CD Track Woes

[jess]

Things are getting desperate.  Tracks dropping like flies (for various reasons) - and as the few remaining options do their best to soak up the racing programme - and winter approaches - I expect some of these will fall victim to the increased frequency of racing.   

There are race-days scheduled for the Awapuni AWT starting this month - will these go ahead?  If so, how well patronised will they be? I don't know the answers.

It feels like we're playing musical chairs on the Titanic -whilst chairs are being heaved overboard one at a time - and the players are increasingly desperate to find a chair with fewer & fewer available.  And a feeling of impending doom pervades the deck, with the fear that the whole ship may shortly succumb to the stormy seas & sink without trace.      

Something I wondered about in terms of a short term measure - where we have some serviceable & safe tracks currently used for training - could we use these for racing?  I don't know enough about all the venues but I imagine it would be a bridge too far to invite the public to attend some of these where the public facilities have long since fallen into disrepair.  But would it be possible to accommodate the essential participants(& steeds) at some of these venues - sans public entry?   So at least provide racing for the TV audience, the punters, the trainers & the owners.    It may not be feasible but don't we have to start at least considering some options? 

To the executive team & the CEO who tells us he is so "excited" to lead us all into the future - now would be a good time to show some leadership, initiative, innovation - & start earning those handsome salaries doing something other than just talking their talk & issuing spin via the Corporate Communications Team.   

Much more of this & I reckon a lot of CD owners will start thinking of just cutting their losses & turning their horses out. 

Cometh the hour - cometh the man?  Haven't seen it yet but ever hopeful ....needs to happen soon though ...

J

 

[Huey]

If the tracks that arent being used need to be used they should tell the industry to get stuffed!

They'll only be getting used by an industry that never gave a stuff about them in the first place.

Get those chickens home to roost an industry that deserves everything it has coming to it!

[Special Agent]

14 hours ago, Huey said:

Get those chickens home to roost an industry that deserves everything it has coming to it!

Not everyone in the industry has agreed with decisions made.

[Special Agent]

15 hours ago, jess said:

Something I wondered about in terms of a short term measure - where we have some serviceable & safe tracks currently used for training - could we use these for racing?   

Much more of this & I reckon a lot of CD owners will start thinking of just cutting their losses & turning their horses out. 

The obvious ones are Stratford, Foxton, Levin and Waipukurau.  Has the CEO been to any of those for a first hand look?

CD owners and trainers are visibly angry and already talking pulling the pin and looking for alternative employment.

[mikeynz]

3 hours ago, Special Agent said:

 

CD owners and trainers are visibly angry and already talking pulling the pin and looking for alternative employment.

Would many of those trainers be employable in any other field?

 

In many ways Harness Racing is missing a trick, they could promote themselves jn many ways as in offering owners the knowledge with all weather tracks they are guaranteed racing all year round,Southland finishes gallops next week but the trots go right through but most of the galloping trainers in the South race small teams, more than likely semi pro, they have a 8 month season, you sometimes wonder with all the issues with tracks in the CD if they would be best to scale right back in winter.

But you could also counter that the reason so many meetings get called off is because everyone's got niggly about health and safety, maybe in the old days they raced on tracks exactly the same and possibly worse but times were different then

[Special Agent]

45 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

Would many of those trainers be employable in any other field?

They are no different to anyone else in New Zealand who has been made redundant, and would have to learn.

With menial jobs, if you can get one, at least you know what day you get paid.

[jess]

I've been thinking about all the turmoil - the tracks - the abandonments - the increasingly challenging environment for industry participants - starting with the owners.  I can't help thinking how stark & "loud" the silence from the leadership is becoming.  We get carefully crafted responses to each catastrophe or "incident" signed by "Corporate Communications Team" - but where it the response to what is growing into somewhat of a crisis?

Apologies if that's over-dramatic - but I guess I'd just expect more than just one-off, knee-jerk responses every time we lurch from one "oopsie" to the next.  Given an organisation of this size - with what's at stake - with the number of people whose employment relies upon it - with the infrastructure owned - the size & salaries of its management - I would have hoped for a more strategic response - encompassing short, medium & long term strategies. 

J.  

Edited yesterday at 12:36 AM by jess
typo

[Wingman]

Most of the people involved as they lurch from one 'oopsie' to the next have been in a senior position for many years. As long as that remains the same then the hope of a more strategic response is futile.

[jess]

1 hour ago, Wingman said:

Most of the people involved as they lurch from one 'oopsie' to the next have been in a senior position for many years. As long as that remains the same then the hope of a more strategic response is futile.

... & the newly minted ones won't be around long enough to be held accountable for their performance (or lack of)  ... `tis the way of the world ....onward & upward to the next executive role - & never a backward glance.

From what I can see - CEOs are the ultimate in recycled resources ....    

[Wingman]

So recycling is getting a bad name?😁

[jess]

Recycling - sustainability - you know, Wingers - all that present-day stuff 😝  "One CEO fits all" - don't have to know what kind of widgets ya makin' - pokies - toothpaste - burgers - a whole nation's TB racing industry - same difference ya know.  Pop it on the CV - update your Linked In profile - cash the cheques (ka-ching!) - & move right along.

It's the core skills that count.  Apparently ....   

Edited yesterday at 09:42 AM by jess

[Dark Beau]

13 minutes ago, jess said:

Recycling - sustainability - you know, Wingers - all that present-day stuff 😝  "One CEO fits all" - don't have to know what kind of widgets ya makin' - pokies - toothpaste - burgers - a whole nation's TB racing industry - same difference ya know.  Pop it on the CV - update your Linked In profile - cash the cheques (ka-ching!) - & move right along.

