Doomed

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.

What exactly is your point?

What great fields at Otaki today. One 13 horse field, the others all capacity 14 horse fields. 10 races. Not many ballots got it. Looks like a decent crowd as well. All for $17,000 races.

Perhaps they have built a chute at Addington to run 2,400m races.

Far, far, far too sensible.

I always think exactly the same myself. The lack of 2yo opportunities must reflect on the Spring 3yo racing.

You are right to some extent Chief, but in a sense that is because the tiered racing isn't well thought out. When I have a moment I will share some thoughts.

Proper tiered racing doesn't cost anything, but sadly most of those running the show have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Pam beat me to it. We don't really have tiered racing. I do know what you mean though.

I'm not sure whether that is intended as sarcasm or not. If it is, it is quite well disguised and gone slightly over my head.

Very interesting. I did like the way the commentator kept mentioning the horses colours. That's a tip that our commentators should note.

What a bloody shambles this weeks noms are. It is pretty obvious those horses that were in at Timaru were there because they wanted to race on a grass track.

And Guerin's major concern was the effect it would have on Kennedy's premiership chances. I think for him the NZ Racing industry goes as far south as Pukekohe, with the occasional day trip to Te Rapa. He may well be proven right sooner rather than later.

This is a disaster on so many levels. Poor bloody Waimate who got kicked off their own track, which never used to cost the industry anything, and told to go and race at Timaru. The poor Timaru club who have been told they aren't needed either and have battled away under adversity. It must be so hard for them to keep motivated. The poor trainers who just want a chance to race their horses on a grass track like they always used to be able to do. NZTR will be high fiving and laughing all the way to the bank. All they want to do is get rid of the grass tracks and race on Winston's Provincial track for six months of the year. As I said, a total disaster. I watched the first race and thought it looked incredibly rain affected considering no rain and no irrigation all week. I watched it on my computer though rather than on TV so I thought it perhaps wasn't as wet as it looked. They looked like they were in for a great day after the tight finish in the first. All very sad, for the industry as a whole really.

I find it all very sad. They are so out of touch, so tone deaf and so arrogant, but I don't think anyone really cares anymore.

Once again, as you suggest, the problem is the total disconnect between the owners and trainers who provide the product, and the enthusiasm, and the powers that be who govern the industry and make the policies. Sometimes you do wonder who exactly the governing bodies think they are actually working for and what they are trying to achieve.

I notice 11 2yos to trial at Timaru this weekend. Really good idea to give them a trialling opportunity on a race day. Mostly from around ChCH so obviously they are keen to trial on the grass. Always seems strange to me that there are no maiden 2yo races in the SI, other than the first race of the season obviously. And only about one open 2yo race a month at this time of year, even fewer earlier on. The NI has maiden 2yo races all the time. I'm not sure why trainers aren't keen on maiden 2yo races in the South. I always think it looks good on the breeding page for a horse to have won as a 2yo. It would probably also help the early season 3yo races leading into the Guineas if horses got a few 2yo opportunities.

That is a well thought out suggestion, but interestingly no one has commented on it. I have noticed that anything a bit complex on here about the structural aspects of the industry seems to fly over the head of many. It would be interesting to see some input from trainers about how they think the flow of horses could be improved.

You can see why I said earlier that I didn't understand the harness rating system and I preferred to use the number of wins, which was the old system. I did think it might make me sound a bit thick and someone was going to come on here and call me dopy because I couldn't follow something really simple. I sort of feel vindicated by Galah's comments. Do you think someone should advise HRNZ that the system may need some minor refinements?

Well, a lot of fairly unusual types have ended up in Parliament.

Just as one example of the sort of thing you might expect the trainers to want to have a say about. This weekend at Timaru, only one rating 65 programmed for all comers, over 1,600m, plus a fillies and mare 1,200m. So nothing for 65 stayers or sprinters and 5 milers will miss out as there are 33 noms and they are going to split it into two races. The maiden 1,200m, 23 noms so 9 will miss out. These are $17,000 races, surely they could at least try and make sure everyone gets an opportunity. The next opportunity coming up for these horses is on the AWT. Probably get massive noms and NZTR will say "look, trainers love the AWT." I can understand Pam's comments about trainers losing owners because of the lack of opportunities. In the North Island you can usually pick and choose where you want to race.

Don't go thinking that makes you sound especially clever.

One thing I have never understood about harness racing is this reluctance to move horses through the grades. Any opportunity for a penalty free race and they leap at it. I imagine there must be almost 500 odd races in Southland each season for maidens and 1,2,3 win horses, yet put on a race for 5 or more win horses and you are lucky to get 6 or 7 starters. Where do the winners go? And this socialist approach where maidens race for higher stakes than winners is just weird. I can remember back in the 80s when horses were desperate to get 10 wins so they could start in the "Cup". Since then it seems that the worse thing you can possibly do is win several in a row. How many $2 maiden winners go on to win their next start? There obviously needs to be some incentive for horses to work through the grades. Having a $100,000 Invercargill Cup clearly hasn't achieved much. I suspect the punters want to see some decent 5+ win* races with several last start winners all working their way through the grades. *I don't understand the harness rating system so I prefer to refer to such things as 5+ wins.

Fascinating race. The commentator certainly thought it looked strange, but the stipes didn't seem to spot anything wrong at all. At best it could probably described as incompetent driving by the drivers mentioned above.