Shortage of horses down South?

[Brodie]

Just having a gander at the fields for Invercargill on Friday.

normally they would have good size fields and at least 10 races often more!
Where are the horses down there at the moment, as there are only 8 races and only 60 horses lining up at this stage, which must be disappointing for the Club!
Several races with 6 or 7 only,  even the only maiden race has only 8 starters?

Does anyone know why there is a lack of horses wanting to race at Invercargill, or is there a drop off of numbers in work down South?

[the galah]

3 hours ago, Brodie said:

Just having a gander at the fields for Invercargill on Friday.

normally they would have good size fields and at least 10 races often more!
Where are the horses down there at the moment, as there are only 8 races and only 60 horses lining up at this stage, which must be disappointing for the Club!
Several races with 6 or 7 only,  even the only maiden race has only 8 starters?

Does anyone know why there is a lack of horses wanting to race at Invercargill, or is there a drop off of numbers in work down South?

its a bit sad seeing that.They had 23 more starters last week. Don't know where some of those have got to. Maybe some racing at oamaru on sunday ,maybe the time of year and the cost pf petrol.Taking a horse from canterbury would cost a lot i would imagine.. 

For years i backed on every harness race  run in nz every year but some of the betting fields these days just aren't appealing enough to warrant investing.

Edited September 14, 2023 by the galah

[Brodie]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

its a bit sad seeing that.They had 23 more starters last week. Don't know where some of those have got to. Maybe some racing at oamaru on sunday ,maybe the time of year and the cost pf petrol.Taking a horse from canterbury would cost a lot i would imagine.. 

For years i backed on every harness race  run in nz every year but some of the betting fields these days just aren't appealing enough to warrant investing.

Personally having another break from investing, as they are not easy at the moment to find anything worth offloading on, even if I could get enough on!

Addington fields are basically the same horses each week and if there is something you like, the odds are not worth the effort.

Watching still but I believe that the Bookies have been deliberately opening the odds on anything with a chance, far too short.

Brodie will be back but quite enjoying not putting in the homework 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Brodie

[mikeynz]

6 hours ago, Brodie said:

Just having a gander at the fields for Invercargill on Friday.

normally they would have good size fields and at least 10 races often more!
Where are the horses down there at the moment, as there are only 8 races and only 60 horses lining up at this stage, which must be disappointing for the Club!
Several races with 6 or 7 only,  even the only maiden race has only 8 starters?

Does anyone know why there is a lack of horses wanting to race at Invercargill, or is there a drop off of numbers in work down South?

This meeting made the news last year as it was abandoned through lack of numbers, numbers are low and maybe there is a preference for Wyndham as it gets better numbers, even better than Winton.

But as a rule it's pretty ordinary in Southland in recent times.

[LongOwner]

They will have to cut the stakes as we get told everything revolves around field size.

[mikeynz]

I often check out the exotic pools as a guide to how much interest is on some of these harness meetings, today's main quaddie at Winton was less that 5000, that's fuck all..

Last Friday with small fields invercargill main quaddie was over 10000.

Alexandra Park was over 13000 on a Friday night and while that's not massive it shows that harness racing mostly gets pushed into the background on Saturdays now

The Invercargill Cup last year was supposedly a success last year yet strangely is on a Friday this year.

Edited September 23, 2023 by mikeynz

[Brodie]

1 hour ago, mikeynz said:

I often check out the exotic pools as a guide to how much interest is on some of these harness meetings, today's main quaddie at Winton was less that 5000, that's fuck all..

Last Friday with small fields invercargill main quaddie was over 10000.

Alexandra Park was over 13000 on a Friday night and while that's not massive it shows that harness racing mostly gets pushed into the background on Saturdays now

The Invercargill Cup last year was supposedly a success last year yet strangely is on a Friday this year.

The fields  down south are much smaller than they have ever been!

Hopefully they get more horses in work a d able to race i. The future or tgi gs will become dire down there!

