Its seriously laughable.

And they are running it as a tote race to advertise to everyone how unsuccessful their series has become.

I just read the conditions,they could have run it as a non tote for a smaller stake,but no.

they ran that invercargill group 3 race which had 1 canterbury horse win by the length of the straight while the southlanders treated it like a trial.7 southland horses lined up,most of which had manners  no canterbruy trainer would have taken them to the races.Very messy race.

the north island will no doubt get a reasonable field.

So,its been obvious for some time,the hrnz focus on 2 year old racing has worked in the north,but failed to do anything whatsoever for the overall numbers racing in that district.

whereas in the south isalnd its helped retain only a small number of owners and trainers that support 2 year old racing,but i believe is directly related to the drop off in particaipation of people with horses older than 2 year olds. I'm sure of that. Those people have left as they felt undervalued and unappreciated. And of course they were correct to leave. 

3 horse 2 year old races is advertising to everyone,harness racing in canterbury is not going well.

it has a $1.30 favorite in the lazarus effect.

last week addington had a 7 horse 2 year old trot as there race 6..

timeslots is something i've mentioned quite a lot over the last few yers. I don't bring it up these days.Only so many times you can make a point.

well i just watched the victorian presentation that was posted on the other channel. And they brought up just how important timeslots were and they also brought up the need for the right races to be run in the right timeslots to maximise turnovers.

They said the worse thing they could do  turnover wise, was to put a small field with a hot favorite in a good timeslot.

reality is addington do it all the time.

i had to chuckle last week at ashburton.i've mentioned a few times about how they could increase turnover by changing their starting routine.

well last week they did change the starting routine,but not as i have suggested,instead they started a stand start race at ashburton half a minute before start time.

the stipes report noted a timing error was identified and rectified prior to the next race.

i guess thats stipe talk for  the starter changed the time on his watch.

as i've pointed out before,if you go back to the previous years stats, the numbers indicated the region in fastest decline both % wise and by far numbers wise,was the area where canterbury is located.

Like,everything points to canterbury needing attention to maintain numbers,yet hrnz continue placing upper north islanders needs ahead of those in canterbury.

it just makes no sense when you look at the numbers.

You have to ask

if the likes of the trackside presenters and hrnz really think they are such a great idea,then why not replicate it in canterbury.

Are they getting any extra numbers up there due to the higher metro stakes.they have 12 and 9 nominated this week for the finals.Wouldn't they get the same field if they just ran for the same stake they run at addington for that class of horse.

is it a wise use of hrnz $.Why are the upper north island exempt?

another thing that is noticeable when you compare auckland to addington.

the upper noth island 2 year old races always tend to have larger fields than they do in the south island.

like,here we are,and hrnz is still programming $30,000 races for 2 year olds that get only 3 nomintions in canterbury,same again this week.

were any questions asked of the people who came up with the ideas for 2 year old racing that failed.Like we predicted they wouldn't get anymore numbers wise and that it was a foolish use of resources.

one thing thats been obvious in the last couple of yeras. You get much more common sense shown on thios forum by its posters than came out of hrnz.

This is controlled by How many horses the current trainers want to train . 

It should be a Rock solid number. A lot of Auckland trainers are old though , and train far less numbers than they used to .

You wouldn't want any more horses racing , than at present as some will LOSE money then for their owners. The current average of 9 horse fields is excellent.

This means every horse that constantly runs in 9 horse fields , should be running a place at least every 3rd Race start ( Law of Averages) you guys don't see how important that is , but it is vital . to keep the owners interested , and paying their way. Vital. 

Horses racing need to be able to earn prizemoney.

You cannot have more horses racing,  than races that they are able to win.  The current number is quite good . The field sizes and number of horses in training this year/season is excellent as those that are competing are nearly All paying their way over the year. ( In NZ you need at least 2 wins per year to break even ) in QLD it's 4. 

