curious

163 BSP

It's bullshit. It was clearly way too long. They cut it Saturday afternoon (reprortedly twice) and at 11 am the next morning after 7-8mms overnight rain the stipes reported the area dry and safe for racing. Put your hand up Tim.

Last time I was there it looked like almost all the grass was rooted.

I agree with him. NZTR have put policies and guidelines in place. If clubs like the CJC choose to entirely ignore them, whose fault is that?

Sounds to me like he deserved the serve.

Canterbury Jockey Club boss Tim Mills was devastated by the fiasco but says the investigation into how the track became slippery after a week of almost exclusively fine weather will have to wait. ... “We have heard ideas and even I have theories on what I think happened with the track but we simply don’t have time to investigate those fully yet. But we will as soon as we can.” Those remarks have to be a fucking joke. The whole world knows why the track was slippery. It was reported by jockeys, stipes and shown in HD vision on trackside. No investigation is required. The CJC failed to mow the track in accord with NZTR guidelines. Not much point NZTR issuing policies if clubs are going to negligently ignore them for whatever reason. Time to stand up and put your hand up Tim. The buck has to stop somewhere.

Maybe on the rail but not further out where the issue was?

My concern is that the inspection yesterday was conducted by stipes. No mention of any riders or anyone with racecourse turf management involved. Hopefully they gallop a few horses across that area this morning and get some feedback from riders before proceeding.

Meeting News Track Update From Canterbury JC At 11am this morning Stipendiary Stewards and Canterbury Jockey Club Management inspected the work that has been undertaken at Riccarton Park since the abandonment of racing during NZ Cup Day yesterady. That work included mowing with front mounted mowers and the application of the Verti-Drain machine to assist in alleviating any compaction. 9mm of rain fell on Saturday night and Sunday is a warm day with a moderate wind. The Stipendiary Stewards see no reason for racing not to resume with the remainder of the programme at Riccarton Park on Monday.

Did they vertidrain the whole track?

And after Monday, there is not a single suitable feature+ level race programmed in Canterbury for that horse until the end of January.

Hope they got the mowing finished.

I'm guessing that is the same issue as on the track at the 600. Not mowed. Grass way too long.

This is pure negligence and non-compliance by the CJC. They have failed by a large margin to comply with the venue preparation guidelines. Grass is supposed to be cut for 2 months prior any racemeeting through raceday to 90-100mls. It was quite clear from the trackside vision that the grass in that area was 150-200mm. This has come at huge cost to a whole range of participants (including the CJC themselves) and the CJC should be severely penalised. A year ago following the 4/12/21 Trentham abandonment a comprehensive review was ordered by NZTR. The board following a review of that report required a series of actions. One of those was: NZTR to implement a more robust compliance program for Clubs that do not adhere to track preparation procedures and annual maintenance plans, including consequences for non-compliance with policies and procedures, by February 2022 Has anyone seen that compliance programme or know what the consequences in it are?

I think Reefton meant the team doing the penetrometer readings doing the swerving!

It's a bit like them sending the crash test dummies out to check the track at Awapuni yesterday instead of inspecting it and maybe galloping a couple on it first. Plain negligent.

It's not that it happened that worries me. That's a mistake. It's that those who are supposed to inspect the track on race mornings including the course manager and stipes didn't, that's inexcusable. They obviously didn't even bother to drive around it.

If you are referring to the cones incident at Riccarton I don't agree. That is a mistake in that they were left there in the first place. Pure negligence and incompetence that the first race started with them still there.

I think punters lost a lot. Hours of analysis, pricing, getting bets on. All out the window.

Supposed to be mowed regularly to 90-100mm leading up to racedays according to the NZTR Minimum Venue Guidelines . Is it longer?

If that's the case, surely they would cut it with a flail mower. Don't they?

