curious

Meanwhile, back in the CD, the Foxton trials have been moved to the Awapuni AWT

True though you'd have been a lot better off backing the ones that Tayla Mitchell was on.

6 of 30 wasn't it? Just had to pick the right ones I guess.

Which was my initial point. Why would you go round on the AWT for 14k if you can race on the grass a few days later for twice that?

Yes. If you are an owner, you might reasonably expect that sort of information about your horse from your trainer. Problem here seems to be that if losing punters think that having access to more public information from trainers about specific horses is going to improve their results, they are probably some distance from being successful punters. As a punter, I would have no interest at all in such information, especially if everyone else has it as well.

Still along way from the 75% of votes required to carry the motion. Was always going to be a dead duck.

Isn't it the job of the racing or syndicate manager who is in direct communication with the trainer to convey that to the owners. I don't really see it as their job to relate detailed horse by horse information routinely from the trainer to punters. Are there other trainers or owners that do that?

Fields were pretty solid at the last AWT meeting during National week. Most close to full fields and one well oversubscribed and split. As Freda says it may be partly due to the transition period, the end of the AWT season. I know for a fact that some of those horses are already spelling before prepping for grass races on better tracks.

True. I meant to say 2 or 9 days later. Also add that is except where there are no suitable races or where horses might not otherwise get a start.

Might be a programming issue. Don't think many will go round for industry stakes on a Thursday when they can run on the grass at the same track for twice the money 2 days later.

Bart would have charged me for doing the feed and work programme too.

Trainer Francis Henri-Graffard admitted the former Chris Waller star was “very rusty” in her first European test. “She was very rusty at the start of the race and you can’t make up ground on that track at the moment,” Graffard told the Racing Post. “She ran on at the end and she had a good blow after the race. I think she needed the race.” Graffard added to The Age: “The track here is tough today, you had to be a frontrunner on this track. No horses were making a run. “Frankie said she was a bit rusty in the early parts of the race, but she ran on really well and, for me as a training point of view, I think she did a very good comeback, considering the track and her position in the race. “I was not expecting her to be so off the pace in the early parts of the race. But as Frankie said she was a little bit rusty. She seems ok, we will see how she recovers but there are positives to be taken I think.” Despite the defeat, Verry Elleegant will continue to be aimed at the l’Arc (2400m) at Longchamp on October 3 and is expected to next run in the Prix Vermeille (2040m) at that same track on September 11. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/08/22/verry-elleegant-pressing-on-towards-larc-after-failing-in-french-debut/

I thought that's what owners were supposed to do?

Looks a bit like she might need another mile now.

I realise that it is pie in the sky as SI jumps racing and the Grand National meeting are now in the post-mortem stage. However, you will not have jumps horses and riders there if you don't first have a substantive programme of races for them. It would take a large amount of commitment and resources to schedule such a programme where there are say 2 or 3 jumps races and maybe a highweight (AWT) once a fortnight through the season on the AWT days. Riccarton, while not as sinister as it once was, is still probably the best remaining steeplechase course in the country. If you did that, you might then attract a couple of the bigger jumps stables to set up satellite stables there for the season leading up to the National meeting. It would take some rebuilding time but I think if you got it going the horses would come, generating additional business for local trainers and adding to the training business for the club.

Seems you could run them almost between the flat AWT races. Different pool of riders for weighing out etc. Put the temporary fences wide out, outside fence in the straight if necessary to preserve the inside ground for spring racing. Most of the steeple course is essentially a separate track anyway.

I meant run them on the course proper at Riccarton on the AWT meeting days.

Racing's been good too. Looking forward to the chase. Mentioned the idea of running a couple of jumps races down there on the AWT days through winter when I was down there. Apparently, they'd considered adding jumps races for a few years but ruled it out because there were no horses and no riders. Seems to me that's getting the chicken and egg the wrong way round.

Some good news from Waverley. The RIB and Club representatives inspected the Waverley track on Friday afternoon. The track is currently in good order, albeit heavy, and considered safe for racing.

I don't think it was ever intended that meetings programmed for grass, if abandoned would be transferred to the AWs except perhaps in very rare circumstances. Probably not feasible in most instances in 48 hours or less unless the abandoned meeting was at the same track as the AW. The idea as I understood it was that by programming more winter meetings on the AWs the chance of those meetings being abandoned would be slim. At the same time, reducing the load on the grass tracks would give them more recovery and preparation time thereby potentially reducing the chance of abandonments at those meetings.

Are you saying that if all the AW meetings had been instead programmed on the grass that none of them would have been abandoned?

Wasn't at the Levin jumpouts but the track was listed as a Slow 8. Did they mean a Heavy 8?

I take your point JB. They certainly were running a couple of seconds slower than you'd expect at Cambridge or Riccarton. Whether or not that is due to the specific nature of the Awapuni track or whether riders were taking a cautious approach I guess the jury is still out on that. As to your query Huey, yes, I think there is a pool of horses that suit the AWTs just as there is a pool that suit firmer summer tracks and another that suits heavy winter tracks. Most of the latter however, are not capable of running the 1.10/1.22 times that the AWTs require. Much of the pool that suits the AWTs are probably summer horses, particularly older ones that usually spend this time of year in the paddock. It may take connections a while to recognise that these horses for the most part can pretty much race year round with the availability of the AWTs.

“We had positive feedback from everybody and the jockeys said it was nice to ride on. There was rain on the day and it obviously didn’t affect it so it was another positive step forward,” he said. As has been the case at Cambridge and Riccarton, the synthetic surface isn’t to the liking of all horses. “We have to embrace it and it’s not the answer to everything and it’s not going to suit every horse,” Didham said. “I galloped one the other day and she didn’t handle it all and then went to the jump-outs on the grass on Tuesday and won. “We’ve got other horses that go really well on it and it’s a matter of identifying what’s handling it and what’s not.” https://loveracing.nz/News/37469/SynthetictrackupandrunninginCD.aspx