Auckland Friday night- should they race??

[Brodie]

4 hours ago, the galah said:

i get why the auckland people continue to fight for whats best for auckland.

thats the way it should be.

But as to mr steele. This is what barry lichter reports he said at that meeting.

what you have to do with mr steele is realise what he says and what he does are often 2 different things.

so he said, he has no bias but his job was to ensure harness racing flourishes,particularly in the north island. he says nz needs 3 training centres,but his number 1 priority is the north island.

so he recognises nz needs 3 training centres.(i believe they need 2,the other in canterbury.I have no idea where he thinks the other training centre should be).

But effectively what mr steele has done, is support the direction of funds HRNZ could tap into,to auckland,thus undermining any plans for HRNZ to use funds to purchase land and put  training centres in the other 2 parts of nz that he said needs it.

so mr steeles actions show he does have a bias and his words are a contradiction.

he says population base is why he thinks the north island can flourish.

Auckland people have used that as a talking point to rally support to their cause,i have no problem with that. But i really believe only dumb people believe that,as its so blatantly obvious that auckland harness racing has in the last 3 decades shrunk big time while the population has expanded. like, if population was a favourable factor,then wheres the proof. If you use logical thinking,population growth in auckland is part of the problem.I could refer to several negative issues impacting auckland harness racing caused by population growth. Can anyone name one positive?

i mean,mr steele should realise just because someone repeats something over and over doesn't it make it true. It may make more people think its true,but it still ain't true.

why are they spending 20 million on a piece of ground they don't own. No doubt they will spend millions more in the future maintaining it.

if they really do have access to 10's of millions of $ then they should be buying land,especially just out of christchurch .

They need to have a plan where they set up 2 training centres which can be transformed into future racetracks in 10-15 years times,so that they cash up aleaxandra park and addington and move ,thus ensuring a future of the sport. What HRNZ have done is support a plan that virtually takes that off the table. I mean,its not only mr steele that has no vision,its the whole board at hrnz. 

the training centres should be  set up in a way where parcels of land,of varying shapes and sizes, within that training centre are available  for both leasing and leasing with a right of purchase on the understanding that if someone does purchase land within that area that the land purpose must be for harness racing and that, in the event of any future sale by a purchaser ,hrnz has the right to either buy back or can approve any future buyer. Thus maintaining the control of the purpose of the  training centre.In effect using harness racing participants funds to make a training centre more affordable.

this investing over 20 million on somethg you don't own is typical hrnz think. again it illustrates they only think 5 years ahead and really don't have the intelligence to ensure the sport of harness racing continues in a viable way.

as to mr steele saying "we need to get the north island pumping". i wonder if he really believes tha can happen..Hey ,maybe he really does belive that. nah,i think he knows that won't happen.

finally,I think of a trainer in auckland . they are now going to get all those new facilities,get to run in small fields with good stakes,the warmer weather and all the things tabman referred to.

It got me thinking.If your a trainer in canterbury or southland ,who's currently getting up on these cold winter mornings and walks out into the paddocks gumboot high of mud,who trains their horses on frosty tracks,who has to maintain their own track and stables,who can see their owners no longer breeding so they will most likely have to send the wife out to work soon,and to be even handed,also send the mother in law out to work for that matter if shes living on the property.

Then i think auckland might need to spend an extra 10 million on those new auckland facilities for the influx of trainers As why struggle when life could be so much easier in auckland.

Heres a suggestion,that new auckland facilty seems to be an ideal place to put in an olympic size swimming pool where the trainers can lounge around in their swim wear ,watching one of the big screen tv's that the atc have bought for them.Given harness people seemingly are quite a randy lot from all the stories i've heard over the years,with the wife and mother in law away earning,they could have a young female(i had better not say stablehand as thats stereotyping),  rub a bit of sunblock on their backs (and tummies for the randy ones).The only issue i can see is,they may doze off on the lazy friday afternoons and there may be a few late sctaching at the ribbon of light.

HRNZ are going to do what they want to, even though their decision making does seem very poor, if they are looking to have harness racing in NZ survive.

 Not much point commenting as they do not seem to want to do best for the industry and unfortunately it will not end well.

Thought that with Entain bailing racing out by dishing out hundreds of millions and a new HRNZ CEO that it was an opportunity to improve things and ensure harness could get back on track!

Very disappointed for harness in NZ!

Edited Friday at 07:36 AM by Brodie

[mikeynz]

6 races at Cambridge, 7 Auckland, could easily alternate venues One day a week, some of those CD trainers do go to Cambridge, not Auckland, who can blame them ? interestingly rating 46 racing a rating 75 in main pace on same mark is weird.

[mikeynz]

141 noms Winton,  one day

108 starters Auckland, Cambridge 2 days, just a observation.

