Wingman

The tighter the margin, the easier it is for articulate people to put forward their case. In my opinion regardless of who puts up the protest (Steward, jockey or trainer) it should only be the jockeys of the horses involved in the enquiry who should be in the room with the stewards

One week after a red hot fav from the usually all conquering Te Akau stable flops at Trentham another (Damask Rose $1.90) cannot even run in the first three in R7 Ellerslie today. On the face of it one might be able to do very well on New Years day by factoring their runners out of your analysis. As to the 'Why" I have neither an answer or a theory but I do refer to my topics title.

That is a fine piece of rebuttal Curious. With that concession I do still think it is not the race it was. I have always liked the seasonal flow and consistency of time honoured races but to quote Mr Fish; 'SIGH' ,that is a thing of the past in the land of the long white cloud.

On a different subject re the stable it was a real surprise to see them do so poorly today. A winner at Te Rapa but at Trentham their hot fav in 2yo a struggling 3rd out of 5 and Perfect Scenario who has not been worse than 3rd last 5 starts, including 2 wins also struggled and finished out of the money.

Mid Eighties to 2015 raced in March at Trentham over 1200m and was always a natural lead in to the Manawatu Sires Produce. Since 2015 moved to December and distance reduced to 1100m and as one can plainly see , is now no longer a quality race

The Bowman incident was July 2020 and it was beyond ugly. Bowman was rusty having his first ride after a month off for a hernia operation and then a brief holiday. He still showed extremely poor judgement for someone of his experience and the stewards said 3 months. People of Bowman's stature and wealth have access to the best advisors and on the basis of what was presented on appeal and as the stewards said "because of only one careless riding charge in the previous year (Everest night) the suspension is reduced to 6 weeks". The apprentice jockey who fell, Andrew Adkins is currently having his best season however in 2020 because of Bowman's desperate tactics he sustained the following: Collapsed lung, seven broken ribs, broken collarbone and two fractures in one leg. His horse survived, another did not (euthanized) and a second horse involved in the melee had to have surgery for a broken bone. Three months was a let off, reduced to 6 weeks a travesty. Billy C poncing and posing on a horse looking like the absolute tosser you are, society does not need you ,nor this site. There will always be slow horses getting in the way in a race but that in no way excuses stockcar mentality from any jockey, especially the so called best

Statistics can be used to distort however a straight comparison between L O'S and O P says the latter is reckless. N H was riding last decade so that tends to reinforce (36 vs 95) however O P now at tail end of career so storm in a teacup

Platinum Attack was in another class in the last and ran an astonishing time of 1.06.84. Trentham has their carnival earlier now to accommodate Karaka meeting so 4,11 and 18 Jan but what were the Muppets at NZTR thinking in also having later this month, meetings at Trentham on 15 and 21 Dec

The track had a stern test yesterday and came through without issue. The last race was run in heavy rain after off/on showers earlier and it was run as a easy/dead track. On the old track they would have been looking for the outside rail. Best of all, no slips on the bend into the straight. They are backing up with another meeting on Saturday, a m/w on 12th then it should be all go for boxing day/ new year when we can bet with confidence on a fair track...yay

They are waking up to the fact that the NZ market in no way mirrors Australia (which is not as rosy as it would seem at a glance) . Happy to be proved wrong but I still wonder will their offshore board look at what $ is projected to still be injected in NZ versus 25 years of $ slowly being dripped back and decide...No. There is also a lot of justifiable angst from mature posters regarding the changing landscape. Lack of preliminaries, waffle from presenters minus detail, lack of replays immediately after a race finishes etc. This in my opinion has reduced the the betting turnover of tens of thousands of regular punters. This trend did start before the takeover over but Entain were probably looking at figures and projected figures at the cusp of the wave crashing.

