League

Yes indeed but it's hard to get the same response for a ratings horse going round for 2 months with no suitable races.

i think even if they come anywhere near break even its a winner for betcha. i assume the people that invest in the pools gat paid out back into their betcha accounts(i assume) and then  keep playing away through the week ,on the punt themselves, with what they got back,even if its not much .And a lot of those people would probably never put money in as regular as they do with the out the gate crew.The people who invest in the out the gate concept don't appear to be your knowledgable harness racing fans,so getting that type of customer engaged is a plus. Now,i've always said the biggest problem for harness racing is the harness product served up  on thursday nights. cambridge is at the low end of a lot of things. Its not as competitive as anywhere else and i often think even some of the favorites ,if drawn bad ,simply go around for a quiet run. Theres also too many negative drives on horses with cahnces and the oversight by the stipes there self perpetuates what i've just said. And of course the over saturation of north island racing contributes significantly to watering down the quality of theat product. then the manawatu product,i think it a more competitive product,but the form can be quite inconsistent i guess because horses who travel and who back up within a couple of days away from home,often don't perform as consistently. Its the same as the likes of the west coast racing. and because of that,you have the out the gate crew betting on harness racing because thats what they are suppoosed to do,but its a common theme for them that you don't often get a fair run for their money. so,even though harness racing is being showcased to a different customer from the previous thursday night follwers,its the quality of tyhe harness product provided on those nights which can paint the industry in a negative way. Thats not the out the gate peoples fault. also,obviously many regulart trackside harness followers seem to dislike the concept. On one hand they accept that less and less people were watching,evenn professing to not watch themseleves ,then they complain they don't like something new,even though they weren't really watching it anyway. people can be hard to please sometimes.

I imagine the some of the top stables informed them.  Might be a KiwiB candidate looking for a last chance.

It was worth a try by Trackside to attract new punters, but from most peoples comments it probably hasnt? The only wins they have had has been mainly on the greyhounds and they are being finished shortly! Personally do not think they have the right people presenting, except Blake who wasnt originally on the panel to pick winners? They have been treated very well by the TAB by gifting them bonus cash etc. and sllowing them to wager what they want, and yet some other punters are severely restricted to pathetic amounts ! The other hypocritical action is the way they advertise Bet Responsibly! Punting large  on dogs, gallops, trots, sports etc all over the place is not betting responsibly at all! At the end of the day hope the show works and they will do what they will until the funds run out!  

This is just another example of the total mess that the programming is. How on earth could they only just 'identify' the issue?