jess

You're impossible Chief. You say nothing will change until we stop blaming - I say nothing will change until we operate with some accountability. You want me to stop "blaming" - yet that's all we've heard from these experts - the weather, the season, the busy racing calendar, the grass etc (never their own decisions or actions) You say it's decades in the making & something should have been done - well perhaps - but what was a breeder & owner supposed to do? I'll tell you what I did - I put my heart & soul into it and paid every bill I got from every provider before it was due. And whether it was the trainer - the feed merchant - the stud master - the farrier - the vet - NZTR - or RACE - as I paid over that money, I put my faith in them that they were doing a competent job for me & my horses. In some cases - it turns out, imo, they were not. Accountability is a vital pillar of developing capability, of continuous improvement and ultimately of success. Good luck operating pretty much anything successfully without it. And as they say - success has many fathers - failure is an orphan. I'm at a loss to explain it further, so let's just agree to differ. I'd prefer for this not to descend into vitriol.

Couldn't agree more with your comments about the sand/grass/agronomy Chief. And I'm pleased you had me prostrate & not prostate (a lot of ppl do struggle with those! ) But I don't think some ppl quite get the frustration if you are not a CD racing participant. And you speak of blame & feeling sorry for ppl - crikey - they're all getting paid handsomely and just you name ONE person who has been held accountable for the debacle? Plus no-one will ever learn to do things better if they never acknowledge or take any responsibility for their role in producing poor outcomes in the first place. There's no learning! You must be able to see that? No idea what you do for a job Chief (apart from corralling us wild brumbies on this forum)- but if I screw up at my work - there's nowhere to hide & it aint gonna be pretty. Least of all for me. And I not only accept that - I embrace it. Part of what I'm paid (not so handsomely) for, is to shoulder the responsibility to do things well.

Indeed Special - you're right there. If the rest didn't scare the horses - that bit sure does ... Go all the Waikato racing bluebloods - you might end up with it all to yourself ... seems to be the way some people have wanted it to head anyhow ....

And what the hell does "more aggressive renovation work" mean? Plough it up & start again? Again - the so-called industry "leaders" hiding behind carefully worded Comms press releases. Man up people - front the stakeholders & tell it how it is.

This might be of little more than a passing interest to SI and northern participants but for Central Districts - this is a disaster. I'm personally over the excuses - the PR spin - & even being thanked for my understanding and patience (newsflash to you, Corporate Communications NZTR - I'm running out of both). FFS - trainers at that track are paying good money to rent their stables - owners are paying RACE good money to use the training facility - and you can't even have your horses galloped on the grass! Then there's the old line about rescheduling to be announced "in due course" - so they haven't even figured out what plan B is (that December meeting scheduled for Awapuni had FOUR black type races!) How are we going to hold onto sponsors with this carry on? And just so this doesn't turn into a total rant, I'll finish with one last thing. I'm completely over the total lack of transparency & accountability. Chief - you can shoot me down if you want - but I don't see how anyone can say this project has been professionally & competently undertaken. Nonetheless - no heads roll - the big salaries and payments to contractors & consultants keep flowing - and worst of all when you never accept fault - mistakes will be repeated and incompetence prevails. Jess

Trials were today, 6 October - got through all heats. What was the verdict? Was anyone there? Anyone heard? Watched a couple online - looked like a fair bit of matter chipping out & being kicked up? A local trainer was quoted & mentioned it was shifty. And silence so far from the powers that be is a bit worrying? (I feel like they'd be shouting from the rooftops if the limited return to the turf was a resounding success ...) Maybe the outcome is still being processed through the PR machine (Corporate Communications I believe they call themselves ...) J.

Does it? It's not my area - can someone in the know tell me whether it's only now that work will start to "restore" the Hastings track? Or has this been a work in progress since the track was abandoned as a racing surface? (quite a long time ago, now I believe ...) J.

