new race calendar

[the galah]

What do people think of the new racing calendar?

Auckland and cambridge will have more meetings run in the same week. In total that region gets an extra 216 races.

Manawatu gets an extra 50 races.

Canterbury,where i thought most of the horses in training are,get only an extra 64 races if you include the extra timaru meeting and southland an extra 26 races.

So the north isalnd get 3 times the extra number of races than the whole of the south island.

So they have looked at things,said where are the least number of horses,then given them the most number of extra races by far.And vice versa.

More meetings where auckland and cambridge run the same week.

if someone was to tell you that was going to happen,no one would have believed it because it seems so stupid. But there you go.

Who are the people making these decisions? 

 

Edited April 24 by the galah

[the galah]

Just to point out whats happening this week.

Cambridge and auckland are both racing this week. They would have the biggest fields they've had for a while when both racing in the same week.

They have 175 horses in total,but 16 of those are south island trained and 2 aussie trained...meaning 157 north island trained horses.

Then they have 14 horses running at the trials this week trying to qualify.

Compare that to the 2 canterbury meetings.

They have 267 horses running.

Plus another 52 qualified running at the trails,26 trying to qualify and 12 in learners workouts.90 in total.

So all up,including the trials,you have 171 north island trained horses running this week.

In canterbury alone you have 357 running in canterbury.

plus the 16 south island trained that are racing at auckland. 

So you have well over double the number of horses in canterbury than auckland and waikato combined running this week.

So the decision makers who have come out with the new racing calendar have looked at those figures and said,lets give auckland and waikato 3 times more new extra races than canterbury.

Edited April 24 by the galah

[Taku Umanga]

Dear Taku,

Harness Racing NZ is releasing the 24/25 calendar at 3pm today, but we wanted you to have an advance copy of the media release and the calendar we'll be sending out at that time.

It's not the usual calendar release - it's the first step in a major set of changes designed to inject fresh life and confidence into Harness Racing. They've been developed after intensive work together with our wagering partner, Entain.

More meetings, more races for low to middle grade horses

The calendar is our biggest asset, and we need to use it in a way that will grow wagering. Together with Entain we've made major changes that will be of significant interest to you. The key points are:

• Alexandra Park will have 45 race meetings in 24/25, up 14 from this season, and a total of 422 races (up by 128), mainly on Friday
• Cambridge goes from 28 to 41 meetings, with 338 races (up by 88), mainly on Tuesday
• Manawatu has an extra 7 meetings taking them to 19 for the season and 142 races (up 50)
• Addington will have 65 meetings (up from 58) and 611 races (up from 557)
• Timaru goes to 5 meetings (up 1) and 49 races (up 10)
• Winton will now have 13 meetings (up 2) and 125 races (up 17)
• Invercargill goes to 15 meetings (up 2) and 136 races (up 9)
• For all other clubs there is no change from 2023/24.

Friday Night Lights

Our wagering partner's Managing Director Cameron Rodger tells us "we are big believers in the Friday Night Lights brand. With our recent move to Free to Air, and with the investment we are making in our Trackside Broadcast we believe there is an opportunity to create a high quality, highly marketable harness racing product that appears in living rooms consistently each Friday night with Alexandra Park and Addington racing together."

Major new initiatives are Coming

With Entain, we've developed a major new programme of initiatives built around the new calendar. Again, these will be of benefit to clubs and kindred bodies. Watch out for it in mid-May.

We're at a critical juncture in our history, and future. This is the opportunity we've long been waiting for.We need to grab it with both hands.

Phil Holden
Chairman

 

[mikeynz]

Hard to believe Manawatu faced extinction not that long ago, Wairarapa appears to be a stand alone at New Year, Sundays seem to be busier, not many Saturdays, only 2 in Southland, I think, I don't think they need more but the experts think they can squeeze some more out of the punters, seems in everything sportswise we just want more and more, people can take it or leave it.

[Doomed]

Every time I have a look at harness meetings they have several tiny fields. Some small fields for relatively massive stakes at Invercargill last week. Must have been enormous punting to fund those stakes. Tiny stakes too. I looked at one meeting  recently that had $8,000 and $10,000 races.

The bit I don't understand is that they seem to know exactly how many races they will run at meetings 12 months and more away. Surely if they are anticipating running one race for a certain class and they get 30 noms then they will have to run an extra race. And surely if they are planning to run two races for a class and they get only 10 noms then they will run only one race. Others are probably much more clued up about this than me.

