Launch international betting on trotting, introduce stricter whipping rules, develop international cooperation, and prepare rankings of the best trotting horses in the world. These are some of the issues the World Trotting Conference reached agreement about and decided on in Stockholm.
Svensk Travsport organised the conference under the overarching theme of “Change”.
And it was precisely the need for change and development that permeated the committee meetings and challenged the guest speakers. I am extremely satisfied with the outcome of the conference. We have held excellent discussions and received highly positive feedback from the participants. We were also complimented on the way in which we arranged the World Championship for drivers.
One of the key conclusions centred on the need for trotting countries around the world to work together on setting up an international betting scheme, which is to take the form of a common pool. We will also be preparing a shared list of prioritised races and betting companies to work with.
Improved work on equine welfare
Whipping regulations remain a recurring and important topic at the world conference. The regulations currently in effect differ greatly from one country to another. The conference has now taken a principle decision to start working towards implementing rules that largely resemble the Swedish regulations in several areas. Sweden applies some of the toughest whipping regulations in the world, so this will not entail a great change for us, but it is pleasing to note that the general view on whipping is moving in the right direction and towards the position we have chosen.
The committee on breeding is doing a lot of work on regulations issues, and has now decided, for example, to prohibit the registration of foals born through transfers of frozen embryos and the use of technical solutions to manipulate the gender of the foal.
Improving the marketing of trotting at international level was also discussed, and we have agreed on a target image for introducing a system of international rankings for the best trotting horses in the world as from 2020.
International cooperation in the field of trotting has huge potential, and the world conference decided on a new approach to taking responsibility and following up on what happens between world conferences, which are held every two years. This carries obligations.
The proposals from the committee and the Media Award are attached as appendices.
Ulf Hörnberg
Acting CEO, Svensk Travsport