Doomed

I haven't seen anyone mention this and I only saw a few races from Trentham on Saturday, but there didn't seem to be anyone there. Am I correct in that assessment? This feature March day was my first ever visit to Trentham back in the very early 80s. I think back in those days there was a Group 1 mile won by Twinkle and the Charmers Stakes won by a horse called Benny something. I remember it was a massive crowd for a country boy and I watched the races from the top of the public stand. The club must be making millions from all the land they are selling. I hope they are using it wisely. It's a bit surreal seeing the overhead shot of the chute surrounded by houses.

Surely it shows an incredible arrogance by NZTR? They are basically saying to the trainers: "Fuck you. If you don't want to trial on the white elephant you can't trial anywhere." Is there a trainers assoc in NZ, and if so do they have any input into this sort of thing? Do they pass on their members thoughts to NZTR? Or are the members thoughts a bit risque to pass on? The numbers at Riccarton are a bit of a joke as well.

I bet Desert Lightning got a shock there. They don't go that quick in NZ.

There must have been something like this previously. I can remember someone on here once commenting that a certain track, I can't remember which one, was voted the second best track in the country. I have no idea what the best track was.

Very good point. Surely Riccarton should be in the provincial category?

Is that serious? Do you mean the Te Rapa day with a couple of Group 1s, one at $600,000, a group 2 and one of the new gimmick races? How on earth can that be sustainable?

It'll be one of those stupid set weights and penalties things I presume.

Good old Greens, full of great ideas, as long as someone else is paying for them all.

Sorry, didn't mean to be courteous.

And they appear to be happy to eliminate and ballot heaps of horses at Gore, 25 and 23 noms in a couple of races with no indication they intend to split either field. I do feel we don't allocate our stakes money in the most efficient fashion.

5 in the 3yo and 6 in the stayers maiden. Why on earth do Trentham keep running stayers maidens on feature racedays?

I saw a photo in the Herald and assumed the top tier of the public grandstand was closed on Derby day, which seemed strange to me.

I suppose we should just be grateful there are super intellects out there able to understand and respond to circumstances that are way beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. Sort of reminds you of Blackadder. Field Marshall NZTR: "Tally Ho Chaps. Over the top. Follow me."

I wonder how many people actually watched the draw? Hardly riveting TV for most of us.

I wonder if it occurs to them that they might have a problem? You do get the impression they are continuing to force trainers to use the AWTs to justify the massive expenditure on them.

They possibly don't quite have the same aura about them as some of the earlier winners of the race.

Surely there are more than 12 decent jockeys in the whole NI? It would be quite interesting to know why trainers haven't supported it, or targeted it, in contrast to the Wingatui race. I notice there is only one trainer with more than one starter.

I wonder if the club would be slightly disappointed with the fields for Derby Day, especially given the stakes on offer? No capacity fields and only 4 races with more than 11 starters. Interesting to see only 12 in the much vaulted Rangitoto race. No need for ballots, unlike the ODT race at Wingatui for a similar class. Perhaps it is a good indicator that we really do need those top few trainers to maintain decent field sizes. Of all the new gimmick races it is probably fair to say this has been the most disappointing one so far, at least in terms of numbers.

The club that now seems to be getting endless meetings seems to be Taupo. I can remember many years ago when Taupo used to race a couple of times a year, now they seem to be going around endlessly.

We probably need to follow the Russian model, start getting some of our mothballed assets out of retirement.

Their argument of course will be that if they had sold Waipuk and poured all the proceeds into Hastings and sold Woodville and poured all the proceeds into Awapuni then we would have two great state of the art tracks. Conversely of course one could argue that if that didn't work then the industry would have no further options. Unfortunately for those pushing the centralisation mantra, the only example that I can think of where a track has actually been sold and millions poured into another venue is Fielding being sold to fund Awapuni, and that hasn't really worked out all that well. I'm sure it is devastating to NZTR that they can't race around the country saying "You too could have your very own Awapuni if you just follow our advice."

That would be me.

Messara's report was rubbish. The man knew nothing about NZ Racing and made so many errors that the whole report must be suspect.

It's basically to make them look as if they are doing something, and closing tracks is the only thing they can think of. It doesn't require any intelligence, racing knowledge, creativeness or passion. A total outsider with no passion for the industry and no sense of history can't come out and say they are going to totally reorganise the pattern of racing in NZ, change the handicapping system and inspire everyone with their ideas and enthusiasm, but they can say we are going to sell off 30% of the tracks and try to bank a few million. That doesn't require any skill at all, and if it doesn't work they just bugger off leaving a mess behind them.

I thought that sounded strange but now they have just done the same to me. Tried to put the same bet on 3 times because they kept saying it didn't work, then the money disappeared for two of the bets but no sign of it in my transactions. Think I will give up for the day.