I think it's important to have some iconic races with large stakes such as the Cup, and the Dominion and many of the supporting races, age group etc etc around cup time, everyone racing a horse has to have a summit to aspire too, unfortunately most of the money goes across the Tasman but would they come if stakes were a lot less?
I just think HRNZ are overdoing the spending on many 2 and 3 year old races with a handful of starters especially early in the season, more modest stakes would suffice, i note the Kindergarton Stakes has dropped 10 grand and a 2yo fillies race at Winton has dropped from 70000 to 40, same stake as the Leonerd stakes at Addington, some have been way over the top.
I would love to see after the Invercargill Cup, Westport on day 1 , Omakau and Nelson day 2 get their main races get bumped up considerably so those 3 clubs are getting their fair share back based on what they produce in turnover, they shouldn't be subsidizing others, moving the Auckland Cup to the same weekend of the galloping cup in March would also make sense, about a month before the slots races, the Auckland Cup on new year's eve don't give it it's best exposure, people are in holiday/ pissup mode on Dec 31, they probably don't care if draught horses were running lol they would probably turnup and mid January into February is probably the time our better pacers could chase some races in Oz with the culmination being the Hunter Cup in mid Feb.
Interestingly Westports main race has been reduced to rating 46+ race, and Banks Peninsula has a rating 50+ race, the numbers for Westports main races have been falling as a result, Nelson probably don't help themselves by running most races on day 2 over a mile, that probably chases a few away and recently their fields have been small, not helped by Timaru racing 2 days before day 1, and Ashburton racing midweek after day2, if they want to keep these clubs going they need to adjust the odd days in the Calander.