Programming

[goldilocks]

Surely the running of the Harness 5000 at Ashburton  and Invercargill Cup day on the same weekend was the biggest blunder HRNZ has made.Tha available  horse pool was badly split between the 2 meetings.

 

 

[mikeynz]

33 minutes ago, goldilocks said:

Surely the running of the Harness 5000 at Ashburton  and Invercargill Cup day on the same weekend was the biggest blunder HRNZ has made.Tha available  horse pool was badly split between the 2 meetings.

 

 

I'm not alone in thinking that it seems, also Westport are slowly being squeezed out by some weird programming, Nelson ain't helped by Timaru 2 days earlier but also ain't helped by day 2 being mile racing, still no good complaining, the people in charge know what their doing, so they think.

Edited December 22 by mikeynz

[Brodie]

31 minutes ago, goldilocks said:

Surely the running of the Harness 5000 at Ashburton  and Invercargill Cup day on the same weekend was the biggest blunder HRNZ has made.Tha available  horse pool was badly split between the 2 meetings.

 

 

Definitely a programming blunder without doubt, but they have made much bigger ones!

When Entain was brought in by the TAB, signed off by McAnulty and Dean Shannon and Brad Steele brought in, many had a lot of optimism!

How wrong it has been proven, and things are not looking at all good, unless someone can come on and tell us that things are going good??????

 

[mikeynz]

My issue with Westport is they produce one of the biggest turnover of any Harness day yet the money they generate gets squandered elsewhere, bumping stakes for their main pacers race and readjusting Motukararas main race might help, just demoting their main races seems a simple cop out.

Interestingly Cambridge this week, the only meeting in the North are good fields numbers wise, I wonder if the penny will drop with the  hierarchy, Cambridge are heading the same way as Forbury, more and more poor meetings with poor fields, running half the days with better fields would make more sense.......Forbury once had  the best racing there, when they stopped and started running below average meetings  it just died a slow death, see how the interest returned in Rugby in Dunedin when they won the Shield and most of the NPC games as well, lesson is sell the public a good product, they will get on board.

[Shad]

4 hours ago, mikeynz said:

My issue with Westport is they produce one of the biggest turnover of any Harness day yet the money they generate gets squandered elsewhere, bumping stakes for their main pacers race and readjusting Motukararas main race might help, just demoting their main races seems a simple cop out.

Interestingly Cambridge this week, the only meeting in the North are good fields numbers wise, I wonder if the penny will drop with the  hierarchy, Cambridge are heading the same way as Forbury, more and more poor meetings with poor fields, running half the days with better fields would make more sense.......Forbury once had  the best racing there, when they stopped and started running below average meetings  it just died a slow death, see how the interest returned in Rugby in Dunedin when they won the Shield and most of the NPC games as well, lesson is sell the public a good product, they will get on board.

Yes turnover very high, be interesting this year poor fields, and weather forecast not looking great, hopefully it changes.

[mikeynz]

2 hours ago, Shad said:

Yes turnover very high, be interesting this year poor fields, and weather forecast not looking great, hopefully it changes.

This meeting is being demoted in some ways and more than likely it does affect the turnover, better fields better betting.

[Shad]

35 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

This meeting is being demoted in some ways and more than likely it does affect the turnover, better fields better betting.

Yeah bloody shame as always a popular meeting, looking through the fields be a struggle to find a winner, Ultimate Counsel tad unlucky last start, no champ but handy draw will help, old boy evidently pick something up over the circuit, let year the Mitchell's bought horses to Westport I think for the first time, I got on to Sinai Sermon, 25s Westport 40s Reefton, done the double, although was the March meeting, always seem to have a win at Reefton, Sinai now been exported to China, was a half brother to Lazarus.

[mikeynz]

Have said it before New Years eve is not the right date for the Auckland Cup, only 2 southerners  nominated, Omakau on Jan 2 is better for southerners, me thinks Auckland Cup should be in March leading up to the slots meeting, Auckland stuffed things up moving in the first place.

[mikeynz]

It looks like only 2 South Island trained horses at A Park on Wednesday, the Dunns, Telfers and House runners are all trained there, no doubt the increase in stakes is driving the numbers, it is a business so you do what's best for it so  Omakau don't have any impediments regarding numbers for their 2 free for alls, whether they get many that remains to be seen, sometimes they just ain't there at times for various reasons.

[mikeynz]

A rather strange quirck of the programing at Westport, day 1,  4 trots, day 2 just 3, 11 races, now 10 on day 2 which is good as opposed to many of the gallops but 2 small fields of non winners strange.

Also listening to zb sport review of the year, fuck that Scott Robertson waffles a lot of meaningless shit.

Edited Saturday at 11:20 PM by mikeynz

[Shad]

6 hours ago, mikeynz said:

A rather strange quirck of the programing at Westport, day 1,  4 trots, day 2 just 3, 11 races, now 10 on day 2 which is good as opposed to many of the gallops but 2 small fields of non winners strange.

Also listening to zb sport review of the year, fuck that Scott Robertson waffles a lot of meaningless shit.

A few more trots if ya cant find a winner, was heading that way myself, till samvasa got me out of a pickle.

[paleface adios]

On 12/22/2025 at 1:21 PM, Brodie said:

Definitely a programming blunder without doubt, but they have made much bigger ones!

When Entain was brought in by the TAB, signed off by McAnulty and Dean Shannon and Brad Steele brought in, many had a lot of optimism!

How wrong it has been proven, and things are not looking at all good, unless someone can come on and tell us that things are going good??????

