Doomed

I think that has been the biggest disappointment to me. Someone on a massive salary should have the confidence and decency to be able to come out and say "look , we got that one wrong". To act as if they have never made a single mistake is just arrogance and incompetence of the highest order. Even Cindy comes out occasionally and admits she got something wrong. NZTR and the TAB haven't acknowledged a single mistake in 20 odd years.

We do have to accept that times change and we have to change with them. There is a lot of competition to racing these days. Unfortunately, virtually none of the changes the industry has made seem to have worked. And at the same time as the industry is contracting, management and salaries are exploding. One problem is that we don't seem to have identified what are the industry's strengths and weaknesses. Something that some of us may consider a strength, others may consider a weakness.

I'm interested to know whether the ARC are still contributing the extra stakes money to all their races despite them being held at Te Rapa. Very generous of them if they do. Makes their playing away from home pretty expensive over 2 or 3 years.

Looked like a good crowd at Riverton. It would be interesting to be able to compare the crowds at Riverton and Te Rapa if they keep such stats.

I do struggle to see the problem.

I think you have largely missed Brodie's and Michael's point. The industry can't really afford $50,000 for 4 horse fields with a hot fav and virtually no betting. And Group II, really? That is just taking the piss. Surely it will be downgraded next season, although given that they dish group status out like something from a weetbix packet in Harness racing, who knows what will happen. I suspect that they have backed themselves into a corner by tossing another $100,000 in that Race thing, and inventing a $100,000 Invercargill Cup. To dump some existing races now might not be a good look, but who knows, I don't understand their decision making at all.

I think asking the house cow to wag its tail to indicate yes or no would work better than the current lot, so surely electing representatives who actually know something about racing would have to be better than the current system.

Interestingly, about 30 years ago if those in charge were incompetent the various clubs and industry bodies would have come together and done something about it. It appears to me, without really knowing any of the people concerned, that that level of industry management is now fairly impotent and not really engaged. So there are just no checks on incompetent and possibly corrupt upper management. It's a terrible and unfortunate combination.

An interesting piece of bias coming up tomorrow as well. 22 noms for a matamata race, but they are happy to split it into 2 races. Timaru by contrast had a race with 25 noms, but no chance of splitting that. I'm amazed the trainers assn never comments on such things. They split a northern race a few days before Xmas and ended up with 5 starters in one of them. You can see why people have largely given up.

None of us know the answer to that one. Even Waikouaiti was favoured over Timaru originally, but they changed their mind on that one: the only time they have changed their mind on anything.

4 Timaru trained winners at Kurow today I see. That's not part of the grand plan; makes Riccarton look bad. Better close them down as quick as possible before they cause anymore embarrassment.

Quality not quantity. For that type of racing people want to see competitive racing with good divis, not $1.10 favs.

It has always been on an industry day. They hate Timaru for some reason. But if they offered to go to Riccarton they would suddenly have a feature day just like Banks Pen and Waikouaiti, but fewer people on course just like those other two. All too silly for words really. I bet they are praying Ashburton doesn't have any problems. There is no plan B if Riccarton and Ashburton are both out of action.

I really couldn't have put that better myself. I do find you lose interest very quickly when you realise how quickly things are deteriorating.

Yes, I think they have pretty much ridden out any opposition, and pretty pleased with themselves that they have got their way. The arrogance is astounding. Ironically, most of the current management will hardly be needed in a couple of years when all we have left is Ellerslie and three AWTs, none of which will attract anyone on course. And they will probably wonder why nobody seems to bet off course either, and then suddenly owners dry up as well. I suppose they can then concentrate on sports betting; so much easier.

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?