Doomed

I agree totally. I was watching something on tvnz+ last night and that everest advert popped up every few minutes. Must be costing a fortune. I must admit, I have virtually zero interest in the race. Its just an overhyped novelty event.

I was at the last Woodville meeting. Brilliant racecourse. Probably the best grandstand facilities of any course of its size with a similar number of meetings anywhere in NZ. Anyone who wanted to close down Woodville must be an absolute halfwit. I'm a bit surprised some of those homeless January meetings weren't redirected to Woodville rather than Trentham. I think everyone would be better off.

They never really thought through the training bit. They are desperate to get rid of Timaru, but there are a string of winners coming from there these days. I can't really imagine Leonard Stewart and several others wanting to move to Riccarton to train.

I am quite certain that when he recommended some tracks be sold off that he didn't realise how bad some of the major tracks were. I'm sure he had no idea that Hastings, Awapuni, Te Aroha etc would have to be closed for long periods, and that Ellerslie didn't want to race during the winter months any more, and that the AWTs would prove relatively unpopular with trainers. In most industries they would take a break and reassess the situation if the original theories proved not to be working.

I thought it was a bit silly myself. 3 maiden races with about 8, 10 and 11 horses last time I looked. There is a low key meeting today with only 8 races, why not run those three maidens today?

And yet they liked everything else that he suggested. His suggestion that putting a disproportionate amount of stakes into a few top races is a waste of money doesn't fit with the overall agenda.

That was very interesting Curious. Thank you for putting it up. He speaks well. It makes me realise he has been badly maligned by many in NZ (including myself) because of taking advice from people with their own malicious agendas.

Good to see at least one body showing some common sense. The point that many seem to have missed is that for every race being upgraded another race really should be downgraded. Not only to keep the total number of black type races in balance, but also in recognition of the fact that every time a new high stakes race like the Everest pops up it detracts from the quality of some existing races. There really have been some very poor black type races in Australia over recent years. Traditional black type races being run for $200,000 and $300,000 have been totally over shadowed by slot races and sales races being run for millions.

I was away two weeks ago (watching one race at Hastings) so I wasn't aware there was widespread criticism of Riccarton. I certainly didn't see anything mentioned on here. Was it a bad track that day? I didn't see any races. Ashburton certainly seemed to favour front runners yesterday, but then again so did Te Rapa, Rosehill and Caulfield.

They will hardly want someone like that to rock the boat. It will be a yes man, or woman.

It would be a thankless task to take over as the CEO of NZTR at this stage. There has already been so much sunken cost, in the broader sense, put into "the way forward". They appear to be totally unwilling to admit that they ever got anything wrong. I have no idea what a new CEO could hope to achieve. It appears he (she?) would have little support for redistributing stakes money, shuffling the list of "favoured tracks", or revising several other policies that appear to be firmly locked in.

I imagine it's so he can get free entry and hospitality for the Karaka and slot races.

The grey mare tried it the last race at Randwick and put up a hell of an effort.

They were both shorter than that today, which surprised me.

I agree the trials sound strange, but I think there is a rule that if a meeting is postponed, as effectively HB was, then a jockey with a suspension looming can ride on the new day. That's just my vague recollection. It has happened before.

I wonder whether one of the problems is trying to accommodate a very awkward 1,600m start. I have often wondered why so many NZ racecourses have terrible 1,600m starts. It is almost as if 1,600m wasn't a popular distance when these tracks were designed many years ago. The only two tracks I know of that have made an effort to fix their 1,600m starts are Oamaru and Woodville. Both very successfully, but doesn't seem to have done either club much good. Perhaps HB simply needs to give up on 1,600m races so the track can be properly cambered. Gore seems to survive without 1,600m racing. HB could follow the lead of Rosehill and Rotorua and stick to 1,500m races.

It's a tired looking track and they are already starting to sell off land around it. I have no idea why they haven't pulled down the old tote building. The entrance to the car park at the top of the straight is hidden away with zero signage. It is probably destined to be a little provincial track with low key racing and a reasonable climate, but it might have been cheaper to retain Wairoa and Waipukurau for that and sell off Hastings for housing. If they sold off Hastings they could probably have a $1m Waipukurau Cup every year.,

So a horse can become NZ Horse of the Year without having a single start in NZ. Seems bizarre to me.

10 races, lots of ballots. Horses desperate to get a start on a decent grass track. And that's after a similar meeting an hour down the road only 3 days earlier.

Good to see a mainstream media story about one of the greats. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350420227/remembering-grey-way-racing-club-honours-washdyke-wonder

Hard to see what those two tiny fields at Wanganui so far have achieved. $40,000 for 5 horses yesterday. Seems like a bit of a waste. At the very least the start date for 2yo racing could be knocked back to 1 Oct.

Rides well too.

I was very impressed by Ace. He speaks well.

Until slot day comes along of course and then the industry will go to a whole new level. SI racing people will look on in awe and think "wow, I wish we had one of those."

Looks like Ruakaka form might be the best guide when assessing Ellerslie.