Chief Stipe

An Update from Darin Balcombe – Tracks and Infrastructure 26 October 2023 An Update from Darin Balcombe – Tracks and Infrastructure NZTR is pleased to provide an update on the state of its tracks and infrastructure across the country. With several noteworthy milestones achieved in recent weeks, we anticipate an exceptional season of racing for the remainder of Spring and Summer. NZTR | October 26, 2023 Ellerslie Racecourse Ellerslie Racecourse is progressing well, with plans for a return to racing on 14 January. An assessment in mid-October, led by Strathayr's agronomist and Chris Hay from Elwick racecourse in Tasmania, confirmed the track's readiness for horses to gallop as planned in mid-to-late November. ATR have a comprehensive plan in place for a smooth return to racing, including gallops by four horses on 13 November, followed by further track gallops for 12 to 15 horses covering all areas of the track, jumpouts for 80 horses about 4 December, and trials for horses around 19 December. The final decision to resume racing at Ellerslie will depend on the successful completion of these steps.

OK - Ellerslie hasn't had much give from what I've seen.

Well @Freda they didn't get a dairy farmer from Reefton to sort it out instead a Track Manager from Elwick in Tasmania.

Just a question for @Freda and @curious and any other lingering trainers. If a track is primarily coarse sand and shifty do horses get down on their heels more?

Doesn't exactly instil a lot of confidence. Begs the question if less than a week's work can "fix it" why wasn't it done before?

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing [NZTR] and Auckland Thoroughbred Racing [ATR] would like to provide an update on the 'Return to Racing' for Ellerslie Racecourse. Following the Club's abandonment on Wednesday 10 April, all work that was prescribed has now been completed. A set of eight trials were held successfully at Ellerslie Racecourse today [Monday 15 April] giving the Club clearance to return to racing. A number of industry personnel and senior jockeys were in attendance at the trials today to monitor the surface including representatives from; Strathayr, the Racing Integrity Board, NZTR and ATR. The overarching feedback NZTR and ATR received following the trials was positive, with the following comments provided by senior jockeys on the state of the track: The first race meeting set to be held back at Ellerslie will be Saturday 20 April 2024. We extend our gratitude to Chris Hay from Elwick Racecourse for his assistance and advice post-abandonment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either NZTR or ATR below. Darin Balcombe Chief Operating Officer Darin.Balcombe@nztr.co.nz Craig Baker Executive General Manager-Racing and Operations craigb@ellerslie.co.nz

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing [NZTR] and Auckland Thoroughbred Racing [ATR] would like to provide an update on the 'Return to Racing' for Ellerslie Racecourse. Following the Club's abandonment on Wednesday 10 April, all work that was prescribed has now been completed. A set of eight trials were held successfully at Ellerslie Racecourse today [Monday 15 April] giving the Club clearance to return to racing. A number of industry personnel and senior jockeys were in attendance at the trials today to monitor the surface including representatives from; Strathayr, the Racing Integrity Board, NZTR and ATR. The overarching feedback NZTR and ATR received following the trials was positive, with the following comments provided by senior jockeys on the state of the track: "The track felt a lot better – they [ATR] obviously had done a lot of work on it since Wednesday. The horses are getting a good bit of traction and there’s actually a bit of kick back now, which highlights the more traction the horses are getting." - Senior Jockey Warren Kennedy "I noticeably felt more traction and more give in the track. The machinery work and the spreading of sand since last Thursday has certainly seen an improvement.” - Senior Jockey Craig Grylls The first race meeting set to be held back at Ellerslie will be Saturday 20 April 2024. We extend our gratitude to Chris Hay from Elwick Racecourse for his assistance and advice post-abandonment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either NZTR or ATR below. Darin Balcombe Chief Operating Officer Darin.Balcombe@nztr.co.nz Craig Baker Executive General Manager-Racing and Operations craigb@ellerslie.co.nz

Unfortunately if you have a good young horse and you want to chase black type for good stakes you don't have many options. I don't get how coring the ground then filling the cores up with more sand is going to change anything. Do you?

https://loveracing.nz/raceinfo/53086/meeting-overview.aspx

What do you know a few pub bookies still working in NZ? @Brodie is too long in the tooth to get around geo blocking using VPN's. Let alone filling out all the forms in OZ English.

I was looking for the official link and the opening sectionals. 1:12 opening 1200m.

I have no idea what the customised Strathayr system they put in place at Ellerslie is like. In my opinion the top layer needs a loam/organic matter content to improve its buffer capacity and to allow better turf growth while allowing hooves to actually penetrate the surface. That would work if the underlying drainage system is as per the Strathayr standard. It is going to take a lot of coring and mechanical intervention now to get the top layer right. I'm not sure what grass variety they have used either which might be another factor. I don't really have enough information to offer any more of an informed opinion than that. I was disappointed with what I saw.

