NZTR Directions

[Reefton]

11 hours ago, Doomed said:

Why has there never been any attempt to expand the Reefton track? It does look as if there is room for a longer home straight and a bigger track over all.

Uncertainty over our future I guess.  And in days gone by our track was acceptable whereas now it doesn't cut the mustard(nobody is more aware of that than me)

Expanding it is a bit of a challenge as there is a road there we would need to shift and the area we own is a bit of an odd shape(not impossible to sort but potentially a bit of a challenge).

We would need a bit of cooperation from the local council(which I am sure will not be a problem - they are fairly racing sympathetic up Westport way)

And cost of course - while we own area around the outside some of it is down a bank and will need building up.  The local contractors help us(a lot!) where they can but the question is how far that help extends. 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Reefton

[Chief Stipe]

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Reefton said:

Uncertainty over our future I guess.  And in days gone by our track was acceptable whereas now it doesn't cut the mustard(nobody is more aware of that than me)

Expanding it is a bit of a challenge as there is a road there we would need to shift and the area we own is a bit of an odd shape(not impossible to sort but potentially a bit of a challenge).

We would need a bit of cooperation from the local council(which I am sure will not be a problem - they are fairly racing sympathetic up Westport way)

And cost of course - while we own area around the outside some of it is down a bank and will need building up.  The local contractors help us(a lot!) where they can but the question is how far that help extends. 

 

 

 

And a bit frustrating when you have to do it all yourselves when you see the more favoured clubs being told "here, have this money".

I see from the discussion paper there are quite a few developments planned for the next few years, quite a few tracks dug up and replaced, and sounds like a big spend on facilities at Trentham. Where the hell would you start doing up Trentham? And Riccarton still has its condemned public stand.

Amenities have certainly been neglected over the last 25 years or so. I'm not sure what the rationale was behind that, but it was certainly a major policy change.

[holy ravioli]

They keeping this one!

[Reefton]

49 minutes ago, Doomed said:

And a bit frustrating when you have to do it all yourselves when you see the more favoured clubs being told "here, have this money".

I see from the discussion paper there are quite a few developments planned for the next few years, quite a few tracks dug up and replaced, and sounds like a big spend on facilities at Trentham. Where the hell would you start doing up Trentham? And Riccarton still has its condemned public stand.

Amenities have certainly been neglected over the last 25 years or so. I'm not sure what the rationale was behind that, but it was certainly a major policy change.

We would rather do it ourselves in that we will not be subjected to the advice of the usual bunch of 'experts' inflicted on us by NZTR who will unquestionably cock it up.  Could possibly go to the Racing Safety Development Fund for some assistance though.

One issue is if you realign the bend out of the straight which is the tightest turn on the track you will either have the grandstand on the bend or have it at a strange angle to the straight.  We can't afford to build a new Grandstand and do the track as well so that is a bit of a problem unless the Council closes the road on the eastern side of the track and lets us expand out there(a definite possibility if they are keen to assist)

Anyway at the moment it has all got to happen and to be fair I am  not sure I have the enthusiasm to be bothered

 

[Reefton]

3 minutes ago, holy ravioli said:

They keeping this one!

yes well the crowds love the dump even if the jockeys don't. She would be on the softer side of a heavy 20 right now I would say

[Joe Bloggs]

2 hours ago, Doomed said:

And a bit frustrating when you have to do it all yourselves when you see the more favoured clubs being told "here, have this money".

I see from the discussion paper there are quite a few developments planned for the next few years, quite a few tracks dug up and replaced, and sounds like a big spend on facilities at Trentham. Where the hell would you start doing up Trentham? And Riccarton still has its condemned public stand.

Amenities have certainly been neglected over the last 25 years or so. I'm not sure what the rationale was behind that, but it was certainly a major policy change.

To get people to go to Trentham in numbers and continuously you'd need to perform about 300K lobotomies I'd reckon, better off running luxury shuttles with free food, dancing girls, and male strippers over the hill to Tauherenikau and do it right!

