Huey

Of course it would have been had had he done so, but surely an industry such as racing can expect its governing body to take care of matters such of those in an adeqaute manner... no such luck here though.

Exactly and some trainers who have threated to go over but haven't , have not gone for that very reason.

Agree , it would be in Wallers best interest to send a team to the Picnics in Aus rather than waste $ setting up in NZ.

Only 1 R65 horse in the field, in NZracing these days that amounts to a fairly decent field ; 0

Looking through the Tauranga fields I see the Kiwifruit Cup a once fairly decent winter staying race now racing for $35k and the R65 Benchmark stayers racing for $30k, half the field in the Kiwifruit cup are R65 horses , I know we can get thin for quality in NZ , but why would you bother. At least the F&M race has maintained some status.

Yes it does & as much as they try to convince everyone it was a great idea it's been nothing short of a disaster for the industry. I don't know why a trackside telecast can't just be beamed to a frequency, surely a massive savings without studio, presenters etc It's created a massive disconnect for many who follow the industry since it's absence. But as we know they don't care.

I'm afraid this is now the country you live in.

Unfortunately the entire SI is being treated like an Industry Day, that is simply what they think of the SI. CD will be next, their entire focus is on the nirvana northern racing they think is the future of racing, ironically the Northern horses of any ability seem more likely to go to Aus anyway.

They are cleaning up the industry ! 🤣

But that in itself shouldn't matter, as horses being nominated for a Heavy 10 abandoned meeting are likely to be horses who need the Heavy ground and are therefore essentially in the same boat racing on the AWT (fields kept same and transferred to the AWT) re being able to run those times. Unless of course it was a safety issue for them , which I can't understand why. I also thought the transfer of meetings was the actual main selling point for these tracks from what I can remember.

It's a bit of a nothing article really isn't it, well if you know even a little bit about racing. Not sure why the horse needs to win up there though to become commercially viable, clearly Aus has the best turf sprinters on the planet at any rate and it doesn't seem to have inhibited Brazen Beau up there after his 2 runs.

NZ Govt. aren't gonna speak out when they are in on it.

That's a great point actually, I can't recall a single meeting being transferred.

Seeing as you know so much about them hit us with the startling turnover figures on them, must be up by 20-40% surely and well and truly outperforming grass surfaces?

Without delving into the details that create the profit i.e. takeout margins , field sizes etc then Wagering turnover is one of the metrics to measure the success of the things by surely? I stand by my opinion , they are an absolutely awful look for racing, if they are so good the industry should be begging for racing on them, but that is not happening. I still believe the surface ARC is putting in was/is the best solution for the industry, given participation and horse numbers something like that will quickly make the AWT very insignificant . As for training solutions , there are many other options that could have been created for the money thats been spent.

What you mean a trainer who won a race on the track got asked if he liked it and he did , I'm astounded!

They won't, as things get tougher and tougher (and they will) the industry will pivot more and more towards taking care of the top, which imo will hasten the collapse of the sport in this country. The same people running the sport are the type who opposed paying a pittance to 10th or whatever & think adding 2k to stakes is something to crow about.

100% correct , they do not listen and they do not care. They hold roadshows (something they guy who always picked up his phone was very fond of) but only for show , nothing more.

If it doesn't suit the agenda , they don't see it!

If you don't realise they are lessons , how are you supposed to learn?

It's now well and truly pronounced.

It's NZTR logic for keeping numbers up in training ranks.

So how does the prophecy go unfulfilled?

I think it creates boring racing , well at least not as bad as AWT. But surely no one with a $ on a horse likes to punt and see their horse get back midfield or worse and know they have no chance 200m into a race and then for me it creates a why bother scenario. Of course that's not going to be the impression expert punters like Curious have, who is far better than most at ascertaining how a race is going to pan out. Be interested to know how the experts go about doing that at Ruakaka? Don't want to seem like I'm moaning as we all know Ruakaka has come along way, I just get a bit emotional at Ruakaka now the traffic cone has gone.

Agree , but have to give them credit at least they now have a winning post and the traffic cone has gone back on traffic safety duty.