[Nowornever]

8 hours ago, the galah said:

What do people think of the new racing calendar?

Auckland and cambridge will have more meetings run in the same week. In total that region gets an extra 216 races.

Manawatu gets an extra 50 races.

Canterbury,where i thought most of the horses in training are,get only an extra 64 races if you include the extra timaru meeting and southland an extra 26 races.

So the north isalnd get 3 times the extra number of races than the whole of the south island.

So they have looked at things,said where are the least number of horses,then given them the most number of extra races by far.And vice versa.

More meetings where auckland and cambridge run the same week.

if someone was to tell you that was going to happen,no one would have believed it because it seems so stupid. But there you go.

Who are the people making these decisions? 

 

They look determined to try to fix Alexandra Park and are using the excuse it is because one third of punters live in Auckland. My punting friends in the North Island all bet more on South Island harness and all of them say Auckland fields are shit and always have been. How do they expect to do this. Suddenly import more horses and trainers to Auckland? 

[Nowornever]

Why don't they run a few more of those betting competitions on the harness?  I would think they would generate some decent turnover, but they stopped doing them for some reason.

[the galah]

8 hours ago, Nowornever said:

They look determined to try to fix Alexandra Park and are using the excuse it is because one third of punters live in Auckland. My punting friends in the North Island all bet more on South Island harness and all of them say Auckland fields are shit and always have been. How do they expect to do this. Suddenly import more horses and trainers to Auckland? 

Its certainly a "unique" approach to the problem.

You have an area struggling to survive ,its major issue being a lack of numbers meaning its not generating enough wagering to break even let alone run at a profit.

So the answer,give them more racing so stakeholders can earn more money and punters will have more choice of races to bet on..

Like i said,a unique approach.

i thought most businesses look at where they are profitable and say lets do more of that. Not the other way around.

Doesn't it appear to epitomise the saying"throwing good money after bad".

Also,phil holden,in his press release said

"the changes are designed to breathe fresh life into harness racing after years of zero growth and decline".

Its interesting he would say that,as somehow he must believe there are people out there who believe "the changes",will do that..

Maybe there are. maybe they are geniuses and we just don't know it. I will go with no,theren't cleary not myself.

But if it turns out they are the stupid ones and the rest of us were just pointing out the obvious,then shouldn't that mean they really aren't the right people to be involved in decision making in any form.

 

[mikeynz]

Don't know about breathing fresh air, seems more like hot air to me, I thought Entain, TAB were all for responsible gambling so why push more and more on to its customers, giving punters more opportunities, I actually think we have enough now.

But we have choice, take it or leave it, interestingly I don't think the gallops got any new meetings.

[Brodie]

Where are the punters that they actually allow to wager, going to get the extra $ to punt?

They are clueless to be putting in extra races in Auckland as it is a dieing industry in the North most of us can see that!

Let the punters punt, or turn out the lights!

[mikeynz]

4 minutes ago, Brodie said:

Where are the punters that they actually allow to wager, going to get the extra $ to punt?

They are clueless to be putting in extra races in Auckland as it is a dieing industry in the North most of us can see that!

Let the punters punt, or turn out the lights!

Maybe WINZ, 50 bucks a week automatically funding ones TAB account if your on a benefit.

[mikeynz]

I should add paid in Tuesday morning so it's their for the Northern Tuesday meetings.

[Spatchcock]

15 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Hard to believe Manawatu faced extinction not that long ago, Wairarapa appears to be a stand alone at New Year, Sundays seem to be busier, not many Saturdays, only 2 in Southland, I think, I don't think they need more but the experts think they can squeeze some more out of the punters, seems in everything sportswise we just want more and more, people can take it or leave it.

I believe the Otaki gallops meeting on Jan 6 will actually be run as a dual code, just two days later than usual. It's a misprint.

[mikeynz]

40 minutes ago, Spatchcock said:

I believe the Otaki gallops meeting on Jan 6 will actually be run as a dual code, just two days later than usual. It's a misprint.

Kapati Coast race on  Sunday, same day as Marlborough in mid Janauary, 2 days before Manawatu.