[nomates]

41 minutes ago, Joe Bloggs said:

To get people to go to Trentham in numbers and continuously you'd need to perform about 300K lobotomies I'd reckon, better off running luxury shuttles with free food, dancing girls, and male strippers over the hill to Tauherenikau and do it right!

Not sure that's enough , none of those float my boat .

Trentham is a white elephant now , sell take the money and build a purpose built facility north of Foxton , it future proofs racing in the CD , in a way that the new a/w wont , have they got the vision or the heart , doubtful .

[Joe Bloggs]

21 minutes ago, nomates said:

Not sure that's enough , none of those float my boat .

Trentham is a white elephant now , sell take the money and build a purpose built facility north of Foxton , it future proofs racing in the CD , in a way that the new a/w wont , have they got the vision or the heart , doubtful .

The only way that might happen NM is a broom, a clean out, starting at the very top, and until all the old faded gazillionaires AKA The Northern Cartel move on to that great drinking house in the sky it will remain status quo.

[The Centaur]

4 hours ago, Reefton said:

We would rather do it ourselves in that we will not be subjected to the advice of the usual bunch of 'experts' inflicted on us by NZTR who will unquestionably cock it up.  Could possibly go to the Racing Safety Development Fund for some assistance though.

One issue is if you realign the bend out of the straight which is the tightest turn on the track you will either have the grandstand on the bend or have it at a strange angle to the straight.  We can't afford to build a new Grandstand and do the track as well so that is a bit of a problem unless the Council closes the road on the eastern side of the track and lets us expand out there(a definite possibility if they are keen to assist)

Anyway at the moment it has all got to happen and to be fair I am  not sure I have the enthusiasm to be bothered

 

Looking at UK racing one gets the impression of wide open spaces, straight runs of 1600m, no residential areas in site, plenty spacious training tracks. Yet in NZ with a fraction of the population but equivalent land size everything seems cramped up, with no room to develop. 

Ashburton used to have the country's longest straight yet now regarded as a speed track with short run in. Why did Ashburton shorten its straight?

[Gospel of Judas]

22 hours ago, Doomed said:

Any totally impartial and intelligent consultant would identify Timaru as a crucial track in the SI: being centrally located, with room for expansion, a good racing surface and better winter weather than either Christchurch or Dunedin. So the consultants conclusions regarding Timaru will show how independent and skilled they are.

Depends on what the terms of engagement are, who they are favouring, what they measuring and what metric they are using. Never know with these reports untill come out and can see what been doing within the report.

[Gospel of Judas]

5 hours ago, Joe Bloggs said:

The only way that might happen NM is a broom, a clean out, starting at the very top, and until all the old faded gazillionaires AKA The Northern Cartel move on to that great drinking house in the sky it will remain status quo.

Seems be what call some "agent capture" within Racing. Will not happen untill they go.

[Doomed]

6 hours ago, The Centaur said:

Looking at UK racing one gets the impression of wide open spaces, straight runs of 1600m, no residential areas in site, plenty spacious training tracks. Yet in NZ with a fraction of the population but equivalent land size everything seems cramped up, with no room to develop. 

Ashburton used to have the country's longest straight yet now regarded as a speed track with short run in. Why did Ashburton shorten its straight?

I think the view at the time was that the track was too big and the public was too far away from the action. The current track is pretty much modelled on Ellerslie, but seems to favour front runners. The old back straight used to be miles away. I remember being there one day when the trots still raced on the grass and Hands Down won the last race. The fog rolled in and you only saw the horses about 150 metres from the finish.

[Doomed]

6 hours ago, nomates said:

Not sure that's enough , none of those float my boat .

Trentham is a white elephant now , sell take the money and build a purpose built facility north of Foxton , it future proofs racing in the CD , in a way that the new a/w wont , have they got the vision or the heart , doubtful .

It would certainly be very hard to justify spending millions to revitalise Trentham. It would probably take about $50m to clean the place up. The first thing they should do is follow the Ascot, Belmont model and only race there during the summer.

