Brodie

Race 8 on Friday night is a 2 year old non winners race for $15K. Entain are pumping in money by way of bonuses for racing 2 year olds for the next 3 years! Whether it is going to work and make much difference in the North is debatable, but it is Entains money to do what they want up to I suppose the $900m! Personally would not be holding my breath as it appears that there is little interest nowadays in racing 2 year olds! This seems to be majorly proven by the fact that race 8 has only 5 starters, and every horse comes from the Ray Green stable, so all the stake money is his without running the race. Where are all the other 2 year olds that are in work?

Definitely not consistently even light going from what I see in the replays! Be interesting to hear from someone who drove out there on Friday night

Mile racing, why would you?

Not in NZ at the moment and sat down and watched the replays of the races from Addington. Wondering what people who were oncourse think of the new lights? Are they brighter and better than the old ones? Watching on my ipad, the lights do not seem to be as bright and also varying in light with darker patches throughout! Is it an improvement to what we had, will be interesting to know?

The Franklin stabling will only be a temporary measure, you would think. Going to be a while till they would need to move out of Franklin when that is eventually sold. Not totally sure who is the owners of the Rolleston training establishment but you would think that in time sufficient money would become available from the sale proceeds to buy in the North? That is providing the North is still in operation?

Can not get a $ on at the moment with the NZ TAB as overseas and they put a stop to betting on NZ accounts from here. Iraklis intelligent conversation and Valentines buffet is a No From Me!!

Too many termites!

Got major termite and borer problems, they like sawdust!

They appeared to be down on numbers compared to what they had when Mark and Nat were training together and winning everything. I believe that where they are training is going to be developed into sections so that eould be the major reason, I would say? A bit surprising as it is or was under the flight path!!

Quite easily not get excited, too much excitement from the racing at Auckland would not be good for anyone's heart. Reality is that the fields just do not warrant the amount of money that they are racing for. The thing is that that stake money they are racing for ensures that they are going to continue to lose money at most meetings if not all of them! The racing is very boring, basically the same horses each week and multiple horses from the same stable monopolising the racing! At the end of the day it is not going to improve anytime soon and unfortunately the hierarchy at Entain will be under huge pressure to make racing profitable, and it is going to be a very difficult task.

Another profitable meeting this Friday night by the look of it??? What Entain is doing is not going to be anywhere enough to keep harness racing anywhere near being able to break even. 8 races with the minimum stake at 15k up to $20k and they are going to be competing for the punting dollar with Addington?? No way should they be racing up against Addington as they just can not compete with the product that they dish up!! 8 races, 1 five horse field. 1 six horse field 5 seven horse fields 1 eight horse field so just over 50 horses that will race on prime night Friday? No business can operate like this and return a profit and HRNZ,Entain/TAB are delusional if they think they will be able to turn things around with what they are offering! It is going to take far more than chucking money into stakes and $4k breeding bonus. Yes negative and some will think things will improve and come right in time, but I would be wagering that they wouldnt be risking putting any of their own money in to bail them out! Anyone know what happened to the exciting news that ATC had re Franklin track a few months ago?

Going to help the North Island with a few more horses initially, so that is good! Will probably clean up you would think? Going to be very interesting to see how many existing owners in the South actually do stick with the Purdons as some will not want to fly to the North Island to watch them. I am sure there will be some horses that leave existing trainers and go to Purdons chasing the bigger stakes that are falsely bring provided in Auckland though.

Do quite nicely without needing to punt, Tonka, I can assure you. Certainly would not be at Valentines, and seems odd you know about a 5% discount on Pension Day? Small fields especially at Auckland, certainly have no one I know salivating?

Personally would not think that too many people are going to be breeding more horses due to bonuses! Yes it is obviously beneficial if a breeder can get a wee bit extra in $, but can not see it doing a lot to increase numbers unfortunately. Reality is that the other costs compared to what you can receive in stake returns just doesnt make it financially viable, so we are lucky that there remains sufficient numbers of people prepared to continue to breed. Hope that it continues to be the case.

Thought the same Gamma. How an Ozzie horse could be given the NZ horse of the year award, not a great look for NZ. Just Believe amazingly good horse but doesnt do much to promote us here. Would highly doubt the Ozzies giving NZ anything?

Think you have lost the plot Tonka? Firstly why would I be at a buffet in Hornby and secondly why would I dribble over a six horse field at Auckland? Certainly went thru to the keeper that one! Maybe you best sticking to your playing with toys?

Entain have shut down their Ladbrokes Racing Club that provided horses and greyhounds free of charge apparently to people that applied for ownership! It was apparently costing them too much to run with rising costs! If they can not afford to race horses and dogs with the expenses being too much compared to stake money received, then how do they expect to be attracting new owners in NZ? Entain appear to have had a couple of poor years worldwide and you would have to think that they are certainly very vulnerable to be bought out by a more successful gambling agency in the future? It would appear to be make hay while the sun shines?

I am nothing like Iraklis! If I was the white coaters would have picked me up before now!

That is very unfair, Tonka! Brodie was just defending himself against Paleface’ s statement?

Its a family show, dont get my stick out as much nowadays!

Lol Brodie not so old and would be carrying a whip!

They work hard over more distance on their home tracks. You would know better than I Gamma, but is a turn off these miles. Its all good though if the powers that be believe that these miles are good for the industry and is profitable. Maybe the less serious punters do not mind the sprints but I would be pretty sure the turnover suffers majorly from running them.

I was not aware of the rule that a horse 2 out has to concede to any horse that is 3 wide? If that is the case seems diabolically wrong in this case surely? So if that is the case why is it different when you can not push out from the fence or 2 wide line until after the 1000metre point?? Galah, you mist be right or why would Blair plead guilty, but it is very hard to believe it is the rule or it would be happening all the time you would think ?? Crazy!

Addington races most weeks so great that they do not race over the mile thank goodness for that. The harness industry really need to pull together and start programming races that encourages punters as they certainly need more. Yes stake money is better now than it was a couple of years ago and owners are going to get bonuses, not that I believe $4k is going to entice new owners in large numbers, but it is something. At the end of the day, if HRNZ and the Clubs think that programming these races are going to attract people to the races and wager, then that is their choice. Our horses are trained to be running these middle distances and if you asked the horses whether they preferred to sprint hard all the way over a mile or race at a good speed and sprint home over 2600m, I reckon they would go for the 2600m! Most punters would be the same, 2600m rather than the mile but I am not on the payroll

It is a bit confusing that Blair did admit the charge, but then who are we to question the leading driver in NZ? Looking st the replay it did appear as if Blair was one off and had every right to maintain his ground? Anyway gives Blair a bit of a break after a very busy driver patch! Think the ones that backed Light MeUp were hard done by ?