| SECRETARIES & EXECUTIVE STAFF |
YEAR: 2007
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After initially being employed at the then NZ Trotting Conference as the Accountant, Rowley was appointed Secretary in 1960 and later the Chief Executive Officer before retiring in 1985. During his tenure he was instrumental in bringing many changes to the NZ racing industry. In the early 60s he was part of a group that formed the TAB as we know it today, while identification of horses by way of freeze branding, artificial insemination, judicial procedures, public relations and computerisation were other innovations he oversaw.
Rowley represented NZ at World Trotting Conference and is the only person to have held the office of Secretary General twice, continuing in this role after his retirement. During his 32 years, Rowley made many great friends, including Gordon Blaxall who was the Conference Treasurer. Many a problem was solved by the two of them over a gin or two in the boardroom at the end of the day.
He commenced his career as an office boy with the Christchurch importing and wholesale firm of Fairbairn Wright during WWII. After the war he joined the Registrar's Office of the Canterbury University, from where he went to a small firm making ties and later managed the factory. He then joined the Canterbury Manufacturers Association where he managed an 'Industries Fair' and from where he learned of a vacancy in 'trotting'. After seven years of club administration, Rowley was offered the job of the Trotting Conference Accountant.
In honour of his retirement, a testimonial dinner was held and attended by racing dignitaries from all three racing codes and members of parliament. Retirement wasn't to last long however. A new organisation was set up in the early 1980s to administer age group racing, and Rowley had been instrumental in the approval of Sires' Stakes racing. In August 1988, he was asked to join the NZ Sires' Stakes Board and in 1993 he was elected Chairman, a position he held till he resigned in 1997.
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NZ Trotting Calendar 13Aug85
Thirty-two years of harness racing administration came to an end when John Rowley retired as Chief Executive Officer of the NZ Trotting Conference on July 31.
Fittingly, leading racing administrators - harness, thoroughbred and greyhound - joined with distinguished guests in farewelling John at a Testimonial Dinner in Christchurch on the very evening of his retirement. It was during that "Farewell Speech" at that dinner, and at a later interview, that John Rowley revealed some of his thoughts on the Industry - "I must call it that now" - which he has served so diligently.
John Rowley did not come into harness racing administration dedicated to the cause at an early age - it was a circuitous route which saw him occupy the most powerful chair in professional administration in NZ trotting. He commenced his career as an office boy with the Christchurch importing and wholesale firm of Fairbairn Wright during the Second World War, leaving briefly to complete three months basic army training. Though he returned to Fairbairn Wright after basic training, he did not last long there, volunteering for the Royal NZ Navy and going off to fight the war as an Ordinary Seaman. John did most of his sea training aboard the British cruiser HMS Dauntless, which was based in Scotland, but he was not to remain an Ordinary Seaman for long. He ended his 18 months' service as a Sub-Lieutenant aboard the minesweeper, or Bird class Corvette as they were known, HMNZS Tui, based in Auckland.
Returning to Fairbairn Wrights after the war, John filled the post of costing clerk. But greener pastures beckoned and he joined the Registrars Office of the Canterbury University. A "change of hierarchy" saw John leaving the University and going to work for a young firm called Corinthian Ties "Where I learned to make ties and manage a factory". Unfortunately, the factory fell on hard times - "There was a depression at the time" - and John joined the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association, where he managed an Industries Fair.
It was through meeting some members of the Manufacturers' Association who were involved in trotting - "In particular Ces Peate" - that he heard of the vacancy which became available in trotting administration with the death of Harold Goggin - who was then secretary of the three Christchurch trotting clubs. "I applied for the job and got it, and I've been in trotting ever since," John said.
John was understudy to Des Parker, who was promoted to take the late Harold Goggin's job, and stayed for seven years. The break with club administration came after seven years when he was seconded to run a three night meeting at Hutt Park when the Wellington Trortting Club was suddenly left without a secretary. "I went in there cold, right from scratch and had to run a three night meeting. At the end of that meeting, I was offered the job as secretary of the Wellington Trotting Club. At the same time, the job of Conference accountant became vacant and as my wife Shirley had no desire to go to Wellington, I applied for the job with the Conference and got it. "So I moved upstairs," John said, referring to the fact that in those days, the Conference and the three Christchurch trotting clubs shared the same office building in Oxford Terrace.
Rather unusually, John was born, raised, educated (Christchurch West High School and Christ's College) and completed his entire working life in Christchurch. He married soon after the war and fathered three children, two girls, Belinda and Melanie who both followed nursing careers, and a son, Simon, who now manages Dalgety Crown in Rakaia.
