Doomed

Ironically, when you look at it in hindsight, Forbury may have come in handy to race of Friday nights when Auckland gives up the ghost.

Yes, very good 4yos raced there. I think it was one of those races Lochie got into a bit of trouble for suggesting one runner may not have been trying too hard.

I found the comment that they shouldn't have to be the only club in the country to have to build a training centre, and therefore wanting the rest of the country to subsidise them, to be very strange. Surely they already had a perfectly adequate training centre close at hand and chose to sell it off? Where do they think the SI clubs do their training and who do they think pays for it. Ashburton, Oamaru, Timaru, the southland clubs, all provide facilities for their local trainers. The codes have tried to close down Waimate and Waikouaitit and various others but are still happy for them to provide training facilities. Blenheim has been reduced to one two day meeting a year but still provides training facilities for anyone interested. I don't think they would be too keen to subsidise Auckland. I'm sure the many SI clubs that provide training facilities but only get to race once or twice a year would be happy to put on some extra days if the current Auckland dates became available. It wouldn't surprise me if the Nelson Trotting Club was happy to put on a charity raceday to help out Auck. They only need to ask nicely.

I didn't think there was any emphasis on getting people on course these days TAB. Us keyboard punters are the new reality. I used to attend almost 100 race-meetings a year. Not many would do that these days.

I think Liz Whelan used to be on Trackside and I thought she was very good.

I have heard of the same ones, but I suppose it is for emerging stars so most of them we will never have heard of. Back in the day there would have been a category for talented racing administrators and they would have been people everyone thought was doing well. I see there are three administrators listed, but I have never heard of them. They may well be talented but just keep a low profile.

Sadly Pam, I really don't think that will ever occur to them. I think there are enough sycophantic types telling NZTR what a wonderful job they are doing that they go home every weekend thinking they are best thing that ever happened to the NZ Racing industry.

Where on earth did you get that idea Chief? We have a brand spanking new slot race coming up next season, a few sweepstakes and the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas have both been boosted by $50,000. In many peoples eyes the industry is booming.

Chasing the sun in the south.

I keep thinking back to the Otaki meeting on the Maori holiday, 10 races all with capacity fields and lots of ballots. So there are horses about, just not in the right classes. It is getting more like the trots where there are heaps of lower grade horses in certain areas, but try putting on a race for horses with 4 or more wins are there are no horses to be seen.

Disappointing there isn't an award for social media excellence.

It is probably the most suitable time of the year for racing administrators to head overseas to spend their annual bonuses.

Only very tenuously related to this thread, but saves starting another one. They really are terrible fields at Ruakaka, size wise, despite a good track and decent stakes. No ballots so you do wonder about the need for a points system to determine who gets a start. I think this meeting has had small fields for several years. Meanwhile at Trentham the biggest flat field is only 8 runners, not counting the cowboys race. So only 8 jockeys need to turn up. It is the first time I can recall all the jumping races on the day being bigger than all the flat races. My question, and a very serious one, is do NZTR, Entain and the clubs get together after weekends like this one to discuss where things might be going wrong? Obviously it is no longer stakes that are the problem as both of these meetings have decent stakes given the time of year. Is it a programming problem or is it a general lack of horses? If it is either of those problems what if anything is being done about it? It isn't as if it has just suddenly occurred and taken everyone by surprise. And the tracks can hardly be blamed. I would suggest that both of these tracks will turn out exactly as everyone would have expected them to be rated this weekend.

It is a worry that there isn't a single alternative jumps venue available in the north. Where is Paeroa when you need it?

About 4 or 5 I think when they first came out yesterday. Of course there was no chance of getting extras as it was a pre nom race and those 4 or 5 would have been the only ones left standing from the originally noms. Bloody tough on those 4 or 5 who had aimed their whole programme towards a $60,000 race.

Trentham is probably the place where tradition has gone out the door the most. Many of their big name races are just hack races now.

I don't think I have ever seen anything like this Trentham meeting. 5 noms for each of the open flat races and truck loads of noms for most of the jumps races. Four races for flat jockeys with tiny fields. Flat jockeys will mostly get one or two mounts each at best. Is it worth travelling for that?

Remembering back quite a few years didn't there used to be a Sth Canty trials assoc, or something similar, who used to run regular trials at Timaru, Waimate and Orari? Perhaps they felt unappreciated and gave up.

Lots of fascinating stories out of today. The horse mentioned above, a rating 61, winning the rating 75 race, then a rating 60 wins the open sprint. Shows the uniqueness of SI racing.

Yes, impressive scoring a win on the grass track at Awapuni when Awapuni doesn't even have a grass track these days and today's racing is at Ashburton. I was also a bit surprised that they didn't acknowledge the success of several of the despised tracks producing winners today, with Rangiora, Timaru, Omakau and Winton all to the fore so far.

I was there the day Rastes won and one of the people I was with was keen on Rastes. I assured them it had absolutely no chance. The most amazing thing was that the rank outsider in an 18 horse field only paid $50

I read that and thought it meant the minimum amount a punter had to bet. It would actually be interesting to compare the average bet back in about 1980 with the average bet today.

To be honest Murray, I struggle to keep enthused. The combination of arrogance and incompetence involved in the management of NZ Racing eventually just wears you down. I find myself doing most of my betting in Victoria. It tend to be the sort of racing I enjoy. I admire your enthusiasm, and I largely agree with you in most respects. I will get the shock of my life if one day someone from NZTR comes on here to discuss and explain some of their decisions. Some of my contributions on here actually involve quite a bit of thought and research, as do some of yours, but eventually you just wonder why you bother really.

It's the middle of winter down south and there never used at be racing at this time of year at Wingatui. This is just an attempt to show Wingatui is an essential track and Oamaru and Timaru aren't really needed. I think the Chiefs comments re stakes are largely proven correct judging by today at Otaki and tomorrow at HB. The only good thing about Sunday is the southern jockeys getting a go without 7 or 8 northerners heading down to take all the best mounts. I think it's crazy the country's top jockeys flying all that way at massive cost to ride in $17,000 races.

It would be interesting to compare today's turnovers with HB on Saturday, if such figures are available. And interesting to compare the ratio of stakes to turnover.