curious

One thing that really struck me about the ESPN coverage of the Belmont this morning was that all the promotion and advertising was entirely focused on the excitement, athleticism and courage of the horses, riders and races, not the side shows. If you want to captiveate a new and growing audience of participants, why wouldn't you do that?

They don't have jandals there. Those are flip-flops!

Due to the particularly heavy track at Timaru, the need to mitigate barrier movements and the early start time the two trials originally scheduled prior to Race 1 have been cancelled.

Great coverage all morning on ESPN. A slew of G1s and the Belmont itself at 11am.

Meeting News Timaru Races Tuesday The Timaru meeting that is postponed tomorrow has been rescheduled to Tuesday 10 June. Looking at both forecasts and scheduling capabilities it was decided that this was the best opportunity for stakeholders. All scratchings have been reinstated and there is a new timetable of race times. Many thanks for the cooperation of multiple groups of people

The Timaru track was inspected by the Timaru track manager, NZTR regional track manager and a representative of the RIB around midday Saturday 7 June. The track is sodden after significant rain over the past seven and there is an area near the 1100m where water has pooled. There is likely to be some further rain prior to Race 1. As a result tomorrow’s meeting has been postponed on the recommendation of this group. NZTR and the club will now look at any option in terms of a possible reschedule. An update will be communicated tomorrow, Sunday.

Timaru Track Inspection Due to significant rain received at Phar Lap raceway over the past week there will be a track inspection at around noon on Saturday. An update will be posted off the back of that meeting.

They both have grass and sand/dirt tracks don't they as well as the synthetic?

A bit more than the canter around that you suggested though. That is proposed, but it is noted that it is anecdotal. It is consistent with limited research cited on requirements for adaptation to firm surfaces and tighter turn radiuses though. Also, consistent with trends observed in the US where injury rates have declined on new synthetic surfaces over the first few years, presumably as horses adapt to them. Might also be part of the reason why Cambridge has much lower injury rates than the two newer synthetics. It seems from my reading though that the report is quite clear that we have insufficient data to draw any clear conclusions about what is required for that adaptation to occur. Horses can adjust to different surfaces by fine tuning how the tendons dampen the loading of the limb (Wilson et al., 2001). However, we currently lack data on how quickly a horse can readjust from working, or training, on one type of surface to a different surface (Bardin et al., 2021). Data from a cross-sectional survey of dressage horses indicates that horses habituate to a certain surface and may in the short-term lose the ability to respond positively to different surfaces if variety in training surfaces is not included as part of the routine training programme (Murray et al., 2010)

No. That will be up to NZTR and the respective clubs.

Where does it suggest that?

That's your first post here? It sounds like sniping itself to me which seems a bit contradictory.

What exactly is wrong with it?

With Peters' initiated third reading amendments on refusing bets. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2024/0101/17.0/whole.html

What do you mean? Entain have no control over how HRNZ use the funding that TABNZ provide the code do they? That's at the sole discretion of HRNZ.

Isn't that what the recent amendment/s to the bill have done, limited the TAB ability to refuse bets? That's how I read it.

Was watching some track work of the Belmont contenders yesterday. Every exercise rider was carrying a whip. Here they claim they need them for control and guidance in a race, but rarely carry them for track work where you'd think it would be more important especially for the young and inexperienced ones. Seems more than a bit contradictory to me.

Meeting News Taranaki Races Tuesday/Trial Date Changes The postponed meeting from 5 June has been transferred to Tuesday 10 June. All scratchings have been reinstated. There is a new start time for Race 1 of 12 noon. Consequential changes include the moving of two trial meetings – ATR trials at Ellerslie will now be on Monday 9 June (nominations close at 21 noon Friday 6 June) and the Awapuni Synthetic trials will be Thursday 12 June (nominations close Wednesday 11 June).

The synthetic report in the head post.

I don't think we have any straight 1000/1200s on synthetics for comparison do we?

What policy is based on that?

Anecdotal data indicates that 2 -3 runs on the synthetic surface are sufficient for the horse to acclimatise (adapt their gait) to the surface. Because horses naturally run faster on the synthetic surface with longer strides (~20cm longer), it is anecdotally reported that acclimatisation runs should be conducted with the horses “on the bridle”. This would provide sufficient load cycles to train the limb without exposure to peak forces

Great story whatever eventuates.