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Craggy Range, Te Mata if you like wine

Can't really argue with any of that. Pictures showing racing in a fun and positive light was what Boxing Day/NYD at Ellerslie were all about, when they would get a huge crowd on the infield. Anyone watching it, would be saying, this is the place to be, and for many that read this site it was

Could well have been date seems about right. I'm familiar with Nielsens from a former life. They were God to anyone in the business of marketing a brand. Did that research also say, that the only thing that was perceived as positive about racing, was a day out at the races. And look what Weaver did to Ellerslie.

In general, you raise a good point. Racing virtually never does market research to find out what the public thinks of it, so any changes made are just fire away and hope. Marketing 101 says, find out what the customer thinks about your product, adapt the product if need be and promote and market accordingly. I doubt this has ever been done in racing in NZ. The same principles and modus operandi would apply to animal welfare

I missed Lowry/Zydenbos, the predominant stable in the HB, plus a couple of smaller trainers such as Aaron Bidlake. This would take the horses in training to over 100 as a guestimate

The boosting of top end races, bonus series, bonus races and new $350K races with the extra money from Entain, was, I presume to try and keep more quality horses racing in NZ and reward the owners that did

La Dorada tomorrow at MV

I realise it is pretty hard to prevent, but I presume Huey is making reference to Te Akau racing its best horses in Aus, ultimately at the expense of the quality of fields here This season Damask Rose, Return to Conquer (out for the year now) and La Dorada

HB Guineas, 14 runners, top 3 are in the first 5 favourites for the 2,000 Guineas. The Wotton Bassett gelding Quondo that was impressive on debut and heavily backed into $1.60 also lurking further down the field

A quick check and be lucky if there are 50 horses in work, the only stables of note, John Bary, Patrick Campbell and Nelson/McDougal. A handful more small operators. Makes you wonder about the whole viability of racing down there.

I'm not sure I understand the comment In Australia, for example, the equivalent committee has not met for eight years, ensuring no changes to its black-type programme. Yet here in New Zealand, we are 'doing the right thing' working with the Asian Pattern group

However, not all recent developments have been positive. I was genuinely dismayed and saddened to read that the Graded Stakes' Committee has downgraded the Thorndon Mile from Group 1 to Group 2 status. I do believe that such decisions risk causing enormous harm to our racing industry. In Australia, for example, the equivalent committee has not met for eight years, ensuring no changes to its black-type programme. Yet here in New Zealand, we are 'doing the right thing' working with the Asian Pattern group and we are thus witnessing the downgrading of races like the Levin Classic – a race whose honour roll includes champions such as Imperatriz (winner), On the Bubbles (second), and I Wish I Win (third) – the latter now widely acclaimed as one of the greatest milers in Australia over the past two seasons. My plea to NZTR is simple: please reconsider this course. If we continue to diminish the status of our premier races, we risk undermining the very foundation of our industry. We cannot afford to weaken our black-type races if we hope to sustain a vibrant and internationally respected racing scene.

Being of course held at Te Rapa. Most of the fields look reasonable. I note 8 acceptors from the CD and 1 from the South Island, but no horses from the Hawkes Bay itself. Why is that? it is their race meeting I did a quick check Hastings to Hamilton is 300km or 4 hrs, almost identical to the distance and time to Wellington.

Science is pretty much absolute Gamma (LB), and that which isn't is always under review by the scientific community. You can pretty much guarantee, if you jump off the Sky Tower, what your velocity will be when you hit the concrete, based on the conversion of potential into kinetic energy, and why every organ and bone in your body will be obliterated as that energy is dissipated as you go from that velocity to zero in the space of a milli second. Sorry, about as morbid as some of Becks Nairn's dissection pics

Steven B has talked about for any such work to be taken seriously, it needs to be peer reviewed. This is not just the scientific voracity of the work itself but the author This may involve such things as Who funds the authors' work. What motives the author may have for producing the work What other work has the author published What links does the author have to other people and organisations

Usually only childish memes that they actually believe are 'proof'

I came across some NZ consumer market research 10-15 years ago, I wish I could find it again, but it does emphasize your point. In a nutshell it said that they did not bet because they had the perception they were at a disadvantage compared to people in the industry. The only positive to come out, was that a day at the races was perceived very well. The closest parallel to that is I guess, insider trading on the stock market As an example of what Racing were up against. With Lotto, a certain percentage of every dollar spent by the public was automatically deducted to go into a marketing fund. This allowed for major advertising on mainstream media that built the 'brand' Lotto to the extent it has become a major part of the NZ psyche. NZ Racing tried to copy it with Triple Trio, but it was a rank failure

Interesting comment, and until Entain came along and threw the industry a 5 year lifeline, I would have agreed with you. A 70 mil payout in 22/23 to thoroughbred would have dropped to about 50 mil in 23/24 instead if going up over 90 mil, such was the state of progress data. I don't agree with the way a lot of that money is being used and don't understand this fascination with top end stakes. But you have to look back to the 90's, to find out why this all started going downhill. Pre that time, Racing had it mainly to themselves as far as entertainment and expendable dollar. In came casinos, Lotto and sports, all offering other forms of entertainment and gambling. Racing didn't compete to retain market share, because it couldn't because it is not set up to and slowly but surely we saw a decline.

When you have a scientific background, all it takes is one small thing to pick a fraudster. It can be something as simple as a spelling mistake, that no one who was familiar with science would ever make. I presume from the way you write that you also have a scientific background

Very well articulated by the way

In other words, she is a good old-fashioned quack who has used social media and the internet to make money. Anybody with any background in science whatsoever would have picked this. Unfortunately, or fortunately for her, there are many people who wouldn't know science if it bit them on the arse, so she has a large audience to capture

The Oaks will be the same day as the Avondale Guineas, the traditional lead up race to the Derby on 7 March. If you have a high quality filly, you will more than likely target the Derby, as did Orchestral and La Crique, so not sure how this move will improve the Oaks field

I think that is a valid point

Though Bruce Sherwin was quite specific in saying one of the ways of defending a downgrade was a race conditions change, in this case venue. And that would give it a 1 year reprieve, maybe 2.

I see the usual garbage on the FB site. No wonder people like Russell Warwick and Matt Ballesty won't have anything to do with such a bunch or heretics, malcontents and conspiracy theorists. I see someone there also wants to start another site to gripe about the loss of races (temporarily it has been stated) from the CD. If they took time to watch Weigh In, they would see the perfectly legitimate reason given for having to move the Oaks to Ellerslie and Bruce Sherwin's shot at NZ racing in not supporting the race with horses like Prowess, La Crique and Orchestral choosing not to line up