curious

So, the only consideration for transferring the first and last day flat races if necessary is to the AWT? Not another grass track? If trainers were already concerned, that will ring even more alarm bells.

Looks like they have gone into a last minute panic! GRAND NATIONAL FESTIVAL OF RACING FIRST DAY ON THE TURF Contrary to rumours that seem to be travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand the first day of the Grand National Festival HAS NOT been transferred to the Polytrack. The First and Third days of the festival have been scheduled to run on the Turf Course Proper and that remains the intention. The only reason for the Club and NZTR to justify a shift would be if the Turf was for some reason unusable or unsafe for racing. That is not the case. Kind regards

One of the bizarre comments in the email is "This information will be used to determine what races can be run and to give some surety to trainers prior to making travel arrangements." Certainly, in several instances I know of, those arrangements were being made weeks ago and training and programming plans months ago. What are they thinking?

Or maybe Waimate? But then why not shift the whole meeting there? Only now they are trying to figure out what horses might be coming for the jumping races and deciding whether they will run them or not.

You'ld hardly run the Grand National at Ashburton would you?

Well that would have stopped it hanging?

Te Rapa? Rain and thunderstorms today. Showers, some heavy tomorrow. Periods of heavy rain Saturday. Odds?

Otaki abandoned. At least we got some notice.

The end game? Or the end of the game?

They surely couldn't charge a scratching fee if a meeting is transferred or rescheduled from grass to an AWT. I'd be telling them where to stick it.

Don't get me wrong LO. I have no problem with the AWT surface but I wouldn't run my heavy grass track winter galloper on it. I would run my good track galloper (especially an older one) on it as it gives a summer galloper a chance to have another campaign through winter. For the most part, they are not interchangeable.

Can't really see that working. AWTs don't really suit most grass heavy track winter gallopers. They go too quick. Abandoned grass meetings need to be transferred to grass imo.

Can't see what Thommo said? Anyway, pretty sure the answer is no. No handicap stakes races on the flat in the UK. However, some jumping stakes races are handicaps I think. The G3 Grand National comes to mind.

By an "own goal" you mean that the clubs concerned brought it on themselves?

Yep. What we said. And the headline. And all from wagering revenue which doesn't come close to covering stakes for a single meeting here.

Wagering key in prizemoney boosts Ben Sporle @bensporle Wagering results will determine any further prizemoney announcements and bonuses for the autumn carnival according to new RV CEO Andrew Jones. RV announced an uplift of over $26 million to prizemoney levels in June but also flagged to review industry performance throughout the second half of 2022 before making a final determination on prizemoney for the 2023 Festival of Racing. “We are distributing as much in prizemoney as we think the industry can sustainably afford,” Jones told After the Last. “If we think wagering is going to fall off a little bit we will leave a margin of safety in our P and L (profit and loss). “But once we are confident in our revenue we distribute a percentage as prizemoney and we allocate that across the spring carnival, autumn carnival but also the day-to-day racing and which is probably how the majority of trainers, owners and staff get feed. “So it’s really important we keep the minimums healthy as well as the maximums.” While Jones believes the sport to be in a healthy position, he said prizemoney increases to feature races should not be lead by state rivalry but rather when a benefit is to be achieved. “Prizemoney is going up in both states because revenue is going up in both states,” he said. “And one of the reasons is going up in both states is because more people are watching and betting on racing. “And one of those reasons is because prizemoney is going up so it attracts interest to the sport. “So to an extent its part of the marketing budget for racing, it’s quite healthy. “I think were you get into issues is where you are funding the same type of race at the same time where you really are doubling the money and reducing the quality at the same time.”

Because? 2 weeks out from the National meeting? Surely has to be open 3 days a week at the moment?

What's wrong with the new grass gallop at Riccarton?

Yeahh but watching those horses streaming over fences at Trentham yesterday was gold.

There now.

Just looking at the programme there. Not a single highweight any of the 3 days? How do they expect the jumps riders to survive for the week, let alone get there and back?

MAAT Races are Maiden races for horses that were classed as maiden horses at a particular date (eg; Maidens as at 5 June 2019).

True. I actually had another look because I wondered why the Open races weren't 35k but presumably same reason.

Not sure if anyone ever got to the bottom of this but I had another look. Doomed, the post above came from the NZTR stakes announcement for this period (Jan 25). https://loveracing.nz/News/35631/NZTRannouncesfurtherstakesincreases.aspx My mistake was I assumed this was a feature day when in fact it is designated as an industry day. So, you can't compare that with a feature day at Cambridge. Industry day MAATS stakes were set at $10-12k so they have been supplemented to provide the 17k today. Kind of an inbetweener.

That's a pretty big comment from someone like him. Did he say why?