[mikeynz]

18 minutes ago, Brodie said:

The fields  down south are much smaller than they have ever been!

Hopefully they get more horses in work a d able to race i. The future or tgi gs will become dire down there!

Saturdays are now the domain of the gallops, harness no longer exist, Saturday nights no longer exist for , it's the domain of Sport, but I've always queried why the inconsistent calendar, why today just out of the blue  Winton race Saturday yet next three or four days go back to midweek, it's got me beat.

[Unhinged]

8 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Saturdays are now the domain of the gallops, harness no longer exist, Saturday nights no longer exist for , it's the domain of Sport, but I've always queried why the inconsistent calendar, why today just out of the blue  Winton race Saturday yet next three or four days go back to midweek, it's got me beat.

Personally I think southland definitely draw the short straw, it must be incredibly hard to attract new owners down there when a high percentage of their racedays are weekdays when their owners are working.  With a large percentage of owners money is secondary being there and yelling at your horse is the draw , well it is ror me.

[Spatchcock]

1 hour ago, Unhinged said:

Personally I think southland definitely draw the short straw, it must be incredibly hard to attract new owners down there when a high percentage of their racedays are weekdays when their owners are working.  With a large percentage of owners money is secondary being there and yelling at your horse is the draw , well it is ror me.

Tend to agree and the turnover reflects this. Other factors too including an aging training and ownership base.
I've always felt like the best time for Southland Harness is Friday twilight. Given their geographic positioning, they get sun later than everywhere else. It allows owners to go out after work, it captures the Friday after work punters and the Friday evening harness punters tuning in for Addington etc. The other option is Sundays. Saturdays and Thursdays just don't work on many levels.

[mikeynz]

25 minutes ago, Spatchcock said:

Tend to agree and the turnover reflects this. Other factors too including an aging training and ownership base.
I've always felt like the best time for Southland Harness is Friday twilight. Given their geographic positioning, they get sun later than everywhere else. It allows owners to go out after work, it captures the Friday after work punters and the Friday evening harness punters tuning in for Addington etc. The other option is Sundays. Saturdays and Thursdays just don't work on many levels.

They have the invercargill cup on Dec 22, a Friday after Easter all the dates are Saturdays and so is club rugby, by the time racing  is finished so is club rugby, rugby is not what it used  to be both are intertwined.

Edited September 23, 2023 by mikeynz

[mikeynz]

14 hours ago, mikeynz said:

I often check out the exotic pools as a guide to how much interest is on some of these harness meetings, today's main quaddie at Winton was less that 5000, that's fuck all..

Last Friday with small fields invercargill main quaddie was over 10000.

Alexandra Park was over 13000 on a Friday night and while that's not massive it shows that harness racing mostly gets pushed into the background on Saturdays now

The Invercargill Cup last year was supposedly a success last year yet strangely is on a Friday this year.

I'm quoting myself here, the early quaddie at Gore gallops   is 4600, that's not much, the main quaddie is guaranteed 20000, the TAB will top that up, Southland gallops don't get greatest turnover except the big days through summer, people ain't betting as much as we think, while we go on about aussie races if you look at pools for non commingled pools then some are fuck all.

One wonders how Entain are going to maintain stakes if turnovers are stagnant.

[mikeynz]

30000 bet on the late quaddie at the Mot yesterday, a far cry from the 4500 odd at Winton a day earlier, it's all about timing and depths of field, those Mot figures compare well with Awapuni on Saturday, just saying.

[Nowornever]

2 hours ago, mikeynz said:

30000 bet on the late quaddie at the Mot yesterday, a far cry from the 4500 odd at Winton a day earlier, it's all about timing and depths of field, those Mot figures compare well with Awapuni on Saturday, just saying.

Mot was a goldmine for punters. Some decent dividends to chase and no 1.40 favourites leading all the way. HRNZ and TAB might finally work this out one day that big grass track fields are the way to go and instead of closing them down they should be building more, but not holding my breath.

