Nothing new

[curious]

... and they can't even spell check the news release ffs.

Meeting News

Riccarton Park - Canterbury JC Synthetic Trials Cancelled

 

Riccarton Park - Canterbury JC Synthetic Trials have been cancelled due to insuffient entries. 

Edited April 7 by curious

[Freda]

One wonders how well patronized upcoming races are going to be.

[Chief Stipe]

Are trainers training on the Riccarton AWT?

Cambridge seems to be going gang busters.

Is the Riccarton AWT being maintained properly?

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

Are trainers training on the Riccarton AWT?

Cambridge seems to be going gang busters.

Is the Riccarton AWT being maintained properly?

Around the Waikato there are non stop grass track racing and trialing opportunities despite relatively small fields. The Cambridge AWT can be used as an option by those who wish to, as can Awapuni and the provincial Yaldhurst track.

Canterbury, and the SI, do not have non stop opportunities on the grass. They are trying to force trainers to use the AWT, which is hardly desirable. 35 horses missed a start at Ashburton last week. Several horses missed a start at Invercargill. Hardly anyone ever scratches out of a field in the South regardless of track conditions.

I am merely a casual observer and I notice these things. It appears that nobody from NZTR has noticed any particular problems with the current structure. 

And now we are moving into the lunatic phase where stakes drop to $17,000. You cannot tell me that a full field of horses racing for $17,000 does less turnover and is more of a drain on the industry than 4, 5 or 6 horses running for $40,000 or $50,000. I might be wrong of course. How would anyone know. We are never given access to turnover figures anymore. Apparently it is no-longer considered relevant.

[Chief Stipe]

18 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Around the Waikato there are non stop grass track racing and trialing opportunities despite relatively small fields. The Cambridge AWT can be used as an option by those who wish to

And looking at the trackwork reports which is just a snapshot of activity many trainers ARE using the AWT at Cambridge.  My point is you can't lump the 3 AWT's together.  There has been a disparity in maintenance at each of them that seems to correlate to resourcing and thus the outcome is in simplistic terms - the lower the resourcing, the less maintenance leading to less utilisation.

[Chief Stipe]

21 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Canterbury, and the SI, do not have non stop opportunities on the grass. They are trying to force trainers to use the AWT, which is hardly desirable. 35 horses missed a start at Ashburton last week. Several horses missed a start at Invercargill. Hardly anyone ever scratches out of a field in the South regardless of track conditions.

In my opinion you are now presenting a different issue.  I don't think there is any disagreement that the availability or rather utilisation of turf tracks and programming of meetings in the South Island is stuffed.  

What they may be trying to do is force trainers to use the AWT at Riccarton to improve its utilisation and therefore increase revenue but what they are doing is the exact opposite.  Creating more opportunities outside of the AWT would most likely increase the AWT utilisation.  Effectively though we have a downward spiral in a flat spin!

I must bump the debate we had on BOAY about the Riccarton AWT Business case.  One of the main Riccarton protagonists and supporter of the AWT @Pitman posted figures that the AWT was going to produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue through training alone.  It hasn't happened - what has happened maintenance wasn't kept up, a serious problem emerged and now we have NZTR subsidising the upkeep of the AWT's!!!

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

 

What they may be trying to do is force trainers to use the AWT at Riccarton to improve its utilisation and therefore increase revenue but what they are doing is the exact opposite.  Creating more opportunities outside of the AWT would most likely increase the AWT utilisation.  Effectively though we have a downward spiral in a flat spin!

 

Virtually the sole purpose of the AWT at Riccarton was to justify closing down tracks like Timaru, and other tracks in Canty. With tracks like Timaru, Oamaru and Waimate the SI already had access to decent winter surfaces.

Also, I happen to have been through Rangiora several times recently. That is a town that is really taking off. A functioning gallops track at Rangiora would be a boom for Canty racing, but that will never happen now as they have committed to the AWT as being the saviour of Canty racing.

[curious]

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

And looking at the trackwork reports which is just a snapshot of activity many trainers ARE using the AWT at Cambridge.  My point is you can't lump the 3 AWT's together.  There has been a disparity in maintenance at each of them that seems to correlate to resourcing and thus the outcome is in simplistic terms - the lower the resourcing, the less maintenance leading to less utilisation.

Yes and the original injury data showed that Awapuni and Riccarton was double that of Cambridge, though you have to be cautious about the low n. Still it backs up what you say.

[Chief Stipe]

24 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Virtually the sole purpose of the AWT at Riccarton was to justify closing down tracks like Timaru, and other tracks in Canty. With tracks like Timaru, Oamaru and Waimate the SI already had access to decent winter surfaces.

That may have been the hidden agenda based on flawed logic which has now been proven.  However the public agenda was to reduce the number of abandonments which has been an abject failure as well!

[Freda]

50 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

That may have been the hidden agenda based on flawed logic which has now been proven.  However the public agenda was to reduce the number of abandonments which has been an abject failure as well!

Yes.

Winston's logic - or what he was told - was that abandonments cost the industry dearly through loss of betting revenue.   We know however that the most profitable racemeetings are the ones that aren't held and have no costs whatsoever.

[Freda]

18 hours ago, Doomed said:

Virtually the sole purpose of the AWT at Riccarton was to justify closing down tracks like Timaru, and other tracks in Canty. With tracks like Timaru, Oamaru and Waimate the SI already had access to decent winter surfaces.

Also, I happen to have been through Rangiora several times recently. That is a town that is really taking off. A functioning gallops track at Rangiora would be a boom for Canty racing, but that will never happen now as they have committed to the AWT as being the saviour of Canty racing.

Yes.  I mentioned to more than a few,  post-earthquake, that with the movement and building development north of Christchurch, it made sense to support and develop the Rangiora facility and promote racing in that area.

All those new residents,  what would be nicer on a summer evening than a BBQ at the races, in pleasant surroundings?  Games, comps for the kids, pony races, you get the picture...

[Special Agent]

Are there a number of thoroughbreds trained there too?

Isn't this duplicating an Aussie template?

[curious]

23 minutes ago, Special Agent said:

Are there a number of thoroughbreds trained there too?

Yep. I'd say about 50 galloped there when I was there Saturday. I think it's the second largest training centre in the SI though I stand to be corrected on that.

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Special Agent said:

Are there a number of thoroughbreds trained there too?

Isn't this duplicating an Aussie template?

It's duplicating common sense.