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Bit Of A Yarn

Bye Bye Manawatu and Dunedin GH tracks


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18 minutes ago, Lad27 said:

https://www.grnz.co.nz/News/2540/Revised-Draft-Calendar-for-Next-Season-Released

Otago probably gone, Southland downsized. Will hurt a certain trainer more than covid 19 did.

So i was right then.Your right it will hurt that trainer and push him back to CHCH with everything,Its going to be interesting to see if CHCH can handle the back to back meetings.The two safer tracks otago and southland pretty much gone with no choice now its back to CHCH for everything.

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Personally I dont think the chch track will handle 4 meetings a week.

What if there is a massive storm or another bloody earthquake?

Southland will have 5 normal 12 card meetings and 33 mini meetings which I understand are 3 races. 

Rita need to look at their top heavy management structure first. Frontera did a chop chop of that a wee while ago. 

As for grnz it use to be run by five or six  now 11 according to their own site. As for a I.T. person mmmm they ran from facebook for years.

 

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11 hours ago, Lad27 said:

Personally I dont think the chch track will handle 4 meetings a week.

What if there is a massive storm or another bloody earthquake?

Southland will have 5 normal 12 card meetings and 33 mini meetings which I understand are 3 races. 

Rita need to look at their top heavy management structure first. Frontera did a chop chop of that a wee while ago. 

As for grnz it use to be run by five or six  now 11 according to their own site. As for a I.T. person mmmm they ran from facebook for years.

 

It’s common knowledge that there needs to be another track in Christchurch, but at the moment there’s not and one would say realistically there probably won’t be 1 ready in the next 12 months at least. Like you lad I can’t see addington handling 4 meetings a week every week, so something would need to change. By removing dates out of Otago/Southland the opportunities for dogs who don’t like addington are gone currently until something else is built and also the chance for the middle to higher graded dogs to run out nominations like is currently possible in both districts in the north. As for the big trainer who it will hurt the most, his dogs will flood back into addington as has been pointed out in another post here therefore pushing out those smaller trainers. If it was me making the decision about the South Island I would be having Southland run every 2nd week like they were pre Covid until there is an alternate venue up and running in Christchurch. 

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1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

Does anyone know why all three codes - gallops, harness and greyhounds - have been shafted by the new calendars?  

Travel and centralisation. To decrease costs Trackside teams will be reduced to the bare minimum. Centralisation will allow those teams to base in one region. The cost of producing coverage vs the benefits gained was no longer viable. Personale, equipment, trucks, accommodation and transport costs are extremely high. All production costs had to be slashed. Trackside will no longer be able to service areas outside the zones.

Moving people, dogs and horses between regions is also a problem when looking at the future biosecurity of racing and the general public. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the need to keep racing regional. Preventing the spread of both human and animal viruses is a priority for the government, and would have been stressed to the various government departments. COVID will not be the last pandemic we see, of that you can be assured. Regional control may make it possible for racing to continue in one region while halted in another. This makes great financial sense.

Waikato and Christchurch are the two main racing centres. Both have high numbers of trainers and both accommodate all three codes. Winston's original plan to build a state of the art all-weather track in these two regions is genius. If the codes could have agreed on the Waikato build, the resulting tri-code complex would have been a world-class showcase. Sharing facilities and costs is a no brainer, but, true to form the idea was stymied by the ego of those who could not look to the future. That lack of foresight could prove fatal in the not so distant future. I believe more club and track closures will follow at the end of the 2021 season. Every club needs to be looking at how they will survive the future. It makes far more sense to look at amalgamating now and pooling resources. The alternative is death.

Roll on to the Manawatu. Winston has pledged funds for an all-weather track. This is a perfect opportunity for the 3 codes to come together and build that complex that should have got off the ground in Waikato. If ever there was an opportunity to future proof, here it is. TB is pulling itself if it believes they alone are the future of racing in the Manawatu. Together all are in a much stronger financial position. Having the facility utilised 7 days a week rather than a handful of dates per month should be seen as the only option. Not so long ago Manawatu/Trentham was all but declared bankrupt!

To be blunt, clubs need to pull their heads out of their arses if racing is to survive. The TAB and Racing Board have indeed wasted a vast amount of money, but they are not solely to blame for the crisis racing now finds itself in. Racing entities have been arguing amongst themselves for the last 20 years. I'm sick and tired of the "biggest dick" argument that continues today. As far as I am concerned they are all dicks! Just because a club was established 100 years ago doesn't equate to being viable now. Shake off the sand and move forward while you can.

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4 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

You didn't answer my question why did Dunedin/Otago get shafted?  Southland didn't.

Southland probably won't survive a year on reduced dates. Otago is a tennant, without harness it has no track. Rumour is Otago Harness are in financial strife. They should have closed Auckland. The list isn't final until mid June.

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