Nowornever

Jones knows — and it's been plain to see for years now — that pouring money into feature races does nothing to support harness racing at the grassroots level. Big money in feature races is a bit like Christmas: a big build-up, a short-lived buzz, and then a return to the same old struggles. The stakes are high for a select few, but the benefits never trickle down to the day-to-day participants who keep the sport running week in, week out.

Just back all their runners even the three legged ones🤣

Telfers have definitely found the same formulae as Emma Stewart

What is annoying is if you are any good they restrict the piss out of you and force you overseas and now they are going to take that away as well. What about the people who make a living from betting? What the fuck are they supposed to do now!

Easy enough to bypass but you need an Australian bank account to be able to do it.

I agree. Throwing more races at the problem doesn't fix it. It is a band aid that could backfire. Horses need a break and winter used to be the best time to do it.

Don't get me wrong I can get a bet on but it is not worth me doing so. Yes the fields are easier to predict but the risk is not worth the reward so I will not bet like many others. Yes you will still get the "bet on two flies running up the wall compulsive gamblers" having a go and I suppose Entain is relying on those punters keeping these meeting viable.

Bigger fields better and the stats prove it. The meetings with the highest turnover are mostly grass tracks. Why? Harder to pick and you need to spend more money to cover the field with exotic bets and therefore the dividends are by default larger. More horses means possibly more moves in a race making them harder to predict. Most punters I know have a bet to make money not throw it away. Hard to make money if the dividends are prohibitive to actually giving you a chance to make a profit. Lower number of horses in a race = lower dividends. Simple math. That is why big fields on grass are all the rage in New Zealand. Everyone is trying to get a slice of those $20,000 first fours and $8000 trifectas. Not to mention the $20,000 quaddies. We don't want the $20 trifectas and $50 first fours the fields at Cambridge are going to throw up tonight. Why risk your money for no reward. Once again the stats will prove it. No one will bet at this meeting the turnover will be proof of that.

If you call a five race meeting fun with none of the fields having more than 8 horses and one of those 5 races a five horse field, then good luck to you. There is no way I am betting at that load of shite and I am willing to bet that is a losing meeting for funding with the turnover nowhere near covering the cost of running it. People may be having fun at their sport but I suppose the people on the Titanic were having fun at some stage too.

So Entain guarantee on retaining staff until June 2025 is almost up. What other goodies are about to hit in June 2025 via the same arrangement?

The fields this week up north can only be described as an abortion. I will not touch them. They are an embarrassment.

I like the standing starts bad or not I do not care.

Letting that same punter give some back.

They tip half the field and when one wins they claim it like it was the only one they talked about. Funny thing is if you mention half the field and still can not get the winner that shows how good you really are.

McGrath cannot hold a trainer’s or driver’s licence and he cannot act as a stable representative or make official decisions on behalf of a training operation. He is allowed to be at a licenced person’s property, but cannot be involved in the training of any horse. If he is at a licenced person’s property and happens to say that horse looks a bit fat you should increase it's work, would he be breaking the rules? Can he touch a horse? Is he wearing a wire? This is impossible to enforce.