Interesting responses - thanks. From my observations - it is a limited number of races where a specific note is made (on NZTR site) for the meeting that nominations will remain open until .. (date/time specified). So my assumption had been - that in the absence of such a note - that nominations closed on the time/date specified in the programme. However It seems further horses do manage - at least on some occasions - to make it into the nominations late. And in the races where I've noticed this happening - those horses do NOT appear in the published noms. - they just miraculously appear when the fields are published. The discussion about the weights is certainly an interesting angle. I might be wrong - but I now have the impression some ppl diligently nominate in accordance with the required deadline - others are able to lurk - wait to see what's nominated - and act accordingly at that point. If someone knows this to be wrong - I'm happy to hear the accurate position. Ultimately, what I would want is that whatever system there is - that it be transparent. 1. That the time/date noms will be accepted up until is clearly set for every race & adhered to 2. That when nom.s are extended/left open to a later date/time - that those further noms are added to the published list as they are received (in as close to real-time as possible) There's no conspiracy theory here. It's just something I've noticed so I'm curious to understand it. I expect there are trainers / others on this forum who'll know exactly how it works. J.

Wonder if Freda or some other learned racing person could answer my query. I notice that sometimes when the noms for a race come out, there are, say, 8 horses. Then when the fields come out suddenly there are, say, 11 or 12 (and I'm not talking about those races where NZTR has specified that noms are to remain open for an extended period). Just wondering how you have to have your noms in by a certain deadline - they are soon after listed on the website - then somehow a bunch of extras show up when the fields are published after acceptance time? Thanks ... Jess .

You're nothing if not predictable, Chief when it comes to certain topics. Bless ....😝 Let's agree to differ on this. You don't have to have a crack at everyone who advances a respectfully put view or position. If that's what we were into, we'd have stayed somewhere else instead of migrating to BOAY .....

I don't believe we are, Chief - & to be fair to Freda - she's only emoji'd my post so perhaps limit any criticism you feel is due to me - as the author of the original post. But I have been awaiting / expecting you to weigh in on this! I get it - that if the actual trainer who won trains exclusively or predominantly TA horses - TA is likely to warrant a mention in the article. However. "Te Akau" does not appear in any directory of trainers I can consult if I am looking to place a horse with a trainer. Nor do they appear on the list of trainers on the NZTR site. So surely they are therefore ineligible to win a trainers' premiership - and to say they did is erroneous. Just as I think we can safely say, on 30 July - that the NZ winner of the trainers' premiership is Walker & Bergerson. It is not Te Akau.

Well - as a buffoon I encountered once said - never let the facts get in the way of the relentless pursuit of publicity (free or otherwise), promotion and self aggrandisement! 😜! Or - for that matter - in the way of sycophants who support the said relentless pursuit! And to be clear - I do note that the article is attributed to one Joshua Smith from the Loveracing NZ News Desk. Not the first (or last) :journo to play fast 'n' loose with the facts. Now my fellow BOAYarners - I'm not personally acquainted with Joshua - but whatever's going on here - & whoever has decided on the content & the title for the article which headlines the syndicator so prominently (albeit, inaccurately) - I can confirm there is no truth in the rumor that "Joshua Smith" is a writer's pseudonym for Karen F-E. J.

Strange headline on the Loveracing site. I understood Te Akau to be a syndicating entity - with the horses they race sporting the colors of that syndicating entity & being trained by trainers appointed by the entity. Te Akau is not a trainer. So I'm confused as to how they can win a trainers' premiership. J. .

Ah ok - sorry Chief - obviously I am late to the conversation - just pleased to be able to watch replays either on computer/phone or cast to TV - without 7-8 "freezes" along the way ... Cheers, J.

Hi there - if you struggle with slow speed rural internet like I do - you might find replaying races via nzracing pretty tedious - frequent stops, buffering etc. Well - this is life for me, at least. But - if I go to trackside.co.nz instead & play the races from there - boom! - plays right through smoothly. Just posting in case other BOAYarners experience the same & haven't discovered this. Kind regards, Jess