 

Good fields today  Brodster  at the mot hope your on course  take advantage of the  good  cellphone  reception i see the mare of doyleston got live chance or 2 old biff

[Brodie]

15 minutes ago, paleface adios said:

Good fields today  Brodster  at the mot hope your on course  take advantage of the  good  cellphone  reception i see the mare of doyleston got live chance or 2 old biff

Yes good punting fields to make money today!

Reality is the TAB don’t want the bigger wagering punters!!

TAB wanting  to increase turnover is bollacks!

[mikeynz]

Being a work day for some, be interesting to compare turnover as opposed to last year a Sunday........the figures I read from last year's Taupo and Kurow gallops dropped notably when they lost a weekend day, just the way the days fall sometimes...........Westport did more than 1.4 mill on boxing day, will Auckland match it on Wednesday?

[mikeynz]

In 2020 Westport set the record for a grass track meeting, not far from getting to the 2mil, ii races but notably 13 ran in the Westport Cup, recently they have struggled for numbers in the main race  through bad programming and the turnover has dropped accordingly, HRNZ need to address this anomaly or has the horse already bolted?

Nelson next week will be affected by Timaru racing 2 days before them, I note Nelson objected in the draft calendar but HRNZ didn't take notice.......also Omakau objected to Auckland Cup returning to  new years eve, that was thrown out too, only one southern horse has ventured north this time, if HRNZ are keen to boost stakes then bulk up Westport, Omakau and Nelson's main races, Auckland new years eve, no issue with that but the Cup should be in march, and try and get co operation with Oz too, I thought Auckland Cup might be good in January but their is a circuit of racing in Oz leading to the Hunter Cup but in March, leads in nicely to the slots and you can attract ozzies over for while, mind you if they keep winning everything then maybe the locals might not want them at all lol.

[the galah]

1 hour ago, mikeynz said:

In 2020 Westport set the record for a grass track meeting, not far from getting to the 2mil, ii races but notably 13 ran in the Westport Cup, recently they have struggled for numbers in the main race  through bad programming and the turnover has dropped accordingly, HRNZ need to address this anomaly or has the horse already bolted?

Nelson next week will be affected by Timaru racing 2 days before them, I note Nelson objected in the draft calendar but HRNZ didn't take notice.......also Omakau objected to Auckland Cup returning to  new years eve, that was thrown out too, only one southern horse has ventured north this time, if HRNZ are keen to boost stakes then bulk up Westport, Omakau and Nelson's main races, Auckland new years eve, no issue with that but the Cup should be in march, and try and get co operation with Oz too, I thought Auckland Cup might be good in January but their is a circuit of racing in Oz leading to the Hunter Cup but in March, leads in nicely to the slots and you can attract ozzies over for while, mind you if they keep winning everything then maybe the locals might not want them at all lol.

blaming poor programming for westports small numbers seems misplaced to me.

Isn't it obvious,the reason you the bigger fields in canterbury and the numbers are dropping off in westport,is because people are just racing where they prefer to race.Thats the way programming should work. Provide races where the demand for them is.

then,isn't accomodation very hard to come by over the coast.Of course  theres other other factors as well.

so the small fields just reflect the supply and demand thing. 

as to saying nelson wasn't happy with timaru.

What were you wanting,another methven/kaikoura type thing where they don't hold a canterbury meeting so as to get more horses running at nelson.Suggesting that suggests you want owners options limited so as to encourage them to spend big bucks  travelling to race  where they don't want to race.That just makes no sense to me.

the mares races that hrnz have been promoting for nelson.big deal,so they may get another 1 or 2 starters in those races. What a waste of sdtakemoney that could have been distributed to more needy industry participants in canterbury racing who provided the horses that resulted in the big turnover at motukarara.Maybe nelson having a moan about the dates like you mentioned was why hrnz came up with the mares races thing. Thats the way hrnz seems to work.Through money at whoever it is having the latest moan to placate them.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by the galah

[Taku Umanga]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

then,isn't accomodation very hard to come by over the coast

Accommodation over the Xmas period on the coast is a nightmare - I think most people rebook every year meaning for someone new to the circuit trying to secure something is very difficult

[Taku Umanga]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

blaming poor programming for westports small numbers seems misplaced to me.

Isn't it obvious,the reason you the bigger fields in canterbury and the numbers are dropping off in westport,is because people are just racing where they prefer to race.Thats the way programming should work. Provide races where the demand for them is.

then,isn't accomodation very hard to come by over the coast.Of course  theres other other factors as well.

so the small fields just reflect the supply and demand thing. 

as to saying nelson wasn't happy with timaru.

What were you wanting,another methven/kaikoura type thing where they don't hold a canterbury meeting so as to get more horses running at nelson.Suggesting that suggests you want owners options limited so as to encourage them to spend big bucks  travelling to race  where they don't want to race.That just makes no sense to me.

the mares races that hrnz have been promoting for nelson.big deal,so they may get another 1 or 2 starters in those races. What a waste of sdtakemoney that could have been distributed to more needy industry participants in canterbury racing who provided the horses that resulted in the big turnover at motukarara.Maybe nelson having a moan about the dates like you mentioned was why hrnz came up with the mares races thing. Thats the way hrnz seems to work.Through money at whoever it is having the latest moan to placate them.

 

Nelson programming mainly mile races on the second day is a turn off - long way to travel to race just the first day ... and like the coast, accommodation options at this time of year are scarce unless you rebooked the year before.

Edited 1 hour ago by Taku Umanga