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Bit Of A Yarn

South Island Racing Programme: Not Fit For Purpose?!


Doomed

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16 minutes ago, Huey said:

You'd think so, but probably not with this lot. 

More likely volume of alchohol sales, number tables/tents sold etc. All stuff that's relatively easy to control and consistent in demand.

The wagering I'd be surprised if they even thought about it, take the AWT for example why hasn't the apparent success of that racing been conveyed to the industry?

I might be wrong, but I don't think the AWT saved us a single abandoned meeting this year did it? That was one of the major reasons for their introduction.

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15 hours ago, nomates said:

I agree with everybody's sentiment on this topic but the reality is that what used to really work for us was in another lifetime , a life time when there were 6000+ foals being bred , so many that there were division races for maidens and even then horses had to qualify at trials for an A or B certificate as the only sure way to get a start . A time when training costs were affordable to many and the costs for doing it yourself made it worthwhile . When i first got my licence there were 700+ owner trainers alone in the calendar , be lucky if there were half that including full and permitted trainers now . Back when a fair horse could easily pay it's way .

Things have radically changed over the last 30 years , the costs associated with breeding have taken it away from the hands of the small breeder of 1 or 2 , so the foal crop has slowly declined , that along with the numbers still going through the sales , because of the continued success of the NZ bred horse overseas , then the massive growth of Asia as a market for trialled and tried horses as racing in HK and Singapore got huge which has inflated prices for those horses which has made it difficult for all owners but especially at the lower end to refuse good money when compared to racing a horse here .

Our foal crop is so precariously low now that when we factor in the yearling sales then the RTR and trialled and lightly raced horses we would be lucky if we are left with a third of a crop for the domestic market to race .

So where are we now , we are left with a shadow of the industry we once had , it is what it is , we will never get back to where we were , so we should be trying to work with what we have , but unfortunately a lot haven't got the memo especially the ones with the power to change things . 

For me that me that means a complete rebuild of our industry , with all industry participants being able to have their say , the rating system doesn't work with the calibre of horse we have now , the programming is a shambles , even up north there is trainers complaining at the lack of suitable races for horses . Doomed mentioned 2yo's for the SI but the 2yo structure is a shambles everywhere . A large part of the 2yo scenes problems has been the introduction of the Karaka Millions and how it completely dominates the 2yo scene and the flow on effect after it . But the structure of our programming for all divisions of our racing has to be reset .

One of the biggest issues with the programming is how one club in each island has been able to run rough shod over other clubs that has hugely impacted those clubs meetings , in some cases so called " Iconic " meetings . 

We have huge track issues , the quality of jockeys slowly diluting , the list goes on .

For me i think they are set on a path of concentrating the power in the North and there are people with great influence pushing this agenda .

I maybe reading it wrong , but when i see so many issues , especially in the CD and the SI , not being addressed , i don't know what else to believe .  

I'm in complete agreement here.

My ramble earlier on., about  'how things were' shouldn't be taken as a suggestion we should turn the clock back...rather, just an explanation of why we seemed to have random and ill-thought programmes.  Changes have been made on an ad-hoc basis without a broader approach such as you suggest.  

As for the drift of 'power' north?  Not surprising, given population distribution of both horses and people.  Which is why sensible programming is even more important.

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Just checking out some of Petone's work. Note the update time and the track condition time. Someone must be psychic ... or maybe psycho! How is anyone supposed to operate professionally in that kind of environment?

Ashburton RC @ Ashburton Last updated 13/12/2021 2:01pm

Thursday, 16 Dec 2021

  • Going

    Dead
    Dead5 7.42 am 14/12/21
  • Weather

    Cloudy
    Cloudy
  • Rail

    Out 2m | Drying
  • Track

    Left hand
    Left hand
    1876m
  • Straight

    382 Metres
Edited by curious
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1 hour ago, curious said:
   

Just checking out some of Petone's work. Note the update time and the track condition time. Someone must be psychic ... or maybe psycho! How is anyone supposed to operate professionally in that kind of environment?

Ashburton RC @ Ashburton Last updated 13/12/2021 2:01pm

Thursday, 16 Dec 2021

  • Going

    Dead
    Dead5 7.42 am 14/12/21
  • Weather

    Cloudy
    Cloudy
  • Rail

    Out 2m | Drying
  • Track

    Left hand
    Left hand
    1876m
  • Straight

    382 Metres

Hmm......slow 7 yesterday?  I didn't notice the howling nor'wester....clearly the predicated rain isn't going to happen.

Farmers doing hay should employ this lot. 

Edited by Freda
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19 minutes ago, Freda said:

Hmm......slow 7 yesterday?  I didn't notice the howling nor'wester....clearly the predicated rain isn't going to happen.

Farmers doing hay should employ this lot. 

