This weekend, I received the following letter from Norway which expouses the advantages of racing under saddle (RUS), commonly known as monté racing outside of North America. I am reprinting Romund Østbø's (Racing Secretary at Biri Racetrack) letter here in its entirety with his permission.
Dear Sir:
I appreciate Your relentless efforts to promote RUS in the
US.
My impression is that the ingrown conservatism in all
racing, and harness racing especially, keeps any "new" ideas on the
shelf indefinitely.
Here in Norway we introduced "montè" around the
Millennium, and it soon became popular and brought very many young girls
on to the track.
After a while, many of these girls also took up driving
races, Nowadays, there seldom is a harness race in Norway without at least one
female driver.
I think this gives a whole new dimension to the sport,
although I know many "important" people in our sport see it
otherwise.
You mentioned one important aspect of RUS in Your latest
blog: That a lot of horses in Europe (we now have RUS in all the important
Harness Racing countries like Sweden, Finland and Denmark as well as France and
Norway).
At my hometrack, Biri, we introduced a special race ten
years ago, The Biri All-Round, where the same horse with the same rider/driver
competes in two races on the same day, one under saddle and one with sulky.
There is no doubt that many horses enjoy the switch between
the two forms of racing.
In 2011, the ex US horse Moon Dreamer (by Dream Vacation)
won under saddle in 1:54,4. Two hours later he came back with 21-year-old
Kristine Kvasnes in the sulky and won in 1:56 flat.
Some of the girls now ride around 100 races a year and
have become terrific "jockeys". The quality of the horses racing
under saddle could have been a lot better here too. It's still something of
"last chance" for many conservative owners and trainers.
Regards,
Romund Ostbo
Race secretary, Biri Racetrack, Norway
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