Punting revenue per race but not punting revenue per starter

https://www.tabnz.org/tab-nz-trading-performance-update-september-2022 31 October 2022 TAB New Zealand (TAB NZ) provides the second monthly trading update for the 2022/2023 financial year, with the results and highlights for September 2022. The TAB operated through its online and retail channels throughout September. While the Omicron outbreak continued, the New Zealand Government dropped the COVID-19 Protection Framework/Traffic Light System from 13 September, easing all restrictions in retail and hospitality. Turnover was slightly down against budget in September, as was gross betting revenue (GBR) and gross betting margin (GBM), but overall, the performance showed signs of improvement compared to August. While the easing of mask restrictions had a positive impact on retail traffic, other factors - including the continuing soft economic conditions, abandoned race meetings, and another month of a drop in starters across all three racing codes - contributed to the above results. The Board will continue to factor in the current domestic and global financial climate, and the potential impact of any further ongoing trend of a drop in starter numbers as it assesses future distributions in the 2022-23 financial year. Wagering Performance Summary In September, the second month of the 2022/23 financial year, key performance results for TAB NZ were slightly down on the overall positive trends of the previous financial year. Turnover of $212.7m was 2.0% ($4.4m) below budget. GBR of $33.6m was down on budget by 3.4% ($1.2m) and GBM of 15.8% was 0.2 percentage points below budget. Racing Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race was 10.1, below the FY22 average of 10.6, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $3.2m on 10 September at Hastings. Harness average starters per race was 9.8, slightly below the FY22 average of 10.2, while the peak meeting turnover of $1.5m was on 30 September at Addington. For greyhound racing, the average starters per race was 7.3, slightly below the FY22 average of 7.6, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $441k on 22 September at Addington. Sport The top 3 sporting events by turnover for September were the three All Blacks tests against Australia and Argentina with a combined turnover of $3.4m. Tennis was the leading in-play sporting code accounting for 26% of in-play turnover while rugby union and rugby league were the top pre-match singles sporting codes accounting for 30% and 24% of pre-match turnover respectively. September Operational Performance Reported Profit for the month was $11.3m, which was $1.2m below Budget. Operating Expenses were $10.5m for the month, which was $0.1m above Budget. Year to Date Reported Profit was $21.7m, which was $2.5m below Budget Year to Date Operating Expenses were $21.0m, which was $0.5m above budget. September Distributions Racing Codes were paid $13.2m in distributions and other payments for September, versus $13.2m budgeted. This consisted of TAB NZ Betting Profit (listed as Fixed Distribution in the table below), offshore bookmaker commission fees, which are based on actual turnover (termed Betting Information Use Charges (BIUC) in the table below), and Betting Duty/Levy repeal. Top 10 Racing events by turnover Date Venue Race No. Race description Turnover 10-Sep Hastings R9 Tarzino Trophy (G1) $616K 10-Sep Hastings R7 HB/PB Tbred Breeders Assn Gold Trail Stakes (G3) $422K 17-Sep Randwick R7 Fujitsu General George Main Stakes (G1) $398K 24-Sep Ruakaka R5 Kensington Refrigeration $354K 10-Sep Hastings R10 Cancer Society - Donate Now 1400 $349K 17-Sep Riccarton Park R5 Double Tree By Hilton Karaka Handicap $328K 24-Sep Rosehill R7 Racing & Sports Golden Pendant (G2) $328K 30-Sep Te Rapa R6 Skycity Hamilton Waikato Cup Day 10 Dec Mile $327K 24-Sep Rosehill R8 Chandon Golden Rose Stakes (G1) $322K 17-Sep Riccarton Park R6 New Zealand Bloodstock Canterbury Belle Stakes $317K Top 10 Sporting events by turnover Date Code Event Turnover 24-Sep Rugby Union New Zealand v Australia $1.2M 15-Sep Rugby Union Australia v New Zealand $1.1M 3-Sep Rugby Union New Zealand v Argentina $1.1M 24-Sep Rugby League Penrith Panthers v South Sydney Rabbitohs $774K 11-Sep Rugby League Sydney Roosters v South Sydney Rabbitohs $679K 17-Sep Rugby League Cronulla Sharks v South Sydney Rabbitohs $679K 16-Sep Rugby League Parramatta Eels v Canberra Raiders $617K 23-Sep Rugby League North Queensland Cowboys v Parramatta Eels $594K 9-Sep Rugby League Penrith Panthers v Parramatta Eels $497K 10-Sep Rugby League Melbourne Storm v Canberra Raiders $494K

14 last year and the year before so that is very light.

Bizarre that they would run an R82 stayers in direct competition to the cup and that is essentially an R75 anyway. Surely should have been a lead up race. Cup certain to be downgraded with that field.