hesi

Who knows. Waitak was an early fave for the Derby after placing in the Waikato and Avondale Guineas. Then 2nd up as a 4-year-old won the Railway in the fashion of a champion. Never raced past 1600m after that until March this year when they started putting it over 2000m+, and it wins the Awapuni Gold Cup and Livamol. You would have to say, that even Wexford were guessing

Looking at that run, would Avantaggia even get 1200m at G1 level, certainly there are better fillies around over 1600m. Maybe you are right about getting horses right this Spring. I recall when we saw horses like Legarto, Levante and Verry Elleegant in their early starts, you knew something special was brewing

No longer nominated for the 2 Guineas races

Accomplished win today at Te Aroha, good ride, hasn't shown enough yet to be getting ga ga about

Thanks, in retrospect, carnival was not the word I was looking for, Triple Crown series!

It was also screwed when they made the 2000 Guineas worth 2 mil. Was it on a Thurs or Friday. Bayer used to have a huge marquee oncourse and being an agro chemical supplier, a lot of the rural sector attended. Have a look at the list of winners, a who's who of NZ racing

Change by all means, but well researched change. Racing administrators over the years have not done this well. They have done what they thought is best, and you must surely know that you do that at your peril. Find out what people want, what the industry wants. Ellerslie had a wonderful 4-day carnival, but Weaver in his wisdom thought he could double up on that by having a carnival with harness and greyhounds in March, that turned out to be a disaster. The Derby was moved to early March, with the excuse that it would get better fields because more chance for 3-year-olds to develop. The original Derby is run in the first week of June, which equates to our first week December. The Levin Racing Club introduced Bayer day back in 1981 and it quickly became one of the days in NZ racing with the Bayer Classic. But that race day got chopped and changed around as was the Bayer, then Levin Classic. Until it is now struggling, not even sure it is G1 anymore

Yes Chief Weaver, don't forget to add in the mung beans and quinoa lol

I think what the day showed, is that you can take that carnival out of the Hawkes Bay, but you can never take Hawkes Bay out of that carnival. For the sake of racing in NZ and the CD, it is imperative that it returns to Hastings in 2026. I think many people will have realised that the 3 day meeting at HB marks the start of Spring racing in NZ and the start of new hopes and dreams for many. Please administrators, no changes, we saw what happened when they tried to double up on what was a great 4 day carnival in Auckland over Boxing Day/NYD

If I recall correctly it was total costs for the RB, 218 million

I can recall when the Racing Board was running the TAB. In the last year costs had ballooned out to 218 million, that was the real problem, as it meant less was returned to industry. I would have thought the bigger issues with NZTR, were allocation of stake money, programming and tracks

I would have thought that an increase from 6.3 to 9.6 million over 10 years, considering also what CS has said is going to have zero impact on determining whether racing is going down a rabbit hole de Lore being mischievous with how he presents figures

Hahaha For a site that is meant to be so wonderful (self-proclaimed ad nauseum), a lot of them seem to spend a lot of time reading your site. Anyway, the site is only a shadow of what it used to be when Dave and Ange started it, and it very quickly became an enjoyable forum for the industry. The FB site has become a lot more informative and the 'go to' place for people in the industry these days, notwithstanding the conspiracy rants from CW A point to consider, if it was so wonderful, this site and indirectly RP would never exist

I think a lot of people do not realise that your banter is just that, banter with a sharp edge. Huey does, Freda does and so does Curious I think many of them are afraid of having their intellect or lack thereof exposed if they engage you.

There is so much conjecture put around on the racing social media sites about the issues with tracks, the pros and cons of each type, it becomes very hard to know what fact is actually. What was actually wrong with Ellerslie in the early days Why did Awapuni go so badly What was actually wrong with Hastings, according to some it was easily fixed with a 'home job' and a tractor. Was there a problem on the Riccarton synthetic I suppose it is a bit like the media these days. If you want to get an accurate picture of what is going on, you are not going to get it in the media. You could always get your info from the many know it all dickheads on these social media sites, but I wouldn't put any credence in what they say.

It is in the Financial Times, but behind a paywall

One thing I note in particular is his reluctance to trial horses on the synthetic at Cambridge, a view I presume that is shared by other trainers in the area, or is it? This was one of the main reasons put forward for putting in this synthetic track. Good on him for supporting Hastings and Riccarton. I guess he doesn't subscribe to the conspiracy, led mainly by the shit stirrer Wightman, with no evidence, that they are trying to centralise racing in the Auck/Waikato area

I read some data somewhere years ago, admittedly it was for thoroughbreds, that 14 is the optimum number to maximise wagering. That was totalisator, so not sure if that applies to fixed odds

That is pretty much standard practice in the scientific world. It's called peer review, not just of your work, but what else you have written, who pays you, what your motives are, who your links are etc

It has always been around, just that the internet and social media provide a very convenient and easy vehicle. I've always been a great respecter of genuine talent, but it is a minefield these days. I have my areas of expertise as do many and can sus a person out very easily who is a wannabe. Like you Freda with horses. You probably know so much about them with the knowledge gained from years of experience and can easily pick a fraudster

I wonder what degree your mate did. I don't think they do degrees in verbal diarrhea

Exactly

Good points. Yet Leica Lucy drew widest, came around the field widest and ran on well for 3rd, over a distance you would have to say is not ideal.

The dumbing down of education, I presume for monetary reasons. NCE, you could get credits for all sorts of hairbrained numpty stuff

Especially with Autumn Glow in the field, possibly Aeliana. Rarified air we are getting into