Doomed

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.

Not on the AWT...yet. Perhaps next year.

Poor old Michael Pitman is in for a bit of a shock. I see him quoted on loveracing saying: "Michael Pitman said he expected to have a number of runners on the surface, with decent prizemoney races regularly programmed at the track. " In fact after today there is only one more feature meeting on the AWT for the rest of winter, that being the middle day of National week, which I assume will be a feature meeting, there are no stakes listed so far. And there are four maidens on that day with no rating 75s. So if a rating 65 wins today it has to wait 13 weeks and race in an open race if it discovers a liking for AWTs. They did originally programme a feature meeting for a couple of weeks time but subsequently changed their mind.

I did see his dodgems race where he knocked over 3 or 4 other jockeys. Was it Awapuni?

I agree. I always just assumed CWJ would be inducted once he retired, so I was quite surprised to see a currently active jockey inducted out of the blue. I'm probably biased as I can recall numerous brilliant CWJ rides, but I can't really remember any Bossom rides that I would call outstanding, but that is just me, I don't watch as many races live as I used to.

There is no way he cannot be inducted at some stage. I am sure he would be the "people's" choice.

I see the programme is up on the loveracing site. Plenty of jumps races, in fact virtually an identical programme to the last 50 years. The CJC don't like to change anything over-night. The only stake listed is the winter cup at $85,000, a drop of $15,000 on the previous year. Although they may be waiting to see how much money flows through, and how quickly, from the TAB takeover.

I did think that strange myself. Perhaps they are waiting until CWJ retires before doing something very special for him.

I am sure no one would deny that the AWTs are great training options. The trouble is we have spent $50m - $60m on 3 training facilities while the rest of the industry is struggling. We already had quite a few decent training facilities scattered all over the country, but we have very few premium racing surfaces.

It is probably much the same as the women's soccer. FIFA is complaining broadcasters don't want to pay as much for the rights as men's soccer. Perhaps bookmakers don't value NZ Racing as highly as Victorian Racing.

Perhaps it might be time for NZ to become part of Australia, even even more radically, perhaps the NI could become part of NSW and the SI part of Victoria. Interesting that the public announcement is all about providing jobs etc state wide. In NZ it is about providing jobs in ChCh, Auck and the Waikato. Previously I would have included Wgtn as well, but I think most racing employment there is heading to Cambridge. Quite a different approach to things in the two countries. The Aussie approach does seem to be working slightly better at the moment.

I thought someone was taking the piss when I first read about it, not being a fb user, but obviously it is true. To give them credit though, the CJC have obviously accepted that they aren't very good at boosting stakes, running imaginative programmes, attracting the public, providing a decent racing surface, pulling down old public grandstands etc, so they have decided to set themselves a small, achievable target that might be achievable So good on them, I hope it goes well. You will certainly be able to spot the Riccarton trainers when they turn up at Reefton. The northern lot might have to up their game a bit. I was going to suggest we can probably expect high fashion gumboots at Riccarton this Saturday, but surely the track is back to Good by now.

Yes, Trevor and Fiona did a great job. We just don't have people like that running many clubs these days.

They run lots of feature meetings in both codes with decent stakes. The big problem is that Ashburton isn't a particularly big place: only about 35,000 people, about 15,000 smaller than Timaru. In decades gone by funding for major projects would have come from the industry's amentities fund, which no longer exists as far as I'm aware. The new public grandstand was funded in that way back in the 80s. Back in the 70s the new galloping track would have been funded in the same fashion. So you have a track and town with not many galloping trainers, lots of race-meetings poured into it, not much local interest from sponsors and the public, and an expectation that their track will be ready to go at a moments notice should Riccarton get into trouble. All this with very little contribution from the industry towards maintaining and improving amenities. There is a tiny, insignificant minority of people (me and possibly two others) who feel the racing industry in the SI may have been better off going forward if Ashburton, Timaru and Riccarton had each been given $5m apiece to bring all of their amenties up to a good standard rather than pouring $15m into the white elephant. Ashburton was always quite a well run track, with good management who have all gone now. It was all well and good selecting them as the Riccarton back up track in a downsized industry, but they needed to be funded accordingly and it doesn't sound like this is happening. The model still depends on Timaru, Geraldine, Methven, Banks Pen, Rangiora etc all being sold and the millions being poured into Riccarton with a few crumbs to Ashburton to keep them ticking over in case they are needed.

That is interesting that Ashburton is "cash-strapped". They hold so much racing, and on pretty good dates that you would think they would be doing well. And, as you say, they are the only option if the Riccarton turf fails, other than the inside track, so you would think the industry would be pouring money in to make sure Ashburton is up to a high standard.

I often wonder how many at NZTR realise it is significantly further from Christchurch to Invercargill than it is from Hamilton to Wellington.

I think mikey comes from the deep south somewhere.

I find it interesting that the AWTs seem to be treated totally differently in the SI and NI. I always understood they were intended for low key winter racing. This certainly seems to be the case in the NI with all of the AWT meetings for the rest of the season being low key $14,000 meetings. In the SI however there are the two feature meetings coming up with $35,000 and $30,000 races. One of these meetings doesn't even have any race rated higher than 75: so an unusual sort of feature meeting, but a feature meeting nonetheless based on stakes levels. So a very different approach to the NI. Interesting also that the SI starts AWT racing before the NI, despite the SI generally have more settled Autumn weather than the north. I also imagine that the south will carry on longer into the Spring, despite once again the south having better Spring weather than the north. Was it always intended that the approach was going to be totally different in the two islands? Does Riccarton end up with a much longer season of AWT racing and higher stakes because its turf track is considered inadequate? I note as well that after next week's turf track meeting at Riccarton there is only one more turf meeting at Riccarton for the rest of the season. In fact Canterbury as a whole only has three feature meetings for the last three months of the season. Do Canterbury trainers feel they can happily form a programme for their better horses with three feature meetings in 14 weeks. It is certainly different to the Aussie pattern where trainers tend to race their horses every couple of weeks. Worth considering also that the Riccarton feature meeting in mid June may well be the only properly wet track in Canterbury for the rest of the season. And of course that meeting has no maiden races, so I hope there aren't any trainers in Canterbury telling their owners they are just waiting for wet tracks for their maidens. I don't really see how the windfall from the TAB sale will solve any of these significant problems in the SI. Although perhaps it is only me that sees them as problems.