Wingman

I haven't counted the meetings however you are wrong regarding the amount of thoroughbred tracks in NZ, There are 33 plus 4 others that are used only for trials. I have not been creative and added Awapuni and Riccarton to the total as they are alternative tracks at the same venue. That 33 will in the next 2 to 3 years be down to twenty something and the G1 races creep to the north will continue.

Read my post 'Land grab and spend'

Who are the tight five you often refer too. Also Oscar have you had your weekly shower yet as that might make you feel better

What do they not want us to know?

Recently watched Guerin Report after my travelling guests retired and the beauty of My Sky is one can rewind after hearing/seeing something that grabs your attention. Guerin gave an admirable up date on where champion day notables are heading then introduced the new NZTR CEO Matt Ballesty. THIS REALLY GOT MY ATTENTION. After the usual corporate spiel he said "There are some really big infrastructure issues, especially in the Central Districts. There is some big real estate plays that need to happen and they are in train hopefully in weeks or months". (I am not bullshitting you, those were his words) His next words are. "And we can start to understand what we can do with the funding" By his own admission he has been working on the job for a month prior to the official start and that suggests he is working towards a preset agenda. I had hoped for better, idealistic me, we are heading as an industry that is going to be top North Island heavy, lacking in diversity but will appeal to shallow as a puddle Pollyanna TAB 4 eva types who will not be around next decade; i.e croaked, and the young generation next decade will be saying "how boring.". Before you start firing rounds at me, look at the home of thoroughbred racing, England and note how they, generation after generation continue to race at the same tracks. They have massive problems with poorly considered affordability checks, driving wealthy owners and punters towards different gambling arenas or black markets yet selling their race courses is never an option.

You can withdraw winnings but if you deposited $1,000 and had spent $200 to gain $600 it only lets you take out your return on that bet. Take out $600 and your balance is $800. Think I have this right. You can go to customer service and get them to credit all/part to the account the initial deposit came from.

Entain are part of one of the worlds largest bookmaking corporations and it is not in their interest to give astute punters any more information that will give them an edge, so we get a lot of waffle from presenters, far too much, as in every sentence "In terms of" and fancy overhead drone shots of trees , oh and the occasional horse. You will get an opinion of every horse in the race, mostly positive and a rave review of the horse that caught the eye, dappled, great coat etc and usually a no hoper. You will not get told who looked superb going down in their preliminary but you will get sucked into "This is my best bet of the day" which does win from time to time which therefore means you will hear how good they are at selecting. Hunt at New Plymouth yesterday in the open Hcp 1600 was continually going on about his best bet Catherinenz a lightly raced 5yo mare stepping up in grade with fair 2nd up stats and raced accordingly. Meantime all and sundry were being seduced into backing Legarto , max bet $20 at $4. Trust them as far as you can throw them, do your own research/evaluation and regrettably do not expect when the money is up at Premier meetings to see helpful preliminary coverage.

A great days racing but Trackside are not doing serious punters any favours as to how they show or perhaps better said, do not show preliminaries.

You are being too kind Mustang. They are fuckwits. A month down the track they have a significant meeting on 26 April at Riccarton where this race could have been part of that programme. I am aware there are many out there who are not holding their breath but this is the type of lazy scheduling the new CEO must sort out. The calendar as it is at the moment is not anywhere near best practice and this doubling up is as good an example as to why (even if you cannot stand him) he must do a Trump "You're fired".

There is an apparent bias to speed but the late Aga Khans grandad famously said regarding breeding nearly a century ago that "breeders must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water and that baby is speed". We have done very well with speed stallions, e.g. Pakistan, Sovereign Edition, Three Legs, Per Incanto. Windsor Park have done a wonderful job for the industry shuttling classic English blood as in High Chaparral and Montjeu who in turn left us Tavistock. Their latest to shuttle is the Siyouni top class 3yo miler Paddington however flying the flag high for them at the moment is the G1 sprinter Shamexpress who is by Waikato's champion sprinter and sire O'Reilly!

Reads like a TAB AI form comment🤣

This cannot happen anymore Doomed however I recall a not so good day on the punt in my early twenties and I boxed 3 horses in a $5 Quinella in the last at Counties. They ran 2nd and 3rd, so I am totally up shit creek. Fourth horse protests against the winner, upheld. Winner back to 4th, 4th to 3rd and Mr Jammy has $5 of a $75 Quinella. You can understand why they changed the rules.

OK, I will rephrase Mikey, a serious, serious, hobby supported by more serious but less fun CAREERS

Thanks. I was being a tad factitious as I do remember them as you have described and it was that manual input that meant the betting on any given race was 60 to 90 minutes before the off! I was too young to put a bet on so I got my Dad to put mine on. He was a 50cent double man and right from the get go I looked for a larger slice of the pie. Early in my teenage betting career I had a ten dollar double at I think Otaki. Cannot remember the winner of the first leg but the winner of the 2nd leg was a sprinter called Gai. The double paid exactly ten dollars, I ran down the hallway yelling (incorrectly, real return $90) I've won a hundred dollars. My mothers friend was visiting and looked shocked as she said "That's more than my husband earns in a week"

For the benefit of us younger 'boys behaving badly types' could you please explain 'yellow bet slips'🤥

Have been looking at the noms for Ellerslie.I don't usually pay a lot of attention to midweek but this weeks calendar I believe shows just how lacking in diligence the thought process is when setting the calendar. Waverley who raced last Thurs have a meeting this Thurs. New Plymouth with poor noms and who should be racing this Thurs are up against Ellerslie on Sat, atrocious scheduling. Ellerslie will take all of the attention, most of the punting $ and then The Aussie racing will kick in. Te Aroha have a meeting on this Friday 7th which I am sure most trainers would wish it wasn't there particularly as there are midweek meetings next week at Matamata Wed 12th followed by another on Friday at Pukekohe.

