-
Available Subscriptions
JCA
1,721 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 199 views
-
- 0 replies
- 182 views
-
- 0 replies
- 194 views
-
- 0 replies
- 185 views
-
- 0 replies
- 164 views
-
- 0 replies
- 190 views
-
- 0 replies
- 192 views
-
- 0 replies
- 184 views
-
- 0 replies
- 182 views
-
- 0 replies
- 175 views
-
- 0 replies
- 184 views
-
- 0 replies
- 182 views
-
- 0 replies
- 182 views
-
- 0 replies
- 176 views
-
- 0 replies
- 181 views
-
- 0 replies
- 185 views
-
- 0 replies
- 162 views
-
- 0 replies
- 189 views
-
- 0 replies
- 195 views
-
- 0 replies
- 184 views
-
- 0 replies
- 203 views
-
- 0 replies
- 153 views
-
- 0 replies
- 173 views
-
- 0 replies
- 183 views
-
- 0 replies
- 167 views
Announcements
-
Posts
-
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
What Hawkesbury Gold Cup Day Where Hawkesbury Race Club – 1 Racecourse Rd, Clarendon NSW 2756 When Saturday, May 4, 2024 First Race 11:20am AEST Visit Dabble Hawkesbury Race Club gets set for its annual Gold Cup Day meeting on Saturday afternoon, with a bumper 10-race program lined up. The rail is in the true position for the entire circuit, and although the surface is rated Good 4 at the time of acceptances, significant rainfall in the lead-up means a likely downgrade into the Soft range. The action is scheduled to get underway at 11:20am AEST. Hawkesbury Gold Cup: Nugget After being beaten by less than a length in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Randwick on April 6, Nugget appears primed to peak in the Group 3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup. The son of Siyouni was crowded for room when mounting a late challenge in Australia’s greatest handicap, only to get swallowed up in the shadows of the post by a fast-finishing Celestial Legend. With wet conditions unlikely to hinder his blistering turn of foot, Nugget gets the nod in the $250,000 feature. Hawkesbury Gold Cup Race 8 – #4 Nugget (13) 7yo Gelding | T: Ciaron Maher | J: Tyler Schiller (58kg) +400 with Bet365 Hawkesbury Guineas: General Salute General Salute powered through the wire first-up at Rosehill in the Listed Darby Munro Stakes (1200m) on March 23 and impressed with an eye-catching barrier trial heading into the Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m). The step up to 1400m should be ideal for this Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou-trained gelding who likes to get back and run on. The tempo should be genuine, and although he may be the last one mounting a challenge, General Salute will be flying home at a massive each-way price with the top betting sites. Hawkesbury Guineas Race 7 – #8 General Salute (13) 3yo Gelding | T: Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou | J: Joshua Parr (56kg) +1400 with Dabble Hawkesbury Crown: Shadows Of Love In the Group 3 Hawkesbury Crown (1300m) for the fillies and mares, Shadows Of Love will be trying to bounce back after a luckless performance in the Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Randwick on April 13. She was cast three wide throughout but showed plenty of tenacity to cling onto a spot in the minor money. Tim Clark will search for the one-one from gate five, and with her best form coming with sting out of the ground, Shadows Of Love can justify the short quote with online bookmakers. Hawkesbury Crown Race 6 – #5 Shadows Of Love (5) 4yo Mare | T: Kim Waugh | J: Tim Clark (56kg) +220 with Picklebet Best Bet at Hawkesbury: Gentileschi Gentileschi is on the brink of a hat-trick heading to metropolitan company for the first time and looks perfectly placed in this Class 2 Highway. She’s been sensational in her back-to-back victories at Scone to kick off the campaign, going on to score by a combined five lengths with relative ease. This is clearly her toughest task to date, but with her ceiling yet to be reached, Gentileschi may just prove too classy for this lot. Best Bet Race 3 – #9 Gentileschi (8) 3yo Filly | T: Paul Messara & Leah Gavranich | J: James McDonald (56kg) +130 with PlayUp Next Best at Hawkesbury: Parisal Parisal returns after a 126-day spell and comes through some strong form-lines last preparation. The daughter of Astern peaked on her run late when chasing home Lady Laguna at Doomben on December 30, so the James Cummings barn elected to send her to the paddock. A soft piece of work at Canterbury on April 19 suggests she is ready to go first-up, and with Zac Lloyd set to be positive from stall three, watch for Parisal to make every post a winner. Next Best Race 5 – #4 Parisal (3) 4yo Mare | T: James Cummings | J: Zac Lloyd (55.5kg) +320 with Unibet Best Value at Hawkesbury: Waltham Waltham makes his Australian debut for the Matthew Smith barn having won two of his three starts before being sent down under. The Irish import is a pure stayer, with both his victories coming over 2615m at Leopardstown before failing to make an impression when stepping up to Listed company. His trials have only been fair, but with the wet conditions likely to suit the son of Roaring Lion, this guy is worth a speck at the each-way price available with the best racing bookmakers. Best Value Race 4 – #6 Waltham (4) 4yo Gelding | T: Matthew Smith | J: Zac Lloyd (58kg) +1400 with Neds Saturday Hawkesbury quaddie tips – 4/5/2024 Hawkesbury quadrella selections Saturday, May 4, 2024 1-2-5-7-8-11-16 1-4-6-14 1-2-4-5-12-19 3-8-11-12-13 | Copy this bet straight to your betslip Horse racing tips View the full article -
