curious

Taranaki Racing Club upset at abandonment of major meeting Glenn McLean July 23, 2024, • 05:00am Former Opunake Cup winner Justaskme was denied a chance of racing on his home track on Saturday. (File photo) LISA BURD / Stuff Taranaki Racing officials are bemoaning a lack of communication that led to what they believe was the premature abandonment of its most popular winter meeting of the year. The meeting, which was to feature the $100,000 listed Opunake Cup, was abandoned after stewards inspected the New Plymouth Raceway track early on Saturday morning and believed it was too water logged for the meeting to go ahead. The stewards’ decision was at odds with Taranaki Racing chief executive Anna Duncan and the club’s board who felt the call was made too early given the significance of the meeting. “If you look at last year, this was the biggest winter race meeting in the country, so there will be significant losses,” she said. “It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating and we will be following through with this because communication is key and we don’t feel there was enough of it.” ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff Senior jockey Lisa Allpress rode the track on Saturday morning and thought it was suitable. (File photo) Andy Jackson/Stuff Duncan said senior jockey Lisa Allpress had galloped a horse on the track before the stewards’ inspection and found there were no issues. “She felt it was a good winter track. The stewards then walked the track and made their decision with limited consultation.” New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s chief operating officer Darin Balcombe told Love Racing the decision to abandon the meeting was also made over concerns that the track was too deep to race on. “The prudent call was to call the meeting off at that stage for horse and rider welfare, and the high possibility of visibility issues through the day,” he said. “There is no greater drain on the industry than sending horses to the races and then everyone having to pack up and go home without a race. It costs a lot of money for the connections and for the industry, as we pay compensation to all of those connections. “The good thing was that the decisions were made very early prior to anyone leaving home that hadn’t gone the night before, which was the best situation for us.” Balcombe’s view was not shared by Duncan who also pointed to the fact the weather improved dramatically from late morning. ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff ADVERTISEMENT Advertise with Stuff Taranaki Racing chief executive Anna Duncan believed the meeting should have gone ahead. (File photo) VANESSA LAURIE / Stuff “In my opinion, I think we should have raced and I have the support of the [Taranaki Racing] board with that,” Duncan said. “There is a cost involved if we have to call the meeting off after one or two races but we just felt it’s winter racing and you don’t get any slipping because the ground is heavy.” She said the club was yet to add up just how much the abandonment had cost it and the situation was made worse because it could not hold the rescheduled meeting, at Hāwera on Tuesday, because of a prior booking at its venue. Duncan also felt for a number of race day sponsors, corporate table holders and supporters who could not make it to Hāwera because it was a weekday. The abandonment also put paid to the club’s annual punters’ competition which had drawn record numbers. “It would have been a huge day for our locals and the coastal Taranaki community,” Duncan said. - Taranaki Daily News

Can't you read? It was your remark "Foxton...trials centre also , apparently refused to upgrade facilities so self inflicted status." that I said was BS. I tried a google but I only see reports of flooding at Foxton Beach and in the area of the Moutoa flood gate catchment. Nothing near the racecourse, except in relation to blocked storm drains. I agree that drainage of the course itself is affected by the water table at times.

It's all a bit of a mystery. Ltd. would seem to imply a limited liability company which you'd expect would be registered with the companies' office. A mysterious entity.

Wouldn't they have to be a registered co to get that?

You mean that it is a subsidiary of NZTR?

It's the owners that should be speaking up and taking action. They don't have the risks of doing so that trainers might. However, the statutory collective for them is totally useless and probably has about 10% of current owners in their membership. Not that they seem to be doing anything about that, so they actually have a voice.

Are they a subsidiary of NZTR or what? They don't seem to be registered with the company's nor incorporated societies?

Yep invested more today with the bookies than on training fees this week.

The handler's voice could do that couldn't it? Would that be illegal?

Oh for Pete's sake.

They don't have a usable racecourse either.

That's total bs. Never saw a flooding problem there either.

Or god forbid, Foxton redeployed.

Stratford probably could have held the meeting.

There is a plan B and a policy for that but they've perhaps worked out that it's flawed because most winter gallopers won't want to race on the poly. 1. If a turf racetrack is determined by NZTR or a Stipendiary Steward to be unsuitable or unsafe, or is otherwise unavailable, for racing, NZTR may decide to transfer a racemeeting from that racetrack to a synthetic racetrack if, in its opinion, there are no other suitable turf racetracks in the relevant region to hold the racemeeting or it is not otherwise appropriate in the circumstances to transfer the meeting to a turf track

Taranaki Head Stipe - John Oatham - 021 725 550 Rotorua Head Stipe - Brady Jones 027 705 0606

A Club must arrange for a track gallop on the course on the morning of the race meeting to reconfirm the declared track rating, unless this is not practical Why would a club bother if the rider's opinion is going to be ignored or over-ruled?

Entain NZ is running online casino operations which are funding NZ racing? I didn't think so.

Has to be TAB For Ever

Did Boay even exist when it was named?

No, but many can.

Not a harness fan but just watched a race there. Love it. You can actually see the whole field most of the time and where horses are and how they are traveling. Great stuff.

I haven't either but I don't understand the technology. I wonder if a no tv meeting was considered.

That's interesting. With 4 days till the close of noms they only have 2 jumps races available for nomination and no stakes declared for those.

Apparently only one available tv truck on the day.