New Owners and stakeholders

That's up to the Syndicate People. Plenty of Tasmanians race Penny share Pacers for example , and the thoroughbred industry is Notorious for it. 

Wagering 

The Time of the Meeting is vital for the future. Fridays are the best as the International dollars are gathered then . Lots of money bet as people are out on the Friday night putting their Saturday gallops bets on  , at the pub or club with mates afterwork etc. A HIGH earning time for Entain , gathering the International dollar. not much gained on a Sunday Internationally so Auckland not racing then is the correct decision. And bloody good for the participants to get a day off too. they earned it. 

So lets hope the Summit has some good ideas to keep the lights on and the action rolling .

Run the Interdominion would be a Good one lol. 🤣 what a good one Auckland put on in 2019 and smashed the Aussies. the Fight back was on . nowadays gone a bit limp lol. 

The Implementation Group will provide a vehicle for moving ideas forward and ensuring the enthusiasm generated by the Summit translates into meaningful industry outcomes,” Steele said.

The Summit also provided a valuable opportunity to review key industry data, including horse population trends, ownership participation, wagering performance and broader economic and operational challenges.

i suppose thats all they could say.

Because if they made any comment about the rest of the drivers ,they would be saying,either never tried an inch or obviously had no idea of judging pace.

i've seen drivers more agrression in a 1  horse workout.

Mark purdon the only exception.he obviously tries each time..

in particular the juniot drivers,c dalgety,h orange never even pulled out,even at the finish. R harrison drove just as bad..

r fensom on tere,an enven sleepier drive,clearly not trying at all.

i've said it before,the reason people don't bet on the trots in auckland is because they don't get the impression the drivers are trying.

Can't say i've heard that before and it conjured up some thoughts in my mind about what he may have meant he had been doing..

Well ,mr google had the answer.

well turns out in aircrafts  the levers of the likes of the throttle are topped with round,ball lshaped grips.

the wall refers to the partition separating the engine from the cockpit.

so when they take off the pilot he grabs the balls of the throttle and pushes them forward where they contact the partition,thus achieving maximum speed.

i hope he keeps the colourful comments coming.

There has never been a stable that has so many horses gallop in their races!

They dont appear badly gaited, but there has to be a reason why so many gallop out of their gear, free of interference?

according to dunn,he'd love to drive again in nz but won't because he felt people he knows and himself were unfairly trreated in operation inca.

and because people in officialdom who worked on that case are still working ,he said he won't as a matter of principle.

Now i have always thought dexter dunn is a great guy,so is the whole family.everyone does. 

and when he says some people were unfairly treated,well fair enough.he would know. 

But he would know that part of operation inca, involved  a horse being pulled in a race at nelson,that horse being a dunn trained horse.And then ,according to everyone,the  driver,not a dunn,went and bragged tro undecover cops(female) that thats what he could do. Just at a point when the cops were supposwedly weighing up whether they had enough evidence to continue the operation inca.

sometimes people do get persecuted when they don't deserve it,sometimes its just vbecause someone in officaildom has taken a dislike to you. Now that is very wrong.

But sometimes,the whole process is a result of someone actually soing something that is very wrong.Thats what operation inca was all about. Had that not happened then other people who got persecuted,would never have got tied up in the whole thing.

hey,i'm not criticising dexter dunn,as i say,he certainly would have lived it so its his call,i'm just saying to blame officaldom as the sloe reasion for not driving in nz seems a bit unusual given the circumstances.

Thought they may have changed the format seem they had a month or so off, but no just as bad!

Idea is good, the format is shocking and grown men acting like PLONKERS!

Just a common sense decision to cancel something that did nothing to increase the number of 2 year olds racing,which was one of its aims..

same as the decisoion to drop the harness 5000 stakes from 60 to 40,000. Just common sense.that was predicted as well.

actually my predcitions about the  stake cuts seems to have been accurate as well.I'd been saying for a year or so,10% on the run of the mill and 25% on the high end.

pretty sensible decision making coming out of hrnz around where the cuts should be made.

