Freda

No. Keep up.

A very experienced racing administrator said to me, mess with tradition at your peril. Tradition has been messed with, for sure, and look at the mess that now prevails.

He's not doing his stud career - if there is one offering - any good whatsoever, and Thommo's assertion that we need to breed runners that need little persuasion and no whips isn't going to get much traction watching his attitude. And, if he has a problem, whatever it may be, why on earth is he going to the races?

I genuinely dont think they know.

Predictable.

There has been so much tinkering with dates and overall structure that the general public - or at least those who give a toss - have no idea what is happening where.

Lol....stallions I have a healthy respect for - as well as their skilful handlers - but the bruise on my arm delivered by a filly of mine yesterday while doing up the front of her rug was met with fair retribution I thought, and she was very polite this morning while she was being dressed.

King of the breed or no, he wouldn't be the first colt to dog up when called upon....not that he was called upon...but he would be well aware of what usually comes next.

You may take issue ( rightly IMO ) with the machinations within the committee that dramatically changed it's makeup, however, it is a stretch to blame that committee for the loss of the venue. That was a done deal. Gray Eatwell was a former NZ First member, knew Winston well, and I know he went to Wellington and met with him where Hokitika's fate was discussed. He trusted Winston to 'look out for the regions' as was a NZF platform. Typically, that trust was misplaced, and the moves within the club to protect their asset for the community understandable.

I hope my comments aren't taken to indicate that I am resistant to change. We all know that change has to happen, the industry has been looking and going backwards for years - but a viable holiday/country circuit is part and parcel of the fabric of NZ racing, and modification with consultation could have had most parties comfortable as well as looking ahead. Many country/provincial meetings in Aus are considered part of the whole tourist experience, and marketed accordingly. Joe Bloggs will be able to attest to the popularity of many of these days, right out to the red-dirt bush tracks and the fun had by all at those days.

Yes, I'm afraid it does. A N.I trainer who has been a regular attendee, has family in Hokitika, has already indicated that 3 racedays squashed into six days makes the trip unviable for him. With the vagaries of the weather on the Coast - only Reefton can be considered reliable - the possibility of either of the other two days being severely rain-affected is pretty high. And, as the habit of factoring in the Coast to holiday racing programmes becomes less of a highlight, the die is cast. Gisborne/Wairoa are already gone, the date now at Hastings soon to become just another unremarkable raceday with little public interest. The Waikato glitterati won't give a sh#t, but the character of racing will be changed and not for the good I don't think.

Reefton will know for sure, my understanding however is that they wanted a date, but weren't given one. If that is the case, it will be payback for not vesting their land/cash assets in NZTR.

At the end of the day, he's a mature stallion ( if the info is correct ) ..maybe he just can't be arsed?

And, I must agree with Reefton here, I am hard pressed to think of a reconstructed track that hasnt had issues. They wouldn't have all been done by the same contractors, countrywide- so there must indeed be issues with the design, scope of work, call it what you will.

Well, I'm no expert ( clearly you are ) so I can only report as I recall it being explained to me. I would think the fk up would be in the design, surely?

I can't recall whether lateral drains were included initially - probably they were, but certainly since, including down the back straight where conditions are very different from the home straight.

Well I'm scratching my head too...because I can't see how it was supposed to work either. The amount of topsoil laid wouldn't have grown decent carrots. There is a slight camber in the straight - just ask Pitty - because he always maintained that watering the outside was counter productive as the water just ended up on the inside. Apart from all that, water is not going to percolate through clay, so what other option can there be?

If you refer to my above post, Duncan Laing implied that that had happened. He obviously couldn't be definite, but his experience and knowledge of the reconstruction process led him to believe that deeper cultivation than he had advised had taken place.

Glue when wet and concrete when dry

From what I can envisage - and a fair amount of 'creative' thinking involved here, I'm not a drainage or construction hero - the clay and scoria under the topsoil was supposed to provide a camber to guide the water to the drains along the inner. That may have worked initially, but, as Duncan Laing [of Laing's Construction] explained to me, the manual he had provided for the track manager at the time, didn't get passed on to the following managers [ so he thought ]. There was not supposed to be any deep cultivation at all, as that would bring the clay up to mix with the topsoil. That seems to be just what has happened and the makeup of the turf is consistent with a goodly amount of clay mixed in.

Lance Robinson was able to have a look at [some] of the lateral drains at one point...he said, drains had spiderwebs in them, clearly the water wasn't getting to them.

You can understand, that all this discussion has led to a great deal of chat between me and my English training partner, he - rightly - points out that many yards in England only have an AWT for use, and then race on grass without problems; John Dunlop being one. However, I would doubt that UK tracks would often - if ever - get as uncompromisingly hard and/or rough as can happen here and in Aus.

Anyway, I agree Freda with the point you seem to be making that to condition bone for firm surfaces, the bone needs to be exposed to work on firm surfaces. Where I thought the AWT would be helpful is that horses with beginning signs of shin soreness could continue to work on it, or resume work on it sooner, before being re-exposed to fast work on firmer surfaces, meanwhile still getting a degree of concussion that helped the bone healing and re-modelling without risking aggravation of the injury. Yes, [ sorry, Tim, for hijacking your thread ] that was the point, after all the furore about A. v D, and the highlighting of the injuries of predominantly UK horses in the Melbourne Cup recently, it seemed to me to be replicating the very conditions that may have led to those injuries.

Question - how, then, would a beautifully cushioned surface help with encouraging skeletal development with the aim of managing firm grass tracks?

I should think so, yes.