[Slippery Slope]

Currently the Crusaders catchment (Canty/Nels/Marl/WC) annual harness racing programme generates (excluding group race subsidies) over $2m of surplus betting revenue over stakes subsidies paid out by HRNZ on those races. This is approx. 10% of the total betting revenue earned on those c.1000 annual races. A viable and sustainable business model!

But then across the whole of the North Island betting revenue is short of HRNZ stakes subsidies paid by over 15%, around $3000 for every race north of Cook Strait ($4000 per race at Manawatu). So effectively mainly Canterbury horses and race meetings enable HRNZ to shift $2m every year to subsidise meetings/ races in the North Island that don’t pay their way.  I would like to think owners/ trainers/drivers in Canterbury understand that they don’t get back 10% of the income their horses generate, but I’m not sure they do.

Now HRNZ have supported Entain to add over 250 races (c.35%) to the 3 NI venues, catering mainly for lower class horses, the same venues that already get a massive per race subsidy from betting revenue generated from the Canterbury harness racing. This seems a bizarre if not ludicrous business strategy to grow harness racing punter support/ interest, putting more meetings on at venues punters already don’t support and make our product even less discernible from greyhounds. We currently have a smart way to provide a real quality lower-class product for our punters- racing at all the Crusaders venues that support Addington when a substantial Canterbury harness racing community deliver big and even fields at fair and often grass tracks. This is where those extra meetings, if really needed, should have been.  

Punters long ago made their choice in the digital age where they would bet remotely- Crusaders country harness racing built around Addington Fridays and country Sundays won, Alexandra Park in particular lost. Physical venue location is virtually irrelevant to the digital punter, they just want the best betting product as they define it. The digital punter bets worldwide on the product they are interested in, and New Zealand harness racing has one maybe two unique selling propositions- Crusaders country supporting Addington, and maybe Auckland or Cambridge/Addington Friday nights. There are so many products offered to bet on in 2024, if you don’t have a USP you will eventually be lost. Harness racing is doing its best to weaken the only major one it has left, and punters across the country stopped supporting Alexandra Park relative to Addington many years ago.

So what can HRNZ do to give themselves a last chance to maintain relative market share in the long term, especially vs thoroughbreds? It has to protect and grow the only areas in the country (Canterbury supported by Southland) where a genuine harness racing community of interest still exists and participation is affordable. It has one mechanism left to do this, the stakes funding model, and apparently all will be revealed next month. If HRNZ does not stop the current cross subsidy out of Canterbury harness racing owners, trainers and drivers pockets to the North Island, and ensure stakes paid across the Crusaders catchment reflects the value of those races to both punters and the industry, then harness racing is on a very slippery slope to the same relative oblivion and market share vs thoroughbreds and greyhounds that Australian harness racing has already reached.

A sustainable harness racing industry doesn’t pass through Alexndra Park and Manawatu. It passes through Addington, Rangiora, Marlborough and the 9 other venues in the Crusaders catchment. HRNZ needs to stop siphoning off $millions every year from the venues that all of punters, owners and trainers support to those that don’t, before it is too late.

[Westview]

Agree with most of your points,  Methven has provided just under 500,000 into the pool over the last season and has put it's hand up for another date for the last 4 yrs . Unbelievably to no avail sure makes alot of sense. 

[mikeynz]

A lot more Sunday meetings,  Entains thinking is certainly different but is it thinking straight ?

[Spatchcock]

9 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Kapati Coast race on  Sunday, same day as Marlborough in mid Janauary, 2 days before Manawatu.

Yes I am aware, and the Manawatu meeting slated for two days later (on the 21st) will also be moved to Otaki giving them a two-day meeting to themselves.

BUT, they will also still run the dual code day on Jan 6 at a smaller level, probably four or five races as has been the case recently, even though it doesn't currently say either of those things in the calendar.

You can also expect a couple of meetings at Thames to be announced sooner rather than later, too.

[mikeynz]

Some Sundays have 4 , sometimes 5 meetings, that's including Dogs, maybe that's overkill.

[Doomed]

19 hours ago, Slippery Slope said:

Currently the Crusaders catchment (Canty/Nels/Marl/WC) annual harness racing programme generates (excluding group race subsidies) over $2m of surplus betting revenue over stakes subsidies paid out by HRNZ on those races. This is approx. 10% of the total betting revenue earned on those c.1000 annual races. A viable and sustainable business model!

