Special Agent

I think every day I wake up is a brilliant one. It's easy to moan about poor quality horses, trainers, jockeys, racing etc but, sometimes when you are battling to get one good enough to progress from trials to race day it's a top day to win at any meeting. No matter what race meeting you are at there is still a field to get past and to win anywhere is success. It doesn't matter if you paid top price at the sales or have someone else's cast off, the process is the same requiring some degree of skill. We should all be a bit less critical and a bit more grateful, I think anyway.

Obviously you have forgotten the slips and abandonments in CD. Trickiness has nothing to do with science. Tricky = human error.

Watering of the track leading into Saturday will be interesting. It's a matter of when the rain will hit Wellington, before or after the meeting. Getting this equation right may be tricky.

That's just the start of it. Most clubs will not be able to afford the upkeep and the complete replacement in so many years.

Haven't been to Ashburton or Timaru lately but, can't remember that being a problem at either venue. Otaki and Tauherenikau on the other hand ...

All these state of the art training facilities yet I heard Mike Breslin say he took horses to Foxton for a "grass gallop". So not only the Awapuni race day course proper munted, nowhere to train a galloper to gallop on grass, which is sort of necessary with the AWT not in raceday operation yet.

I think Reefton said Wednesday night's Grey Star said something like off course turnovers for Marton and Kumara were both around $2.4K and Kumara oncourse was about $236K and Marton $35K.

The more races, the higher the turnover. Is this a ploy to put the screws on unfavourable clubs? I think so. Every club should be given a chance at the oncourse turnover revenue. If your club has innovative ideas to get patrons to the track they should be commended.

There is quite iften a twilight meeting at New Plymouth followed by an Awapuni meeting the next day. Awapuni trained runners get home from the twilight meeting at midnight. Those trained further afield obviously get to bed a lot later. Paying staff in these situations, plus allowable turnarounds, makes life difficult.

When there is talk of splitting races it usually says the decision will be made by NZTR in conjunction with the club. I don't ever recall it saying that the TAB would have any input. If these discrepancies are truly only happening in the South Island for goodness sake get some solid north island support and fix it. There are obvious north island trainers and owners who predominantly support racing in the south. Join forces with those people and ram raid the current non listeners. Stop moaning and do something about it. Remember those who are not listening are being paid indirectly by you. Their income needs cutting off for non performance

Q.1. What do people who get noticed do to get noticed? Q.2. How do you ensure you are listened to? Answers need to not be getting naked and torture.

So, that would mean about 8,000 paying guests at Tauherenikau not that long ago. Judging the Marton meeting on turnover as others on here have done, highlights the inadequate performances to get people oncourse who place bets. That means normal race going public, not the privileged boys get paid and other passing gimmicks. If geographically challenged Kumara, once bagged Cromwell, and Levin on a scabby Friday can outpunt Marton's patrons, racing in the nation's capital, you have to wonder what those at club level and NZTR are being paid to do. Members of the Marton club must surely be rueing the day they joined RACE with their membership numbering around 50 now. Look at the other club membership figures in that conglomerate and realise why merging NZ racing clubs however you dress it up is a piss poor idea. The crux of racing in New Zealand lies at grass root level. As we enter a government induced recession, going by historical evidence watch how popular racing will become, and it's nothing to do with marketing even though there will be much back slapping at NZTR. Anyone running a Lotto shop will tell you how business is currently booming. Pretty obvious that putting the screws on country clubs and bringing in the new licensing system is no way to move successfully forward. Please NZTR, have a rethink before it is too late.

You would have thought so. A racing club needs something NZTR don't take a piece of. When Jenny Fenwick was Secretary at Tauherenikau the gate takings were an important part of the income/business. Gate takings were around $80K per their major meeting. That's not something you would give away.

Agree. Just like your local club.

There were no grounds to put the meeting off and not many would continue if every jockey error of judgment was reason to pull pin.

A rider or trainer should be regularly reviewing their performances. Do you think officialdom ever does the same?

So am I right in saying the Stipe in charge at Omoto okayed the meeting to continue after a fall, then the Stipe in charge at Reefton put a stop to racing after a minor loss of footing with no interference by the eventual winner with a plate off?

I thought the same about the whipping. It is actually a disgrace to see what has evolved from then up until recently. I wouldn't dare offer an opinion on what the causes of this are but, not that hard for anyone to deduce.

His listed weight on NZTR website is 57.5kg. At Kumara the only horse he was able to ride was in the Nuggets with a carded weight of 61kg which means it carried 62kg with the 1kg allotted for the vest.

So brilliant. Great balanced riders. Proven stayers. Track as it comes.

Samasaan won the Wellington Cup for Garth on a wet track. I'd say the 150th running might see identical conditions. Apparently there was talk at the races yesterday of a Wellington Cup relocation. Nothing would surprise any of us!!

Garth is in Woodville and would possibly welcome the chance to chat. Ouch to the spurs in the kods!! But, today's spurs are toy ones and not permitted on the flat here now, another dumb decision in my eyes. One thing I'm getting out of these comments, and I'm ready to be screamed down, is the realisation that in addition to those in racing today being somewhat soft, they are also somewhat boring. It's the character and story telling that is missing. I'm sick to death of hearing how the race was won by all those at home. Yes I know it is a team effort and everyone has their part to play but, sometimes I would like a Mark Walker (for example) to accept the accolades for a job well done and not turn it into a rehearsed advert for the next lot of sales purchases.

I can see both Joe's and Nod's points of view here. You actually sort of agree. It's amazing how a fast horse can find any missing will power.

When in a constant state of wasting some weeks (and days) the kilo's are harder to shed than others, no matter what lengths you go to. Having said that, today's humans in general are somewhat softer than those of a generation or two ago. Particular jockeys of a bygone era would stop at nothing to make the weight for their race day charges, which I hasten to add were many kilograms lighter than any current impost.

The bagging of clubs certainly gets tiring. I don't feel old but maybe I am as attending galloping race meetings at Westport, Hokitika, Omakau, Gisborne, Wairoa and Thames seems like yesterday. All gone for what appear bullshit reasons, and all venues with a similar theme, all holiday hot spot destinations which served as memorable first race day experiences for many New Zealanders and overseas visitors alike. There's nothing like winning a race at Trentham yet if the Marton meeting there yesterday was anything to go by the RACE committee may have their work cut out getting attendances anywhere near those of the halcyon days for the 150th Wellington Cup meeting. Fees to attend over the next three weeks reflect the elitist thinking of current racing administrators both locally and nationally. Maybe their mainstreaming and App facilities were on the blink when the packed out country facilities were on show over the Christmas/New Year period. But wait, there's more ... the new licensing system is just around the corner. Forget about the real issues racing has like not being able to get through an entire card without incident. I take my hat off to those involved in racing at grass roots level. You keep up the momentum whatever the pressure. You create the stories and history and make racing what it is. Please do not let those "at the top" with their heads firmly up their arse treat you otherwise.