[nomates]

1 minute ago, Doomed said:

It would certainly be very hard to justify spending millions to revitalise Trentham. It would probably take about $50m to clean the place up. The first thing they should do is follow the Ascot, Belmont model and only race there during the summer.

That's all they are pretty much doing now and it's still boring as bat shit , the place and the racing is as a whole a shadow of it's former great glory . It's a monolith of a bygone era .

We had a discussion about this topic a few months ago , can't remember when exactly , but the jist of what i proposed was selling Trentham and Awapuni and build a new strathayr track north of Foxton , free draining soil , easy access , they could have racing there every 2 weeks or more whilst also utilizing other tracks in the district . They could also have training tracks with stabling , night racing ? Foxton close by for staff . Basically a facility that will future proof CD racing for the next 100 years .

Anyway never going to happen , building A/W at Awapuni suggests they see the future and it is bright , in their world , it will be a hard thump when these A/W's become millstones around their necks , but that's another debate .

[curious]

11 hours ago, nomates said:

That's all they are pretty much doing now and it's still boring as bat shit , the place and the racing is as a whole a shadow of it's former great glory . It's a monolith of a bygone era .

We had a discussion about this topic a few months ago , can't remember when exactly , but the jist of what i proposed was selling Trentham and Awapuni and build a new strathayr track north of Foxton , free draining soil , easy access , they could have racing there every 2 weeks or more whilst also utilizing other tracks in the district . They could also have training tracks with stabling , night racing ? Foxton close by for staff . Basically a facility that will future proof CD racing for the next 100 years .

Anyway never going to happen , building A/W at Awapuni suggests they see the future and it is bright , in their world , it will be a hard thump when these A/W's become millstones around their necks , but that's another debate .

What is the status of the AWT at Awapuni? Last I saw I thought contracts were to be let in September?

[nomates]

1 hour ago, curious said:

What is the status of the AWT at Awapuni? Last I saw I thought contracts were to be let in September?

Not sure , but from the releases i have seen it is still going ahead .

[Doomed]

12 hours ago, nomates said:

That's all they are pretty much doing now and it's still boring as bat shit , the place and the racing is as a whole a shadow of it's former great glory . It's a monolith of a bygone era .

We had a discussion about this topic a few months ago , can't remember when exactly , but the jist of what i proposed was selling Trentham and Awapuni and build a new strathayr track north of Foxton , free draining soil , easy access , they could have racing there every 2 weeks or more whilst also utilizing other tracks in the district . They could also have training tracks with stabling , night racing ? Foxton close by for staff . Basically a facility that will future proof CD racing for the next 100 years .

Anyway never going to happen , building A/W at Awapuni suggests they see the future and it is bright , in their world , it will be a hard thump when these A/W's become millstones around their necks , but that's another debate .

I largely agree, but a major track north of Foxton is just too far away from the population base. You would think that somewhere around Otaki or just south of there would be nicely central to access the major population areas, but is there suitable land that won't be a typical bog?

[nomates]

10 minutes ago, Doomed said:

I largely agree, but a major track north of Foxton is just too far away from the population base. You would think that somewhere around Otaki or just south of there would be nicely central to access the major population areas, but is there suitable land that won't be a typical bog?

Trentham is as close to a large population base as you can get yet nobody goes . As for where i can't think of anywhere south of Otaki big enough that wouldn't cost sqillions , at least north of Foxton has large tracts of flat free draining land , plus the population base is moving north from Wgtn anywa , Palmy and Wanganui etc would be close also , so i don't think that location would be bad place .

Never going to happen anyway so all mute , no vision , no heart . 

[Doomed]

Trentham would make a very interesting case study. It has so many things in its favour but has been going backwards for 40 odd years now. Building members facilities and a public bar miles away from the track all those years ago was probably a sign of a lack of foresight.

