Doomed

Mills didn't achieve the Couplands mile. When Winston first dished out money many years ago and made the 2,000 Guineas $1m they were told they had to move it from the Wednesday to the first Saturday, for some reason. To replace it they moved the Churchill Stakes from the last day and boosted the stake. The CJC hasn't added a single new race for the last 30 years other than races like the Canterbury Belle, Timaru Stakes and a fillies and mares race they inherited from innovative clubs who fell on hard times, geez even the Marlborough Cup, North Canty Cup and that Nth Canty 3yo race with the regularly changing name. All they have done is drop time honoured races like the Sth Is Challenge Stakes, that 2yo fillies race, all the jumps races outside National week, and soon to be all the jumps races during National week, as surely this will be the last National Week. The last new race I can recall at Riccarton was the Galaxy Stks, probably during the late 70s early 80s, and I don't know if that was their idea as I think Wingatui had one as well. Compare Riccarton with the number of new races added in Sydney over the last 5 years alone.

Do you have any idea how depressing that question is? You are about 30 years too late.

I wonder where Tim heard all the rumours? There has been no mention of it being moved on here and this place would be one of the first to hear if there were such rumours.

Surely there should have been another sentence at the end of that statement. "If it was necessary to transfer the meeting it would be moved to a nearby course with a grass track, as visiting trainers would be anticipating a meeting on a wet grass track".

They surely can't pull the pin on the Nationals? They are worth $100,000 last time I looked. Some trainers will have been targeting them all season.

I have just seen the notice you are referring to. I am staggered. It is probably no secret I think the CJC are incompetent and arrogant, and NZTR....well, probably much the same, but I really did think both bodies would have been sitting back smugly for weeks thinking "everyone thinks we have cocked up, but we know almost exactly how many jumpers are targetting Riccarton".

Surely that cannot be correct? Surely they have been talking to jumps trainers for months to ascertain their intentions? They have tried to remove any alternative opportunities in the NI. I find it hard to believe that as incompetent as these people are, that they didn't have idea what the jumps fields would look like several weeks ago.

Don't be silly. The 2,000 Guineas is worth $550,000 this year, who knows what the Derby will be worth? We are on the verge of a golden age.

It would be interesting to hear what RACE would do with their $30m windfall if that did come to pass. It could fund a couple of AWTs. The Auckland trots and RACE itself have shown how easy it is to piss away a lot of money very quickly. You can just imagine what will happen when they try to redevelop Trentham.

Dillon Dale was my great hope from the north. I had him at great odds when it took a freakish performance from Inky Lord to beat him. I have a feeling he may have been placed a couple of times.

He is hosting this site, which at least gives people some opportunity to express their dissatisfaction. Without it I suspect NZTR would probably think the industry is 100% in favour of NZTR's actions.

To look at it from a positive angle there are horses these days who are competive in NZ Group 1s, and winning lots of money, and getting black type for the family, who would never have been competive 20 or 30 years ago, and who probably would be listed level at best in Aussie. So some people are doing quite well out of it.

It never had a position of strength in the NI.

I'm struggling to think of any other industry/sport that has implouded so badly. Even rugby for all its problems begrudingly accepts it still needs a provincial presence.

I remember it well because I turned up expecting Hands Down to be fav and Roydon Scott was going to be my value bet. I was quite surprised to find it the other way around. I think Hands Down may have paid about $8 to win. The 80s certainly was the great decade for harness racing. It really has crashed a long way from that position of strength, esp in the SI.

I can't add anything to what Reefton and Freda have so eloquently stated. What staggers me is the way a bunch of "no-names" have been able to destroy a massive industry in a relatively short period of time, with barely a whimper of objection. When their approach fails miserably they will just disappear into the sunset without a care in the world. They don't appear to be the types to fall on their swords when everything goes wrong.

Yes, I was there that day. Probably the best ever Cup finish. I have a funny feeling Roydon Scott may have even been the fav that year, but I may be totally wrong.

Slight tangent here, but when you think about it how many 'champions" haven't managed to win the Cup, even when it was a handicap? Only really Delightful Lady and Sapling readily spring to mind.

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.