Doomed

I actually think it's a good Cox Plate, an even betting race. It is the only race I bet on all year at Moonee Valley, horrible racecourse.

On the subject of Sydney and all the changes and big money there is the CINCOTTA CHEMIST CALLANDER-PRESNELL, a $1m group 2 race, something us traditionalists would know better under another name or is it a newish race?

What a great day's racing at Gore. Full fields and a perfect track. Danika Wilson wins two, Tina gets two, Leonard Stewart wins the feature. Well bred The Hangover bolts in on debut. I always feel we don't celebrate these meetings nearly enough. So many Fridays and Sundays with no NZ gallops meeting. There is enough product in the South to be filling a lot of these gaps.

At least the Kelt was largely funded by one fly by night big noter, it didn't chew up industry money. The classic waste was all of Winston's million dollar races that achieved zero. The Derbies were won by total non entities and the Oaks winners were largely sold off shore.

I'm not a fan of all these gimmicky races. Sydney is destroying the pattern in Australia with all their non group, high staked gimmick races. The supporting races on Caulfield Cup day were pretty ordinary. There must be quite a few group races in Australia due for a down grading, even some of Sydney's own group races. And these stupid NZ novelty races are just taking the piss to be honest. A one win race at Trentham worth more than the Wgtn Cup, and a novelty race at Riccarton worth more than the NZ Cup. Too stupid for words really. All thought up I would imagine by some bright spark who had never been to a race-meeting until a few months ago. Someone who probably thinks Karaka day and NZ Cup day are what NZ racing is all about. The original concept for the Riccarton race forgot that Trentham over Cup week relies on SI horses for numbers and by going to Trentham to race for $65,000 horses became ineligible for a $350,000. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, who knows what other great ideas they are just waiting to unleash. I fully expect a race restricted to horses trained at Ellerslie and Trentham, seems like a good idea surely?

Good to see the ex Southlander win a $1m race in Sydney today. I always thought he was above average. Never had a lot of luck in NZ and had some pretty ordinary rides. Won over $1m in Aussie to date with more to come.

I imagine they will transfer the meeting to Ashburton. That is now the go to track for trials and race-meetings.

I am probably the odd one out in that the Everest doesn't really interest me all that much. It's just another race, with a decent enough stake. I have certainly never heard any of the non racing people I know ever mention it, so it has hardly captured their imagination, despite all the advertising. The Melbourne Cup still seems to be the race that non racing people relate to, even without all the advertising.

The idea of being able to hold heaps of racing at Riccarton by using the AWT hasn't really worked. I find it quite sad to see the same horses eliminated and balloted every week in Canty because there are only limited suitable opportunities for them. Good to see them split the 65 1,400m this weekend into three races, but they had no option as most of those horses had been balloted and eliminated several times over recent weeks. And really, having to split a race into three and continually eliminating the same horses shows there are big problems with dates, venues and programming.

Always a tricky decision. Only one race with more than 7 starters. They probably would have had similar if they had raced on the heavy turf track. Of course if the turf track was unsafe to race on at least they got a race-meeting this way.

Now you're just being silly. Introducing common sense into a racing discussion. Besides, Rangiora could never cope with the large crowds attracted to AWT racing.

I just noticed Timaru is a good 3 for this week's meeting. You can see why they don't want to race there. They have the AWTs for good track racing and Riccarton turf for heavy track racing. No place for old fashioned good track turf racing in the modern environment.

There is the "in crowd" and the great unwashed. If you aren't in the in crowd you are history. The treatment of Timaru is appalling, and also Motukarara. The money being poured into Wingatui is equally appalling. I would love to know what sort of turnovers they do at Wingatui. Such information used to be readily available. Wingatui used to always have disappointing on-course turnovers, now it is the golden child of SI racing. Are turnover figures and related performance information available for the AWTS?

The whole industry is just being so badly run. Pouring money at it hasn't helped. It is pretty obvious the major problem wasn't money after-all. When do Entain start eliminating all the over-paid incompetent managers? That is normally the first thing you do when you take over a business.

Was "incompetence" the word you were searching for?

Looking at the field, you can see why they stayed in Victoria.