[mikeynz]

On 9/25/2023 at 12:06 PM, Nowornever said:

Mot was a goldmine for punters. Some decent dividends to chase and no 1.40 favourites leading all the way. HRNZ and TAB might finally work this out one day that big grass track fields are the way to go and instead of closing them down they should be building more, but not holding my breath.

How does one not know if the bigger turnovers are by races being broadcast on trackside one ?

I often question why the TAB screen greyhound races someday, the turnover is so poor with tv coverage hardly worth their while.

Edited September 28, 2023 by mikeynz

[mikeynz]

Just 15000 in the Timaru quaddie yesty, but Methven next Sunday so the punters will be out in force.

240 nominations for Methven, only 75 for Northern Southland at this point of time.

[mikeynz]

Not too many southerners at cup day, and the South of the Waitaki race on friday has a rating 60 horse as the highest rating nomination and not many at Winton on Sunday either so it may be cup day but it won't underline how harness racing is falling away outside Canterbury..

[Brodie]

3 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Not too many southerners at cup day, and the South of the Waitaki race on friday has a rating 60 horse as the highest rating nomination and not many at Winton on Sunday either so it may be cup day but it won't underline how harness racing is falling away outside Canterbury..

Palmy yesterday what a very poor meeting.

Only 6 races and wouldve run at a loss surely for the TAB?

Shows how they are stuffed when Michael House isnt there!

[the galah]

On 23/09/2023 at 11:10 PM, Brodie said:

The fields  down south are much smaller than they have ever been!

Hopefully they get more horses in work a d able to race i. The future or tgi gs will become dire down there!

There was a time when they got a lot of support from canterbury stables as well,but they don't seem to go down there these days.

I suppose they don't want to run against the ferguson stable and the cost of getting there may be too much. HRNZ used to pay travel subsidies to get there for people outside the district,but they don't anymore so that must be a factor.

Gore, did have a subsidy of sorts where they had a sponsor who filled up the trucks of trainers waikouiti north,but the down side of that was if you only had a couple of horses coming from say canterbury,seeing others get free fuel when you didn't would make you think that you weren't viewed as important as the bigger trainers.  After all a trainer with 2 horse is travelling as far as the one with 5 horses,so i think it would have been fairer to distribute the subsidy over all horses from the districts concerned.

Edited November 14, 2023 by the galah

[Brodie]

There is sufficient racing in Canterbury so they dont need to travel south or north nowadays!

Unless you win it is going to be a losing exercise for most!

Palmy is going to close in the next couple of years you would think?

[mikeynz]

63 noms for invers on Thursday, not much better at Auckland the day after.

[the galah]

On 14/11/2023 at 4:08 PM, the galah said:

There was a time when they got a lot of support from canterbury stables as well,but they don't seem to go down there these days.

I suppose they don't want to run against the ferguson stable and the cost of getting there may be too much. HRNZ used to pay travel subsidies to get there for people outside the district,but they don't anymore so that must be a factor.

Gore, did have a subsidy of sorts where they had a sponsor who filled up the trucks of trainers waikouiti north,but the down side of that was if you only had a couple of horses coming from say canterbury,seeing others get free fuel when you didn't would make you think that you weren't viewed as important as the bigger trainers.  After all a trainer with 2 horse is travelling as far as the one with 5 horses,so i think it would have been fairer to distribute the subsidy over all horses from the districts concerned.

Actually just viewing some  southern harness racing videos from last month and i see the lady from the gore club said gore were subsidising travel of $100 for 1 horse and up to $200 for 2 or more horses waikouaiti north.

That seems much fairer and good on the gore club. Thats a bit different from what i read earlier where it referred to filling up a truck for trainers who brought down 4 or 5 horses.Theres a bit of a difference.Lets hope they can do the same for their meetings still to come.

Edited November 20, 2023 by the galah