Perception
While scouring images for the regular ‘Harness Racing in Pictures’ segment on this blog I came across the following image and description on Flickr (photo sharing website).
“Harness racing is for queers”
My best friend in grade school had a very conservative father (a cop with several John Wayne posters and Norman Rockwell prints in the family room, need I say more), however he really liked to gamble. There used to be race track in Orangeville (which is now a Wal-Mart), but he refused to gamble there, opting to gamble at Woodbine and Greenwood (which is now condos) because “harness racing is for queers.” That was the first time I ever heard someone use the word “queer.” For the record, there isn’t any harness racing at Woodbine, because it’s a manly track (deep in the Rexdale ghetto, so you know that it’s hard).
My bet is that every time this guy encounters harness racing he thinks of that quote from his friends father. It’s obviously not based on empirical evidence, but that doesn’t matter because it’s how he perceives harness racing and it’s therefore the industry’s challenge to change that view.
Every person that encounters harness racing (but doesn’t live it) can sum up their perception of it in one sentence.
- For Thoroughbred horse players - it’s too hard to beat
- For Woman - it’s a mans sport
- For the rich and notable - it’s the inferior sport
- For animal lovers - it’s dangerous and cruel
- For the average person - it’s that weird type of racing with those carts that they only ever see when flicking past the racing channel.
My Dad bets on the Melbourne Cup every year but would never even consider betting on a harness race. Why not?
The takeaway here is that if our audience has the wrong perception of harness racing, it’s not their fault, it’s ours. If one story isn’t working, we need to change what we do, not how loudly we yell (or whine).