Hard to tell what will happen in 12 months,but the signs are the people in charge are making better decisions than they used to. 

Not sure how they get more people to punt though.Just can't see that happening.

Racing has to tie itself to income from the tab and they need the tab to be successful in increasing their returns from sports betting and i wonder down the track if they can tie themselves to on line casion income. Not sure how that works but maybe winston can guide things if he gets back in power.May need to change the minister of internal affairs first.. she wasn't keen on the tab.who knows

i had thought national/nz first/act would win,but lots of people struggling more,thanks donald trump ,so maybe labour have a chance after all. 

That of course is going to impact everyone in the harness industry as travel is a significant cost for anyone who is taking horses to the races and owners will pay more as well..

then you have the discretionary $ available from punting households. That must be impacted by the extra they pay for petrol and the inevitable rise  other costs.

since the war started,iran have stated over and over ,that they will not end the war until they are ready,not when the usa says.And they have repeatedly said their strategy is to create economic turmoil that exposes the usa  for the instigators of the worlds economic turmoil and that way they the usa will never come back whenever they want to bomb the hell out of them and that they want reparations and one or two other strategic things. So that strategy makes sense when you think about it ,so its irrelevant what trump says about the war,even though trump seems to haver lost his marbles.I used to be a trump supporter,but what a hypocrite he.'s turned out to be. Went on and on about not wanting death and destruction in ukraine but then goes and does the same thing. And what about what hes doing to the cuban people

Anyways,the point is,this war is going to impacteverything and its going to be long term impacts and the harness industry needs to start thinking of strategies to ensure they operate within their budgets going forward. We all think they aren't currently,so they really need to start thinking ahead to limit the impacts of the war. Because this will defintely have an impact.

what i don't quite understand is why people are saying racing's presence will be lost to some areas.

for example,when the oamaru racetrack is discussed. Everyone seems to be saying they are closng the track.

yet ,everyone would know they aren't closing the track,just closing it as a track that holds race days.The small number of trainers who really do train quite large numbers,well they won't be moving.

they will still have committees that will ensure the tracks are maintained  and suitable for training.So the only thing i see is if you live there then you may have to take a turn occassionally with the jobs the caretaker used to do.

as to caretakers.i've seen them,they do their jobs well,but they also have very cushy nunbers and at some tracks i've noticed they  assert sometimes unecessary oversight which is not conducive to people who use their tracks.I'm just telling it as it is. I'm not saying any new committee that may decide who does what if they no longer have a caretaker will be any better,but thats just the way it is.In the past i've given several examples of what i mean by that.

And then you have people saying well oamaru have a higher profit ratio to other clubs that are being kept.

so why are thiose people who say that assuming that the racemeetings the likes of oamaru held,would be transferred to tracks that returns the industry lower profits. Why wouldn't hrnz transfer their dates to clubs that actually return higher profits. Just saying. Hey,i wouldn't have any faith in hrnz looking at it from a common sense point of view given their track record recently,but they may actually use common sense for once.

And there seems to be a push to save motukarara.

personally i just don't get why?

If it closed it would just be the same as oamaru. still a training track Only thing is,motukarara would be lucky to havea dozern different horses trained there most weeks.

and i've many times pointed out there christmas meeting is very popular,but the reason there looks so many there is because the depth of the carpark. In other words,its elongated carpark makes it look like theres more there than there actually are.There grass track is certainly good,but then again thats because no one gets to use it . Compare that to methven where they are always having trials and workouts.I never quite understand why people don't factor that in.

so the issue either for or against motuukarara seems to be people are arguing its returns to the industry from the meetings it holds are good. Well thats true. But then again,why wouldn't hrnz just transfer their meeting to other grass tracks in the region. Like theres 3 other grass tracks,so why wouldn't they generate as good as returns.What are the true level of savings if motukarara was to go.

