AT risk of labouring the point made by both Mark Flanagan and Leo Powell in this publication last week, harness racing as well as its thoroughbred counterpart have been allowed to proceed in the USA, albeit behind closed doors, but as yet not here.

In the seventies, the advertising posters for the sport in Ireland used to proclaim ‘American Style Harness Racing’. Even the French and the Swedes concede that the sport began in America.