorrow night at Woodbine. This will allow you not only to see our racetracks but also to cheer on our fellow countrymen. In addition to visiting the above tracks, we will also be attending the newest track in Canada for about 4 months, because there is also another new one coming up, Georgian Downs, as well as several local breeding farms. Our social agenda includes a tour of Toronto, a tour of a local winery, as well as time to relax at Deerhurst Inn in the Muskokas. We have tried to ensure that there is sufficient free time for each of you to do that, which appeals to you, the most, or that you want to see in the Toronto area. The Rolling Stones concert is not in the agenda, but I understand there is about 200,000 tickets available if anyone wants to go there on the 30th of July. If there is something you would like to see or that isn’t on the agenda or would like to do, please contact Ted and myself, either the two Cathy’s, and we will try and see if we can arrange it. If you are looking for directions, I do recommend that you not ask me. Whenever I come to Toronto, my family wants to put a big sign on my back saying “If found please return to.” And I’m still trying to find my way around the hotel actually. The concierge outside is also very friendly, very helpful, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact them. Once again welcome to Canada and I look forward to meeting and talking with all of you.
Conference History
