curious

Of course. That's what they are supposed to be doing isn't it? They are also trying to do the same with sports which at the moment benefits racing too. The TAB strategy in recent years of adding more and more betting events has not increased revenue beyond inflation. Punter losses remain steady regardless of the number of events and more events add costs just as more meetings do. Less meetings reduce costs. For self funding of stakes, the ratio of turnover to stakes needs to be doubled. The only realistic way of doing that is to halve the number of events and maintain the gross punter spend.

On Gavelhouse for $2750.

Growth in turnover, yes, if Entain can do what they have proposed. Growth in quantity of events,I don't think so and that the opposite is a better idea.

Obviously, when we have no product, we generate no revenue but reduced number of racedays has not caused overall turnover to drop so far. Struggling to fill fields would be less likely with less events. Huey thinks cutting the number of events will kill racing but that's a sign that it is dying anyway. We either cut it back or it will die at least back to that level of its own accord.

Don't think quantity of product has much to do with punter spend. It just dilutes it. Otherwise, days with 10 races would do higher turnover than those with 8.

I don't think I said anything about leakage. In my view that has bugger all to do with it. It is that the wagering spend is only sufficient to fund about half as many events at current stakes levels to make the industry self-sufficient and that has been the case for some years. Currently, the balance of funding is sponged from other sources such as revenue from wagering on overseas and non-racing events, pokies etc. Entain's job is to increase the wagering spend so there is additional money available to increase stakes, infrastructure development etc.

I hadn't noticed that. Is it in the strategic or business plan or something? I'm not very good at reading those these days.

Back on topic, didn't Lady Telena come through this race as well? 2nd in a G1

No. I mean punters and punter spend.

Obviously, yes. A substantial oversupply for the available customer base.

I think the turnover figures you posted in another thread show we need less meetings to have a viable industry, possibly about half what we now have.

Good stuff by Wanganui. Trentham a financial disaster. Can't afford too many of those meetings.

Indeed. Where do you find those reports? Interesting info similar to the harness ones.

Probably too soon to say. Railway met the pattern race minimum but the Telegraph is well shy and on alert for downgrade. I doubt that betting would generally be enhanced by a shift to wfa which is designed to favour the best horses rather than create competitive races for wagering. The purpose is to enhance quality which it may do on average but won't likely make the best horses any better.

Yes. But that's what non-handicap racing, set weight and wfa are there for, to determine the best horses for breeding purposes which is why they are graded and featured in sales catalogues.

The handicapping bias is clearly in favour of the better horses, not the lesser ones. That needs to be corrected before you have competitive fields in handicap races that are attractive events for punters.

Well it's not obvious to me. Perhaps someone would enlighten us as to how many horses are actually working on these tracks on the average morning, especially during winter.

I thought there were heaps of horses going round on them every day. 100s at Cambridge.

There are no meetings scheduled for Ellerslie after 25 May through the end of the season. I think there is a fair question whether the Strathayr can provide suitable footing at that time of year in our climate anyway but we'll never know if they don't race on it.

They are being used all year aren't they and in the winter for racing? I agree that 30mill could have been better directed in light of the existing track infrastructure but I still think they are a plus to what we had. We now have another semi-synthetic at Ellerslie that won't be used in winter, possibly can't be in the NZ climate.

Makes sense to me. Certainly removes any subjectivity.

That should be a good start for the listed status of the Timaru Cup to be reconsidered by the Pattern Committee.

And inform punters. Not sure that a comparison with turf would be relevant but maybe. There's no comparison with the information provided elsewhere. This from Canberra when they opened their poly last year: As well as a Racing and Sports-produced synthetic form pointers preview, other key pieces of data will be made available on race morning for all Acton Track meetings. The following pieces of key data will be readily available to help better inform interested parties. • Clegg Hammer reading – the Clegg Hammer is a tool used to determine shock absorption. The higher the Clegg Hammer reading, the firmer the surface. An average reading will be published. • Moisture reading (%) – this is the moisture content of the track surface material. An average % will be published. • Track temperature – this is the temperature of the track surface material. An average temperature will be published. For reference, the readings obtained prior to the official barrier trial conducted on Friday 19th May 2023 are below; • Clegg Hammer: 8.71 • Moisture: 18.9% • Track temperature: 20°C Track data will be released through the Canberra Racing Club’s Twitter account (@ThoroughbredPK) on all Acton Track race days from Friday, 23 June.

That's a good point. I don't see why they can't supply a penetrometer reading?