I agree with what you have said. I never said big money 2 year old races are likely to decrease. I agree connections of 2 year olds should have been beneficiaries in scale similar to all the other sectors as regards the boost in stakes as a result of the entain deal. But,if you want specific examples of a pointless waste of increased funding on 2 year old racing,i refer you to the diamond creek farm 2 year old race at invercargill. Its stake was increased form $60,000 2 years ago to $110,000 this year. So they gave an extra $50,000 to a race to promote the 2 year olds. But what did the extra $50,000 achieve. More starters,higher turnover,more media exposure,increased breeding numbers? No,it got them nothing extra. Did they get even 1 more starter because of the extra $50,000. 2022,2023 and 2024 all had 8 starters. Now if HRNZ had plenty of money to give away then sure,but they don't so they need to be making common sense calls. Then you have the emphasis on the large 2 year old bonuses. It was not a common sense call because where are the benefits to warrant the 1.5 million $ spend over 2 years? At most you were going to get maybe 40 recipients of the bonuses each year. Mostly wealthy people who could afford to breed in the future if they wanted.Those type of people already know they are not in it for the money. i'm not saying they shouldn't be rewarded,but isn't it obvious you should be prioritisng retaining breeders across the board. You can overspend today,but you can guarantee you will pay for it in the not too distant future. Thats going to happen. wheres the realistic future thinking? -
Back in the 70s and 80s the "Cup" races at the likes of Methven, Ashburton. Timaru. Rangiora, Orari etc were class 4, 5 or 6 fronts, and they provided great racing as horses strived to get through to open class. That class of horse hardly seems to exist these days, and anyone can race in so called open class races. I'm not involved enough with harness racing these days to know whether it is a handicapping problem or something else. As a casual observer I do wonder whether the trots might be better served by reverting to a wins based structure so the general public know what's going on. For example, perhaps have 3 win fronts with conditions, so horses can still drop back a bit but the public can still understand it. Obviously the 2yo approach hasn't really worked. The real problem seems to be the lack of depth in the open class ranks. The days of having the likes of Bonnies Chance, Armalight, Locarno, Hands Down, Sapling, Lord Module etc regularly racing against each other are long gone. Ironically they didn't keep going year after year because of massive stakes but more because their owners enjoyed the challenge and the thrill of it. We really do seem to have lost our way. I know I no-longer find harness racing interesting at all, which is sad. The only really "innovative" thing that has happened in harness racing in recent years is the return to grass track racing. Perhaps they need to revert to some of the other "old" ways as well. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
David Greene leading Goldiluxe, who went on to record the Hamilton horseman’s 100th training victory at Ruakaka on Wednesday. Photo: Race Images A pair of Group winners take pride of place so far in the training career of David Greene who this week hit a notable milestone. The Te Rapa-based horseman sent out his 100th winner on Wednesday when Goldiluxe scored at Ruakaka in the style to befit the occasion and, for good measure, stablemate Flamboyance finished runner-up. Ghibellines mare Goldiluxe was sent out at less than even money in her 1400m maiden contest and won accordingly, romping home in the hands of Sam Spratt to bring up Greene’s century. “To be honest, I haven’t really given it too much thought, but it is nice and a reflection of an awful lot of work that a lot of different people have put into the stable over the years,” he said. Greene was involved in the industry on a smaller scale before concentrating on training. “I’ve been full time at Te Rapa for 12 years and we played around with a couple of horses before that,” he said. “We were out on the farm at Tahuna (about 15 minutes out of Morrinsville) and Heidi (wife) and I were mainly pre-training and spelling horses back then. Heidi has been key to everything.” In the ensuing years, the stable’s flagship performers have been top-class mare Stolen Dance and the well-performed stayer Justamaiz. A daughter of Alamosa, Stolen Dance was successful on nine occasions and placed a further six times from 21 appearances for Greene. She claimed top honours in the Group 2 Cal Isuzu Stakes (1600m) and the Group 3 Eagle Technology Stakes (1600m) and consecutively finished runner-up at Group One level in the Zabeel Classic (2000m), Thorndon Mile (1600m) and Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m). “She’s been my favourite horse so far, she was very special to me and the stable,” Greene said. Following a change in the ownership group, Stolen Dance joined the now retired Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman and the mare signed off her career with a deserved success by going one better in the Thorndon. Justamaiz was a tough staying son of Guillotine who won eight races with his most notable successes on his home track at Te Rapa. “He won the Waikato Cup (Group 3, 2400m) and also won the Counties Cup (Group 3, 2100m) when it was held here so it was two local Cups for us,” Greene said. “You’d love to have a stable full of geldings like him that can have long careers and he was another real favourite.” Justamaiz also finished third in an edition of the Group 3 Wellington Cup (3200m). Greene’s most recent winner Goldiluxe broke through at Ruakaka at her fifth appearance. “She had been knocking on the door of late, she was pretty close to breaking her maiden at Pukekohe and then got tripped up by a track that was wetter than we expected at Rotorua,” he said. “It was a well-earned win for her, and the other horse (Flamboyance) is progressing well and keeps getting better with every start. “He has been a bit of a slow learner, but it looks like he’ll make the grade.” Horse racing news View the full article -
The biggest problem is totally that there are very few new owners coming through! Does anyone know of any new owners in the last few years? I don’t, and that is one of the biggest issues that will see harness racing die out! the costs are just too prohibitive for the average person to be able to afford to race a horse for any amount of stake money! The stake money is also going to decrease massively once Entain decide they have enough of propping the racing up financially, as they will not be getting enough wagering due to their flawed business policies. Does anyone seriously believe that Entain’s involvement will ensure the future viability of harness racing in NZ? If so, why?
-
-
Topics
-
