Doomed

They don't even have a grandstand these days, let alone a crowd.

You can understand the club wanting to sell up. Why battle away and receive no thanks in a twilight industry? Sadly, you just know RACE will waste all the money. I see Otaki are becoming property developers. Ideally they should sell up for $30m, pocket the money and run a $1m race every year at whichever track offers them the best deal.

15 days between CD racemeetings and the next two meetings both low key ones. Next meeting with decent stakes is Taranaki on 20 Aug. And it's likely to be a bog. Long time between drinks. Hard to know if that will help or hinder the Riccarton meeting. I wonder what the contingency is if Riccarton is unusable due to rain? Winter Cup at Timaru, or on the AWT? I wonder which trainers would prefer?

It's a bit like the Trentham figure 8. Needs a jockey with a good sense of direction.

You can say what you like about Te Rapa, and it certainly isn't a track I bet much on these days, but it certainly has been able stand up to a hell of a lot of rain. Purely from the drainage perspective it has probably been a success: very much a horses for courses and front runners track though.

Would Superior Chance have been the last significant free legged pacer to race in NZ? Something you don't see much anymore, but I am well out of touch these days.

And from memory that tearaway winner sat parked the entire trip, so hard to take anything away from her. I think that cup would also have had the likes of Hands Down and Bonnies Chance in it as well. In those days there was so much depth in the fields you hardly needed handicaps. These days there are often such dominant favs that a handicap at least makes the race interesting. There is still the FFA on show day to give the big guns their chance. Perhaps split the stake evenly between the two races; a $500,000 handicap cup and $500,000 FFA.

7 and 9 in two of the $40,000 races, 6 and 7 in a couple of the others. Only 7 races in total. I wonder if those numbers fit with what was budgeted for these meetings?

I do have a lot of sympathy for the CD owners and trainers missing out on all these black type races, but you do really wonder whether we should be running two listed 2yo races in the CD in the middle of winter on bog tracks. If the horses are genuine black type 2yos perhaps get them going a few months earlier and target something in the autumn.

I did think the same myself. I suspect the Otaki noms would have been shocking, so they were probably quite happy to abandon it.

If all this keeps going on surely there is massive incentive to get that CD AWT up and running. Although interestingly, amidst all these bog tracks and abandoned meetings there are two maiden races on a guaranteed good track at Riccarton with only 5 noms in each.

Anyone with an open stayer could just pop them over a few hurdles to see if they can jump and send them down to Riccarton; they will be pleased to see them.

To be fair Joe, none of those trainers accepted for an AWT, they accepted for a heavy grass track more than two hours further south. You are always going to get scratchings like that when a meeting is transferred to a totally different surface. What is does show is that AWTs don't help prevent or mitigate abandonments. The only advantage they have is that an already scheduled AWT meeting is less likely to be abandoned than a traditional meeting.

In Aussie they are obsessed with trying to rerun any abandoned meetings. In NZ they don't get a stuff, they just see it as a way to save a few dollars. If they are feeling really magnanimous they might throw in an extra maiden race at a meeting a wek later.

Probably the interesting thing in all this is that the AWT could only manage 7 races, even with $40,000 races and heavy tracks all round. 6 in one race, the 3yo race managed 9 acceptors after 5 noms, but only 8 acceptors including a first starter in a $40,000 race, so much for qualification criteria favouring those that had form on the AWT. And once again we still haven't seen an abandoned meeting saved by the AWT, despite Winston's promises. I wonder if they considered abandoning Rotorua yesterday and transferring to the AWT?

Could today be the day. $80,000 race, wet track only 4 opponents?

The TAB of course has always been a monopoly organisation in NZ, but it did used to be quite efficient, and innovative. The big change is that the TAB used to be a purely service organisation, and largely used to do what they were told. NZTR was also largely a service organisation. Interestingly, there used to be an organisation called something like racehorse owners and trainers assoc, with very good leadership, that used to have input to decisions, they seem to have disappeared. Things started to go badly wrong when the breeders gained control of the Racing Board (or one of its many names) and it was merged with the TAB. Suddenly you had the tail wagging the dog. You then had board members and CEOs with unprecedented power and underwhelming competence trying to run an industry that was way beyond their level of skill. Ever since the Racing Industry has been run by Boards and CEOs with no interest in Racing it has gone down hill rapidly. Which is hardly surprising really. These days the most important criteria to get on any Racing Board is to meet the gender ratio, be of the right political persuasion, and ideally have absolutely no knowledge of racing. I think the damage has largely been done and it is probably irreparable. How do you get rid of dozens of people who suddenly find themselves on the pigs back? If people think it is hard to get rid of Foster they should take a close look at the Racing Industry.

I hadn't noticed they don't race at Puke again until Nov. It seems strange having Ellerslie, Te Aroha and Puke all out of action at the same time. Thank god for all those "spare' tracks, we are lucky to have them. Good old Avondale. I'm not sure what would happen if they ever decided to upgrade Riccarton. Would they bring Motukarara and Orari out of mothballs?

The horse certainly didn't like being hit, and there was no obvious reason to hit it.

I too, noted that statement. "In front of the public grandstand". Really? It might have been useful to mention how many people where in the public grandstand. Two old folks from the retirement home down the road who popped in for somewhere to take a seat during their daily walk. The stipes should have dashed up and asked them if either of them spotted anything.

I suppose you have to give NZTR some credit, they are never wrong.

Yes, our racing industry exists in a quite surreal universe, probably different to anywhere else in the world, where actual turnover, interest and relevance bears no relationship at all to the money spent on stakes and other industry inputs. It would be fascinating to hear some academic attempt to explain how we can have have million dollar races which are only about 5% funded by betting on them, with a further 1% funded by a sponsor, given the level of public interest and awareness. If they could adequately explain that they could then start on explaining how the industry has made a conscious decision that actual public attendance at racemeetings is no longer encouraged or desirable. A fascinating industry. It would make a great PhD subject if someone had a few years to spare.

I saw that as well. The quote above is the one I really liked.

Yes, I can recall David Peake replacing him and didn't do well either.

Yes, they were probably his two most famous mounts, and also Magellan.