nomates

Or lowering the bar of competence to the depths of despair .

When all they have earned is my wife's little Ford Lazer hatchback and a box in my stables .

Used to , but been used so often that everybody is hardened to it . Now if they started getting shit right that would constitute shock treatment .

Poor buggers ( me ) , but we'll all be back again tomorrow , and next week and the month after that , ad infinitum .

Punters will always find something to punt on , they lost nothing after today's abandonment , but the owners that didn't get a run lost $$$$ , again . Where the punters lost today was backing horses in the 2 races where jockeys have said they didn't let their horses run on their merit . I agree re the integrity , but that left our shores years ago .

Don't think the Jack Nicholson character is the one we need , NURSE RATCHED , is the nasty type we need to sort out racings problems . She's sort out sycophants .

I remember Hula Dann , sure he was trained by Evan Rayner , a fair racehorse , won a few .

So , they have transferred the 2 open handicaps to Hastings on Saturday , reason , these horses need the race as the are looking to progress to future important races . Is this the tiered racing that some people think we run , look after some participants and fuck the rest , what about the poor bloody owners that pay for the horses that haven't got a run now . This is where they fail the industry , they just walk away and think people will just accept this , well noddies not all will . We have a shortage of racehorses in NZ , the CD in particular , and this is exacerbating the process . We have so many issues in our racing , and the biggest is becoming clear , the management and leadership , and it is becoming worse .

Nah Joe , they were always clueless and lacking common sense , they just happened to get a job that required them to pull a suit on , they would have been just as clueless if they were cutting lawns .

Lisa Allpress , who i don't blame , rode the very warm favorite and said that she never really let her horse go because of the track , should that horse , if not all runners be declared a non runner and give the punters their money back . Theft by any other description .

And this isn't down to a bit of rain on a hard track , they have irrigated since Monday night . 8mils - Monday night 8mils - Tuesday night 12mils Wednesday night 8mils - Thursday night This has to be no more than a shit track , you can only polish a turd so much before you realise that it will still be a turd .

Yet another meeting at Awapuni canned because of dangerous track conditions , when are they going to learn . It's a joke , oh wait we weren't going to have this happen because of all the investigations NZTR have had previously , and of course the A/W's were going to stop us losing all these meetings . Fuck off NZTR , get your shit together , time you guys in head office stood up and started earning your bucks .

PC and Joe Bloggs , oxymoron me thinks .

You haven't driven thru Levin recently then , SH1 , give over , certain companies are milking it .

Just watched the first at Awapuni , i backed Trav , D Turner up , just before they jumped there was some movement wider out and he looked across then he looked down , then he looked across again and then down again , they jumped , the horse missed it by 4/5L , did the horse blunder ?, no bloody way , that was all on the jock . See this shit all the time , as Clarry Connors said , " I spend 6 months getting a horse ready , and they can't give me 60 seconds of concentration ". Don't get me started on the rest of his ride , by the time he got the horse going he promptly ran up the back of the only horse close to him , amateur hour , these guys would get slaughtered in Aus , bush at best .

A certain Mr Pitman might argue whether irrigation was required .

The starter needs to yell something to wake up some of the jocks that have dozed off , many jocks miss the start not the horses as they are simply too busy looking around instead of concentrating on their mounts . Also some horses i'm sure are slow simply because they have been standing in the gates soo long , god some races take forever to get the horses loaded .

The most important aspect to start re aligning our racing on an upward tangent is to stem the flow of horses out of the country , trialled and tried especially . That will happen when we have stakes that make owners think twice about selling , especially stakes in the lower grades and age group racing . Then reset the ratings system and have the lower grade races especially , run at set weights , so that a promising and consistent young horse doesn't have to be lumbered carrying carrying 60+ kgs just because it tries hard and is consistent but battles to win again because it struggles with the weight . If an owner had a horse who they thought could win 3/4 races going thru the lower grades on it's merit and earn say 120k-150k quickly then they might think twice about selling for 50k - 100k , and if it is a good age group horse and could win 250k+ then again the owner will think twice about turning down the 300k+ offer , knowing they have money in the bank and still have the horse and the opportunity to increase the winnings . We will never stop the huge offers and those sales , but if we can start keeping more of the middle and lower tier sales they become the higher rated horses of the future , and slowly increase the quality of our racing product . Presently mostly we are left operating with the left overs , except for operators like Te Akau and Go Racing who compete for the best and keep them racing here . Nothing changes until we start making changes .

I get your point but they are doing it the right way , complete overhaul , and it's Strathayr , not just chucking some soil down and grass seed . I honestly can't remember the last time a NZ track was closed for a complete track revamp , Pukekohe wasn't the whole track and it's on a swamp , Otaki has had bits and pieces , Riccarton was how many years ago but was it the a complete track re-lay ? Anyway assuming they get it right the bigger issue for SI racing is the loss of the Guineas races .

Yeah go kill Pam .

I take offence at that , haha .

Once the revamped Ellerslie opens watch the calls ( screams ) for the Guineas races to be relocated , the ATC CEO said it himself , " the best track should have the best races ". But it makes sense , this year aside there is hardly ever a southern rep in either of the Guineas races . The travel alone ensures those that do go down and compete have to have a break after . I give it 5 years max before they are moved north .

And so it should , it's the only R85 in the country worth 300k , Christ if i had a nice young stayer i would be giving him quiet ones all over the place to make sure i could get into this race as a R75 , because even at that rating your guaranteed a run . Bloody disgraceful field , or , is it a disgraceful stake considering the field was never going to be much better . Wait till the 500k Auckland Cup rolls around , this will pale into insignificance .

Everything changes when money is involved .

In theory the whole geo blocking issue would be no problem if , and it's a big IF , the product they were forcing you to use was far and away superior , but if it was that superior then you wouldn't need to geo block as everyone would be using your product already . I will give them some kudos , the improvements they have made over the last couple of months as in , no deductions and provisional payouts are great , should have been implemented much sooner tho . According to Guerin on Weigh In the other night they will be here to stay . The no deductions is fantastic if you have a horse that you have identified early and are expecting scr's , for rain or such . Still a long way to go tho , the site is still a dog . And vast improvements are required in the production of race coverage on Trackside , and even tho there are still people who don't get it , radio coverage needs to be re instated , even if it is only simulcasts of the 2 Trackside channels , there is lost revenue there . The other biggie for me is getting Trackside onto free TV , this could be huge in bringing new people on board , as well as getting some of the lost customers who no longer bet due not being able to afford Sky and can't hear the races on radio , hence stopped betting . You wouldn't see Lotto sell as many tickets if the draw wasn't broadcast .