Doomed

Talk about a can of worms there. It is hardly the connections fault, or the jockey's, although I know nothing about the specifics of the case. I imagine there will be some pretty well connected connections involved. Could be massive liabilities if they try to disqualify those horses. There was a lot of publicity about his claim and how well he was going, so I imagine Racing Victoria was most at fault for not picking it up much earlier. I don't recall any exact precedents.

Does it matter if a race is a group 1 anymore? The money is more important than the group status. You will note that Tokyo Tycoon isn't going to the 2,000 Guineas this year, he is being kept for the Karaka million. Money is more important than status for a gelding. The interesting thing will be if they increase the Guineas stake significantly, perhaps even to $1m. Will Te Akau then change their mind? It reminds one of the joke where a man asks a lady if she would sleep with him for a million dollars. She replies possibly. So he says would she sleep with him for $100. "Of course not, what sort of lady do you think I am?" To which the man replies, "we have already determined what sort of lady you are, we are just haggling over price."

They have given up on winter racing, no glamour. They just want to get through it as quickly and cheaply as possible.

I saw that myself. I might just be slow and I'm missing something, but I don't follow the bit about can't be transferred from a top 10 trainer after 31 Oct, and the bit about any horse transferred after 1 August will be ineligible. Surely the latter requirement makes the first bit redundant? Perhaps I am missing something.

I remember Winston's races very clearly. At the time I thought they were a waste of money, others thought they were a great idea. They came and they went and they achieved zero for the industry.

I largely agree with you Huey, but the new $1m 4yo race isn't a sale race. It is open to any 4yo. It does seem strange on a sweepstake card, which makes me wonder whether NZTR plan to put more industry money into the sweepstakes to make them stand out. It would seem unlikely, but nothing they do surprises me. And will the 4yo race get group status for its first running.

It will be interesting how they allocate the three $100,000 AWT races. Sounds like each track will get a race each. I presume the mile to Riccarton, sprint at Awapuni and stayers race at Cambridge.

A good ride too, very good judge of pace. I'm sure the hot fav thought he had him covered with about 350 to go.

The rest of the country has put plenty of money into Ellerslie over the years.

Timaru is also a racecourse reserve. So ironically the industry won't get any money at all from most of the tracks they want to shut down. Hokitika of course was freehold, but the industry didn't get anything from that either. So the overall plan hasn't worked out all that well so far.

Who me? Obsessed? Surely not?

It was called a racecourse reserve in the messara report. No idea what that means. I think Riccarton is the same. Ironically the freehold tracks that would generate the most income if sold tend to be the favoured tracks that the industry wants to pour all the money into.

I did think the same myself. Always looks good when a Rough Habit or Legarto ride comes off, but sometimes it is best to take chance out of the equation.

I know it's a boring subject, but it certainly looked like a great day's racing at Timaru yesterday. Full fields, 10 races, perfect track and lots of close finishes. The "Cup" attracted a good field with an extra $5,000 put in by the club and a brave nose victory. A bit disappointing to see only 7 races at Riccarton this week: possibly only 6 as a couple of races have only 6 noms with double acceptors included in that number. Just imagine if the NI had a track like Timaru: meetings would be getting transferred there all the time. Any responsible organisation would probably be big enough to admit they made a big cock up over Timaru, but I don't expect that in Racing. In fact I fully expect them to pour even more money into the AWTs to justify their existence.

I haven't seen anyone mention Solidify's run in the J.J.Atkins. He did look very unlucky. Seemed to be full of running. "All dressed up with nowhere to go" as a famous commentator might have said. Impossible to know how he would have gone with a clear run, but he would certainly have been much closer than 11th.

The whole thing seems fairly straightforward. Someone made a cock-up, almost certainly accidental. The horse lost a group 1 win and any chance of being 2yo of the year. The connections lost the stake money, the breeder lost some residual value. The trainer admitted responsibility, got fined $7,000. Surely nothing to get too excited about. One might question how much the judgement cost the RIB. Typists hours alone probably massive. I suppose it helps to justify their existence. You could question why a gelding was in the colts barn in the first place and the wisdom of calling horses by quite different names to their racing names, but I imagine that happens all the time.

Sounds like a responsible approach to me. A bit ironic that NZTR may be able to increase group stakes.

A bit harsh on clowns.

You can't call Mikey that.

Certainly interesting. The jockey made no effort at all to put it into the race. Looked to be a bit of a gap if he wanted to push out. However the placegetters all swooped down the outside so it may have been swamped even if it had got out.

Part of the sinking lid policy. The machines won't go to anyone else.

That was obviously a crucial part of the deal, they made a big thing of relinquishing the gaming machines in the announcement. No mention of where the money was to come from to replace the missing income. Obviously it will come out of the Ladbrokes contribution, so a little less for stakes and infrastructure. Also $5m odd for problem gamblers; take that bit off stakes as well. Might as well just give the problem gamblers $50,000 each if they stop betting. I'm half expecting a call myself as I seem to have a problem with my gambling most weeks. And it didn't sound to me like Todd resigned, sounded like he was told to not come Monday.

I thought I would check in on the HB races since the fields looked pretty good. Abandoned after one race. Looked like a stunning day and track looked good. Only a short paragraph as I'm speechless...

Sadly, she only ever left four foals despite 13 attempts.

I was there as well, and despite all of us being much younger I imagine the average age of attendees on Cup Day back then was probably older than in recent times.