like,how can anyone say its a good or bad thing if motukarara goes if they don't have the facts and figures relating to costs such as how much a year does hrnz give that club to maintain its facilities,how much each meeting does the club pay to the people who run they are tenanted to,theres all sorts of other cost.wouldn't that be better going towards another harness club.

what i'm really saying is,all this talk about this and that,so much is emmotive arguments,so much is not based on facts and figures,and really at the end of the day we will be left for those at hrnz to decide and who really trusts them to make smart decisions based on their recent efforts.

it sort of was informative in some ways and not so in others.

mr jarrold came acroos as talking sense.So thats a good thing i guess.

I didn't hear them mention what the industries annual payout from the tab would  approximately be after the entain guaranteed minimum comes off in a couple of years..I thought that a bit strange.

project stamina seemed to lay out a plan for the future which made sense,i guess.They have to have a plan and now they've got one.

the tracks thing.That all seemed to make sense to me.Reality has to take priority at some point.

What did strike me was guerin pushed so hard for the need to retain alexandra park.

i wondered about what guerin said . Hey,i don't live in auckland,but guerin repeatedly said,ellerslie and alexandra park are only 1km apart,so if ellerslie doesn't have traffic issues,then why are you saying alexandra park does.I wondered to myself,are traffic flows around 4 and 5 o'clock on friday nights in auckland ,similar to traffic flowes on a saturday mid morning.I mean ,mickey g lives there and he was saying he couldn't see the differnece.Was that not a strange thing to claim.

And mickey g,seems to base his thinking around needing to retain alexandra park around population base.No wonder he loved mr steele.Its because he has similar views. At least mr jarrold made sense when he talked about alexandra park.seemed to say,well if we can increase the numbers in particpants and horses in the region,yes auckland could well have a case for keeping going. Like,i hate to tell mickey g this,but theres more chance of chris luxon growing a full head of hair than the number of participants increasing in the northern region.sorry mickey g,but your dreaming there bud.

and i also noted mr jarrold's comment's about breeding iniatives to keep the number of mares being bred up.

well,my take was,he,like others clearly don't fully understand why people have got rid of their broodmares , are no longing breeding ,or just being lost to the sport.Like,they can point tom breeding numbers being stabalised this year,but who was it that was breeding and who was it that lost.In other words,the ones they incentivised they retained and the ones they didn't they lost. 

i just had a look at the hrnz website and it has the latest breeding incentives for next year.it seems to have been wriiten up to exclude my mare.Hey whats new.Nothing is the answer to that.Why not incentivise everyone instead of having a system that some benefit from and does nothing for others.

but seriously,why wasn't he charged with failing to give the red hot favorite a chance of winning.

i don't think i've ever seen a more open and shut case.

sitting last throughout,making no attempt at all to improve ,never giving it a winning chance,effectively just giving it a wee sprint from the 300m. Flying home and making up at 6-7 lengths on everything in the straight.

that type of inaction makes an absolute mockery of when the times charge drivers with whip offences or the likes of d oconnell,when he sat outside the leader at ashburton.Penalised for trying too hard,but not for not trying

you can't expect punters to have any confidence in the product when they see things like that green lighted by officialdom.

to be honest,i  wasn't surprised,its southland.But that doesn't make it right.

also,how far did the 4th horse gallop. To me ,and i've counted the pylons sevral times,it was over 150m in a gallop and it also never lost any ground while in a gallop. I thought the rules said a horse should be disqualified if they do that.

i've pointed out before when thats happened,i remeber one horse appeared to gallop over 150m early in a race in southland and it was still in 3rd place,well clear of some who had trotted ,but no,no change to placings.

And to be honest i thought it about summed up why greyhound racing has  ended as it has.

i thought it was going to leave me feeling really sad when i started watching it.

it started with a clip of a race at addington yesterday where the dogs happily chased the bunny.

how can people think theres anything much wrong with that i thought. 

i expected it to be followed by a segment convering the sadness of the industries closure.The impacts both mentally and physically on participants and the real public perception tear jerker,who's going to look after our dogs as well as we do when the industry closes.

