curious

Not much point having more tracks open if the likes of NZTR and the CJC won't utilise them in these circumstances.

While I agree with that as already noted, Pitty is the National Vice President, South Island of the Trainers' Association. Shouldn't that be the vehicle for taking forward a proposed solution to this. From that role, it seems he could be building support for same and taking a plan to NZTR. While I fully support the right to protest, individually or collectively, if you want change, you have to be for something rather than against something. “I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” —Mother Teresa

I'm an advocate of the AWT too. I'm not an advocate for replacing long programmed grass meetings with AWT meetings especially when they are outside the NZTR scheduled AWT season. Good on him. It's another shocking piece of fallout from the CJC's behaviour with respect to the management of their grass course in recent months

Exactly. Didn't have to and haven't. Have to now and with urgency.

I agree with that. Clearly if the industry was going to spend $30m on track infrastructure, it badly needed to go elsewhere. Nevertheless, they are there and I think they are an asset if the maintenance can be achieved. I'm not sure where you get the idea that there is diminishing interest in racing and trialing on them everything else such as stakes being equal. My sense is that the opposite may be true.

I don't agree with Huey that the AWTs are a time bomb per se. My big worry is they won't be managed and maintained properly and the likes of the CJC have shown they can't follow advice and do that for their grass course anymore so the likelihood of them doing so and following Martin Collins' advice for the poly seems pretty slim. Otherwise, the AWT's have their place and could build numbers of horses in work and racing with decent thoughtful programming. That possibly includes (despite the NZTR aversion) scheduling an extra spring synthetic meeting so the necessary refurbishment of the course proper can be effected after the likes of the National meeting to have the course in pristine condition for Riccarton's jewel in the crown of cup week (if they can bother to do it). That does not include suddenly reverting a programmed and planned grass meeting to synthetic. There was a comment on the other channel that a presumably NI trainer had never found it so difficult to place horses. They should try in the SI. The programming is abysmal as has been pointed out by Doomed and others. As Freda suggested, the time and costs of traipsing all over the SI to place horses are no longer viable for horses or their connections. It breaks my heart to see the CJC continue to self-destruct, though as a long time SI racing supporter said to me yesterday, it's been going on for years, decades in fact, and essentially comes down to an inept and inactive board, which itself reflects on the membership that has sustained that. I admit to have been personally affected by the cup week debacle so am maybe biased but to see an institution that has been a part of my family for generations in such a state of decay is extremely sad and seems to have come to a head this year with what was probably the last National meeting and now the Cup meeting under serious threat, solely because of incompetence and inaction.

We have not received "Stewards' Vision" for this race as yet Under normal circumstances this will be available within 3-4 days of the race That's from a race 3 weeks ago. How come the Aussie's can get it up the same day and we have to wait a month for such poor quality vision it's hardly worth watching anyway?

Nigel Babbage – Champion Of NZ Capital Markets Date 20/11/2022 The NZX Board and management today recognised the sudden passing of Board member Nigel Babbage in Christchurch yesterday. NZX Chair James Miller said Mr Babbage, an NZX Board member since 2017, had been a long-term advocate of NZX and stock markets. He had also served on the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “Nigel was a proud champion of NZX as a board member and significant shareholder. He was a man of immense passion and integrity something he demonstrated throughout his 35-year career as a currency trader, businessman, conservationist and director,” Mr Miller said. “Never was there a greater supporter of NZX as a market operator and as a business than Nigel. We will miss him greatly – especially his self-deprecating sense of humour and big personality. Our thoughts go out to Nigel’s family, including sons, Charles and Edward, and siblings Nicki, Kate and Andrew.” In October, Mr Babbage announced he was retiring from the NZX Board. The 22 November NZX Board meeting was to be his last. NZX Chief Executive Mark Peterson said Mr Babbage’s deep financial and capital markets experience, and insights had been of great benefit to NZX in delivering to its growth strategy, particularly around derivatives. “Nigel always backed us in looking for opportunities to grow New Zealand’s capital markets and we really appreciated that,” Mr Peterson said. “He was passionate about us succeeding.” Mr Miller said NZX would acknowledge Mr Babbage at the official opening of The New Zealand Capital Markets Centre in Auckland on Thursday.

Oh. What a shock. RIP Cubes.

Might have been the ideal use for Rangiora.

None train on the course proper at Riccarton either.

This suggests NZTR IS serious though wrt the clubs. They are withholding race day funding. As previously advised, NZTR is awaiting individual reports from the respective Clubs and the RIB before making any further decisions regarding Club Funding for these racedays. NZTR will also put in place additional protocols, which will be communicated after the Regional Track Manager Meeting on Monday, to further support Clubs going forward to ensure surfaces are being prepared in line with the Track Preparation Guidelines and that any issues are identified at the earliest possible opportunity. As per the recent Club Circular the responsibility to prepare a safe racing surface remains the responsibility of the Club, NZTR encourage the Clubs to utilise the resources of the Regional Track Managers for support, advice and the regional Track Equipment that is also available.

If the regional track advisor played a role in the CJC debacle, then he should have been called into Sharrock's or at least Balcombe's office by now. If not, then the above missive to clubs isn't worth the paper it's written on as you suggest Freda.

If they don't lead by example we are no further ahead. They should already be doing exactly what they expect club CEOs to do in these situations - "that a thorough review of their people and processes is undertaken immediately and that everybody responsible for presenting a track is clear on the role they play" Regional track advisors should be at the centre of that.

Good stuff.

One thing I don't understand re Riccarton is that they've had 3 months since the National meeting to get the track reseeded and ready for cup week. How come the riders were still reporting it very patchy and lots of bare patches once they cut the long flattened grass and you could actually see it. 3 meetings between I think but surely they could have been re-located to Timaru or Ashburton to facilitate the grass re-establishment if necessary.

I fail to see how current stake levels can be sustained through the season.

There was 1mm of rain overnight on Friday reported by the club. Hardly a factor.

When did it rain? Saturday night after the abandonment?

I think Chris was asked to wait as long as possible. He obviously took that seriously and went for him inside the 50!

Pam was actually looking quite flash at the birdcage interview today I must say.

Personally I think he's shown he is equally adept at 14/1600 but might slightly favour the 1600. You really need to think you have an even money chance to justify the expense of travelling one from Riccarton to Otago these days though and there are no suitable races in Canterbury till late January so at this stage he'll be retired after one more run.

Will reassess after that, but probably one more run and a new career.

Yep. You can't ride those sort of races without the cattle. They'll say he stole it but they ran a tick faster than the guineas ... perfectly rated. Super ride indeed but a gutsy performance by the horse and in particular a superb effort by the training team as you say nomates.