Doomed

It always used to be New Year eve. They just had a go in May for a year or two.

Just in case anyone thought NZTR had a monopoly on being a bit dopey. The Auck trots meeting they refer to last year was a shitty little 8 race card with poor fields and ordinary stakes. This time it was Auckland Cup night with 10 races and heaps more stakes. So of course the bloody turnovers were up.

I think I may have said this before, but just too stupid for words really. I hope they didn't spend too much time and money on it.

I have always thought Auckland should develop a sister city relationship with Port Lincoln.

Don't discourage the poor things.

I must admit, I do have to agree with Newmarket. I think when a jockey wins on a good horse it should only count as half a win for the jockeys premiership. When someone like Toni Davies wins on one of her longshots it could count as 2.5 wins, with a bonus half win if it pays more than $100. We could possibly consider retrospectively adjusting some previous premiership results accordingly. And Oppie's 99 group 1s are probably more like 13 if we are being fair.

Exactly what I thought. An incredibly neat job for someone sneaking in in the middle of the night and doing it with basic equipment.

I know exactly how you feel. I still remember my first visit to Trentham in March in the late 70s when The Twinkle won. After that i used to go to nearly every meeting until the early 90s. Then I was away for many years. I have been back to a couple of Cup meetings in recent years and it has been very depressing. Run down facilities and no atmosphere, despite a reasonable crowd on Cup Day. I doubt I will go again. I don't know if anything could have saved it, but I suspect it is too late now.

I agree totally with TAB. I think its brilliant that horses are able to remain competitive and be placed where they have more chance of winning. It does seem to be a win, win situation all round. The only problem currently is NZTR who generally refuse to split fields in the South to accommodate good numbers while happily running 4 and 5 horse fields in the CD, and elsewhere. Today at Omoto for instance, 6 ballots out of one race all scratched, and others would have been eliminated. It isn't always a one way street of course. Many horses get their confidence back in the South and are then able to venture back north and be competitive. Just yesterday Talisker was favourite in the Group 3 at Trentham and ran ok. He has never won a race in the NI. All of his wins have come in the SI. Likewise, Perfect Scenario has only won 4 times in the NI and 7 times in the SI. Of all clubs Trentham is the one that desperately needs SI horses, and jockeys, to create decent fields and racing. As someone mentioned, the SI has a great record in the Telegraph but no entrants this year so only a small field of about 10 I think despite the big stake. The movement of horses has always been a thing, but seems to be exploding with the Aussies importing hundreds of British horses and now HK and Singapore horses coming to NZ. The influx of northern horses to the SI is a good thing, as TAB suggests, it just needs NZTR to catch up now.

It's a bit like a card game isn't it. Kumara should see if they can swap the Nuggets for something like the Derby.

I would probably have gone but I thought it would have been sold out.

Signify paid about $50, trained by Snooky Cowan, who used to ride Grey Way. Probably my best priced winner at Trentham. Good quinella as well, but I forget who ran second. Southerners largely stopped contesting the Wgtn Cup after Reykjavik got relegated. I think only Ed and Samasaan have won it since then.

Mister Pompous won the Wgtn Stakes for Barney Ballin. Does that race still exist, or has it gone the same way as the Wgtn Derby?

And some jockeys used to ride at both meetings.

It might be worth considering holding the Telegraph at Omoto next year when Marton moves back to Awapuni. Multiple advantages. It would retain the same gap that Auckland prefers. It would get more southern entrants. It would be a better look with more people on course to watch it. And there would be a grandstand for the public. Seems a no brainer to me. I wonder if NZTR will spot the obvious advantages.

Gee TAB, how could you forget the greatest of them all. Signify.

I think today would have been the day Omakau normally raced. Instead we have no racing at all anywhere in NZ other than a low grade trot meeting tonight. Seems like a massive wasted opportunity.

They need Molly Bourke over. No mucking around with her in the field.

They should let people park along the running rail for the top half of the straight as they do at some of the country tracks to make the place look a bit fuller.

I wonder how people think the new super dooper day in March at Ellerslie will go. I'm sure TAB4Ever will have an informed opinion. Derby Day/Cup Day/Bonecrusher Day, I suppose now slot day. Quite sad how easy identifiers like Derby Day and Cup Day have gone to be replaced by slot day. 4 Group 1s, 1 Group 2, 2 Group 3s and a listed race. The worry must be whether we have enough top class horses to go around. Traditionally several of these races would have been on different days and the best horses might have raced in two or even three of the races. It probably means the best 3yos are unlikely to race at WFA much this season as they have 3 options against their own age on just this one day. The fillies and mares race might suffer if the top mares go to the Bonecrusher. It is all well and good to introduce massive stakes increases, but there are still only so many high class horses to go around. Certainly great stakes for the top horses. The question probably is whether it is the best way to distribute stakes money. It will also be interesting to see whether the people who oversee the black type races are brave enough to demote poor performing races regardless of high stakes.

The South Island is only about 200ks across Gamma. Its about the same as driving from Brisbane to Dalby or from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast.

Phar Lap was born across the road from the raceway, hence its naming.

He probably would have struggled to win a Timaru Cup anyhow. I think even Grey Way had about 5 goes before he finally won it.

Thank you for those extensive comments TAB. I'm not sure what the Rich Hill used to be called. The George Adams used to be at Trentham. I suppose there could have been one at Auckland as well. Lots of name changes these days. I note Wgtn has a brand new group 3 Phar Lap Trophy this weekend. I suppose it is the old Anniversary. And on the subject of ratings, only one rated above 86 in that Wgtn race and that's a 91. Yet another race that must be considered lucky to have black type compared to the Timaru Cup. You make a good point about Auckland having a lot of races under warnings. They seem to have given up on building up their own races and now are concentrating on grabbing established Group 1s from other clubs. Each time they do that of course one or more of their own races seem to suffer.

Looked like a good crowd at Kurow and good racing. The winners seemed to come from all over, especially Pam's horse.