Huey

You're right , they don't bet much or know much about horses. What is going to happen to this game when they take all the real race courses away? Messara reckons we will be competing internationally so I guess we will be making a fortune out international punters flocking in droves to bet on our product , they'll love it there will be about 25 stables left in the country by then , TA will have about 50% of the horse population ... I can't wait! As an aside , how boring has our 2yo racing become over the past few years, it really is just for the rich now. So glad to see a battler win the cup though.

They'll be OK Mark, must be 20 odd country tracks they can sell to subsidise it. My how boring has it all become , I can't blame anyone for not going.

The average joe blogg in racing believes it Freda , cause they are led to believe that RITA/ NZTR etc are putting up resources to fund these race courses , when we all know that simply is not the case and hasn't been for a long time if ever. What he should be saying is "the preferred racecourses and racing administrators are not sustainable should we not be able to sell up the self sustainable racecourses."

It's being absolutely ruined by them at the moment, continues steadfastly on a slippery slope and they continue to listen to the geniuses that contributed to getting them into this mess for a solution.

Had the ball ripped from our arms , eye gouged ,rucked in the nether regions and head high tackled more like it.

Like a few clubs in the NZ they need a complete shakeup ,for some reason Clubs performance is not for review, they are some of the worst performers in the industry .

Great analogy, unfortunately i think you're going right.

Exactly, you're making more of a fuss over a guy who outed a murderer than the murderer himself.

A guy murdered someone's daughter in the most despicable way and youre worried about upholding the law for his sake. FFS Chief Stipe , I have nothing to-do with the defendant or even know the guy like some of you do, but making a fuss out of this is a joke.

It's not only Weigh In its virtually all NZ racing media, it's a snorefest of self promotion, article after article on the same people, the same theme, same promo ,same interviews.

Process / Law yeah yeah depends who you are. This isn't about the Ego its about the process you're talking about. Its a joke that someone who names someone who did what this guy did gets dragged through the press, whether you like the Ego or not.

I know he isn't the most popular guy, but pretty sad to see a guy get a harder time for naming the murderer than the murderer himself appears to have.

I'm afraid you're mostly right

No as I said on average those figures are(so yes entire crop), but there is an argument to say that anything by him wouldn't be considered K1 outside of deformed or injured stock I guess but these are based on runners.

Certainly interesting isn't it. Look at the progeny of the most sought after stallion Savabeel, 63 in K1 I think , he gets around 11% stakewnrs/rnrs so about 7 will end up stakeswinners, 70% winners so 30% are non winners so about about 18 non winners out of those 63, of course all on average but it seems astonishing the prices(ave. $247k) they go for when a 1/3 of them will likely never win a race(and many will be racing for $10k or less ) let alone go on to higher honours.

Someone had a great idea a while back, why not put industry dates up for tender to clubs? Help revitalise the sport in community areas, have clubs meet certain metrics over a 3 year period, make allowances for weather etc. Perhaps provide a better product to punt on, maybe some racing with the rail in the true position for a change, some decent sized fields, a bit of a crowd and atmosphere on course, some local support etc. Reduced costs, less pressure on larger clubs, less FTE required by them Etc It cannot be worse than what is being served up at the moment which is just killing the game from the inside out.

The fools will let them do what they like under the Guise of the M Report and venue rationalisation.

The best track in NZ imho , usually provides a very fair competitive surface for all runners and my favourite for punting and watching races. Crowd on Saturday was disappointing(I thought Oaks day was bad this was much worse), no atmosphere, hospitality is appalling (both by club and food/ options for a venue of this significance), there is an air of arrogance about the place that doesn't befit what it is delivering if that makes sense.

C'mon racing is getting what its deserves , the way they have treatedmany stakeholders since the M report has been despicable! Industry participants not caring an iota for others in the industry for their own personal gain , like Pop ... racing will eat itself.

A good point about the Euro stayer, I'm not sure where we sit in the scheme of things anymore from a breeding perspective. If you look at Aus they seem to have a lot of staying blood at stud over there now that we used to perhaps provide, a brief perusal will show Fiorente,Amercain,PDL and a number of High Chap and Galileo sons that could provide that type of horse in the future . I think the major problem in NZ is there has never been any incentive to breed a horse, in fact its one of the most expensive challenging parts of this racing game and obviously its the core component in providing product to the industry and revitalising the sport in NZ if that has any chance of happening. But yet from the NZTR, through to NZTBA to NZB there is just no incentive to breed a horse in NZ unless you're lucky enough to have the dosh to go a few stallions in this country or youre well connected enough to have some presence at the sales. Bizarre really.

Good Post Mark. Not to mention some of the unbridled support by certain studs for the Messara Report , has alienated some of their customer base and will continue to do so in the future both directly and indirectly. I don't know where they think all of these horses are coming from in the future to keep racing afloat, when they are knocking out 25% of their supporter base, many I have spoken with are having a complete rethink about their involvement in racing and thats going to be reflected through to the breeding side as well over the next few years. I get the impression the big studs don't care and think they will be immune to it all, but they won't.

is this the garbage the genius's want to build here to stop all the abandoned meetings? Boring to the extreme and likely cruel.

I always get a chuckle out of all the moaners about this race, when most of you probably don't own a horse. What do you expect this field to be, The same as the Melbourne Cup for 5% of the prizemoney? There are so many opportunities for good horses these days especially in Australia couple that with the importation of stayers from Europe, tell me why you expect this field to compare to your version of the glory days? I enjoyed the race yesterday and the winner has shown plenty of form over a trip and some battlers with a great story had a good day yesterday and that's what makes this the greatest game of all!

Lexus MC maybe, definitely less interest but it's a racing thing in general.

I'm not on the TA hype train, but the Cox Plate field is the weakest in years, if ever a show it would have to be now.