Sport
27 July, 2023
Fresh new themes the key for harness racing club
If the ambitions of young Maryborough Harness Racing Club (MHRC) general manager Jackson Barby are anything to go by, expect a vastly different — and more exciting — Maryborough Cup and Redwood Carnival this year. As part of a push to get...
If the ambitions of young Maryborough Harness Racing Club (MHRC) general manager Jackson Barby are anything to go by, expect a vastly different — and more exciting — Maryborough Cup and Redwood Carnival this year.
As part of a push to get a younger wave of supporters into the club, the MHRC has turned to Barby in recent months to provide some fresh ideas, particularly around maximising opportunities for local businesses to become involved.
Barby says there’s been plenty of challenges since taking over as general manager, but has found his feet and he, along with the committee at the MHRC has laid out a plan for the club, going forward.
“It’s been a challenge, but every space has that after COVID. We have found ourselves in a unique time in harness racing, but it’s also exciting, as there is a lot of things that’s happening at the club which we’re excited about. It will set us up for the next decade and beyond. There’s a lot of forward planning,” he said.
“We have work to do to re-engage with the local community, but we are also working to improve our marketing and promotion to ensure we are reaching those audiences.
“We’ve also developed our strategic plan, which is a bold and progressive vision for the next three years at the club. Included in that is some initiatives which we’re hoping attracts different audiences to the club.”
Barby says the utilisation of social media, as well as modern platforms, can become a difference maker for the club, much in the same way that thoroughbred racing has success-fully captured younger audiences in recent years.
“Harness racing, and our club, hasn’t really utilised the more modern platforms of marketing like social media. If you want to reach younger audiences, you need to use the platforms that they are using. It’s something we’re having a look at,” he said.
“We want to get the message of what we do out there. There are probably a few people that don’t realise what happens out here, the importance of the club and harness racing to the community and economy.
“There’s a key theme around our strategic plan in being a leader around our community and contributing within it as well. It will help us to engage moving forward, which would allow us to do so with local clubs, charities and groups, and how we can use the product to support it.”
One of the key events the MHRC is looking to transform is the Maryborough Cup, which will be held on September 17.
Barby says the key goal of the MHRC is to engage with local businesses throughout the event, holding a naming rights competition for sponsorship for the Maryborough Trotters Cup, which can be attained for as little as $150 per ticket, with ticket buyers limited to five per person.
“One of the things we are looking to build is the Maryborough Cup, which we want to use as an event in the future to become a community celebration of people, produce, businesses and stories in the local area. That’s a key focus moving forward,” he said.
“We are excited about the promotion for the naming rights of the Maryborough Cup. There are a few businesses and people that are doing it tough after COVID, and things are a bit tight.
“The sponsorship of the cup is usually worth over $5000. The businesses might not have the money to fork out and get that exposure and the marketing, but if they were to get that for as little as $150, that might be something they participate in, which would be an opportunity to get a huge amount of value for a little outlay.
“The concept around it is to try and encourage and partner with our local businesses to get behind the cup and make it a Central Goldfields celebration.”
Barby says those kind of ideas will also extend to the Redwood Carnival, with prize money going up and the potential return of the Redwood Dinner Dance being mooted as well.
“The Redwood Carnival this year is something we’re excited about as a Group 1 race. The prize money has gone up from $50,000 to $75,000. So, we’ll be attracting the best quality horses here. It’s an exciting thing for our town, and it has a following across Australia,” he said.
“We want to grow on that, so we’ve put together a grant application for a three-year event plan, to see how we can grow it to be a whole weekend carnival in the future.
“We race on the Friday and the big day is on the Sunday. There is an opportunity for us to do something on the Saturday.
“We used to have the Redwood Dinner Dance, where there used to be a band out here, so we’re looking to have it up and running again to make it a whole weekend event.”
As a local institution, the MHRC’s goal is to utilise and support the local community as much as possible, and idea that Barby, as general manager, wants to continue to push.
“One of our strategic objectives is to contribute $1,000,000 per annum to our local economy by 2026, looking at percentages of purchases from local businesses, employees in roles at the club, and partnerships with local community organisations,” he said.
“We have a great product, it’s just a matter of how we use it to benefit the community. In the long term, it will attract new audiences to the sport as well.”