Sounds or looks like to me that Michael is handicapped.
Only a month or two ago he was bemoaning Invercargill having its Cup at the same time as the so called Northern top races.
Invercargill race their race then as their are no races in the north over Xmas, New Year, it's 2024, not 1974, times have changed.
You have to have handicaps for some races, it's little wonder less people are bothering when the odds are stacked against you.
There are actually more races for top class horses than we tend to think, many rating 60+ races have a maximum back mark of 30m or so, they have a choice to turn up or not then they have all in FFA, note how those fields attract 6 starters of less, lots just don't bother.