For me Romanee Conti and we would still be seeing that quality of horse if the larger clubs had not continually looked to steal and screw the smaller clubs. The Lowland used to be a group 3 race for 3yo fillies over 1400m at Tauherenikau in October. With Australia quite rightly getting short shrift internationally regarding them trying to call all their novelty races listed or group status the new CEO of NZTR who officially starts this week has a fantastic opportunity to comprehensively reset the racing calendar. That is...if he is genuinely aware of what needs to be done.

Role on indeed. If you are a Huey type, then forget the slot race but look at what else is on offer. NZ Derby G1, Bonecrusher stakes G1, Sistema 2yo G1, NZTBA F&M G1, plus .. G2 Auckland cup and G2 Sunline vase, final leadup for 3yo fillies before NZ Oaks. Something for everyone, so come on Huey, take an extra happy pill next Saturday and shout Dewey and Louie a top day out.

Think of the Trentham members stand, now the only stand, as a right angle. Everything at the front, ground, L1 and L2 that looks onto the track should be fine but the 'right angle' which goes back towards where the public enter the course is an addition that is potentially the problem area. The key word is potentially. There are enough well connected people at WRC to ensure an asbestos or earthquake rating can be delayed/appealed.

I will take your word for it as until start time I have it on mute. Still have to put up with 'In terms of'

Yes it is difficult to say goodbye to a sport/hobby that is part of you. However if you lose faith in the tracks than why bother. I watched a replay of weigh in last night and the responses that NZTR COO Darin Balcombe gave,did little to reassure me and my observation was that the three presenters, including Bruce Sherwin didn't seem overly enthusiastic about what they heard. Balcombe put a lot of the blame on not expecting Hastings to be out of action. This is the same person that repeatedly said last decade and this decade, that protocols were in place to ensure abandonments at Hastings would be a thing of the past. The other thing that caught my eye re the Ellerslie track was how heavily marked the track was when viewed above with drone footage. They are obviously watering more heavily and I reckon it is a true dead 6 track in old terminology, That is described as "Moist but not a badly affected track". The times of the races that were run at a reasonable gallop reflect that so true summer/firm track horses are now seriously disadvantaged.

Time out. You two, Chief Stipe and Special Agent are carrying on like Maxwell Smart and his boss. You two can decide who is who and odds on neither of you two will agree. Fact 1 The tracks are not up to handling regular racing Fact 2 The people currently in charge are incapable of dealing with the problem Fact 3 The problem is not going to sort itself out. Raging about what should have been done does not solve Fact 4 Tinkering with minor adjustments to the calendar and where races are held does not cure the problem. Fact 5 The Industry requires a major adjustment to the calendar, where races are held, when, who (tracks) get major renovation, who (tracks) get reinstated, brought back into the racing Industry, e.g. Foxton and above all a guarantee that funds will be provided to annually maintain those tracks. WHY; because the lack of guaranteed funds towards track maintenance is the reason we are in this mess. Fact 6 Agree on fact 5 and within a year most of the problems are solved

This is what I like about this site, Popeye asked some valid questions and may I say Special Agent you have answered in an excellent manner without derision. To add to what Special Agent said, Noel Eales was a master trainer who not only disagreed with watering but also did not agree with moving the rail. Kate Hercock in her interview today after the abandoned Otaki meeting said as much about moving the rail. In short, "move it and we will still go wider if we think that's best so leave us, the jockeys to do what we are paid to". If only the suits would pay attention! Back to watering where I both agree/disagree with Mr Eales is Summertime racing. I think it was sometime in the nineties that Trentham did not water for their summer meeting and one of the days racing was on a rock hard track leaving most runners jarred up. I was livid a year ago as to the over watering of the Otaki track for the G1, today raced at Ellerslie, however I have no problem with watering through to Wednesday night prior to a Saturday meeting. Nature then decides what will be. The real problem, excluding lack of investment towards track wellbeing, is the suits deciding that a uniform soft 5, previously, a dead track, prior to that an easy track, must be presented at all times. They want vanilla, we want variety and given variety is the spice of life that is why the suits in charge are rapidly pushing the industry towards the sunset.

Groundhog day! R65 runs 2100m in a respectable time of 2.12.65 then 2 races later the critical leadup to the derby is run in 2.16.67. As they went down the first half of the back straight I was thinking is this a false start? The stipes report said the favourite Willydoit was "Unsuited to the moderate pace". These stipes are incompetent. The pace was beyond unacceptable for a professional horse race. The Avondale cup started genuinely and then again, brakes on into the back straight and the race was won in a slow time. I am getting oh so much closer to find another serious hobby. Then to add weight to my words we have the insightful words of the stipe at Otaki after the abandonment " hope we can improve". How about doing basic due diligence on the condition of the track before the meeting starts, both pre raceday and the morning of raceday.

Time will tell Freda but this Industry is running out of time and excuses.