But then across the whole of the North Island betting revenue is short of HRNZ stakes subsidies paid by over 15%, around $3000 for every race north of Cook Strait ($4000 per race at Manawatu). So effectively mainly Canterbury horses and race meetings enable HRNZ to shift $2m every year to subsidise meetings/ races in the North Island that don’t pay their way.  I would like to think owners/ trainers/drivers in Canterbury understand that they don’t get back 10% of the income their horses generate, but I’m not sure they do.

Now HRNZ have supported Entain to add over 250 races (c.35%) to the 3 NI venues, catering mainly for lower class horses, the same venues that already get a massive per race subsidy from betting revenue generated from the Canterbury harness racing. This seems a bizarre if not ludicrous business strategy to grow harness racing punter support/ interest, putting more meetings on at venues punters already don’t support and make our product even less discernible from greyhounds. We currently have a smart way to provide a real quality lower-class product for our punters- racing at all the Crusaders venues that support Addington when a substantial Canterbury harness racing community deliver big and even fields at fair and often grass tracks. This is where those extra meetings, if really needed, should have been.  

Punters long ago made their choice in the digital age where they would bet remotely- Crusaders country harness racing built around Addington Fridays and country Sundays won, Alexandra Park in particular lost. Physical venue location is virtually irrelevant to the digital punter, they just want the best betting product as they define it. The digital punter bets worldwide on the product they are interested in, and New Zealand harness racing has one maybe two unique selling propositions- Crusaders country supporting Addington, and maybe Auckland or Cambridge/Addington Friday nights. There are so many products offered to bet on in 2024, if you don’t have a USP you will eventually be lost. Harness racing is doing its best to weaken the only major one it has left, and punters across the country stopped supporting Alexandra Park relative to Addington many years ago.

So what can HRNZ do to give themselves a last chance to maintain relative market share in the long term, especially vs thoroughbreds? It has to protect and grow the only areas in the country (Canterbury supported by Southland) where a genuine harness racing community of interest still exists and participation is affordable. It has one mechanism left to do this, the stakes funding model, and apparently all will be revealed next month. If HRNZ does not stop the current cross subsidy out of Canterbury harness racing owners, trainers and drivers pockets to the North Island, and ensure stakes paid across the Crusaders catchment reflects the value of those races to both punters and the industry, then harness racing is on a very slippery slope to the same relative oblivion and market share vs thoroughbreds and greyhounds that Australian harness racing has already reached.

A sustainable harness racing industry doesn’t pass through Alexndra Park and Manawatu. It passes through Addington, Rangiora, Marlborough and the 9 other venues in the Crusaders catchment. HRNZ needs to stop siphoning off $millions every year from the venues that all of punters, owners and trainers support to those that don’t, before it is too late.

You do wonder about the intelligence of restricting Marlborough to the one 2 day meeting per season whist handing heaps of new meetings to Manawatu. I wonder if this new ideology is the work of Entain or someone at HRNZ?

It seems strange to me that the trots would happily give up most of their Saturday meetings. There must surely be concerns about off course turnovers on Sundays. Whereas previously the likes of Methven had Sundays virtually to themselves they now find themselves competing for the off course dollar with another trot meeting and a couple of gallops meetings. It won't end well.

[Slippery Slope]

One of the strangest aspects of the HRNZ decision is the point just made about Methven and other currently dominant Sunday meetings for punters. HRNZ are apparently supporting a new dates structure that will incentivise owners to shift lower class horses in the South Island for supposedly more regular racing at the less attractive betting venues in the North Island. They thus run the risk of reducing the available pool of horses to Methven and others, and thus the number of races and field sizes for country racing in the Crusaders district. At exactly the same time we now have Entain also supporting a big increase in competing thoroughbred meetings on Sunday, whilst HRNZ's response appears to be weakening their competing and currently better product offering. Go figure! Someone from HRNZ will hopefully explain soon how weakening your best lower class betting product won't happen, but as it stands Doomed is right. It won't end well, in about 4 years time, when the already obvious shortfall in betting turnover to support the current spread of venues and races will come to a head when Entain's commitment period ends.  

[the galah]

1 hour ago, Slippery Slope said:

HRNZ are apparently supporting a new dates structure that will incentivise owners to shift lower class horses in the South Island for supposedly more regular racing at the less attractive betting venues in the North Island. They thus run the risk of reducing the available pool of horses to Methven and others, and thus the number of races and field sizes for country racing in the Crusaders district. 

