Doomed

They seemed to zoom in a bit closer than usual as the horses went down the back and I was thinking what an attractive course Riccarton is with the trees down the back, then they came to the subdivision which looked pretty ugly and ruined the whole look. Most of the tracks that keep selling off land and get surrounded by building of various types start to look a bit ugly.

I do think Entriviere is a bit over rated. I was surprised she was so short. The Aussies do tend to slightly over rate NZ group form.

Unless its a NZ horse involved of course.

To give John and the shot putter some credit,at least they were clever enough not to even pretend they knew anything about, or had any interest in, racing. They always looked a bit bemused that an industry they knew nothing about would want to employ them to run it.

I could probably free up a day a week to take on the job, as long as it didn't intrude on my weekends. An interest in Racing may count against me, I see that isn't considered necessary at all.

You seem to have wandered into the wrong conversation.

It is the same in any SI pub: staff masked, customers not.

All of these flash new races are starting to detract from some established group races. We are seeing some pretty ordinary fields going around in some of the group 2s and 3s especially, and even some group 1s. I pressure the Invitation isn't a group race since it is invitation only. There may need to be a culling of some existing group races as these new races are group races in all but name.

There are some pretty ordinary jockeys in the North as well. There are certain ones I would never touch, based on one or two shocking rides. The Southern ones are probably getting more opportunities than previously at the moment because the northern ones can't readily travel South. I hope they are making the most of it.

He certainly rode it like the best horse in the race. I am very impressed by Prebble every time I see him interviewed after a race. He must be one of the best spoken jockeys going around.

I thought the same when Harlech hit the front. Even Two Illicit couldn't keep up in Qld and wins easily here.

Hard to know what the alternative is. We are probably lucky to have the ones we have. It is hardly an attractive live-style. What other occupation do you face the possibility of a month or so with no earnings if you make a split second mistake doing your job? A rugby player keeps getting paid if he gets banned for a month or so. If you are in the SI you only have one race-meeting every couple of weeks, unless you want to make a 16 hour round trip then you might get one meeting a week, often with only 7 or 8 races. And then whenever there is the occasional decent meeting a NI jockey will pop down for any decent months. And they can hardly learn their trade at low key meetings as our tiered racing system is a joke. Hopefully someone is trying to encourage them to learn from their mistakes. Nothing wrong with constructive criticism, its the only way they will learn. What steps are being taken to make sure CWJ passes on his knowledge to the new generation?

I just saw that. I always liked her on trackside: classy lady, seems to know her stuff.

Well, he was a $1.20 shot in a five horse race and he finished 3rd to last, so something caught him out.

I must admit I had never heard of race form.

I suspect no one cares anymore. Doesn't matter to the club what their fields are like as all funding comes centrally regardless of results, so no incentive to strive for a great raceday. Trainers should make better use of the system as they do up north.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I wouldn't rate Melody Belle in that company. You have to rate horses based on who they are beating. I can't recall too many champions that Melody Belle beat.

Sadly, they all used to be good tracks back in the 80s. Bloody mess now.

I think I saw a comment that we don't have enough group races for fillies and mares.

What sort of people were advising him Freda? Hopefully no one with vested interests?

With 3 winners yesterday from Matamata and one from Pukekohe obviously those trainers are happy to race at Timaru and appreciate the good track. Would they be equally as happy to race on the Riccarton AWT as a lead up to Cup Week in years to come? If they were, they would probably have all stayed up north and raced at Cambridge this week. It is time the Trainers Associations nationally had some input into this track fiasco. They need to stand up for themselves as there isn't much time left. The industry needs leadership. It looks like it is just as likely to come from a clever trainer than anyone else.

I do wonder about the thought processes of some of the trainers from Otago and Southland. The Tylers apart, they seem to be pretty switched on. Six races tomorrow for Winton Cup day. Two races scrapped; 65 2,200m and maiden 1,600m. I don't know how many nominated and accepted for those races, but presumably 5 or 6. Does it occur to those trainers that if they had put another couple of horses into each of those races and then scratched on race morning that would have been almost $24,000 extra spread amongst industry participants in the South. Have they noticed that is what happens all the time in the North? Two 5 horse $30,000 races at Matamata today. A couple of weeks ago at Matamata a couple of 4 horse fields, one for $40,000, and a 3 horse field for $30,000. Awapuni during the week started with 6, 7 and 6 horse fields. A harness race in the north yesterday, one trainer had the whole field. Last season Rogerson had the whole field in a galloping race and scratched half of them on race day. The South is missing out on a lot of stakes money due to poor programming in the first place and then this lack of awareness from trainers. One problem is the central control of everything. In past times the club would have tried to attract extra starters, now no one seems to care as everything is centrally funded and controlled. And now the real elephant in the room. Two horses from Wingatui at Invercargill. There are more from Oamaku. And that is the total Otago representation. It is less than 2.5 hours travel. Wingatui is a very favoured club with numerous prime dates: Melbourne Cup day, Boxing day, a feature Saturday in February. Probably 6 or 7 days during the year with feature stakes (compared to Timaru with none) and yet they really don't contribute much to racing in the South. Do the trainers associations down there ever get together and say "look we really need to support these meetings or else we will lose them"? If the Tylers suddenly decided they really loved the idea of AWT racing and upped sticks and moved to Riccarton (which NZTR would love to see happen) racing in Otago and Southland would be stuffed.

I take great interest in the Timaru situation as it is indicative of everything that is wrong with NZ racing. A really good meeting yesterday with horses going 1.09 and 1.10 for the 1,200m races. Winners coming from inside draws and wide draws. 11 races, but there should have been 12. 23 noms for the 65 mile, all six ballots scratched and others eliminated. Good luck any of them getting a start in the next few weeks. A perfect racing surface when the NI continues to race on bog tracks, and Riccarton is described as stuffed by prominent trainers. Talk about ignoring one of the industry's greatest assets. If NZTR had any integrity at all they would come out and say "Look, we stuffed up badly, we admit we were wrong. We should be supporting Timaru not trying to destroy it." Changes of that happening? Slim would be being very generous. They could also look at why Timaru had to run 11 races (and should have run 12) and Riccarton the week before 11 also. Bad programming perhaps? I stopped reading the Messara report when they said Timaru should go and Waikouaiti be retained. If that was the level of analysis that went into the whole report the rest of it wouldn't have been worth reading. If anyone was still interested in Racing in NZ this whole situation would be a laughing stock. Does Bernie know where Timaru is? Has he ever been there?

Put on your gang members patch and just stroll through the front gate.

He is probably advising other countries how easy it is to go wrong and how much other countries can learn by looking at the NZ situation.