Leading Hawke’s Bay trainer John Bary believes the COVID-19 outbreak which has forced the suspension of racing across the country for three months provides the ideal opportunity to realign the industry.
Training resumed across New Zealand on Tuesday as the country exited level 4 lockdown protocols due to the pandemic, after racing was suspended by the New Zealand Government in late March.
A worldly individual who hasn’t been a lifer in thoroughbred racing, Bary spent more than a decade as a professional international polo player followed by a stint in farming before turning his attention to training during the 2008-09 season.
His training highlights include preparing five-time Group One winner Jimmy Choux in addition to elite level winners Miss Wilson, Recite and Survived.
Bary believes now is the perfect time to hit the reset button and push through a series of reforms outlined by Australian racing heavyweight John Messara in August 2018.
Messara endorsed the closure and sale of several racetracks and suggested the commercial activities of the New Zealand TAB be outsourced to greater overseas operators.
“The more I’ve sat back and seen things unfold … what’s best for racing is something like the Messara Report being passed,” Bary said.
“The biggest thing is potentially outsourcing the New Zealand TAB. The TAB was set up to give money to the stakeholders and that just hasn’t happened over the last 10 years really.
“The wage bill there has gone up and the returns to the participants hasn’t.
“We’ve had a tough time with our businesses due to the COVID-19 lockdown so we might as well get really serious, have a real good clean out and see if we can get back on the right track.”
Bary also backs colleague Tony Pike, who as president of the New Zealand Trainers’ Association, wrote to New Zealand’s Racing Industry Transition Agency last week demanding transparency from the organisation.
A portion of Pike’s lengthy letter read: “Significant financial and personal decisions will be made by our members over the coming weeks and months. I think it is only fair that we have the relevant information to base these decisions on. We need to be assured that RITA is in a position to support our participants.”
Despite waiting for clarity on prizemoney, Bary was pleased to be back at work this week.
“We pulled 22 horses back into work on Tuesday,” he said. “Those are the horses that, all going well, will be running during July and early August while the others are 12 two-year-olds and we’re just giving them a bit more education.”