[nomates]

21 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Trentham would make a very interesting case study. It has so many things in its favour but has been going backwards for 40 odd years now. Building members facilities and a public bar miles away from the track all those years ago was probably a sign of a lack of foresight.

I don't see the facilities as the problem , i have been going to Trentham for 47 years and those facilities even on the Wednesday of the 3 day July meeting when it was pissing down and the track a bog the place was heaving , i've mentioned this on a number of occasions but even on that Wed with the rain pouring down it was a tough place to get a seat in covered area there was that many people there , the bars and food area below was pretty well chocka as well , and forget summer meetings , it was tough to get a seat on the top tear. So the facilities were never the issue , maybe the fact that they never really refurbished them properly because they were only used by the plebs .

The problem for the WRC has been a large measure of complacency and allowing themselves to be continually bullied around dates etc , but the complacency isn't exclusive to just them , it is a malaise that has been haunting racing for the last 30 years . 

That was where the foresight was lacking , every body thought we are sweet , people will always want to go racing and take the crap food and exorbitant prices for entry , booze , food , books etc , but they have all been caught with their pants down . Now they are all chasing their tales trying all sorts , except just giving the punters what they want , good horses, good facilities , good tracks , but most of all not leaving the course feeling like your wallet has been raped by a grizzly bear . Especially families , when i first started going to Trentham the family area half way up the straight was always well utilized at a reasonable cost , now it costs a man an arm and a leg to take his family to the races .

[Joe Bloggs]

14 minutes ago, nomates said:

I don't see the facilities as the problem , i have been going to Trentham for 47 years and those facilities even on the Wednesday of the 3 day July meeting when it was pissing down and the track a bog the place was heaving , i've mentioned this on a number of occasions but even on that Wed with the rain pouring down it was a tough place to get a seat in covered area there was that many people there , the bars and food area below was pretty well chocka as well , and forget summer meetings , it was tough to get a seat on the top tear. So the facilities were never the issue , maybe the fact that they never really refurbished them properly because they were only used by the plebs .

The problem for the WRC has been a large measure of complacency and allowing themselves to be continually bullied around dates etc , but the complacency isn't exclusive to just them , it is a malaise that has been haunting racing for the last 30 years . 

That was where the foresight was lacking , every body thought we are sweet , people will always want to go racing and take the crap food and exorbitant prices for entry , booze , food , books etc , but they have all been caught with their pants down . Now they are all chasing their tales trying all sorts , except just giving the punters what they want , good horses, good facilities , good tracks , but most of all not leaving the course feeling like your wallet has been raped by a grizzly bear . Especially families , when i first started going to Trentham the family area half way up the straight was always well utilized at a reasonable cost , now it costs a man an arm and a leg to take his family to the races .

Well someone has to pay Bernies wages so if it's an arm and a leg, after all, it's all in a good cause.

[nomates]

4 minutes ago, Joe Bloggs said:

Well someone has to pay Bernies wages so if it's an arm and a leg, after all, it's all in a good cause.

I get your point Joe , but BS is the last in a long line no hopers , added to long line of administrators in all sorts of rolls that were just as lost and complacent as he is , even now they don't really seem to understand how dire the situation is , not just turnovers but the dropping quality of our horses , riders , tracks , facilities , stakes , the list goes on , but they have hung it on A/w's being the genie in the bottle for NZ racing , Bzzzzzz wrong .

Someone somewhere in the last week stated that they have no been able to access turnovers from betting on the Cambridge A/W along with how profitable it was thru the Winter , the TAB wouldn't impart that information when asked , i wonder why , perhaps it would show that it is not the panacea that they thought , well guess what guys it will only look worse when the other 2 kick in , mostly because of a lack of numbers racing after the initial buzz of trying it has worn off .

One thing i am positive of is that if the figures from punting on Cambridge had been great they would have had them out there faster than they can get a sausage roll down their gullets , they wouldn't have been able to stop gloating and boasting and saying the 2nd rising has come , they wouldn't have waited for someone too ask for the figures they would have mailed them out quicker than signing their big employment contracts .

