Doomed

I don't think that fits their narrative so it tends to be ignored. I am waiting for some figures about cost savings and turnovers from the meetings transferred from closed tracks, Waikouaiti, Motukarara, Wairoa etc. Even the meetings transferred to the Cambridge AWT. They must have quite a lot of information regarding all those meetings, and some others, by now so surely we all deserve some insight into the benefits of the restructuring so far. How hard is it to say Waikouaiti moved to Wingatui, total costs were $???, which was down $???. Total income was up $???, made up of turnovers up $???, gatetakings up $???, sponsorship up $??? Surely if they revealed that information some people who might be a bit dubious about the merits of the scorched earth policy might change theor mind?

I was thinking much the same myself. Who would ever have thought we could actually end up with someone worse than those who have gone before. It sounds like he is just a lackey put in there to do what he's told and toe the party line.

I assumed he meant that poorly performing tracks like New Plymouth that have no upside, and will always be a bog no matter what you spend on them, and white elephants like Trentham that will need multiple millions spent on them to bring them up to standard would go first. Surely that is what rationalisation and better use of assets means?

It is a quite a poorly written article really and he doesn't sound all that bright, but I don't know the man at all so perhaps he was just poorly quoted. To give him credit thought he does seem to accept that the New Plymouth racecourse is a goner so he can't be accused of bias. Perhaps he is going to go down the line of getting rid of the poorly performing racetracks first rather than just the smaller provincial ones. He seems to suggest we are better off selling up some of the white elephant big city tracks, which is a subtle change in appproach from the previous admonistration.

The theory seems to be to close lots of tracks for trials and racemeetings so that trainers are forced to use the AWTs. Then they can brag about how popular the AWTs are. The trainers who don't like them will probably just drift away as racing becomes more boring and homoginised. That will please the powers that be as well of course as they seem to only want the bigger compliant trainers rather than the smaller operators who charge too cheaply and give the place a bad look. We are in for an interesting few months ahead. It is easy to see Pukekohe failing to stand up to racing then they will be forced to either go to the AWT or call on a favour from Avondale again: "just before we execute you, do you think we could use your decent track just once more?" Likewise, in Canterbury, Ashburton will probably have to be ready to go at a moments notice in case the Riccarton turf becomes unusable again. All the while Oamaru and Timaru will sit there with unwanted near firm tracks. The fact that Trentham appears to be the go to alternative winter option in the CD pretty much speaks for itself in that region.

I see that is Avondale you refer to. You can hardly blame them. 25 trials at Avondale this week, 24 at Foxton, both tracks that aren't considered important. If I was running either track I would tell them to f... off and play on their flash AWTs. 15 trials at Ashburton as well. Surely they could have been run on the AWT?

Might be planning a big opening ceremony: stages, dancing girls etc.

Just lucky we have all those spare tracks to move to. Who would have thought you would see meetings moved to Trentham in the winter time

But the gallops know they just have to hold on until the three AWTs are up and going and everything will be ok. The trots already have their AWTs, in fact so many they have closed several down over the years and want to close even more.

Locarno was one of my favourites back in the day. He may have been one of the first to win the Miracle Mile from the outside barrier. Only a six horse field in those days of course.

Won by most of the greats, including Locarno. Many would probably rate Messenger/Rowe Cup night the best night of the year at Alex Park. Sad to see how far it has fallen.

Last I heard Riverton races at Riverton and the Tylers train at Riverton so probably a 2 minute stroll around to the start. Of course, it is hard to know where everyone races these days so perhaps the Riverton meeting has moved to Gore, it wouldn't surprise me. Stranger things have happened.

I just checked the programmes and they have been opened up to all comers. How sad, The Messenger used to be one of the great races, now it is just another everyday event. In the gallops you might struggle to retain your group status if you made such a dramatic change, but group status doesn't seem to mean too much in the trots.

I think you will find they would rather race at their local meeting over Easter. Probably more appreciated there.

I wasn't going to comment Curious as I feel I keep repeating myself, but the intention is basically for Riccarton to hold their usual saturday turf meetings and virtually all of the Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru meetings get moved to the AWT. I'm not sure what the Timaru and Oamaru tracks are being "saved " for as they have hardly any summer meetings. And the horses that "prefer better footing" that you refer to are being moved from grass tracks that usually provide dead tracks (firmer than most NI summer tracks) to an AWT surface that they have never raced on before. I seem to recall the Tylers saying "Yeah close Oamaru we can't stand it, we can't wait to head up to Riccarton and the AWT, that will be a perfect lead up to bog track racing at Riccarton over the National carnival." Although they may have said that on 1 April.

Doesn't matter said Bernie. trainers come and go, total numbers remain generally the same apparently. He's the expert on the big money so I suppose he knows.

Seems a bit weird. The trots already pay back to last anyhow, so rather than getting $300 for running last you will now get $500. And rather than the winner getting $10,000 they will now get $10,200. Doesn't sound like the most innovative solution.

Trials there just over a week ago I think.

Any benefit of the doubt should favour the interferred with horse. I thought it was going to go straight past the tiring leader.

It will be interesting to see if they are brave enough. I thought the runner up was going to get there. She was interferred with badly enough to be over a length away at the line. If she had got within a head she might have been promoted.

Possibly he didn't stay.

I was more talking about the fillies really, but even the Derby placegetters have hardly kicked on. Its not even as if most of them have had hard 2yo seasons either.

Discussion of today's 3yo race got me thinking that recent 3yo crops have shown an appalling failure to kick on as 4yos. The fillies have been particularly bad with hardly any of the group 1 placegetters in recent years doing anything as 4yos, or even subsequently. The males have been almost as bad after sometimes showing early promise. Catalyst seems to have disappeared, Aegon didn't fire this year. Noverre won't be seen again. Any thoughts what might be causing this? Are they being raced too hard as youngsters, is the pattern wrong, are our 3yo races just so weak that the winners just aren't that flash. They don't really seem to get raced as hard as the Aussies race their 2yos and 3yos. I'm sure it wasn't this bad in years gone by. We used to look forward to the exciting 4yos turning up.

I think you only get just over $500,000 for that, they give a lot to the also rans. So even if you take that out he has won approximately $400,000, more than the rest of the field combined. I think he won the Manawatu Sires last year, probably his most prestigious win so far.

I don't follow NZ racing much these days so pretty out of touch, but he is thrown in at the weights. He has won numerous races and almost $1m. A couple of the others have won two races, but not much money, and the rest are one win horses and maidens. So surely he has to be favourite? Whether he will win is another question. Gives them a chance to test him out and hopefully get another group win. If he wasn't there we would all be saying what a shocking Group race that is.