Doomed

I will be cheering for Pam to win the very first race on the Riccarton AWT. I'm sure it would be very popular with the locals for one of their own to win the first race. I'm sure Tim will be first in the queue to rush out and congratulate her.

Surely this would be more suited to the dogs forum. I have just had the most unsettling image of Gelda impaled on her broom

I think if you were to ask a cross section of SI racing people what the top priorities would be if they had $15m to spend on SI racing, an AWT might struggle to make the top 20. Probably squeezed somewhere between a new tearooms at Winton and a 1,200m chute at Reefton. .

Timaru has a public grandstand, which is a good start.

I think the Alison hung around for quite a while, but seems to have disappeared now.

Yes, that is significant. They have never really latched onto the importance of Timaru being so central and able to attract horses from all over. If an AWT was so important why wasn't it built at Timaru? Its even in the provinces. I'm still bemused that there weren't more comments about the Provincial Growth Fund being used to fund a multi million dollar project in the middle of NZ's second biggest city.

A certain irony the sole ballot being trained by one of the AWTs greatest advocates.

The people on the big money know better than us mere mortals. I'm sure they have a spreadsheet that justifies it all.

Perhaps they realised they had programmed 4 CD meetings in 9 days, the first 3 all low key meetings, and no way would there be enough horses to go around. Having read about the judge at Timaru being fined for his mistake I wonder if others who make programming mistakes etc could be fined as well for bringing the industry into disrepute.

I suspect at Trentham they have no other option. This is probably the last desperate hope.

Didn't RACE spend heaps on developments at Awapuni and cock it up?

I can remember the days when Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton all used to race at Easter time. Not sure what will happen when they get rid of all the small clubs that don't mind racing on those days.

Yes, not a good look.

A good start would have been to show he was actually prepared to talk to people and listen to them rather than just preach a load of meaningless rubbish. I presume it was written for him and not all his own words, but even then he could have said he wasn't going to keep churning out that rubbish. How hard is it for them to come out and explain things like why it wasn't possible to race Riverton Monday and either Wednesday or Thursday; instead denying the South 6 racing opportunities. You get impression the minute details are all below them and they are big picture people not interested in the basics. At the moment it is the basics that is letting the show down. How long can they keep running 3 horse fields for $30,000. I suppose the savings from shutting down Wairoa more than fund those tiny fileds.

That was the bit that intrigued me as well.

From memory, it is the first time I can ever recall one meeting being abandoned so that another abandoned meeting can take its place. Sets an interesting precedent. Six fields of horses basically just told to stuff off. Fields that already had jockeys declared, horses primed, probably even bets taken. Really weird.

Doesn't matter, its only Southland. Totally different approach to recent abandonments in the NI. It was a chance for some jockeys to get 20 rides over the two days and for the local trainers to get opportunities over the two days. Now they are 6 races down. And, as I said, on the same day there was no worry about 3 horses going around for $30,000 in the North, and scratchings all over the place on a good track at Te Rapa. Lets just hope they follow this precedent for the next northern abandonment, rather than the approach after the last two Tauherenikau abandonments where they fell over themselves to slot in extra low key meetings.

The proposed solution seems bizzare. Run the 8 remaining races on Monday and scape most of Monday's card. Why not run monday's card on Wednesday or thurs? In the North they always programme another meeting. Tauherenikau to Waverley most recently. They are probably concerned they will have smallish fields running for $12,000, but no trouble having 3 horses running for $30,000 today at HB. The scaped races are quite important for southern jockeys and trainers who don't get many chances. Today's balloted horses who were hoping to get their chance on Monday will be pissed off.

Looks to be abandoned according to the TAB. Most unfortunate.

Perfect track too. And the worst scratchings are in the rating 65s. $30,000 and they don't give a stuff. Compare that to Riverton. Heavy track and they still front up. Ballots hardly ever get a start in the South, and they hardly ever have 2yo and 3yo races programmed down there. Look at HB. 3 starters in a 2yo race for $30,000. Bloody disgraceful. And they are continually splitting fields and programming extra races in the North. Just about every week they add in an extra 2yo or 3yo race somewhere in the North. I would doubt that an extra 2yo or 3yo race has ever been added in the SI. The trainers certainly don't have the same attitude towards the "flash" tracks as NZTR. I suppose if they keep closing as many provincial tracks as possible trainers will eventually be forced to race at the chosen few. As I have said many times, I didn't really believe this industry's biggest problems are Waimate, Oamaru and Hokitika.

Good write up about the Riverton races. It probably gets more publicity than the Wgtn or Auckland Cups these days. Must really piss off NZTR when meetings like that attract more publicity than the big city flash events. It will be interesting to compare turnovers with the $900,000 harness race meeting last night. No story that I could see in the Waikato Times about their group 1 tomorrow. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/128351345/rivertons-easter-races-a-meeting-place-for-many-in-the-south

Being the natural optimist that I am, I like to think that purely on the basis of percentages they should get at least one decision correct sooner rather than later.

You might have to elaborate on that one for me Mikey. Can you mention for me some of the other big races where everyone but the winner is going to loss money? I have no idea what nomination and accpetance fees are like in the trots, I looked on the HRNZ website but couldn't find fees listed anywhere for any race. But I don't know of any other race where the stake is put up by participants who all know they will lose money if they don't win. Race stakes are usually funded by turnover, in one way or the other. That's why some of us were interested in the turnover.

Very true. And I didn't have a bet on the race myself, just watched it out of interest. However, the hard cold facts are that it is the punters who provide the races for other enthusiasts just to sit back and watch without any financial involvement. Without punters there would be no racing, we should never lose sight of that fact. I'm much happier getting a $10 winner in a maiden race than a $2 winner in a $1m race.

I saw those figures as well just before the close and thought it was pretty poor. I checked again during the running and it had ended up with about $51,000. Not much really. I imagine Riverton would be disappointed tomorrow if they didn't get that for their Cup race.