I was pleased to see the Gore meeting was able to proceed. The most pleasing thing about it when I checked the results was no northern jockeys. It was great that the southern jockeys got a go, got to gain some experience, where needed, and earn some money. I have noted several meetings on the AWT at Riccarton recently with 5,6,7 horse fields and 5, 6, or even more, northern jockeys. That must be devastating for anyone in the South trying to earn a living as a jockey. I know someone will probably come on and say the riding was terrible at Gore (I didn't see any races), but the whole point of these low key meetings is to give opportunities to all concerned including jockeys. Some of those fields at Riccarton that I mentioned had one southern jockey in them. We all saw what happened to southern jumps when the jockeys disappeared.

Williams showed he had obviously learnt from his mistake in the first yesterday. Waited at the back of the field until into the home straight at Caulfield and still got up to win.

I'm sure everyone is sick of me going on about the terrible pattern of racing in the SI, the lack of 2yo races, the lack of 3yo races past 1,600. The lack of any leadership from the CJC. There is a comment in the report about the John Grigg. That has been killed by being placed a week before the old Nth Canty 3yo mile at Riccarton. No horse ever races in both races. How hard would it be to have those two races two weeks apart? Both races would improve out of sight if that was done. I don't mind the Welcome being in the Autumn, but it needs to be part of a well thought out pattern. They will just plonk it in somewhere. There used to be a 2yo fillies race mid summer, but that has long gone along with the SI Champion Stks for 3yos. Canterbury needs to think a bit like SA where they have developed a significant Autumn carnival. There should be three major Autumn 2yo races; the Welcome Stakes, leading into the Champagne Stakes, which needs to go to Group 3, followed by a 1,400m 2yo which the club needs to get to listed status. And reintroduce the 2yo fillies race before all that. Wouldn't it just be nice to see them trying something. It took them many years to pull down the old grandstand, that will probably tire them out for a while.

I don't know anyone involved with the Timaru club, but it must wear you down over time and you probably give up even trying. You spend all your time trying to defend and retain what you have without having any energy to promote your meetings. It must be so hard to attract any younger enthusiastic people to help run the club. It must be soul destroying when you know you are perfectly located in the SI and have one of the best tracks around and you see all the cash and resources being poured into Riccarton and Wingatui. If you compare the Timaru Cup with that Wanganui race over the years there is just no comparison. The Timaru Cup has always been on the same date and has been won by most of the SI's best horses going back to Show Gate and Grey Way. The Wanganui race is a homeless race with no reason for being. It used to be in the Spring and used to attract great horses, I was there the year Axeman and Bourbon Boy clashed, but then it got moved to mid winter so it didn't clash with the HB. Now it is a pointless race.

Lots of interesting things in the report. Probably two things stood out to me. The comment that there were only about 13 black type fillies and mares races and there should be more. Then they proceeded to place most of those 13 under warnings. And talk about the ultimate hospital pass for the Levin Classic, moving it to January to compete with the industry funded sweep-stake race. I can just see that going well. I also found the comment amusing that the Asian body didn't take into account the great successes our 3yos went on to have as older horses. Until last season's crop, which have hardly raced as 4yos yet, I don't recall many of our Derby, Oaks or Guineas winners going on to be super stars on the world stage in recent years.

Well we all know NZTR hate Timaru, all their meetings are industry meetings, which is bizarre, so they must have hated them retaining a listed race. The only thing more despicable than Timaru having a listed race would have been if the Reefton Cup was listed.

What about that WFA mile at Wanganui in June? Didn't it get 5 or 6 starters? How can anyone claim it has more merit than the Timaru Cup?

So the same number of group 1s, one extra group 2, and the same number of group 3s. Talk about slash and burn. I'm just wondering how stupid the CJC are. They have just announced they are going to pay an extra $100,000 of their own money to the first three home in the 2,000 Guineas. I doubt that will attract a single extra horse. That money might have been better spent trying to keep the Stewards at group 3 and trying to keep their two 2yo races going. Any club with half a brain, or a little bit more, would be trying to keep the Welcome stakes as listed and boost the Champagne to Group 3. I can't remember the last time the CJC managed to improve the group status of one of their races. I'm sure there must be one, so someone can remind me. This is the South Island's inspirational club. As Huey said above, there are a lot of very lucky CD clubs.

Yes 24 noms in one race where they only start 12, but no way will they split it, not down south. Different story if it was at Matamata.