Doomed

I often notice horses low down in the race order who get into the field and do well, especially in the SI where there are always balloted and eliminated horses. Faraglioni wouldn't have got a start on Saturday if this policy was in place, and Malt Time, no 14, would have only just snuck into the field. Will make races like the Wgtn Cup a bit less exciting with small fields and lower dividends. Might even discourage those low down in the weights from paying up.

Where do you actually get three sets of starting gates all of a sudden? Are there businesses that just have then sitting in stock waiting for someone to come in off the street wanting to buy 2 or 3?

I initially wondered why on earth George thought it relevant for him to comment on events in Sydney, then it occurred to me that perhaps he is indicating he plans to sell off Avondale and build a new state of the art track out in the countryside, and if that goes well then sell off Trentham and build a flash new track well north of Wgtn. Perhaps if both go well he might then sell off Riccarton and build a central SI track outside of Timaru. You read it here first.

Correct. Ruakaka is my other track. Wouldn't have had a bet there for over 20 years. I just find form hard to follow at those tracks. I know there are track specialists who love both tracks but I just can't get interested enough to bother. In Australia I virtually never bother at Moonee Valley.

It is one of two tracks in NZ that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Long time since my last bet there.

I must say, Ravioli has manged to stretch a fairly simplistic argument over 9 pages already, with no sign of it stopping any time soon. Surely there comes a time when you just have to say "what's the point" and let him drift off.

They probably thought the previous run was a fluke.

Value is a very interesting concept. I am very much a value punter and always have been. Interestingly, it is not a concept that some people understand. I once knew a very keen and very regular punter who believed that if you liked a horse you backed it, regardless of price. He would happily back a horse at $1.50 that I rated a $5 chance. Many punters in fact get extra confidence if a horse that should logically be paying $5 is only paying $1.50. A lot of punters are more likely to get scared off if a horse is paying too much.

As Curious mentioned Imperatriz has won three Group 1s over 1,400 and 1,600, plus a Group 2. So best not to consider her a 1,000m and 1,200m specialist.

Sets a dangerous precedent if they suddenly start using common sense.

Doesn't seem to have been any thought given to moving the meeting to the AWT, or even, perish the thought, Timaru. Both tracks only an hour away in either direction.

You are probably correct there. I recall thinking there were some strange anomalies. What I was probably thinking about was that it precluded southerners from racing at the March meeting at Trentham. Southern 3yos had quite a good record in the Levin Classic, but that may have been moved now anyhow. Love racing website is down so can't check that. It still means southerners can't race at Trentham in March and be eligible for their own race. Seems strange to create a race that potentially means horses have to miss a group race elsewhere so they can be eligible for a richer non group race. I do struggle to understand how that helps the racing pattern, but greater minds than mine have obviously thought it through.

Yes, but not under the original proposal. I am pretty sure they refined it when they realised it was poorly thought out. Still poorly thought out of course, but not as stupid as originally.

He also had ownership irregularities from memory and had some of his early wins taken off him. I forget the exact details.

I might even try the carrot exercise myself.

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.