More grass track racing

[the galah]

Great to see a couple of more grass track meetings approved by hrnz,at taupo and timaru.

The taupo date is reportedly on a possible good date.

harness racing should be about taking the product to the people,so dates are of great importance and potentially down the track they can incorporate another taupo meeting into the holiday xmas period,maybe when trainers are on their way down to otaki. Who knows,but using the proven formula of success of other meetings makes obvious sense.

Personally i think the grass track meeting at timaru in april being on a wednesday,makes little sense as far as a suitable date.

I've advocated on here several times ,suggesting the timaru harness meeting in late niovember,2 weeks before geraldine,would be the perfect date for a another grass rtack meeting. It may or may not detract slightly from geraldine,but theres no doubt combined it would be a big boost for the product in that area. 

I also see, timaru have said they will be putting pylons 3 metres out from the rail. That to me doesn't make any sense either. Maybe thats a galloping condition,which in reality shows how some galloping clubs only grudgingly want to allow harness racing on a track used mainly for gallopers.

Timaru is a track that narrows as you get close to the finish and if you were to walk it,you would see the outside portion is always significantly rougher close to the finish,i would assume because the gallopers who train on the track use that portion much more due to the narrowing of the tack .So running 3 metres out when theres a perfectly good track next to the rail,seems being over precious to me.

but ,i do think these announcements about more grass track racingare positive moves.

Edited February 14 by the galah

[mikeynz]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

Great to see a couple of more grass track meetings approved by hrnz,at taupo and timaru.

The taupo date is reportedly on a possible good date.

harness racing should be about taking the product to the people,so dates are of great importance and potentially down the track they can incorporate another taupo meeting into the holiday xmas period,maybe when trainers are on their way down to otaki. Who knows,but using the proven formula of success of other meetings makes obvious sense.

Personally i think the grass track meeting at timaru in april being on a wednesday,makes little sense as far as a suitable date.

I've advocated on here several times ,suggesting the timaru harness meeting in late niovember,2 weeks before geraldine,would be the perfect date for a another grass rtack meeting. It may or may not detract slightly from geraldine,but theres no doubt combined it would be a big boost for the product in that area. 

I also see, timaru have said they will be putting pylons 3 metres out from the rail. That to me doesn't make any sense either. Maybe thats a galloping condition,which in reality shows how some galloping clubs only grudgingly want to allow harness racing on a track used mainly for gallopers.

Timaru is a track that narrows as you get close to the finish and if you were to walk it,you would see the outside portion is always significantly rougher close to the finish,i would assume because the gallopers who train on the track use that portion much more due to the narrowing of the tack .So running 3 metres out when theres a perfectly good track next to the rail,seems being over precious to me.

but ,i do think these announcements about more grass track racingare positive moves.

Your probably right about Timaru, but interestingly up till recently Orari was on the chopping block, and if they did close Timaru would seem the place to go.

While the North want more grass racing, Taupo is just four days before Hawera, not sure if that's smart and where would that leave Otaki who strangely were racing same day as Blenhiem which seemed weird, personally as I've stated elsewhere Otaki should have been in the week after Blenhiem and the week before Hawera, just my thoughts, but obviously others think differently.

[the galah]

7 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Your probably right about Timaru, but interestingly up till recently Orari was on the chopping block, and if they did close Timaru would seem the place to go.

 

timaru was one of those  tracks the messara report wanted to close.Trainers there seem to be nearly all galloping trainers.i would assume the gallops don't really want to see the trots run on the grass. The date timaru has been given shows that in my opinion.

geraldine would have gone to methven i suppose ,had they been forced to close, even though the majority of their crowd for the november meeting came from south canterbury. Methven raced at orari a couple of years ago. Also Orari would have been looking for a grass track meeting, so you would guess timaru wouldn't have suited,,as  if the timaru club can only negotiate a midweek april date to have their grass track meeting,then why would geraldine have  got one.

also i've always thought it obvious that many more people would attend the pre christmas weekend meeting at ashburton, if they ran that on their grass track. Never understood why they haven't done that. Mind you a lot of those clubs with galloping and trotting clubs in the same area,don't cooperate well and have had a history of squabbling.i don't know about now,but it wasn't that many years  ago,someone told me ashburon was like that.

7 hours ago, mikeynz said:

 

While the North want more grass racing, Taupo is just four days before Hawera, not sure if that's smart and where would that leave Otaki who strangely were racing same day as Blenhiem which seemed weird, personally as I've stated elsewhere Otaki should have been in the week after Blenhiem and the week before Hawera, just my thoughts, but obviously others think differently.

To me the taupo meeting being 4 days before hawera makes sense. Using the same logic is why i think your comments about the date of the otaki meetins seems common sense.

Edited February 15 by the galah

[mikeynz]

On 2/15/2025 at 6:38 PM, the galah said:

timaru was one of those  tracks the messara report wanted to close.Trainers there seem to be nearly all galloping trainers.i would assume the gallops don't really want to see the trots run on the grass. The date timaru has been given shows that in my opinion.

geraldine would have gone to methven i suppose ,had they been forced to close, even though the majority of their crowd for the november meeting came from south canterbury. Methven raced at orari a couple of years ago. Also Orari would have been looking for a grass track meeting, so you would guess timaru wouldn't have suited,,as  if the timaru club can only negotiate a midweek april date to have their grass track meeting,then why would geraldine have  got one.

also i've always thought it obvious that many more people would attend the pre christmas weekend meeting at ashburton, if they ran that on their grass track. Never understood why they haven't done that. Mind you a lot of those clubs with galloping and trotting clubs in the same area,don't cooperate well and have had a history of squabbling.i don't know about now,but it wasn't that many years  ago,someone told me ashburon was like that.

To me the taupo meeting being 4 days before hawera makes sense. Using the same logic is why i think your comments about the date of the otaki meetins seems common sense.

It's looking increasingly awkward for harness clubs, re grass track racing, Hawera may lose end of Jan dates, Otaki and Hawera now possibly same days as Marlbourough nterestingly they now are thinking most Southern meetings in Spring autumn and Winter now moving to Sundays, seems to me the guys setting dates are just clutching at straws as it's only since Xmas has Sunday have the busier days so how will they know if they are financially successful, will they ever settle or just keep guessing ?