mikeynz

It's actually an hour from Riverton to Gore, moral of the story is Tyler does choose to train a sizable team out of a distant location, the harness guys can do most of their racing locally but the gallops are a different story, short season and some ho hum meetings when they are racing and it's always been like that, always will be, once Riverton Easters done racing is done basically so you know you got to travel, looking back over Tyler's records its 10 years hes been training a large team, guess like anything one can only sustain things for so long but he certainly does help keep southland racing going though.

No Tyler's in the noms for Riccarton saturday for what is a feature meeting, would they turn up for a synthetic meeting in winter?

If they want to only run one meeting only on fridays it's hard to justify Auckland getting that date with such a average card,maybe except for so called feature meetings, running two meetings is better from a tv watching viewpoint.

Just had a look at the programming for Riccarton, a Friday feature meeting on June 3 and the midweek day of the National meeting on the synthetic, be interesting guide as to who fronts and who won't.

I just looked at some of the programmes, lots of 35000 races, maybe they have been eased back, what does that suggest ?

Strange irony about the stakes in the south, how many harness meetings have stakes like the gallops, yet numbers are better than the gallops, getting back though to Tyler, the travel especially in winter, must be a killer and with Riccarton AWT starting soon if you dont like it your options are less and less. With the stakes I thought the hike in stakes might have been to april maybe they are just leaving them at that level so yea they are up but only as opposed to last year not sure.

I always remember when you went to put a bet on it would display the maximun bet one could put on, like if you were betting on a 30 to 1 shot maximum bet might be $765 or whatever.

Well sky have to pay for the premier league, when spark give up will probably put charges up again

Racings not only industry with issues but how do you get the stakes to keep pace with cost, racing basically survives by turnover then deductions, if people ain't betting as much or not betting enough what can 1 do? There is only a limited amount of money to go around, fact of life. Southern racing will survive but its gunna be the small time trainers who will keep it going, training a big team out of Riverton, one can only sustain the travel and other factors for so long, plenty of enthusiasm is met by reality I guess Places like Southland probably need some of those mini meetings, they are becoming very regular these days for harness racing in Auckland.

On a slightly different note I see an article in Southland times, Kelvin Tyler is reducing his racing team for next season, Robert Dennis the same, sign of the times I guess.

Noms for Auckland friday very light again, seems more want to go Manawatu than Auckland, in some ways it must be frustrating for those with the topliners racing in such small fields yet in many ways they have actually chased a lot away.

I suspect clubs like Westport might be subsidizing clubs like Auckland, maybe I'm wrong.

I've often wondered why Westport don't pay some of the highest stakes, Boxing Day turnover is always one of the biggest of the season yet?

What's wrong with the coverage ? I'm not watching so enlighten me.

We actually didn't vote in a communist leader, just remember it was the manipulative racing minister that got her the job initially, and to be fair she did present herself well at the start of the pandemic but other than that their is very little substance to the PM and over time it starts to show, sometimes you need a leader with balls, English was a steady ship, I suspect Luxon may be the same, time will tell.

That gore track looked good yesty, yet nothing again until september at the earliest, but there proves the point, you simply cant keep beating the shit out of some of these tracks, seems Riccarton just gets overdone.

Sad news, was lying in bed 3 o clock this morning and the guy on talkback was talking about Warne few minutes later they said he'd died, gee couldn't believe it but life is life and one never knows what today may bring, exceptional player in a exceptional side, one of those you would stop what you are doing to watch, Gilchrist was the player I admired the most, as for Rod Marsh another great player, seeing these players expiring makes us all realize time is catching up on us all.

Lots of people, young and old buy lotto tickets, reason, a chance to become rich, but the large percentage of those same people probably don't give a shit about racing and the fact that racing don't have a big prize pool for something to attract them probably means you won't attract new people i started a thread about jackpots, on course maybe but maybe in today's world that might not work but I reckon something like this. Saturday only, you take the last 4 races the quad races from NZ, you then take the four main Eastern State meetings and their last four races,, that's 20 races, if we have a harness meet in NZ you throw that in as well20 or 24 races, only thing you need to fine tune is what to do with small fields. To win you need to pick15 winners, or if their is 24 races 18 or something, if it's not struck it jackpots, but you get a collect for those who pick the most winners in any given day. As you only have to pick 15 winners you only need to pick 15 races but if you pick in all races you are increasing your chances of winning, something that's Saturday only, maybe properly promoted by the TAB, sure it might start slowly but as it builds so does interest, gee if it only reached dizzy heights once or twice a year it must be better than Melbourne Cup day being the only day many take notice of horse racing. Maybe get rid of percentage bets and maybe 50 cents a line adjusted based on the number of picks per line.

Nobody has any answer as yet, I'm pretty sure I know the driver, not so sure about the horse, but just quietly I think the horse was from Otago, I may be wrong though.

Such as, I cant really be bothered with him.

Ascot Park always seemed to have issues, these days it actually looks a good surface,they race about 8 times a season unlike Riccarton as one example where they beat the shit out of it late winter/spring, that's where one needs to share the load by racing at other venues, if New Plymouth was to be the only track in Taranaki then regardless of how much you spend on the track it's always going to come under pressure if the weather is crap, you simply cant put all your eggs in one basket, as in venues, N Zs climate is pretty fickle.

Been reading comments here, the reality is their are only so many jobs commentating, when trackside radio was going it wasn't uncommon to hear the same guy most days of the week in oz, trackside in NZ has gone the same way, less callers doing more days, some days though they just seem to be going through the motions, it still doesn't change the fact though that one or two callers got or are getting a shit deal and as in all things in life if its family, clubs, church groups or whatever skulduggery, secret agendas da da da, it goes on, even the setup I'm in is very frustrating at present, basically where human beings are involved, problems, trouble go hand in hand.

Who owns Hawera ?

1.4 million in the quaddie pool, and you win 1100 hundred bucks, nice to win anything and yes upsets do happen but the big pools like lotto attract people who might only get interested if the pools get larger,racing I reckon needs something that is reserved for saturdays only that keeps growing until struck Interesting looking at the lotto prize pool, and that's not the powerball pool wednesdays usually around 2.5 million Saturdays around 3.3 million, simple fact the weekend is the time more people spend, racing would be the same, dangling a big carrot would engage more

You maybe right but look at it this way, when lotto powerball starts getting up in the big prize how many more people get involved, ? What does racing do to attract more interest or does it just sit back and say everything's hunky dory. I know lots that buy lotto, but racing, nagh not interested. Competition is healthy, see it's happening in the sports rights for tv, sky have premier league back,