John was with the Conference just over twelve months before the then secretary, W H (Bill) Larcombe, retired, and John was appointed to his position in 1961. Encumbent president then was Charles Thomas, a leading Christchurch criminal lawyer, a former prsident of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club and a prominent figure in the Scottish Society. Stories of Charlie Thomas abound in trotting - "Many of them true" - according to John. "He was a man dedicated to the job. There wasn't a day when he didn't come into the office." Charles Thomas was the first of seven presidents John was to serve under, Bill Roche succeeded him, then being followed by Dick Rolfe, Arthur Nicoll, George Cruickshank, Sir James Barnes and the present encumbent, Dewar Robertshaw.
Twenty four years as the top professional administrator in the country sees a lot of change, and John Rowley has played a major part in that change. "I would have to say the major changes have been in the area of horse identification - freeze branding - the creation of the International Trotting Association, artificial insemination, the changes in judicial procedures, and the vital area of public relations," John said. "You know, people seem loath to give gredit where it is due, but we actually led the world in the introduction of freeze branding and only now are the Racing Conference looking at doing it."
"The International Conferences are considered in some quarters to be just jaunts, but people don't realise that is was because of the creation of the International Trotting Association, and the contacts and personal trust built up by these meetings, that we got the NZ standardbred accepted overseas. You know, we had a terrific battle with the Americans to get our mares accepted into their Stud Book as standardbreds. What that would have meant, of course, if we had not been successful, is that the progeny of mares like Robin Dundee would not have been recognised as standardbred by the Americans, and she of course left world record holder Genghis Khan. I also like to think NZ can contribute to these International Conferences. It has been said we get very little out of them, but I prefer to think that we are not only looking to get something out - which we do - but we can put something back as well," he said.
John may have finished as CEO of the NZ Trotting Conference, but he is still busy as Secretary General of the International Trotting Association which holds it's next biennial conference in Brisbane in October, which will coincide with the World Driver's Championship. NZ Trotting Conference president Dewar Robertshaw will succeed USTA president Joe McLoone as chairman of the ITA in Brisbane. John admits the current system of having a floating secretariat for the ITA is not the ideal one, and feels a permanent secretariat based in one country would achieve a great deal more. "Let's face it, everone at the Conference is busy when they return home, and there is the danger that the follow up, which is so important, gets put to one side. With a permanent secretary that would not happen, and the International Trotting Association could be of so much more value to everyone."
Concern for human rights and natural justice have led to changes in the judicial system in recent years, particularly in cases involving investigations by the racecourse inspectors. "One of the biggest changes relates to the work done by the racecourse inspectors, which used to be, in the old days, referred to the full executive with recommendations. In due course, the executive would adjudicate on the case. Today, the only person to see the reports is the CEO of the Conderence, and it is he, normally after taking legal advice, who decides whether or not charges will be preferred. All the executive now know about the situation is that they have to set up a panel to hear the charges, and they don't know anything about the matter until they sit down to hear the case. That is natural justice, and, in my view, is the correct procedure," John said.
Hand in hand with judicial control, in John's view, goes the integrity of harness racing. "Over the past three decades, we have become a force to be reckoned with, and during that time what we have tried to show is the integrity of harness racing. "I'm a firm believer that you can spend all the money in the world in advertising and promotion, and provide the best facilities in the world, but if your patrons, particularly the new ones, have any suspicion of dishonesty, then you have lost them for ever."
Closer co-operation between the Racing and Trotting Conferences and Greyhound administrators is a pleasing development, but John reports it was not always the case. "In the good old days, a small sub-committee of the Trotting Conference would appear before the Racing Conference executive in what used to be called a Combined Committee Meeting, where the odds were about 14 to 4. We would be summoned into the room like small boys going before the headmaster and we would be asked what our problems were. These would be discussed, we would be given a drink, then sent on our way after about an hour. Today of course we have got equal representation at Combined Conference level, where we discuss all matters pertaining to racing, and together make representations to the Racing Authority, the Minister and I think the system works very well. I think it is indicative of the progress we have made and the mark we have made in the industry. There is no doubt we have all had our problems, many of the inter-code, and will continue to do so. However, I believe we should all genuinely acknowledge that we are all members one of another, and whoever deliberately attempts, for whatever reason, to sabotage the efforts or reputation of it's co-partners in reality damages his own code, and weakens, if you like, the strength of the whole chain of racing's continued progress. I would also add that the same applies within harness racing. Destructive criticism of sabotage within the industry only harms us all."
Credit: HRWeekly 19Sep07