nomates

So looking at your dates there is 17 meetings over the May, June , July period in the SI , 9 at Riccarton , 6 of those are on the A/W the other 3 are on the course proper assuming none get xfered for weather related conditions . Of the other 8 meetings in the SI only 1 is close to CHCH , the other 7 are spread from Oamaru , Wingatui . Ascot Park and Riverton . We know from history as winter sets in the majority of horses for race meetings in the SI come from the Canterbury region so if you are in that region and you find that your horse/s doesn't handle the A/W then you only have one lower grade grass track meeting at Ashburton to race , so then those trainers have to travel , when in previous seasons they had plenty of opportunities on their doorstep . Which in it's self is funny because one of the reasons NZTR has used for closing tracks was to save costs to owners , but obviously down there the owners are all pockets bulging with notes . Now i am sure you will agree that the numbers racing drop substantially as winter sets in , do you really believe that the SI has the numbers to sustain that many A/W meetings , and if your not sure go and read NZTR meeting notes from through the last week where they had to can a Cambridge meeting because of insufficient numbers , so if Cambridge , the Southern Hemisphere's largest training facility and it's wider racing community can't sustain numbers for A/W racing what hope have you guys got . I am not just poo pooing for the sake of it , this is straight numbers . I look forward to your rebuttal , which i am sure you will have .

Thousands , but to the TAB they are just the great unwashed .

They are incredibly important , only not to the TAB . To their cost .

As i said a large proportion of the TAB customer base is not highly educated , unlike yourself . I still see plenty of people at my TAB putting bets on and money into their acct's using cash .

There is a time limit on finishing , continuing on for a stake would come down to horse welfare issue if the horse was clearly not right . $1800 saved for the industry , i didn't think it through , should never have raised it .

Another hurdle race for 20k at Te Aroha today , 4 runners .

Well the way small punters have been treated the last 10 years they have every reason to not be bothered , kicked from pillar to post . I think the big nods at the TAB have woken up to the fact that they needed them , but too late .

Ok , a bit slack can you try and double that today .

So we were told , have been known to tell a few porkies .

A large portion of our punters are just working class low wage earners , go into any pubtab or TAB and have a look around , large majority go to the TAB and bet thru a few hours , especially in pub tabs , i see a large number just walk into my TAB and put their bets on for the day then go home to watch . The change to minimum cost bets on phone bet stopped people having them and either stopping or just putting a few on at start of the day . A lot of low wage earners don't have credit cards so even if they do have phone accts can't top up . So if people can't access putting bets on at start of day or access topping up accts then i can see how it would impact turnover . I'm not saying this is the full answer but i can see it being in some way part of it . I hope .

Yeah but then they got given 3 buckets of sand .

I noticed over the last week up north all the big stables that had what they considered potential top 3yo's chose to take those horses to grass track races , none were interested in running at Cambridge through the week . I wonder if that would have been the case if the money had gone into building top quality Strathayr tracks .

That is very polite , if i were running NZ racing i would crapping myself if this is the new norm . I do believe Covid is playing a large part in people not being able to get bets on and deposit money .

And the ARC super club will go "what is this WE kemosabi , it's OUR strathayr , isn't it great " .

Great run , 6th run , never run in a black type race and steps up to WFA and gets pipped on the post in a G2 , that is a massive ask and everything is up for him now , i didn't think he looked that comfortable coming round the MV bend , wobbled out which allowed the winner a run . Has a big heart and will give us something to cheer this spring .

Just went thru Elephants race again and really the field isn't that great , S Sue and S O Avalon biggest dangers rest out of form or stayers resuming . The Hickmont horse is an interesting runner but you would think he has longer targets . So i'm in at 4.5 .

Gets to the Cox in that form he will be tough , a class above that lot .

Hope some of you got on , out to 13's in the end , grouse type , 1000gns i think , will be much better again on a bigger track .

Yep , wouldn't know what the bookies held .

pool got out to about 25k , R3 at the Valley win pool 300k .

If we need conformation , 10 mins out from the Foxbridge with some nice horses racing and there is only 7k in both the win/place pools .

They treat it like a disease if you own and race a lower grade horse in NZ , yet they are the meat and bones of the industry .

And it means a very small percentage of horses , hence owners are getting most of the pie , Australia has worked that one out , that is why most races most days are the same or similar stakes over there . The good ones get their opportunity in the better races .

Definitely the A/W's .

Pools very small today again , has to be an access to having a bet that is the problem , or maybe all the Aussie punters aren't up yet .