barryb

First time on a loose track with Blinkers this prep, he would have been all over it.

Do you not think this happens at every NZ Raceday? When the meeting is on your doorstep & you have a chance of collecting something, why would you not do it?. why would you go to a trial to race for nothing and the trial could be further away than your local meeting which is about 5km from Rogies place at the furtherest.

Looks like the Princess didnt make it back.

https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/08/14/race-day-injury-rate-nz-thoroughbreds/ I can’t find the jumps info but I am sure it’s also significantly lower as well.

What are you talking about? The UK fatality and Injury rate is much worse than NZs, I don’t think we have anything to learn from them.

2 Euthanised today at Rotorua, terrible day and worst this yr. 1 in the first hurdle and a horse that had won $700k and one in race 4.

To be fair Reefton, no bog tracks at Te Rapa in the last 20yrs. Last Saturday it was a heavy 10 and they were winning from everywhere & the grass looked great, I heard no whinging of kickback etc either. There is a programme to fix the sand issue or at least minimise it later this yr.

Or have them located in a bunker off site like League does to reduce costs.

Only if you want us to die of boredom earlier. Sorry but that would drive me insane and in fact would mean I would never attend again. Harness unfortunately is too boring for those of us in NZ, sorry Reefton I meant the North Island.

I think you need to re-read my post again Reefton, I suggested shutting Te Rapa, Trentham & Pukekohe all Metro tracks I would have thought. & upgrading these ones below, which are hardly city tracks, Avondale is currently a dive, but has a great surface. " Upgrade Avondale, build a new track at Cambridge, Upgrade Wairoa & race more often, upgrade Tauherenikau & Waverley, modernise Otaki & Foxton, Modernise Timaru & Riverton".

Yeah they do want it, they just don’t want all afternoon. That’s where my 3 hrs of Racing 20 comes from,1 November till 28 Feb 5pm till 8pm. Imagine finishing work at 4pm Friday, grabbing the kids for a nights entertainment every 20 mins, then home at 8pm. Makes bloody good sense to me.

The only issue I have with what you say Huey is that if you downgrade NZ any further then you risk Australian interest in our product waning, right now they keep us afloat, the pools are the size they are thanks to Aussies, we just need to have that in the back of our minds.

As I said Huey, it’s an image they have to deal with to progress. Racings other challenge is how to get women more involved, it must find ways to get women having a flutter rather than Pokies or Lotto, again the key here is horse ownership, women are open to owning horses and the attraction of being on course dressed up. The future of on course racing rests with getting female interest much higher than it is currently, along with that comes bigger interest from kids etc. None of this is that hard to implement, just takes a bit of thinking and effort.

I am suggesting leaving Taupo, Tauherenikau, Omakau, Motukarara as the holiday venues and occassional other times, the rest NO. The notion that they are good introductions to the sport is a fallacy & a myth that many talk about but the reality is far different I think. The kind of People I have seen at Taupo or Tauherenikau over Xmas are not ever going to venture to another racing meeting throughout the yr, they are unlikely to open an account other than for the app on the day (never to be funded again) & they certainly are not going to venture inside a TAB which they perceive is full of gambling lowlifes and dropkicks, thats the image the TAB has to deal with to progress. The best way to develop the client base is via horse ownership, invest time and money into progressive low cost ways to get people into a horse, think outside the square with funding etc, I can name 5 different options that should be considered but it would take some clever forward thinking people & some of the more greedy breeders taking a small hit for the sake of the industry.

Did you re-read what you posted, they are all huge costs with nothing that is going to support increased returns. The money to do that has to come from somewhere & like any business unless you grow your client base or returns they you have zero hope of developing what you are suggesting.

Unfortunately all that will do is downgrade racing even further, the stream of horses to Aus will become a flood, if anything leave industry days at $10k and pour money into Saturday to at least give us something quality to aim for & if your horse is good enough to get out of industry raing then it can race for decent stakes.

Yes I am the same on closing tracks, but am facing reality that the horse flesh is not there to support them anymore, you end up downgrading everyone with shit racing and smaller fields. The community racing is coming to an end anyway Huey, the volunteer base is nearing 70-80 yrs of age, they are dropping away now. Racing needs radical thinking and a complete shift from its current way to survive, holding onto yesteryear is not going to save it. Plenty are going to be pissed off and affected, I have never seen any industry reform without that happening. The problem with racing is everyone wants something done as long as it doesn't affect them, finally racing does have some people who are keen to shift things along, there appears to be some clever people at RITA whom can do that, probably best to get in behind it or risk the racing game becoming extinct in 10yrs.

Racing needs to be over quicker. 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon 1-4pm, 20 min intervals. Summer time it needs to be 5-8pm. Rugby needed 7s, Cricket 20/20, Racing needs 3hr Twillight. Its a bore fest spending the whole day watching it, there is no life or atmosphere on track, absolutely zero to draw anyone along other than those close to the cemetery. Plus a jumps carnival stretching the country, put up some decent money every Saturday, jumps only 3 North and 1 South Meeting for the month of July, every race jumps or highweight. with points and entry into the final big one on the last Saturday. Scrap these tracks to consolidate costs: Pukekohe, Te Teko, Te Aroha, Te Rapa, Te Awamutu, Rotorua, Gisborne, Waipukarau, Hawera, Trentham, all West Coast tracks, Winton, Gore & Ascot Park. Upgrade Avondale, build a new track at Cambridge, Upgrade Wairoa & race more often, upgrade Tauherenikau & Waverley, modernise Otaki & Foxton, Modernise Timaru & Riverton. Demolish the clubs & establish regional hubs professionally run businesses with supporting volunteers, Northern, CD & Southern Racing. Set up Ellerslie to race every 2nd Saturday all yr round. Engage an experienced marketing company to support the heavy promotion and development of Summer racing

Always been the same, compare them to Sportsbet, the gap is even wider.

Did I say they represent value? No. You are the one chasing multitudes of winners, maybe you should be including it in your criteria.

Where do I find the information on what weight a horse can carry before they are a over there maximum winning weight. Again as per the chief, you have posted a subjective analysis that cannot be determined, its purely a guess.

Please do tell us by what % does a 4kg apprentice increase the winning chances of say a horse weighted at 59kg. How much for Good, Dead,Slow Heavy. I need to understand how to allocate the advantage or do I just take it as a given its chances will increase because a Trainer thinks so?.

When you can put up selections before the race then anything you say might be taken seriously. Until you do then you will remain the laughing stock of racing forums. A challenge to you and your brother ATA with regard to Te Rapa this Saturday, you will know by now that there is a bias, tommorrow you will know draws and blinkers, friday prices will be up and Sat .morning scr are out, please can you both suggest what we back on this easy to work out bias track.

Correct chief, it is also correct that horses going up in weight win significantly more than horses going down in weight. The impact of weight change is small and not worthy of the emphasis placed on it.

Please tell us in Handicaps why the lightest weighted doesn’t win 50% or more races, as using the logic you have given, it must be able to run faster? and if it’s got blinkers then it’s a cert.