The current (unconfirmed) offer from S4C of a single date for Tairgwaith and Tir Prince (plus two days at Tregaron) both on a Saturday afternoon one in June and one in July is not in our view a serious offer to continue the Rasus series; further the proposed viewing times does not align itself with the Rasus public who will probably be either working or harness racing. The special atmosphere of racing under the floodlights will be missing from these afternoon meetings.

Following lengthy and comprehensive discussions between Tir Prince management and Geraint Lewis of Slam Media regarding Rasus for 2012 it is with regret that after careful consideration the offer of a single date for Tir Prince on a Saturday afternoon in July has been rejected.

Tir Prince and Rasus has a long and fruitful history and over the years Tir Prince has worked positively with the changes demanded by Rasus. It is useful to point out some of the key changes made recently, these include the reduction of dates at Tir Prince from 13 programmes a season to three last year, the day has been changed from a Tuesday to a Monday, the start time from 9pm to 9.30 pm, the Crock of Gold final changed from September to August, all changes that  we have accepted and have not stopped us putting on a great nights racing, every time.

We have taken the view that the proposal not to put on a series of races and a Crock of Gold series is both bad for the sport and bad for S4C. The series has a loyal tv following and regularly gets more viewers than some other series that have been kept by S4C, it will have a disproportionate effect on rural areas, especially in Mid and North Wales  and is the only regular show put on in this part on North Wales. It is a series that differentiates itself from other channels and is popular with Welsh speakers. Surely these are the sort of programmes S4C should be trying to maintain. Unfortunately there seems to be a bias on S4C to programmes made in South Wales.

For those of us who want to retain Rasus and the Crock of Gold series we will have to write to your local member of the Welsh Assembly and or your local MP.

We will keep you updated.

As businessmen ourselves we understand the financial pressures that S4C must be feeling with their reduced budget but we hope that they can be persuaded to put on a series in 2012 with a Crock of Gold final under the floodlights at Tir Prince even if it a shorter series than normal. After all they still retain 75% of their budget of 2011 so why can’t we have a series of 75% of last years meetings?

Further to my recent piece on the BHRC’s finances it is pleasing to note that Mr Barry Delaney has guaranteed a cash break even position for the year ended 31st March 2012, this will be a big relief to all BHRC licenceholders! Hopefully accounts will be produced more speedily next year and the Constitution will be followed allowing members at least 28 days to review the accounts before the AGM.

After having invested over £1 million in the sport at Tir Prince it is not pleasing to see the revenues from harness racing decline to such an extent (gate receipts, tv funding, fewer horses in training etc) that the number of meetings has declined sharply. We are not the only hard track to have had to cut back and in fact he recently announced the closing down of the Sire Stakes (since reprieved) for similar reasons. We are proud however of the quality of the racing we put on and the times, integrity and fairness of the racing we put on is as good now if not better than ever before.

Where we differ of course is that Adam Williams and myself spend our own money but the BHRC spend other peoples and only the licence holders can pass comment as to whether the £80000 overspend was well spent.

He points out that we no longer have a vote at the BHRC this is true,but again this says more about the BHRC than us. If this national association no longer wants the best track in the country to have a vote than maybe we are better off out of it. We have taken legal advice about the Chairman’s actions taking our vote away and it was clear and unequivical “It was unconstitutional” but it is evident that we are not welcome at the moment and we will not be pursuing membership at this time.

We will attempt again on our 21st anniversary to put on quality meetings at Tir Prince however many this maybe.

Following the issuing of the BHRC accounts to March 2011 it is now possible to report the amount of cash the BHRC has burnt through under the stewardship of the current Chairman and Vice Chairman, Mr Gordon Garnett and Mr Barry Delaney.  On 31st March 2006 the accounts showed that the BHRC had £136,388 in the bank and an additional amount of £49,278 held in trust for the Prakas fund was in a separate bank account, the combined total of cash was £185,666.

The BHRC no longer have a separate account for the Prakas fund but include this cash figure as part of the bank account, the £50,000 owed to the Prakas fund is shown as a creditor on the balance sheet. As the BHRC has no other evident means of settling the debt to the Prakas fund then the first £50,000 of any bank balance needs to be discounted. In any event the BHRC accounts at 31st March 2011 show £103,280 in the bank which means that the BHRC spent £82,386 more than it earned in the 5 year period to 31st March 2011 an average of just under £17,000 per year, ( In the 12 month period to 31st March 2011 the BHRC spent £20,156 more than it earned). It should also be noted that there is only £53,280 in the bank if we discount the amount owed to the Prakas Fund.

We do not know what the bank balance is at the moment nor has the BHRC published a budget for the period to 31st March 2012. However if the BHRC continues to spend more money that it earns at the same rate as it has done over the last 5 years then the £53,280 will be spent before the summer of 2014.

It is to be noted that traditionally the BHRC had been successful in balancing its budget and regularly made a small profit, that in the main the £135,00 that was in the bank in 2006 was because the fees paid by owners, trainers and promoters to the BHRC was in excess of the costs incurred by the BHRC. In the period leading up to 2006 the BHRC produced detailed management accounts and budgets regularly throughout the year and produced the annual accounts in enough time to be sent out with the notice of the Annual General Meeting in accordance with the constitution of the BHRC, this has not happened for some years. It could be argued that because the conditions of calling the AGM were not met then the AGM was not valid and any votes taken at such meeting were null and void.

If a financial disaster is to be avoided then the Directors of the BHRC, ie Members of the Council need to ensure that sound financial management is re-introduced at the BHRC. It is a fact of life that no organisation can continue to spend more that it earns year after year without going bust.

Produced by David Senior FCMA using extracts taken from the official annual accounts issued by the BHRC on 31/03/2006 and 31/03/2011

At the meeting at Tir Prince on Wednesday 16th November over 50 members of the North Wales Harness Owners Association voted by nearly 3 to 1 to support George Harrison’s election as Chairman of the BHRC. The current Chairman Gordon Garnett was given the floor for over an hour in which he gave a passionate speech for a widening of integrity testing in the sport. This topic was however rejected by the floor as not being as important as other pressing matters (such as promoting the sport), that highlighting it so much on the website and the calendar etc was detrimental to the sport  and the outcomes did not warrant the cost.

David Senior asked that the BHRC got a mandate from its members to invest in the promotion and marketing of the sport  to try and get some new blood and young people into the sport and this received widespread support from the floor.

There was also disquiet at the legal cost (purported to be £8,000 according to Gordon Garnett) incurred by the BHRC in the Dave Taff case. Jeff Mound junior said it was madness to incur such costs when the bank balance was only £30,000 he said no businessman would have spent such a high propotion of its cash balances to “prove a point”.

In the other BHRC election Barry Delaney was given the floor and stated that although nobody was opposing him as Vice Chairman that he would not stand unless he was elected as a Steward a position that Bob Lee was standing for. There was a clear vote to re-elect Barry as a Steward.

At the meeting Gordon Garnett was asked to confirm that Tir Prince was to lose its vote at the BHRC meetings he confirmed that because Tir Prince did not hold 8 meetings or more that this was the case. The meeting felt that this needing correcting and the NWHOA would request that Tir Prince be given a vote similar to the arrangement for Tregaron.

The Chairman Jim McInally thanked everyone for attending and added that the next meeting would be in the New Year