Do you really think the incentivising south island owners to shift from racing their horses in the south island,to the north island, really is part of the plan?

That makes as little sense as giving the north island more races. Actually when you think about it ,given that,maybe that is part of their thinking.

But surely it doesn't make much sense. They already get regular racing in the south island and they already have races with small numbers in the north island,so if they were going for small numbers then they would have already done it.Also,its a safe bet that due to insufficient numbers, they will not be running the number of north island  they said they plan to and programmed races will be abandoned.. Also wouldn't it cost more to have them trained in the north island. Certainly the transport costs to get there wouldn't be cheap either.

Only the likes of michael house may do that. But didn't he try that and only lasted for a short time and wasn't even that a result of him not being able to get back to the south island due to the ferry not running.

One of the disturbing things about the press release from the chair of HRNZ,phil holden,is he goes on about how great the extra north island races are for the industry,yet fails to give on tangible reason of why. Just saying "the time is right","fantastic partner in entain",'provide significant benefits for the sport nationally",etc. Its just more blah,blah,blah with no substance of how?

Maybe theres a simple reason they haven't given one reason why extra meetings will mean extra horses will be trained there. Its because they,like everyone else ,they can't think of one.

Will there be any accountability for poor decisions? 

personally i actually think having extra meetings is a good thing,but obviously the majority of those should have been in canterbury.

Edited April 26 by the galah

[Slippery Slope]

Not sure it is part of the plan, but the new dates structure under the existing stakes subsidy model meaning similar stake levels nationwide certainly creates an incentive for this to happen by giving an early exit sales opportunity for owners with lesser performing horses, if there are trainers up north with owners to support buying them. Agree that for starting period at least a lot of the meetings may not get off the ground due to horse numbers, and totally agree that 5/6 race programmes attached to trials at Rangiora and Ashburton would have been the logical, less risky and likely less total industry cost to trial this idea. Claims made in the press release when all recent historical and current betting preformance shows exactly the opposite is very disappointing.   

[mikeynz]

9 minutes ago, the galah said:

Do you really think the incentivising south island owners to shift from racing their horses in the south island,to the north island, really is part of the plan?

That makes as little sense as giving the north island more races. Actually when you think about it ,given that,maybe that is part of their thinking.

But surely it doesn't make much sense. They already get regular racing in the south island and they already have races with small numbers in the north island,so if they were going for small numbers then they would have already done it.Also,its a safe bet that due to insufficient numbers, they will not be running the number of north island  they said they plan to and programmed races will be abandoned.. Also wouldn't it cost more to have them trained in the north island. Certainly the transport costs to get there wouldn't be cheap either.

Only the likes of michael house may do that. But didn't he try that and only lasted for a short time and wasn't even that a result of him not being able to get back to the south island due to the ferry not running.

One of the disturbing things about the press release from the chair of HRNZ,phil holden,is he goes on about how great the extra north island races are for the industry,yet fails to give on tangible reason of why. Just saying "the time is right","fantastic partner in entain",'provide significant benefits for the sport nationally",etc. Its just more blah,blah,blah with no substance of how?

Maybe theres a simple reason they haven't given one reason why extra meetings will mean extra horses will be trained there. Its because they,like everyone else ,they can't think of one.

Will there be any accountability for poor decisions? 

personally i actually think having extra meetings is a good thing,but obviously the majority of those should have been in canterbury.

They seemed to have got rid of the Thursday, Friday double up, mostly I say in the North, I suspect some of these meetings won't go, I can see a extra meeting or two at Manawatu  might extend the season there but if 2 meetings a week further North might impact as well.

Interestingly Auckland only have 2  Thursdays, one the night before Easter and July 31, obviously Thursday didn't work for Auckland, just as they didn't for Forbury so now Southland race mainly Thursday, only 2 Saturdays, i think.

With Sundays now racing more days, that seems odd but Canterbury turnover has been sponsoring Northern harness, maybe gallops on Sunday may sponsor harness meetings or is turnover at each individual meeting mostly irrelevant, seems you have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

[Brodie]

Whoever is making these decisions are in la la land!

There just isnt the appetite for racing harness horses in the north Island like there is in the South Island.

Wonder how long it will take for them to realise that all they are going to do is lose more money for the industry!

Something not going well so we chuck more at it?