Doomed Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 I thought that since the "flash" racing is virtually all done for the season it might be worth considering which of the stakes type innovations proved successful, and which ones weren't quite so successful. I must say, I thought the SI $350,000 gimmick race was probably the best of the lot. It attracted a really good field, turned into a very competitive race and provided a worthy reward for southern trained horses. If you were to offer me $350,000 to name one horse who raced in the other 3 gimmick races in the north I wouldn't be able to name a single horse, let alone the winners of any of the races. As to the biggest waste of money, and there were several contenders, I would suggest the $650,000 in bonuses for horses who placed in 3 or 4 nominated races. Legarto won the bulk of it running 2nd in the last event. I am really not sure what it achieved at all. Legarto proved uncompetitive in its two Aussie starts during the season so was probably always going to target those NZ races regardless of bonuses. Campionessa and Desert Lightning decided to head off to Aussie anyhow, despite earning enough points early on to be contenders. The last two races only attracted fields of 10 and 11, so hardly capacity considering the total stakes on offer. It will be interesting to see if NZTR analyse the success or otherwise of all the initiatives, and decide to abandon or revamp any that didn't work so well. Although I think they are just rolling them all over to next season as is. Obviously they consider everything they did was 100% successful. Certainly an impressive result for any business. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingman Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Re 650k bonus the idea was to encourage NZ elite horses to stay. You have answered your own Question regarding success/value. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Agent Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 1 hour ago, Doomed said: It will be interesting to see if NZTR analyse the success or otherwise of all the initiatives, and decide to abandon or revamp any that didn't work so well. Although I think they are just rolling them all over to next season as is. Obviously they consider everything they did was 100% successful. Certainly an impressive result for any business. This is the crux of it for me. The only way to approach the initiatives once in place had to be with an open mind but, now the results are in they definitely should not all be just rolled over. Congratulations to those who collected huge returns. However I feel to dish up such lucrative offerings again without a serious debrief is dumb. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomed Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 4 minutes ago, Special Agent said: This is the crux of it for me. The only way to approach the initiatives once in place had to be with an open mind but, now the results are in they definitely should not all be just rolled over. Congratulations to those who collected huge returns. However I feel to dish up such lucrative offerings again without a serious debrief is dumb. As I'm sure we all know, precedents are important. Sadly, "dumb" is now well established. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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