It's the core skills that count.  Apparently ....   

Yes, Jess it’s so sad. Like seagulls, they fly in, shit all over the place and then leave. 
When Alan Fenwick retired from NZTR the next CEO (Bittar) turned out exactly that and every encumbrance ever since has been the same. Tell me otherwise. 
P.S. I would love to run a book on who was the worst.

Give me your thoughts 😂

 

 

[Chief Stipe]

39 minutes ago, Dark Beau said:

Yes, Jess it’s so sad. Like seagulls, they fly in, shit all over the place and then leave. 
When Alan Fenwick retired from NZTR the next CEO (Bittar) turned out exactly that and every encumbrance ever since has been the same. Tell me otherwise. 
P.S. I would love to run a book on who was the worst.

Give me your thoughts 😂

 

 

Meanwhile you wined and dined in the members stand and watched Trentham slowly degrade into oblivion.  I guess you were hapless to change the pattern but just raced your horses anyway.

[Shab]

On 5/3/2025 at 8:35 AM, Special Agent said:

The obvious ones are Stratford, Foxton, Levin and Waipukurau.  Has the CEO been to any of those for a first hand look?

Wouldn't know anything about what he was looking at.

[Murray Fish]

9 hours ago, Dark Beau said:

CEO (Bittar)

I found Paul did have a answer if you asked him directly.

[Doomed]

13 hours ago, Dark Beau said:

Yes, Jess it’s so sad. Like seagulls, they fly in, shit all over the place and then leave. 
When Alan Fenwick retired from NZTR the next CEO (Bittar) turned out exactly that and every encumbrance ever since has been the same. Tell me otherwise. 
P.S. I would love to run a book on who was the worst.

Give me your thoughts 😂

 

 

NZTR didn't used to have nearly the responsibilities back then that they do now, due to the whole structure of the industry being totally changed.

And back then there were several highly competent racing club secretaries with deep racing knowledge who used to keep the various regions ticking away quite happily, despite a few rogue clubs and personalities. Now there is very little knowledge or competent leadership at club and regional level, and fly by night leadership at national level. The worst possible combination really.

I doubt very much that Awapuni would be the mess it is now if Bill Freeman and Jack Bennet were still running things in PN.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Doomed said:

I doubt very much that Awapuni would be the mess it is now if Bill Freeman and Jack Bennet were still running things in PN.

So Freeman and Bennet were managing the maintenance of the Awapuni track and ensuring there was adequate funding for it?

[Freda]

In the 70's, 80's......and on...very probably.

[Doomed]

31 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

So Freeman and Bennet were managing the maintenance of the Awapuni track and ensuring there was adequate funding for it?

Yes. 

I don't imagine they were out on the tractor themselves, but they would have employed the people to do it, and if those people cocked it up they wouldn't have lasted long.

I don't recall any problems with the Awapuni track from the late 70s through the early 90s. I don't recall an abandonment. And I think Noel Eales would have given them the message if there was any over watering. It was a magnificent track that used to host a lot of top racing.

It would be a fairly contrary person who tried to claim racing is better run now than it was back then. Most people can still remember Grey Way's Awapuni Gold Cup. I couldn't tell you who won this years, nor what track it was raced on.

And do remember, stakes could have been doubled back in that period if they had decided not to spend anything on grandstands and race tracks.

Edited 12 hours ago by Doomed

[Chief Stipe]

3 hours ago, Doomed said:

It would be a fairly contrary person who tried to claim racing is better run now than it was back then. Most people can still remember Grey Way's Awapuni Gold Cup. I couldn't tell you who won this years, nor what track it was raced on.

If you look at videos and pictures of the 1976 Awapuni Gold Cup you can see that the track already had issues.  Note only 5 starters.

[Chief Stipe]

3 hours ago, Doomed said:

I don't imagine they were out on the tractor themselves, but they would have employed the people to do it, and if those people cocked it up they wouldn't have lasted long.

I don't recall any problems with the Awapuni track from the late 70s through the early 90s. I don't recall an abandonment. And I think Noel Eales would have given them the message if there was any over watering. It was a magnificent track that used to host a lot of top racing.

By the late 80's it was stuffed.  SFA was done to maintain it.  The grass sward was aged, the soil was compacted and  its structure was gone.  As the 2000's progressed the turf system started to collapse completely hence the emergence of all the issues.  It was never rested and never adequately rejuvenated.  Old school pasture farmers.  

[Murray Fish]

59 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

If you look at videos and pictures of the 1976 Awapuni Gold Cup you can see that the track already had issues.  Note only 5 starters.

I was oncourse for that race!

100% the track was not watered!

 

[Chief Stipe]

6 minutes ago, Murray Fish said:

I was oncourse for that race!

100% the track was not watered!

 

Irrigation has never been the issue.  Unfortunately it has to be used more often now to ameliorate underlying issues.

[Doomed]

https://nz.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=grey+way+awapuni+gold+cup&type=E210US739G0#id=1&vid=83ea53f635f734caee0ca048a582da85&action=click

[Doomed]

One of my favourite races. Track seemed to play ok to me. 5 starters but all reasonable types. Easter Cup only had 4 on Saturday.

It's pointless trying to debate track maintenance with me. I know absolutely nothing about that sort of thing.  I hop on my ride on mower and turn the key and go around in circles. That is the extent of my grass knowledge.