Harness racing in Otago is under a cloud, with rumors circulating around the possibility Forbury Park may have lost all or a number of racing meetings when a new draft racing calendar is released within the next week.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already seen Forbury lose it's winter meetings and leaks from RITA suggest it is about to lose most of the racing dates that were pencilled in for the new season.
Several industry participants Harnesslink spoke to all said that nothing was set in concrete on the dates yet and the leaked information was just a draft of a draft. There was still a chance Forbury would retain meetings, with talks being held today to finalise details.
Drastic cost cutting by RITA to slash 30% of it's workforce, has already seen most of the TAB trackside team decimated with no on course presenters to be at race meetings in the near future. Craig Thompson (The Whale) and Michael Guerin, well known drivers of turnover for harness racing have been let go with a number of commentators now also out of a job.
Harnesslink Media