Doomed

This may be of interest to some. http://www.theoptimist.co.nz/

It was probably the Captain Cook that was called the Marlboro and Brutus may have won it. I think the SI won it several times in the early 80s.

The Dennis Bros got the March one with either The Twinkle or The Dimple and Pitman got the January one with Just Tommy from memory.

The Thorndon mile has had a lot of names over the years, as has their other mile the Captain Cook, which used to be the big race at the March meeting. I think the Thorndon was previously the George Adams. The southerners have won both miles a few times.

Brutus and Scotch Mist went to Avondale, which used to be early Dec if I recall correctly, so they would have been using Auckland as a lead up to Reefton.

Dead set quinella of the year in the minor 3yo race I think, that didn't turn out too well. You are on a thrashing to nothing when you hand out $1.80 shots as certainties. The Aussies are no better of course. I thought that $2 shot in the Toorak was incredibly short.

That would be the decent thing to do.

Yes, I think its just a matter of turning up and getting pissed. Is it really $50 to get in? There are virtually no decent facilities and not much atmosphere. I hadn't been for many years (27 years or more) but ended up going a couple of times a few years ago, cost about $30 I think. It was really depressing for someone who attended about 12 Wgtn Cups in a row in and around the 80s, early 90s. It's quite a sad and depressing day out really when you think what it used to be like. Much worse than NZ Cup Day even.

True, but as Aces said five red-hots from one stable all well and truly down the track is quite noteworthy, and they weren't just favs they were red hots, mostly around the $1.80 mark, and pretty much all gone by the turn. I think there were a couple of other favs at Matamata as well. Handy winners of the two features I thought, might help them retain their status for a little longer.

It would certainly be unusual to have a group 1 mile and listed mile on the same card, and a group two 3yo 1,400m and another 3yo 1,400m. Should be easy pickings for the 2nd tier horses who don't want to go for the big money. You would imagine they will have to drop the two races already on the card that clash. That's probably why its taking them a while.

Obviously they can't run the Matamata Cup and the Group 1 on the same programme. Although never say "obviously" when it comes to NZTR.

Yes I see the group races are going to next weekend, but no mention of where exactly. May be going to Timaru, probably the only place you could get a firm track. On that subject you do wonder whether Riccarton really needed to do several days of irrigating prior to today's meeting. I'm not a fan of this obsession for boosting stakes of supporting races for a following meeting when a meeting gets abandoned. They think everything is about the money. It doesn't seem to occur to them there are 10 less races for jockeys to win and 10 less for trainers. And if next week's stakes get boosted presumably the horses that were going to race today front up for them and some of the horses that were going to race for reasonable stakes next week miss out altogether.

I imagine all the group and listed races will go north, which is the usual solution. Probably have to be Ruakaka I suppose as Auckland doesn't have a useable track.

I think its just so they can say they consulted. They have no intention of doing anything and no idea what to do anyhow. Sadly, they are too thick to see this isn't even really about the GN, it is indicative of everything that is wrong with SI racing from a leadership perspective. The worst part of the whole thing is that SI racing could be really thriving, it has lots of actual advantages. Its biggest disadvantage is appalling leadership. NZTR think they have done really well scaring off the Tylers, Taplins and Dennis Brothers. If they could just close down Timaru they would all qualify for their Xmas bonus. They must be so pissed off by all the winners coming out of Timaru these days.

It looks like it is very targeted, seems largely interested in the views of a small number of owners and trainers.

It's a pretty half arsed survey anyhow to be honest. There won't be any useful information to come out of it.

Did he have one something like Pinstripe, seems to ring a bell. Mutual Belle was a good mare, quite a while ago now.

Good day for NZers in Oz. Callsign Mav finally cracks his Aussie group one. The Taplins get a winner on the Gold Coast and I see Brent Gray scored there as well. Didn't he come from Reefton?

To give them some credit NZTR does contribute to tote wages on a public holiday, but it doesn't seem to encourage many clubs to give it a go on those days, which is sad really. A lot of public holiday meetings have disappeared over the years. "Where a Club races on either a public holiday or observed public holiday NZTR will pay 33% of the amount paid to tote staff hired for the day up to a maximum of $5,500."

It will come right, the govt is going to give the crims wrap around support, which is sweet of them.

You should have told that to the VRC before they build all those new stands just for their Cup Week.

Yes, the grand tour. And as you say it doesn't seem to be anything at all. Hope it didn't cost too much. Really hard to know how to promote racing these days. 30 odd years ago Cup Week needed no promotion at all. The same punters from all around the country kept coming back year after year. These days virtually none of them bother as the place is full of non racing types there for the piss up. Back in the 80s you hardly saw any non racing types at Cup Week at Riccarton and yet they were still able to fill the place and all that big grandstand.

I suspect you are not the target market Peanut. None of us on here really. What's this new thing called to promote the favoured doz or so big meetings? I presume it starts this weekend at HB, be interesting to see how many extras it attracts. I was at this meeting a few years ago and there weren't many there for a big day.

Yes, there are a lot of "learnings" to be had from this first season of AWT racing. Many things have become very obvious. We are probably getting close to the time when NZTR will make an announcement about how they think it has gone, where they think they may have got it wrong, and what changes they are proposing going forward. It will be interesting to see if their assessment matches what many on here think.

I think Levin "left home" even longer than 20 years ago. I do recall attending some Levin meetings in the 80s but seem to recall they may already have been at Otaki in the 90s. They used to race about this time of the year and the track was often in pretty good condition.