mikeynz

The strange irony of Riccarton having a fancy,racing or training track is it wont make a scrap of difference to the grass track which probably suffers from having 3 days beatng the crap out of it to start the season off I know nothing about racecourses but in my field I know grass suffers from being hammered in winter,some of these courses probably need a bit of TLC to help them stay in top condition so the awts probably have their place but spreading the work load through winter and spring would make a big difference,reducing some courses wont help.

As I said before,fixed odds is considerably greater when so many hot favourites are running so it's likely that the TAB are not making actual profit, if the big punters were only betting on the tote then those winners might not even return a dividend. As for the stakes to turnover,Westport did 1.8 or1.9 mill on Boxing Day but only pay modest stakes, clubs like Westport must be subsidising clubs like Auckland,they must be on a different payout or something. Dont ever get me wrong,some of those horses racing and winning are top shelf but a lot of the races are becoming predictable as the All Blacks playing Tonga and Fiji, you kind of know what's going to happen before it's started.

That race at Auckland just run with those 2 top horses had a tote pool according to the website of 5500 which compares to the race run at Riverton last Thursday which had 5 starters and was for amateur riders and Auckland are racing at prime time, interesting.

I think we have discussed these issues before but I see mr flash was looking forward to a great nights racing,it's not great for betting as a rule and a lot of it is on a par with watching one tennis player. Harness racing has issues.

I see Devlins made the herald for being a dickhead,I'm not one to be a critic here of others,he is the exception,when he took over from telfer on radio sport that was it for me,other than live cricket and a wee bit if rugby I gave up on it,strange how it died a slow death.

Maybe it would make sense if Timaru get more Saturdays with the best horses to match the track they have and Riccarton less,it does look a better presentation with a good track.

Just looking at the calandar from the mid to ljate 90s, only now do you realise how much harness has changed,not for the better. Saturday night racing,regular racing in the cd which included Hawkes Bay,Nelson and Blenheim racing in spring,Hutt Park and Greymouth still going, grass racing in the north we don't often realise until we take a big step back to see how it's slowly descending,be nice to have a crystal ball to see what the landscape will be in 25 years.

In a year or twos time,maybe sooner the novelty will wear off.

Horses 4 courses,simple suits some,dont suit some others.

There ain't that many new innovations in racing these days,I watched the first 2 races and came to conclusion it's just another raceday,if I cant pick winners on grass what difference will it be on any other surface . Seriously though probably in a area like the Waikato it is a alternative for some and it's not affecting any other club,Riccarton on the other the taking of licences of one club in particular dont agree with that.

Second in interdom final twice. 2nd in the NZ cup,had a go at probably every big race around,so close yet so far.

Might be Forbury,he didn't seem to like the all stars for some reason,his post were a great piece of literature though,very amusing indeed.

All stars dominating,maybe Mark Purdon even got sick of it,kinda done all he could do,might be enjoying the break.

I've said before that despite lots of advances in many aspects of our lives are we better off as a whole,I say probably not.

The All Blacks,we gloat about how good they are but we must put things into perspective as a rule Australia dont really play rugby as a rule,,yet over the years what Aussie has done in rugby is no mean achievement,2 World cups. Rugby in N Z is looking for new ways to promote itself,when they had the npc at its peak it was the best product you could have,look at it now.it was probably as appealing to the public as the nrl is,remember lots of kiwis live in oz super rugby doesn't push all the buttons,some places you try to get involved might watch the ABs but overall dont have a rugby culture And yes Young Quinn was from Southland,and Henry Skinner who drove Sapling was a southerner,probably the best driver to come out of the south.

I did see one race at Timaru,it may have been a mile that Locarno bursting down the outside to run Scotch Tar down,he was some horse too,remember he was a trotter, The large presence of horses from Southland,Sapling,Trevira,Robalan,Young Quinn,Hi Foyle,Trusty Scott,Bonnies Chance, and even Matai Dreamer,they don't seem to exist there anymore Interdominions use to capture the countries interest,sure the good ones today are good,maybe even better than some of the past but there seems less competition at the top. Alexandra Park is nothing like it was,Forbury disappearing completely,a fair chunk of meetings these days are ho hum affairs. Same with the rugby,some of those classic Npc/shield matches,not the same today,once packed stadiums,now basically empty. Tv is good but as we get over saturated with racing and rugby on it the appetite to go out of our way for such things wanes, a lot of it as per the topic at the top suggest we can only handle so much.

Another explosive day of racing coming up,but don't fret,if you miss it,there's another day coming through again soon. last night was looking at old videos of some of the top races from the late seventies,early eighties,its a far cry from today's feature meetings,times do change,not sure if for the better.

Some of t Some of the rethoric being spoken about Cambridge having good size fields seems a little bit over the top to me,lots of entrants ,yes, but a third of the entrants won't get a start,seems like bullshit to me,

It wont be long perhaps that jumps racing will probably only be in the north so does it make sense to have the Riccarton national meeting in its present scenario?,this year will be a bit of a test to see if it's still a goer.

You might be right too,a lot of the tracks get a hard time in winter,its just the luck of the draw,probably what they need is just a bigger break between days,maybe losing the odd day might be a positive sometimes,who knows.

Shift it all to Riverton🙂 And I'm not offending them,there is a reason why its greener than any other place

Nomanations close shortly,2 jumps races scheduled,will there be any interest. A good 2 track in may,unreal really,probably be better surface than Cambridge,Rotorua looked a bog on Saturday but if they transfer to Cambridge and have 10 starter limits how will that help in the event of abandonments?

I think until they can gauge if there is much interest in the midweek low key AWT meetingsI think the only stand they should be worrying about is a hot dog stand.

That actually has nought to do with trackside either by the way,just making a observation,the thing is though is you can easily change channels or turn tv off,after time I got sick of same old stuff on sky but as your paying I decided to put it on hold,do I miss it,not really,but trackside is just wall to wall,be no different if we get radio back on new senz setup,if you get a proper balance it might attract more racing followers,if you get too much you might lose a lot of the sports listeners then the whole setup goes bally up. Stuffed if I know anymore. I've never been a great fan of tv but recently if I am watching it's mostly something else now.

These devices we are playing around on can be addictive too,sometimes I want to throw it in the skip. The premier nights,I do watch for a while are dominated by the majority of winners paying less than 2 dollars,I've noticed that the fixed odds betting on some of the bigger meetings is a larger take than the tote,with the big bet winners winning you wonder if the TAB are actually losing money on the harness,aint that the reason some get restricted?turnover is one thing,income is another,go to the grass track meetings and the tote is the more popular simply because there is more depth in the fields for having a bet that might pay a good price.