Huey

Scary think is come hell or highwater , they are going to do all they can (races,Trials, training etc) to make the AWT look a success.

Levante into something? Good luck to them!

And yet in NZ racing land this is not an isolated scenario.

You said it Chief ,not me.

Will the 14 horses that line up in the "Final Touch & Camino Rocoso Chris Johnson Celebration" - R65 1600m have won more races and contributed more to the industry by the end of their racing careers than the 14 that line up in the Karaka Million 2yo "Best Ever" field on Saturday ?

Last year field had the Eclispe & Wakefield winners in it, not saying that race was vintage either. But where are you seeing the strengths in this best field ever? I think the 3yo race might be surpassing the 2yo race for strength mysefl an exciting field assembled.

I think Avonallo might be

Interesting only 3 fillies have really come out of the race, Probabeel, MB & Avantage , can't think of much else thats really next level , meaning Aus. Avantage yet to really get to the level of the other two over there as well. 2 of the 3 Aus breeds as well.

Exactly, interesting that one of the best performed in the race is a SI stakewinner and the other the Pukekohe winner.

Well I disagree back. Of course only time will tell. Great fields surrounding the over hyped race though.

Clearly their best ones aren't in the race, the Eclipse pairing and the unbeaten Extreme Choice colt amongst them. Very average lot.

Isn't the most annoying thing about this race, that all the hype and PR is put into a restricted race for 2yos at the expense of time honoured races like the Derby, Oaks,Telegraph etc this is where the industry goes wrong can't we see that from the mistakes of the past? This is an absolute nothing of a race barring the prizemoney thats put up?

They mainly just don't give a toss about the average guy in the game, that in the end will be the final nail in the coffin.

Yep 7 or 8 more industry meetings, which btw the industry needs , instead of subsidising the sales.

KM 2yo field looks the worst ever. But the support card around it looks excellent! If I lived there I'd go along just to watch Aegon & the Concorde which looks more exciting than the Telegraph.

You'd think if ever there was a year they were going to do it, this one makes sense. So probably not.

It's all so easy to get right as well, just get a some people who know something about the sport working in decision making positions. I see the sport flounder more and more everyday, its got to all be a plan to cream the assets of 90% of the clubs , there is no explanation for what it is so poorly run.

Craig G isn't it?

You have a lot to learn about TA CS!

I agree , but perhaps they have to buy the entire meeting to beam the other races in not sure, some of the SA stuff is very watchable and you get the odd Aus bred in the races, but agree I won't be up at that time of the morning to watch it.

Yep it will be a shambles, with meetings moved the scratchings will be huge, some trainers will take a punt on putting horses into races on the premise the meeting might be moved , then when its moved the others will scratch that are winter horses , so small field sizes etc. Once again when you have no idea how the industry works or do any sort of empirical analysis this is what you will get. Its a big concern i trainers have no faith in them to train on , thats one of the main reasons for having them isn't it. This is why you don't print stuff like this after the track has been open 10 mins https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/racing-new-cambridge-track-proves-popular/DHP6OS32IKZAKUAQUK5MNTJ7QU/

May not be right, but I thought they had to have these races on (content) so the machines could be used. Maybe the other outlets serve food or something that allows them to open.

Dont they need these so they can open the gaming machines?

The trouble is in Racing in this country , the people running the sport have to do things like this (build an AWT) to truly know how hopeless they are, like the dates & calendar they have to mess it up otherwise you wouldnt know they didn't know much.

Nope , they have been getting advice from most of the realists in the industry for years and ignoring it, this will be no different. It would be ok if those making the decisions could back it up with more than just power trips and hunches , but they can't. Can anyone name one thing they have done to improve the fluidity of the calendar?