But no.it's the greyhound industry.

instead the next segment was of some morons at aucklands  sunday meeting claiming they were going to shoot all their dogs next week as they no longer had need tor them because the people on the other side of the fence had got their way.So this  absolute moron is so dumb that he hasn't the abilty to think that the people with the cell phones filming him,that is the animal welfare protesters who have used the media well,won't then use his comments to say,there you go,we told you so.

then they interviewed edward rennell and he said,oh that person  doesn't have any greyhounds in his care and he was just winding up the people on the other side of the fence and just being stupid.

No sign of outrage or anger about what was said,instead no hes just  stupid.

well,there in a nutshell is why they closed down greyhound racing.

the industry and those within it simply brushed aside repeated animal welfare issues and never placed the importance they should have on public perception,nor did they ever really care too much about it until it was too late..

I once had  few conversations with someone on some integrity  panel who was halping write a report into greyhound racing a few years ago. I said to him ,what about this live baiting thing and what about these other things,will the industry ever hold people truly accountable.

well he summed up greyhound racing in just one sentence. He said,look,i can't tell you some of the things we're hearing,but i can tell you i think theres some really feral people who are a  very  small minority,but they taint the whole industry. Its not good.

so there you go,the tv segment ended with me feeling,well i think its sad,but really you can see why its closing if they can't even generate a sympathetic news story out of thier closing.

Oh and i think,like the news media has done over the years,the may not have got their facts right either when they said how much greyhound trainers were getting to look after their dogs instead of being put down. The reporter said $36 a day they would be getting for each dog.I find that hard to believe. Someone may know,but are they really getting $252 a week to look after every greyhound. Surely the $36 is more likely to be a week ,not a day.who knows.

The same thing happened to the great Popular Alm once and he missed a year with repair to a hind limb , but did make it back to the track for a short time later on.

So hopefully the Repair of Got The Chocolates goes well , and we see him again in future seasons.

Condolences to the owners of the Choc's and all the Diamonds team , who must be pretty shattered with the Stable Star meeting this Set-Back. 

here's a pic of the repair done to Vinny Knights champion horse .  

Popular Alm, the champion standardbred pacing horse known affectionately as "Poppy," suffered a severe fracture in his hind leg during trackwork in the 1980s. Despite fears that his career and life were over, he underwent successful surgery with metal screws inserted into the leg and made a famous racing comeback before later retiring to stud. 

the economic contribution they make to public attendance and betting turnover is far overvalued and outwieghed by the cost of providing the stake money needed to attract them here.

When are those in charge going to start caring more about new zealand people than they do about rich australians.

i believe there will be a growing resentment by those in the trenches of nz harness racing,.

industry leadership have to stop placing greater value on having australian participation in one off high stake races over the value in having a new zealander turn up week in and week out with their horse to race.

Its just so dumb as.The only reason they have got away with it is because those in the trenches are so apathetic,like almost acting brain dead in recognising how they are being treated..i know thats harsh,but i'ts just true.i've said it before

well my feeling is things are changing,the lights have gone on in the minds of nz participants who will be impacted by the economic fallout from the incompentent finanacial management since the entain cash splash

New zealanders are not going to be happy if their needs are placed below that of a australian millionaire.I can sense it.

and lets be honest.They need to do the complete opposite of what the mainstream media says is good for nz harness racing  Take what m guerin says is good for the industry. Apart from gammalite,has anyone  backed and proritised so many losing policies and personel placements,for the nz industry..

and do people turn up to watch leap to fame or keayang ,i forget its last name,anyway.