[TAB For Ever]

On 7/25/2025 at 9:53 AM, Blackie said:

TAB, if you keep looking backwards you’ll get a sore neck. Canterbury not exactly flying either, need to remodel the whole god damn thing to survive.
Addington will get pushed out in years to come, just the way things go. So what if the 70 yr olds don’t want to travel, they aren’t the future. Lack of numbers every metric so need a reset.

 

And I thought it was arthritis in the neck.

I really can't fathom why something from 'left field' hasnt been done to increase horses ,with urgency in North !  All Stars were somehow lured back and RDunn [on Board] maintains a few in his stable but breeding bonus' and next Gen stuff and TAB Racing Club is bit of a slow burn !

And the Club not really pushing it...Golden Gait sounds good ,and is for the few horses that benefit by winning the final .....no real push to attract more owners etc or attendees to races with the fewer races and tiny fields poor for turnover.

I don't think the Club even has a Marketing/Promotions person and has a 'temporary ' CEO........just hanging on while selling up things to reduce the debt which grows by the day.

The facility in the City has a lot going for it and the population continues to grow but it seems less and less people care !

It would be totally irresponsible of HRNZ to give up on the region for Harness Racing. BSteele has really only been in the job for 5 x mins and he is employed by a Board who surely do not want to give up on Auckland ! Then Entain have been a huge influence since saving Harness and racing in General in NZ.

They made it very clear they saw the future prospects of resuscitating Auckland  ,any hope on that would seem reliant on the various key outfits working together and this just not evident at moment.

I notice Aussie harness runs many ,many meetings with very low stakes ...eg $6000 and lower !

And I see the young energetic CEO of Cambridge is leaving ......maybe he going back to Auckland to start the revival , branching out ?

[the galah]

22 hours ago, TAB For Ever said:

And I thought it was arthritis in the neck.

I really can't fathom why something from 'left field' hasnt been done to increase horses ,with urgency in North !  All Stars were somehow lured back and RDunn [on Board] maintains a few in his stable but breeding bonus' and next Gen stuff and TAB Racing Club is bit of a slow burn !

And the Club not really pushing it...Golden Gait sounds good ,and is for the few horses that benefit by winning the final .....no real push to attract more owners etc or attendees to races with the fewer races and tiny fields poor for turnover.

I don't think the Club even has a Marketing/Promotions person and has a 'temporary ' CEO........just hanging on while selling up things to reduce the debt which grows by the day.

The facility in the City has a lot going for it and the population continues to grow but it seems less and less people care !

It would be totally irresponsible of HRNZ to give up on the region for Harness Racing. BSteele has really only been in the job for 5 x mins and he is employed by a Board who surely do not want to give up on Auckland ! Then Entain have been a huge influence since saving Harness and racing in General in NZ.

They made it very clear they saw the future prospects of resuscitating Auckland  ,any hope on that would seem reliant on the various key outfits working together and this just not evident at moment.

I notice Aussie harness runs many ,many meetings with very low stakes ...eg $6000 and lower !

And I see the young energetic CEO of Cambridge is leaving ......maybe he going back to Auckland to start the revival , branching out ?

the field size thing is so obviously caused by the small number of horses trained in the northern region.

so no point expecting anything to change in that respect.

so the real question is are they going to continue to dilute the product be running the number of races they do.

i understand the reasons they are trying to run more meetings,there are several positives for doing so, but there are also many negatives, such as diluting the product which leads to a less attractive betting product which leads to less turnover and greater losses ,given the stake level being paid..

really ,realistically the current  way they are doing things is obviously unsustainable. Its surprising that those in charge have not already realised the obvious.Hopefully theres a workable compromised solution in a different form that maintains the positives and reduces the negatives.

However ,hrnz seem to be doubling down on unsustainable and have instead expanded the running of more meetings everywhere. Just look at southland,they run extra meetings over the winter and claim thats an overall success,wothout even knowing how that will impact horse numbers or longevity,over the next 12 months. And of course they also need to evaluate whether the extra southland meeting turn into profit or loss generating for the industry. 

from a betting point of view. I'm not a big punter anymore,but i have changed my focus over the last 12 months to south island galloping meetings,because they are a far better betting product. Especially the synthetic track meetings as the form is very consisten, with the fuller fields and being run on consistent track conditions. The grass tracks are consistent enough as well,you just have to categorise the form based around prevailing traxck conditions.I would rather prioritise the harness,but 7 horse harness races run on tracks with a leaders bias and with a $2 favorite just don't compare the 12 horse galloping races with  $5 favorite,like you get currently in the south island.

The south island gallops have stakes almost double what you get in harness and over double in betting pools for comparable races, because they haven't diluted the product with excess race meetings.

Edited 18 hours ago by the galah