Doomed

Very true. I'm sure there are people out there who think "well, lets see you do better running the industry". Which is a pretty ignorant argument if people really do think that. Sadly, strings of third tier administrators over the last 30 years have virtually destroyed a racing industry that was ticking away quite well and was reacting to changes in an appropriate and considered fashion. People seem to forget that at least a dozen tracks that I can think of off the top of my head were closed down over 15 years or so around the 1980s, and a similiar number of new grandstands were built, even totally new racecourses. It's not as if rationalisation is some new phenomenon that a recent bright spark has just thought of. There were very few incompetent administrators back in those times, and very few who came from totally outside the industry or had absolutely no interest in the industry. It was good to see Allan Fenwick interviewed on TV last weekend after his horse won at Riccarton. Wellington locals might be able to tell us how often they spot John Allen at Trentham these days. They might even be able to tell us how often they spotted him there during his time running the show. He probably wasn't required to work Saturdays.

I see there is light at the end of the tunnel for the warriors and stacey should be next coach of the Kiwis according to George. Now that he has almost succeeded in turning the Warriors around we can probably expect him to start turning his attention to the Racing industry and start turning it around as well.

Another interesting piece from Brian. http://www.theoptimist.co.nz/

Yes Hunter was on a jumper at Ashburton. Incredible that someone like Ellis had never heard of all those southerners. I think his wife comes from Timaru, surely she would know.

Interestingly the price kept blowing out. About $7 before it came out into the birdcage, then $10 at the close. I think Pam not dressed in her finest did put people off. Probably a very cunning plan to shake peoples confidence. A very brave win, fought tenaciously.

Obviously Ellis doesn't count SI racing if that is what he thinks. There have been several SI jockeys killed in relatively recent times sadly. A bit poor he doesn't remember any of them.

I have often seen Pam refer to the riding standards in the South. I do have sympathy for them. They often have less than one meeting a week and usually have to travel 100s of kilometres for a ride and seldom get to ride for big stakes. And they are likely to get put out for a few weeks if they make a mistake. It must be a tough life, and not much glamour these days riding at meetings with hardly any public in attendance.

I'm in ChCh wednesday but $25 is a lot to pay to get in and then have no public facilities. It is cheaper to go to Caulfield or Flemington and be in a nice bar all day.

I find it very unfortunate that they have a high profile AWT meeting with decent stakes and they don't consider it an opportunity to reward those who have been supporting the AWT racing all winter. Only one race rated higher than 65, and that a 2,200m race. It would have been nice to reward the better class sprinters and milers that have been turning out for $12,000 a time. After this week they will suddenly expect the rating 74s to turn up for $14,000. Seems weird to me,, and a lost opportunity.

They don't have 2yo races in August down south. The 2yos suddenly become 3yos on 1 Aug. I notice they do have 2yo trials already in the north though.

Typical Aussies, cart before the horse. I suppose we may have to forget about attracting Aussies over here for our "massive" stakes. We do still have the easiest black type though.

Are there that many local trainers with mudders champing at the bit Pam?

They seem to encourage the real grass roots over there, quite different to the NZ approach. Who knows what approach is best, perhaps NZ might surprise them. And I don't know about continually introducing new races all the time. Have they not heard of tradition? The last new race to be introduced in NZ was the Bayer Classic. Surely one every 40 years or so is more than enough?

I actually think its a good idea to run some trials on the AWT. It might as well be used and this is when it's needed with most tracks under water. People just have to accept this is what they are good for, rather than the Riccarton approach where the AWT is largely seen as a way to eliminate most other provincial tracks with no consideration at all for a logical pattern of racing.

From a very quick perusal there are no grass track maiden races in Canty between Ashburton on 7 July and Riccarton on 1 Oct, other than one next weekend at Riccarton. So I imagine there will be very few wet track maidens in work.

I don't know about everyone else, but for me the most fascinating race for all of National week will be the 1,400m maiden race on the last day. The only grass track maiden race in all of Canterbury for almost 14 weeks. Will lots of owners have said to their trainers "sure, keep it in work for 14 weeks there's a $15,000 race on the the last day of National week, that will do."

Perhaps even sadder than the jumps situation is the 3yo situation. We always knew the jumps would struggle, and of course that 3yo race always struggles as well. Just out of interest I went back to 1987. The Haldon Plate, run one week before the Nationals for maiden 2yos, was split into two separate races; one of 10 starters and one with 12. Then they ran 3yo races on the 1st and 3rd days of National week with 8 and 10 starters respectively. 40 starters in 2/3yo races over two weeks. Only six noms this week. It is inevitable jumps racing will die off, but surely 2yo and 3yo racing struggling is a big worry. I thought we had lots of syndicates these days and they wanted instant gratification. For all of the highly paid administrators employed in the head offices, the industry really does appear to be totally leaderless. And as others have suggested, once ChCh loses the Nationals the two big Guineas races will follow very quickly, within two years I would say. Is the CJC too thick to realise any of this?

To give them some credit, I have seen quite a bit of promotional activity around Grand National week. Come and enjoy the thrill of jumps racing, that sort of thing.

There are only actually 14 noms from jumpers, two double acceptors. It will be interesting to discover how much work has gone on over the last few months from NZTR and the CJC to ensure there would be sufficient jumpers coming. I'm surprised they weren't a little more flexible in their programming, perhaps open entry races might have been an idea. No, on second thoughts, I'm not really surprised.

I notice noms aren't good for the Jumpers and also the open sprinters and 3yos. You would hardly expect too many late noms for the jumpers. By contrast Ruakaka has some potentially interesting fields. A pretty good line up of sprinters. A new precedent being set with the 65 stayers. They are planning to just split the field. No mention of the second race being run for a lesser stake.

How race fit are the southerners going to be for this sort of track? Even the CD horses with all their abandonments might get a shock. And with no rain forecast the track could be quite puggy, it doesn't dry out. Margins back to last might be interesting.

Before they had all the enthusiasm and innovation knocked out of them.

I still struggle with the concept that most of the SI's problems will be resolved when they get rid of Timaru. On that basis we should already be seeing significant progress with Motukarara, Waikouaiti, Marlborough, Hokitika, Winton, Wyndham all gone in recent years, but I haven't really noticed it so far. And surely they can't race all of the extinguished clubs meetings on the AWT? The SI will still need some grass track meetings in the summer, and even winter, months. It is hard to see how this Riccarton grass track can provide the quality and consistency required.

I can just picture Mills heading out towards the old public stand with a box of dynamite, muttering to himself "I'll show the bastards I can do something constructive (destructive)".

As I said earlier I really did think they would have been talking to Myers, Nelson & McDougal and others weeks and months ago to see what horses they were aiming at this week. I thought they would have been able to list about 90% of the expected noms a couple of weeks ago. To leave it until the day before noms to ask what's about is simply staggering. And where has NZTR been in all this?