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Bit Of A Yarn

Are there signs of cracks in the Cambridge AWT training ranks?


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3 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Yes, a very strange situation. $120,000 of additional stakes added to this meeting. An incredible extravagance. Hard to see how it could be cost effective. They would need to sell a Dargaville racecourse just to fund one meeting like this. And all directed to maidens and recent maiden graduates. I would have thought that if they wanted to run a $40,000 race It might be an idea to make it an open sprint to give decent horses a warm up for the new season.

Obviously in the north it is intended to keep AWT racing and turf track racing totally separate with separate pools of horses. Decent horses only get to use it for track work and trials.

In the South it is a different approach, with AWT racing intended to replace grass track racing throughout the winter, other than the occasional bog meeting at Ricarton..

The more you think about it, $45m does seem to be a lot of money to cater exclusively to a lower tier of horses.

But hey NZ racing is surfing on a high wave of success at present , stakes are up , turnover eh ok not so great , horse numbers eh ok on the decline , but we do have a shinny new A/W . Flying .

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7 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Obviously in the north it is intended to keep AWT racing and turf track racing totally separate with separate pools of horses. Decent horses only get to use it for track work and trials.

 

Yeah well obviously once a horse has gone beyond it's grade on the A/W it has to revert heavy track racing to get its rating down , but not much money in that , only ever going to race for 10k , oops sorry 12k . Either that or retire it .

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55 minutes ago, nomates said:

But hey NZ racing is surfing on a high wave of success at present , stakes are up , turnover eh ok not so great , horse numbers eh ok on the decline , but we do have a shinny new A/W . Flying .

It's called "Momentum" coming to a provincial racecourse in spades in the not too distant future!!!

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18 minutes ago, Mark D said:

7 races today - yes you can call that sinking momentum - or fizzling out if you like

It is interesting , only 6 in the 65 sprint . It is the big opening bash so i would have thought they would have wanted to showcase it with more than 7 races .

Perhaps they were expecting more nom's so they could split , which has been the case for the previous meetings . The interesting thing for me was the lack of new blood trying the track , there has been plenty at the trials .

I have always said it is a specialist surface , very few horses will perform on it and wet grass tracks , there are the odd exceptions . 

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1 hour ago, nomates said:

So perhaps the shine is wearing off , only 7 races programmed again and the nom's not big enough to split any , which was a regular situation a couple of meetings back , only 6 for the 65 sprint again . Perhaps a lull before the new season .

Is there many meetings scheduled for the Spring/Summer months ? 

Be interesting to see how the noms are then I'd have thought.

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16 minutes ago, Huey said:

Is there many meetings scheduled for the Spring/Summer months ? 

Be interesting to see how the noms are then I'd have thought.

Yep running every fortnight right thru till mid October , so plenty of time to se how numbers hold up .

The one interesting thing i'm waiting on is a wet track , been very lucky with the weather so far , i would like to see how it plays on a very wet day .

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6 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Wouldn't there have to be?  How do they fund maintenance?  Increase trackwork and trial fees?

Trivial matters for an industry awash with cash like the NZ racing industry!

Be a real shame if over this period there is less grass track racing & more of this AWT, still can't stand watching it just so darn boring , despite my improvement in "positivity" through my self improvement audio tape course.

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11 minutes ago, Huey said:

despite my improvement in "positivity" through my self improvement audio tape course.

Have a couple of days off then repeat , i know it's tough being blindingly positive but believe me when you get it it will be NIRVANA , and you will be wondering why it took you so long to get on board .

And the great thing is you will then be able to read and fully understand the positive ones rantings , life doesn't get better . 

Well Ok yes it does .

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Can someone please explain or are there really cracks in the Cambridge AWT....

There are trials at Ellerslie TODAY - currently a Heavy 10 (as of yesterday) but I'm picking that after last nights storm the track will be more like a 14.

16 trials and over 105 horses going around including nearly all of the Te Akau elite.

I don't understand from an industry perspective what these trials serve other than giving Ellerslie some more revenue.

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5 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Can someone please explain or are there really cracks in the Cambridge AWT....

There are trials at Ellerslie TODAY - currently a Heavy 10 (as of yesterday) but I'm picking that after last nights storm the track will be more like a 14.

16 trials and over 105 horses going around including nearly all of the Te Akau elite.

I don't understand from an industry perspective what these trials serve other than giving Ellerslie some more revenue.

Interesting, I guess they can't risk the AWT day before the races, but ok day after?

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Actually if you live in Auckland I'd advise to head down to the trials you will get to see the best of the NZ horse population going around.

Probabeel
Palamos
Imperatriz
Quattra Quinta
Avantage
Prise de Fer
Entriviere
Amarelinha
Aeogon
Cornflower Blue
The Chosen One

Hell you might even see "NZ's most prolific tipster" @Thomass looking for blinkers and flank welts!

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49 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Can someone please explain or are there really cracks in the Cambridge AWT....

There are trials at Ellerslie TODAY - currently a Heavy 10 (as of yesterday) but I'm picking that after last nights storm the track will be more like a 14.

16 trials and over 105 horses going around including nearly all of the Te Akau elite.

I don't understand from an industry perspective what these trials serve other than giving Ellerslie some more revenue.

The bit i don't get , they wont race there during winter but are happy to run trials , fecked if i get it .

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4 minutes ago, nomates said:

The bit i don't get , they wont race there during winter but are happy to run trials , fecked if i get it .

Do they run on the course proper?

I would have thought that galloping 105 horses on a Heavy 10 wouldn't do the track any good for upcoming meetings.

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