Doomed

If they were to ask for feedback from anyone interested they might as well fly them all the Wgtn and put them up in a couple of rooms somewhere, then take them both out to breakfast the next day.

I was reading a report about the Timaru meeting. Apparently they have two meetings next year, April and Oct from memory. How bloody stupid is that? $15m odd on an AWT just to stop Timaru racing. And people are paid big money to make these decisions. Sadly, the industry deserves everything it gets. They have allowed incompetents to run just about every aspect of it.

Incompetence?

Yes, I subsequently noticed that when I looked back. Maidens went 1.13 so obviously not too bad as the day went on. I watched a couple of races and the track seemed to play quite fairly, which is lucky of course as I imagine Ashburton will get a lot of use going forward with Riccarton's problems.

An unusual amount of scratchings today I thought on a Soft 7. Looked more like a NI meeting where they scratch at the drop of a hat. Hardly ever any scratchings out of the field in the south. I switched on to watch Pam's stayer. Starting to remind me a bit of Azawary. Lucky she isn't a trotting trainer, people would think she is trying to milk the place stakes, doing a good job of it to.

I'm a bit disappointed that everyone seems to have forgotten that Temyia won the previous race and spoke very well when interviewed afterwards. She seemed like a very nice young lady and I have always thought she was a very competent rider. After what happened a few days earlier we should be showing some sympathy for her rather than going off on some unnecessary tangent.

It would have been interesting to see what happened if it won clearly and not a dead heat. The dead heat probably made it easier for them.

That certainly sets a precedent, relegated for whip use. Have we ever had a winner relegated in NZ for excessive use of the whip?

Sorry about that. Just saw the results and wondered why no comments.

Bloody hell! Who didn't think that was on the cards when they saw a good 3 and rain about?

Every track that goes down seems to take another one with it. Seems high risk for Trentham.

You are going to do your head in trying to figure out the rationale behind most NZTR decisions.

Can they afford to refund him the unused months of his membership fees? Will they have enough members left for a quorum for their annual meeting?

I just saw on the TV news that the Warriors have a few weeks off over Xmas, so George will be able to devote some time to his other role. We should be ok now. No need to panic.

Their arrogance certainly seems to know no bounds.

It would show if they are still locked into the old ideology, which too date has proven unworkable.

What I'm waiting for is for NZTR to come out and say "Given the problems with our "strategic venues" and the lack of alternative venues in most regions, we realise we may have been a bit hasty in trying to close down some tracks prematurely and we are prepared to revisit that discussion." I'n sure any responsible organisation would say something like that. I'm confident in saying very few people would think less of NZTR if they were to say something like that.

When those Trentham group races went north noms were reopened, same with the HB features that went north.

Geez Joe, that's possibly the best thing you have written. I suspect they hate associating racing with wine, both Gisborne and Marlborough had race tracks surrounded by grapevines, now both gone. I think the Clare Valley track is surrounded by vines as well. Lucky they aren't in NZ, they would be shut down years ago.

And at the same time its the cost of servicing that is used as the reason for eliminating the likes of Waimate, Gisborne and Wairoa. I note the Ashburton meeting that has ridden to the rescue of Riccarton in January is restricted to only 8 races for servicing reasons. So tough luck if there are heaps of noms. I can see Ashburton being the next track in trouble if it has to keep covering for Riccarton. Nowhere to hide if Ashburton goes out of action for any reason. Used to be 5 or 6 tracks within a couple of hours of Riccarton, now just the one option.

At least he would have some insight into what the problem is.

They wouldn't have liked that Reefton, you almost sound as if you know what you're talking about. They won't be wanting to introduce common sense and logic into the dates setting process. The Waikouaiti and Banks Pen situations are fascinating. They created two extra feature race-meetings with massive stakes increases to encourage them to move. My guess is that the turnovers at both meetings are less now than on their original dates, on course certainly. If money was no object I don't see why they didn't give them a few thousand each and leave them on their original dates. In an ideal world Timaru would have been given a feature meeting to race on New Years day. That would have encouraged quite a few Boxing Day Wingatui horses to back up a week later, and provided a reasonably close opportunity for Canterbury horses. As it is, many horses only race once and then wait for the feature meetings down South a month or so later. Also in an ideal world, the Coast would be given four meetings and a decent spread of dates. I'm not sure if I should be holding my breath for this ideal world.

That's what Taranaki is doing, and Southland did it a few years ago. I can't imagine Awapuni would be too bothered.

While doing some research into the amount of funding withheld from Awapuni, I noticed with interest the way these Dunstan races are funded. These races are all worth $5,000 more than the norm and I always assumed the sponsor tossed in the extra. This isn't the case at all. I see NZTR actually contributes the extra $5,000 to each race, so $85,000 over the 17 heats. For the final, NZTR contributes $70,000 as normal funding, plus an extra $10,000, and the club, presumably with sponsorship included, contributes $40,000. I'm sure the sponsor does contribute some money to the clubs holding the heats, but none of it goes towards the stakes. NZTR contributes an extra $95,000 to this series. I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, I just find it interesting all the extra funding NZTR tosses into random races, usually hosted by the favoured clubs.

I see all race-day club funding is withheld from Awapuni. I wondered what exactly this might be so I had a quick look. I presume they would have paid out the $15,000 stake from the race that was held, but the other funding could come to as much as $38,500. This is potentially made up of $5,000 tier 5 funding, $9,000 feature race-day funding, $7,000 compliance funding, $17,500 strategic venue funding. So it could be an expensive day for RACE.