A former harness racing star who kicked and choked a woman, leaving her fearing for her life, wants to become a trainer and is receiving support from industry figures.
Matt Anderson is a former New Zealand representative and national premiership-winning harness racing driver who is banned from racecourses until at least next year due to his criminal offending.
Two racing industry figures former trainer Peter Jones and former Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) chairman Ken Spicer have recently met with new HRNZ chief executive Gary Woodham to discuss a pathway for Anderson to get back into the industry. Spicer is still on the board of HRNZ.
Jones, whose stepdaughter is Andersons partner, has publicly stated he believes racing needs a better mechanism for getting people like Anderson back into the sport. He points to rugby as a template for rehabilitating errant players.
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Spicer, in a series of text messages, said Anderson had approached him as a friend to help him understand what the process is around trying to get a pathway back into the industry as a trainer.
If a young person asks for assistance I will assist them. It’s only you journos looking for another negative story that worry about how it may look [for a person in his position to be seen to support Anderson], Spicer, a horse breeder, told Stuff.
There is a process to follow, rules to be adhered to and a stringent licensing criteria to be met.
It was not his call to decide whether Anderson deserved to be allowed back into racing, he said.
Anderson said it would be inappropriate for him to comment.
Under harness racing rules, Anderson is banned from racecourses for at least two years. He can apply for an exemption but that is rarely granted within the ban period. At the expiry of the ban he will still need to apply for an exemption and will also need to meet character requirements to qualify for a training licence.
Matt Anderson was discharged without conviction on drugs charges at the Christchurch District Court last year.
In November, Anderson was sentenced to three months community detention and 12 months intense supervision after he was found guilty of charges of assault and strangulation in a judge-alone trial at the Christchurch District Court.
The court heard how he grabbed his victim around the neck and choked her, then threw her out of his house and locked the door to prevent her from getting her car keys that were still inside. The victim managed to crawl through an open window, but was assaulted and kicked in the side of the face as she lay on the ground.
The victim called 111 and told the emergency operator she thought Anderson was going to kill her. She was told to run towards the road. She jumped into a ditch and hid until she saw a police car arrive.
Andersons racecourse ban came after a six-month stand-down imposed on August 1 after he was charged for acts deemed detrimental to the interests of harness racing. It related to a district court appearance where he was discharged without conviction after admitting possessing the party drug MDMA for supply, and two charges of supplying MDMA.
Woodham, a former high-level member of the TAB’s executive team, who recently took over as chief executive of HRNZ, did not respond to messages.
However, Woodham told The Star the meeting with Jones and Spicer was an opportunity to discuss many aspects of Andersons case.
I must emphasise, however, that it was an informal meeting and not an official request for reinstatement, he said.
The upshot of those discussions, and subsequent inquiries regarding eligibility, is that Matt Anderson is not able to be reinstated and that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