have people not seen who turns up on nz cup day these days. Sure they would enjoy watching leap to fame,but its not why they are there.If they really were there to see leap to fame,then why do they get more attendance at the westport trots,or motukarara than they do at addington on show day.Show day is a public holday and you've got leap to fame and the slot races the media love,yet more people turn out at holdiay meetings full of low grade horses.You know ,the low grade days full of new zealand people and horses,that are going to be taking a pay cut because they prioritsed australians.Go figure.

it says they expect to sell close to a million of these bags of potato chip with a nz cup themed packaging and a chance to go into a draw for $5000 and a years supply of chips.

personally i  think this is a really smart marketing promotion.. a graeme jones,addingtons culinary operations maanager apparantly had a hand in coming up with the idea

thats the very type of thinking that i've referred to in the past.

Harness racing needs to remain in the psyche of new zealanders. And this type if promption is a means to an end to create that.

in the past i've made several suggestions clubs  could use to achieve that.

one of my suggestions was that the likes of addington should make use of those portable A frame advertising boards you see located on empty corners and  business fronts around the city.. No reason they can't approach business owners  and ask them to allow them to be dispayed outside their businesses in lieu of say a race sponsorship or some sort of invite. Win /win type thinking.

anyway,its the heartland type promotion thinking that is smart and is needed more.

Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) has announced a proposal to acquire the assets of Waikato Bay of Plenty Harness Racing Inc, including Cambridge Raceway, protecting the continuity of racing and training at Cambridge while retaining strategic options for the future.

The proposal follows several years of work between HRNZ and Waikato Bay of Plenty Harness Racing (WBOP) to restore the Club to financial sustainability. 

Over this period HRNZ has commissioned independent reviews of the club’s financial position, WBOP has implemented a range of restructuring initiatives, and HRNZ has provided loan support to keep racing operations running.

After assessing all available options and undertaking extensive internal discussion, the WBOP Board approached HRNZ to explore a joint resolution in the spirit of transparency and a shared commitment to keeping Harness Racing operating in the Waikato.

Cambridge Raceway is a strategically important harness racing and training venue. It supports hundreds of participants, hosts premier race meetings, and provides critical racing and training infrastructure.

The proposal is consistent with the direction of Project Stamina, which recognises the strategic importance of sustainable racing and training infrastructure in the upper North Island. 

The proposed acquisition is intended to protect continuity at Cambridge Raceway while preserving HRNZ’s ability to consider future infrastructure options through the further business-case and consultation processes contemplated by Project Stamina.

HRNZ Chair Grant Jarrold said that it has become clear that HRNZ needs to act if racing at Cambridge Raceway is to continue. 

“Cambridge Raceway is critical to harness racing in the North Island, and this proposal is designed to secure its immediate future," Jarrold said.

“Acquiring the WBOP Group's assets would allow racing to continue, provide an orderly pathway for creditors, provide working capital through the transition, and give HRNZ the ability to undertake the maintenance the venue needs.”

“After thorough consideration of the options available, the Board believes the HRNZ acquisition is the best available outcome, safeguarding the long-term future of harness racing in the Waikato and giving participants, staff, creditors and the wider industry certainty,” Jarrold said.

WBOP Chair, John Coulam said the proposal presented the best available pathway for the Club and its members.

"The Board has worked hard over several years to improve the club's financial position and has carefully considered the options available. While this has been a difficult decision, we believe this proposal provides the greatest certainty for our members, participants, staff and creditors, while protecting the continuity of racing and training at Cambridge and preserving options for its future development."

The proposal remains conditional on approval by both HRNZ and WBOP members at Special General Meetings to be held on 31 August and 01 September. Subject to approval, settlement is expected in late September.

For further information contact: Anna Flynn – anna.flynn@hrnz.co.nz

the latest press release seems well written and probably gets the balance about right for being realistic and also not being too pessimistic.

thats what industry participants need to see from hrnz going forward.

participants need to see hrnz have a workable plan to regain the industries confidence in them and that they're being honest.

stake cuts,no slot races,less races in thinly populated areas,ciost cutting at hrnz,stakes cut more at the high end.