The Jockey comments tell a story! Willo deflected. JMac was embarrassed. Ben Melham had a dig. Jockey Quotes - Queen Elizabeth Stakes Find out what the jockeys made of their mounts after the Group 1 $5,000,000 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Royal Randwick. Declan Bates (Pride Of Jenni): That was all her today. Over the last six months, the times I’ve ridden her we had a nice rhythm with each other and when I’d ask her to come back she’d come back a bit. “Today, when the horse on the outside came to her, she grabbed the bit and she didn’t drop it at any point. “I was actually concerned that we were doing a bit too much. To be honest, until we hit that line I wasn’t happy at all today until it was done. “I couldn’t tell you what the sectionals were. Generally once we’re doing it nice and smoothly, I’m aware. Today, just knew we were going quicker than I wanted to so it was a matter of coming back, coming back, and she said ‘nah I’m going’. She knows better. “It is amazing. Tony Ottobre has changed my life putting me on these horses. Just to be a part of this, you know, it is something special. It really is. “I knew when I got out today she had a spring in her step and I was concerned that she was getting to the end of her prep. “You can usually hear them coming and I was tempted to have a look back but I kept my eyes on the post.” Pride Of Jenni wins the Queen Elizabeth Stakes James McDonald (Via Sistina): “Embarassing.” Craig Williams (Mr Brightside): “I was so pleased with his performance. I love the way he felt and most importantly the way he recovered and came back after the race. Take nothing away from Pride Of Jenni. She is phenomenal. My horse turned the tables on Cascadian so it showed you that my horse was better than the Australian Cup.” Ben Melham (Cascadian): “Dunno what to say really. The race was over after three furlongs. Second and third horses should have tacked up. It was always going to win with a scenario like that.” Blake Shinn (Buckaroo): “He didn’t jump the best. Liked to have been forward. When he didn’t jump it put him out of the race. Winner dominated.” Nash Rawiller (Kovalica): “He’s run a great race. I think I really love this horse. Just didn’t work out too well for us today.” Josh Parr (Zeyrek): “He reached his top speed a long way from home and it’s not to his liking.” Tommy Berry (Place Du Carrousel): “Just not the same horse today.” Tom Marquand (Ceolwulf): “At halfway it was open what was happening. I was locked up on fence. I was happy with the complexion of the race. A tough run for him.”

Interesting the descisions made by the other Jockey's. At a Time: 2:02.02 Last 600m: 0:37.83 for the 2000m I think the others were left sleeping a bit. Aguably the best Jockey's in OZ in that race but I'm not sure they judged the pace that well. Would be interesting to see the early sectionals but I'm not sure where to find those. Perhaps @curious can help.

This camera could pan back far enough!

Where did you pull those figures from? Is buying a $1.01 share in a syndicate really serving anything? Who is parasitising who in this "partnership"?

But retail businesses are very careful not to piss off their core long term customers. Probably because they have open competition. You just don't get it do you? For a start I haven't thrown any toys out of the cot but I do object to seeing a group selected out for favouritism over the average customer. You may well like joining the boys as a middle aged stale grey because you want to be part of the fun and in your own words mingle with some of the young fillies but that type of shallowness isn't for me.

Which should be - Please take the moderation off or I'm out of here. I gather you are outta hair already. Why is it you can post sensibly on you Twitter (X) page and not here?

Only if the refund was given back as a bonus bet. All the talk so far has been they got cash back. The difference between a bonus bet (virtual money) and cash back is considerable in terms of profit/loss to the TAB. The cash back is real money however they may put a restriction on it being withdrawn only after a specified time period. I've seen them do that before.

@TAB For Ever I think @the galah put it very well but I'd just like to reinforce that because many of us have a different opinion it doesnt make us jealous or haters. In fact most of has have had considerable skin in the game over the decades and have a long passion for the game. However we are getting somewhat cynical of all the hype and BS that we have seen time and time again for no real fundamental change. Yeah stakes increase (on borrowed shareholder funds) and the marketing hype goes ballistic. Meanwhile some of us are desperately looking for a decent track to train on, a safe and fair track to race on, a decent jockey or driver to handle our horses assuming that the programming and handicapping give us an opportunity to compete for those glorious stakes to provide an opportunity for ENTAIN to pay back their marketing budget and subsidised stakes. Here's hoping that with the BGP getting into horse ownership that they use their apparent influence to get some fundamental change. Perhaps they might think differently if their horse goes around at Ellerslie on KM night and ends up injured.

I've got a really good building to sell you! Yep the bonus bets are a genius strategy. Here's some virtual dollars which you can use to bet on fixed odds which we'll adjust the price to cover ourselves and then deduct the bonus "gift" if you happen to win. Why don't they just stop all this BS and offer a fair competitive price in a book that isn't at 140%? Oh that's right soon they can offer whatever they want because they'll have more of a monopoly.

Most serious punters know that most of the promotions are cons targeted at the gullible. Take a boosted bet for example. A classic supermarket ploy where you advertise that the recommended retail price is $10 but have it on special at $5 when no one sells it at $10 ever. So a boosted price is just the real price with the TAB hoping the mug newbies buy at the non boosted price.

So? Any number of syndicates do the same thing.

But can't they do all that without the TAB subsidising their bets?