Huey

Youre implying the calendar is being turned upside for the better of the industry, it isn't . They tried to sell the same waffly propaganda when they messed around with the Derby, Auckland Cup (midweek race that stops 2 nations was it?) etc etc , hasn't improved it one bit. Worse still the personnel who have got the industry in the shape it is in now are in charge of that process. They are sucking the sport dry thinking based on a fabricated notion that they can replicate what the likes of Aus. has but in doing so they totally disregard whats made their racing so strong.

An NZTR report?

Further centralisation of racing & a fancy way of saying grab what they can.

Number 2. - Is interesting , all clubs should prepare themselves for attempted daylight robbery ,especially with BS involved .

I thought all these types of fools had disappeared, FFS get educated!

No I agree and I think thats prevalent across most of NZ racing Admin in general.

That's also one of the issues though isn't it, TA are so dominant even when the good horses are kept in NZ , let alone the good ones being sold to Aus. also ! Bland is a great description of the sport in NZ , unfortunately.

Great point, they do seem to struggle for stories that lot so they probably love one being sold & winning G1 in NZ is no longer the aspiration it once was, selling them to Aus is.

As you say many race meetings have been ruined , this being one of them. I find most meetings in NZ these days to be boring standardised dross, each one just a corporate kerfuffle to sell booze & have a party. The character has been removed from the sport, I blame the current regime at least Purcell and his crew understood the importance of different venues , dates and showed a degree of fairness , certainly not the case with the current lot! JB has rightly pointed out they are being (mis) guided by a number of individuals and clubs up North and that simply won't change and if youre not in the club youre probably wasting your time. Just to show how ineffective they are at promoting the sport , they had a gift of a horse win there (Otaki) today who has a lot of character and a bit of a story behind him, should be as well known in NZ as the local MP and people should have been bunking work to go watch him , is it any wonder TA choose to promote themselves even though they dominate local racing media.

It's also gone as are other venues because of attitudes like this prevailing across the industry, particularly amongst the bigger trainers. In some regards I think those attitudes have come about through desperation and fabricated promises of course only time will tell but imo those decisions will only make it worse!

What you have to factor in , is that many of the changes (including the AWTs) within the industry have been made for certain players (you don't need to be a genius to work it out) within the industry and not the industry overall(although thats how its sold and being communicated through racing media)therefore you are going to get a certain section of the the industry expressing concerns. Rest assured they do not care!

i'm intrigued to see how it goes being raced on every few weeks, next year should be interesting. Is there an unlimited supply of the sand/poly that makes up the track?

Awapuni & Otaki or have they already been mentioned? It goes without saying the tampering of dates and the deceitful Venue rort established by NZTR has played its part also.

Have to agree they do seem to get away with a lot more than other stables.

I'd venture to say 2 acres sold in the suburb of Ellerslie would be plenty enough to get ya started, surely? As you say , not sure of the specifics around it all, thats indeed why I asked.

Getting back to the hill, does this mean the end of jumps racing at Ellerslie or at least the end of the hill in the GN ?

Hopefully its stays put, impressed me in its maiden win, looks very talented.

Couple that with the best jockeys on tap and a model that allows the TA trainer to concentrate on training the animal and is it any wonder they have days like this? Still a great achievement by the young man in charge and he certainly seems to take it all in his stride.

Pitmans filly in the Guineas, any luck at all and it surely wins ?(speaking through my pocket)

I'd venture to say destroyed by the new face of the industry. I can see the sport becoming totally irrelevant under its new look, despite what a lot of people say. The new look eliminates the loyalty imho

You wouldn't if you pulled them up 40m before the finish ; 0

and thats the real point having good tracks and good staff can help reduce these things. But the personnel running the industry have no idea about it all, they just write policies and pretend , there is just no progress in NZ racing with that in mind.

I look at it like most things with horses, you can get the scan done and be in the all clear then tomorrow youre not , but you had the scan done at any rate.

One concern I have is , what happens if the AWT don't deliver as expected and they have wiped out 70% of the tracks across the country in trying to prove they do?

Looks like they are just at noms stage, so maybe they will split a couple when the fields come out?