Join the crusade

I am very pleased to join the ranks of the quality people producing a blog on Standardbred Canada’s website

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My blog will hopefully give you background and also keep you up to date on some very exciting projects that I am involved in with Standardbred Canada.

But also I will be forwarding the idea of creating a crusade to return Harness Racing to its glory days.

I always go to the dictionary to define the thoughts I have and here is what is said about a crusade.

- exert oneself continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end or engage in a crusade for a certain cause; be an advocate for;
- campaign: a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end

Hell, if poker can come from the basements of hotels with little prize money and little notoriety and serge to the top of the minds for 19 to 35 years olds we can do the same.

As mentioned in my bio I am working on projects for Standardbred Canada and these projects all have the same goals. Drive larger handle for Canadian Harness Racing and increase live attendance at Racetracks across Canada.

All crusades begin with a big event to enroll the masses and get them taking action to begin the crusade. The Adrenaline Festival is designed to be that big event. The first Adrenaline is being held in Sarnia at Hiawatha Horse Park August 20th – 23rd, however, it has a national plan for expansion in the coming years. We believe this is the largest event ever held in Canadian Harness Racing with four days of action and an expected attendance of 30,000 to 40,000 fans.

The Adrenaline Festival has been a concept at Standardbred Canada for more than a year and we have been working on the details of this first edition for approximately eight months. Adrenaline will build on its success in Sarnia and the plans are to expand yearly into other racetracks with a long term goal of annually holding an Adrenaline Festival in every city across Canada.

There has been a ton of work put into this project by a number of people at Standardbred Canada, Hiawatha Horse Park and Tourism Sarnia/Lambton and I personally thank everyone involved.

It is hard to describe the amount of work involved in organizing a Festival of this size. But the other day it was put into terms most of us can relate to by Darryl Kaplan at the SC office. I had just returned to the office after my daughters wedding on June 20th and was commenting on the incredible amount of work required to put on a wedding for 270 people. Darryl commented that Adrenaline is like putting on four weddings all in one weekend with 30,000 people attending... he is so right.

However Adrenaline has been a blast to work on right from the beginning. It has been a unique experience developing a brand new concept that had no template or historical reference in the industry to draw on. We used the vision of Standardbred Canada to direct us and we used the voice of many to give opinions that we considered along the way.

The goal of Adrenaline is to attract new customers for Harness Racing particularly in the 19 to 35 year old demographic. Adrenaline is designed to present a variety of activities and events that will appeal to this group and encourage them to attend the festival. Once at the Festival we will introduce them to the great game of Harness Racing. In a four day period we will run 40+ races and we intend to hook a new generation of Harness Racing fans.

Adrenaline will be an exciting show with something to entertain everyone. We encourage you to visit Sarnia and see Harness Racing like it has never been presented before.

But more importantly...I know this blog is being read by industry people. I will personally ask you to begin the crusade by making everyone you know aware (racing fan or not) of Adrenaline. Even if they cannot attend in Sarnia this year Adrenaline will be coming to a city near you in the future and we want to build the buzz about Adrenaline as we expand.

Visit www.adrenalinefest.ca for all details and we will see you in Sarnia.