OnTrack Events
Strategic Stakeholder Session
24 July 2025 • 10am–3pm, Ellerslie Racecourse
OnTrack invites senior industry leaders to a strategic planning session focused on the future of workforce wellbeing in racing.
Shaping the future
This is an opportunity to shape what comes next. Rather than looking back, we’re focused on what we need to achieve in the years ahead ensuring OnTrack’s work supports our codes, and the overall health and sustainability of the racing industry. By contributing your insight and direction, you’ll help ensure this is a programme that delivers real-world value, supports our people, and strengthens the industry as a whole.
Building on momentum
The session will build on the foundations already in place. OnTrack began as a response to what the industry said was needed. Since the delivery of the programme began in late 2024, it has delivered practical support, from awareness to peer-led Champions, mental health and suicide prevention training, alongside field team presence and trust. This work was designed with the codes, not for them. It’s early days, but uptake is growing, and support is strengthening.
Last year, we heard directly from the grassroots of the industry, participants, clubs, directors and funders whose voices shaped the OnTrack strategy. Many of you contributed to that process. This year’s session brings senior leaders and governance bodies together to build on that vision. Moving forward, we’ll run these sessions bi-annually, alternating between grassroots and senior stakeholder engagement to ensure all voices are heard and aligned as we refine and grow the programme.
With a clear strategy in place, we need to test whether this momentum is aligned with where your organisations want to go next.
Purpose of the July 2025 strategic session
This session is a working forum. It’s not a download of information or a tick-box review. We’ll bring a brief snapshot of where things are at, but the day is designed to capture what matters most to you. What challenges are you facing in the industry workforce today. What would make a difference? Where can we go further, or step back? Your input will help shape the direction of the programmes next phase, including its priorities, milestones, and where we focus resources. It’s a chance to make sure OnTrack is not only doing good work but delivering what the industry needs now and into the future.
A collaborative, industry-led approach
This programme only works if it reflects industry ownership. The session on 24 July puts you at the centre of the strategy process. The agenda will be shaped around the issues you raise. Our role is to support and coordinate, to ensure there is a clear plan aligned to strategy. Expect time for focused discussion and practical thinking. By the end of the day, we want everyone in the room to be clear on the agreed priorities, feel confident about what’s coming next, and know how your input has influenced the plan.
Addressing emerging responsibilities
We’ll also touch on the wider landscape. Managing psychosocial hazards, stress, burnout, harassment which is now an expected part of good workplace health and safety. This isn’t about delivering compliance training. It’s about supporting you to stay ahead of these expectations in a way that works for your context. The session will highlight how OnTrack can help with tools, guidance, and shared learning. Our aim is to make this practical and useful, without adding complexity or pressure.
Collaboration, ownership, and a forward vision
This session is a strategic checkpoint. It’s about looking to the future and asking what kind of racing industry do we want to lead in five or ten years, and what do we need to do now to get there? OnTrack can support that journey, but it has to be guided by you. The OnTrack Directors are looking forward to working through this with you, building a roadmap that not only supports the people of racing but also strengthens the industry’s future.
Some facts
• Worldwide more than 720,000 people die due to suicide every year. (WHO 2025)
• Suicide is a major public health issue in New Zealand. (Mental Health Foundation NZ)
• 2023/24 in New Zealand we lost 617 people to suspected suicide
(Health NZ – Te Whatau Ora)
• For those living in rural areas suicide rates are approximately 40% higher for males and 20% higher for females than those living in urban areas
(Health NZ – Te Whatau Ora)
• Between 2017/2021 approximately 12% of suicides were work-related.
• 86% of work-related suicides involved stressors related to work.
• 22% of work-related suicides used means related to work.
• 10% of work-related suicides occurred in the deceased person’s workplace.
(Worksafe – Examining the role of work factors in suicide 2024)
• In racing more almost half of our participants indicated poor wellbeing and quality of life
• 11% thought they would be better off dead
• 6% seriously thought about ending their life
• 3% had made plans to end their life
(Ross, V. et al (2024). Industry Wellbeing and Hazards Survey. Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Brisbane.)
• In 2024 OnTrack attended 3 postventions for those lost to suicide
• Suicide is preventable