So what does the silence say , yell in fact , none of us have to be brain surgeons to work that out .

But it is all good , the future is bright .

[Joe Bloggs]

I seem to be championing your posts NM, but I'd just like to say that if there were more like you racing wouldn't be where it is today. You should have put yourself forward for a board or committee or something even more valuable, like a senior position at Petone as sure as hell they need someone with fortitude and passion/knowledge to turn this ship around.

I'm sure Freda and Reefton would concur, you don't have a likes to posts quota such as you have if you don't have support. You'll probably say your an old fart and it's too late, but Saundry is an old fart and too late, as are Saundry's peers, it's just that they are also useless and have caused hundreds of industry people to look for fresher fields.

I'm asked every Raceday here on the coast as to what has happened to NZ racing, I've a nosebleed from telling them same old, same old, and they all just shake their heads.

My mate owns a share in Daralina Belle who's very much in the market for Saturdays Four Pillars at Rosehill, he wanted to race a horse with us in NZ, he now owns a share in a filly we have brought here from NZ, he has 4 mates that wanted in also, when they learned the inside story as to the decline of racing over there they walked away, all lost investors to NZ racing....how many more, Brian de Lore writes once a month, it will take more than that to shift the useless buggers out of their cosy little cartels and cliques, at least you get up em NM and I just hope you never let up, such a brilliant and successful industry/sport just destroyed by incompetency and mismanagement.

 

[nomates]

1 minute ago, Joe Bloggs said:

I seem to be championing your posts NM, but I'd just like to say that if there were more like you racing wouldn't be where it is today. You should have put yourself forward for a board or committee or something even more valuable, like a senior position at Petone as sure as hell they need someone with fortitude and passion/knowledge to turn this ship around.

I'm sure Freda and Reefton would concur, you don't have a likes to posts quota such as you have if you don't have support. You'll probably say your an old fart and it's too late, but Saundry is an old fart and too late, as are Saundry's peers, it's just that they are also useless and have caused hundreds of industry people to look for fresher fields.

I'm asked every Raceday here on the coast as to what has happened to NZ racing, I've a nosebleed from telling them same old, same old, and they all just shake their heads.

My mate owns a share in Daralina Belle who's very much in the market for Saturdays Four Pillars at Rosehill, he wanted to race a horse with us in NZ, he now owns a share in a filly we have brought here from NZ, he has 4 mates that wanted in also, when they learned the inside story as to the decline of racing over there they walked away, all lost investors to NZ racing....how many more, Brian de Lore writes once a month, it will take more than that to shift the useless buggers out of their cosy little cartels and cliques, at least you get up em NM and I just hope you never let up, such a brilliant and successful industry/sport just destroyed by incompetency and mismanagement.

 

Not a hope of getting me involved with the current regime , been there tried it locally , same parochial bullshit . I'm someone who gets involved to do shit , make a difference , otherwise what's the point . Not even about age , although at 60 i would be prepared to do my bit , that though is the big issue , getting everyone to do their bit , but the bigger issue is getting the nobs to pull their heads outa their arses and ask for everyone to do their bit . But it all has to be for the big cause .

As for you mate and his friends walking away , i know of heaps of people who done exactly that , people with money who just got the stage of asking , WHY BOTHER , no one gave a shit . I actually bumped into a guy at the Dentist yesterday hadn't seen him for years and he was the same , so hasn't bothered with a horse for years and doubts he will .

I'm different , i have a disease , i have to have some involvement , so will always have a small share in something ala Miss Balvennie , once retired probably try and have shares in 3/4 , mostly in Aus . Still bet most days because i enjoy it , it's a challenge to find winners .

As for having a crack at Petone , well i don't have the CV that gets me on the Lazy Susan of executives that allows them to jump from one position to the next with no consequence . The one thing i will add though is that we are not the only industry that these slugs slime over , it's prevalent every where , no more than politics , Local body to Parliament then to Mayoralty somewhere .

No thanks , i have some dignity .