We are lucky it lasted this long and that they are keeping the promo going until end of next month. I had a really good collect prior to Entain and thought it would be a gone burger relatively quickly. Not so, the old TAB stayed with it and current owners have to now kept it going, so fair play to them

OK I will play the raw prawn on behalf of 'the team'. Please elaborate re business model, 101

Correction, Aljay ran last in the 2023 Trentham Stakes

After Aljay won the G3 NZ cup 2 years ago he went up 5 rating points from 78 to 83 yet despite running last in the 2023 Wellington cup he stayed unchanged at 83. Subsequently via excellent placing by his trainer he won three small open handicaps, two were 7 runner fields each with a stake of 35K, the other a 8 runner field for 50K. For each of those 3 wins he was rerated at 4 points but given the low value and quality my reckoning they should have been 2 points, therefore 6 points over-rated. So onto Perfect Scenario who ran 5th in the L 3yo Karaka Millions and for whatever weird reason got bumped up 6 rating points. He then ran 2nd last in the Derby and received no reduction. For mine, at that point over-rated 7 points. Handicapping gets out of whack when unreasonable penalties are applied earlier in a horses career. Perfect Scenario topped the TAB mile on Wednesday and only three other horses were above the minimum. Aljay headed the NZ Cup field today and there were only two other runners above the minimum, Their severe rating totally distorting the spread of weights. The Livamol run at Te Rapa last month had the two top rated horses, El Vencedor and One Bold Cat both on a rating of 103. Are we really to believe that Perfect Scenario on a rating of 107 is a better horse than those two or that Aljay on a rating of 102 is their equal?

I stick to ch62, appreciate not everyone has Sky but pause/rewind invaluable which is why I get hot when they speed off to another race immediately after crossing the line. The head on after the race is over is a must. So for that matter is the mute button. I find it bemusing how they talk up a race, remind you to bet on it and then f@!.k off to another race as if the one they were talking up never happened. Case in point today was NZ Cup when there was constant reminders that the 1st four had a guaranteed pool of 150K but did the presenters mention the result and dividend afterwards...of course not.

Two trains of thought. Blinkers on first time, get on, fill ya boots. OR.. gear change, gear added , avoid like the plague. So do you believe in God or are you an atheist..take your pick, but no one wins these type of discussions.

Really pleasing to see this track fulfill its duties without drama yesterday. Another meeting in two weeks then interestingly on 4th Jan their meeting has three 1600m races including Thames cup so they must be confident that whatever issues they had with the shute between 1600 to 1400 will be sorted.

Correct. When we get to summer racing Dec - Feb the the problems magnify as the NZTR management insist on watering protocols that in many cases just make tracks anything but summer tracks . Think Otaki in Feb when they were coming down the outside fence. When the new CEO is announced there is a final opportunity (As long as the appointment is not internal) to once and for all sort this out. They fluffed about for more than a decade with Hastings before doing what should have happened last decade and it is obvious that Trentham and Riccarton need to get the same intensive renovations. Also do it once do it right. Ellerslie and Te Aroha both glaring examples of how not to go about it.

OK. Thanks for the comprehensive input. There is 3 meetings over 12 days Nov 30th, Dec 7th and then a m/w on 12th and after that we should have a better idea and opinions of the track leading into boxing day/new year.

And that view is?

And there in is the heart of the problem. Tracks that experienced punters no longer trust. Changing direction what do boay posters now think of the Ellerslie track?

There are limited G1 races for 3yo which is as it should be. You are entitled to your opinion . Mine is keeping those G1 is imperative even if it means moving location. The only way they will not lose their status is by moving as the large training establishments are showing stronger reluctance to travel. The NZTR have egg on their face yet again as they have allowed the Karaka meeting to become the tail that wags the dog.

Only 8 acceptors, last year, 11 and previous 14. Like it or not this race and 1000 Guineas are going to have to head north. That is the reality/impact of Karaka millions and other big money races. Short term monetary gains, potentially immeasurable long term losses to breeding credibility. NZTR have had their heads in the sand for far too long re having a major overhaul of the calendar. Any further fluffing about will put the G1 value of these races in real jeopardy.

That is the beauty of thoroughbred racing. Something for everyone's preferences. The bookies in UK despise the each way punter who only backs the 5 to 1 shots in 8 horse fields (money back if 2nd or 3rd) and love all those trying to pick the winner of 30 horse heritage handicaps. Yes you read that correctly, 30 horse fields!