mikeynz

There are a lot of things I dont understand at times, southern harness race mainly midweek before xmas and mainly saturday after Easter, maybe because the gallops dont as for why anything happens at times hard to know.

Here is a question, someone must know..............has a horse trained in Southland ever started in a Melbourne Cup.

I think the Tyler's are involved in dairy farming too , I think and Taplins getting out of it so in reality the horses are or were probably an xtra which probably mostly come second to the farm, which probably sums up the southern scene, lots of small trainers. But if the Tyler's stopped would still leave a big hole, will they, who knows, still moving to Queensland would certainly be big difference from Southland, not just the racing.

6 runners at Riverton.

Are the Taplins really going to oz or just speculation ?

Fair bit of rain in Southland this morn, I assume Riverton wont be exempt so I'm taking that tracks gunna get a decent hammering, maybe shift up to Riccarton, im sure the locals will all be keen, (or maybe not).

Waikouiti at Wingatui dont help the Coast situation, but what will the next calandar be like ?

Noms for Riverton not bad bar the Open race, some from Canterbury, Wairio 4 days later might help yet very few from Wingatui, not that there is many left there anyhow, 5 to be exact.

I think covid was a convenient opportunity to restructure, maybe trackside failed perhaps because is was on a lot of times when probably no one was bothering, and radio sport started to decline once Telfer was replaced by Devlin then they started playing music interludes, sadly the music was shit as well, it probably turned people off, only time I listened was the cricket, cricket on radio is interesting. i think senz when broadcasting live sport, I think the commentators are watching on a screen lots of times, and they actually compete in the broadcasting division with the ABC in Australia who I think are commercial free so probably they have the share of the listeners, adds are a irritation, but for some a necessity . i don't even think the TAB advertise on senz now, I don't really listen much, Ian Smith is good, the others I can take or leave, mostly leave, now and then I will take in some commentary. The app they have seems a good idea but it seems racing just doesn't tick the boxes for them , i often wonder why the TAB don't run a online radio station on Saturdays and some of the main holidays and relay it some of the time through senz, shutting up shop before 5 o clock on some Saturdays, seems to me it's just filling in time until the cricket or the league starts. Do I care, yes and no, racings becoming less and less relevant to many today but you do also have to ask the question about the management of racing and the media if the people in charge are fit for purpose to be in the job or not. ,

Changing tack, nominations for Riverton out soon, all 15000 dollar races, Southlands had a dry season yet the tracks rated a heavy 8, that tells me one thing, it must be good farmland there.

Checked out the results, ZB has over 700 thousand listeners, senz around 10, seems the listening numbers go up at the weekend probably because of live commentary, one would wonder what the racing audience would be ? Overall there seems a limited market in NZ for a sport only station. It's probably never easy to break in to the market against the established setups. Radio sport rated poorly, sure some want a sports station but basically it seems people want live commentary and less of the bullshit, just my thoughts. ZB show though that good quality radio that entertains and informs still plays a part in our lives, this is not criticism, just a observation. One wonders what the trackside radio audience actually was, personally I think more would have or at least as many would have tuned in over a period of time to radio than watching tv, because of its convenience, just my thoughts. Are racing followers at present getting a decent run for their money with audio ?

That last lines a bit fucked, was meaning the novelty of it all will have worn off.

Many times I look at the calandar and wonder how they come up with ideas they do, one wonders if they just tinker for the sake of tinkering........as I'm not watching trackside will they be waffling on the normal shit come race 1 only to find by the last race it's probably worn off already.

I think the real negative vibes about the new track isn't entirely about the track itself but the effect or affect it has on some other tracks, notably a track situated between Ashburton and Oamaru, I've always reckoned there is always room for all but Timaru need to be running the odd feature meeting maybe at Riccartons expense, all the clubs seem to have feature meetings except Timaru, maybe a tweaking of the calandar and everybody gains, Wyndham fought to stay afloat after being wiped for a while by the hrnz hierarchy. It's easy for some to be critical of the new track but look at it this way, ok the weather is still pretty good but what would the scenario be if Canterbury had lots of rain as was the case last year ? It will never be the be all of winter racing but it's there now and that's it, I guess it's up to the participants to either give it a pass mark or not, time will tell.

I wonder if the public turned up in the last 2 weeks despite the better fields. Once one stops going it's not easy to reignite the fervor for turning up on course, like tv has changed habits.

I just googled race dates for 2023 or something and something came up.

Some of the harness tracks would be the same, as in a distance away from the spectators, the question regarding Timarus facilities was about if the place is fucked or not,sure everything is geared racing wise for the off course public but the course needs to be fit for purpose for those who do turn up, the public and of course the trainers etc etc. Many courses today might have good amenities for maybe 1 day a year, I noted Te Rapa a week or two back, hardly a soul there.

What are the amenities like at Timaru as opposed to Riccarton,? People in the know will know.

To look at it another way I guess it can be crap weather in May but as it at present it's pretty good at this point, next year, who knows.

Only 7 races and mostly small fields, interesting, I wonder if there will be a major fawning by the trackside crew as was the case last year ar Cambridge. Only 1 ballot.

Might schedule some more races for Otaki, then abandon them because it's too dark by start time, it's been done before, not that long ago.

This Woodville date next year has moved to the new AWT.

It's out, had a bit of a look,changes I've noticed, Forbury race once at Wyndham, June 24 a saturday, the January day is at Oamaru now, Addington Easter sat seems to be a day meet, Wyndham race friday, sunday in Feb at Cromwell, Alexandra Park is still going😁, Geraldine on friday in April now ,Invers on the sunday. Always changing but fundamentally mostly staying the same.

Nagh it's only half done and it's missing some dates. If you google race calandar or something you can find the complete calandar but they have it in that arsehole format but it is what it is.

Dont know if anybody else has noticed but the calandar for next year is on the love racing site well some of it anyhow, just looking now.