How it got from a Slow 7 yesterday morning to a Dead 6 yesterday afternoon to a Dead 5 this morning with the Met service reporting occasional light drizzle in the interim is beyond me.

If they have some kind of moisture suction device down there that can do that, they should share it around. I can think of some tracks that could use it.

Edited by curious
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9 hours ago, curious said:

Just looked it up. We won a race at Westport 21 Feb 95. Ran 3rd the second day 24 Feb. When did it close?

 

Racing finished in 1996 I think from memory, from memory their turnover would have looked quite good by todays standards, trots be there on boxing day, usually have a big turnover, be interesting to see if it stacks up this year with all the changes regards the vaccine passport, and a challenging year, be interested to know name of your horse that won at Westport back in the day, may have an old race book from that year.

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45 minutes ago, curious said:

How it got from a Slow 7 yesterday morning to a Dead 6 yesterday afternoon to a Dead 5 this morning with the Met service reporting occasional light drizzle in the interim is beyond me.

If they have some kind of moisture suction device down there that can do that, they should share it around. I can think of some tracks that could use it.

we'd do it at Reefton dead easy(excuse the two puns!)

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14 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Don't be surprised if it is a Heavy 11 or abandoned on Thursday.

8inches (200mm) of rain predicted Wednesay through Thursday.

 

Screenshot_20211214-102147_MetService.jpg

Now THAT would be a bit a problem even for us!

Eight inches of rain in two days will wipe Canterbury off the face of the earth

Better evacuate to the mighty Reefton boys(except those wankers who want to take Kumara to the AWT - you ain't welcome!)

I remember back in the 80's a story about the rain at Cropp River(up behind Hokitika) - they had an inch an hour for three days!  72 inches of rain in three days.  Remarkable even for the Coast

 

 

Edited by Reefton
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4 hours ago, Freda said:

I'm in complete agreement here.

My ramble earlier on., about  'how things were' shouldn't be taken as a suggestion we should turn the clock back...rather, just an explanation of why we seemed to have random and ill-thought programmes.  Changes have been made on an ad-hoc basis without a broader approach such as you suggest.  

As for the drift of 'power' north?  Not surprising, given population distribution of both horses and people.  Which is why sensible programming is even more important.

We all know we can't turn the clock back Pam but we need to make best use of the resources we have available to us at the present time.  And as it stands that is not happening

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30 minutes ago, Shad said:

Racing finished in 1996 I think from memory, from memory their turnover would have looked quite good by todays standards, trots be there on boxing day, usually have a big turnover, be interesting to see if it stacks up this year with all the changes regards the vaccine passport, and a challenging year, be interested to know name of your horse that won at Westport back in the day, may have an old race book from that year.

Dance On Ice

1-11 21 Feb 95 1200m  TALLEYS FISHERIES IMPROVERS   $4,000
WEST  Good G IMP Got back,powered home thru mid, 1.12.15 Chris O'Brien $2,600
Edited by curious
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A hypothetical question ,

Awapuni on Saturday is currently a H11 and raining , with some sort of rainfall forecast for the rest of the week , so if they had the A/W track already installed , would they , should they xfer the meeting onto the A/W track ? 

If it stays on the grass the fields will take a hammering , if it was xfered to the A/W would they be much different ? Any more substantial rain it might not run at all . Perhaps they could xfer the black type races to Te rapa again , that one is tongue in cheek .

This is the scenario that they say the A/W's are here to prevent .

I'm a grass track man , it is what it is , i can live with it .

 

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And good luck for anyone trying to predict what conditions will be like in Ashburton. I am staying here at the moment, and in the last 24 hours we've had everything from drizzle to warm drying winds. I feel sorry for the weather forecasters trying to predict what might come next.

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2 hours ago, Reefton said:

Eight inches of rain in two days will wipe Canterbury off the face of the earth

@Reefton Forecast is for it to fall in a period closer to 24 hours than 48 hours.  If it was Omoto they'd race on Saturday.

That said, what is Plan B if they are unable to race on Thursday?  Perhaps the NZTR CEO and the COO could advise NOW of an alternative?

If the predicted rainfall does occur I doubt that even the AWT will cope. @Freda I'm interested to hear your observations especially if you see carpet fibres, wax and sand floating towards the Avon.

If Ashburton is affected will that make the lower class race logjam even worse?

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21 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

@Reefton Forecast is for it to fall in a period closer to 24 hours than 48 hours.  If it was Omoto they'd race on Saturday.

That said, what is Plan B if they are unable to race on Thursday?  Perhaps the NZTR CEO and the COO could advise NOW of an alternative?

If the predicted rainfall does occur I doubt that even the AWT will cope. @Freda I'm interested to hear your observations especially if you see carpet fibres, wax and sand floating towards the Avon.

If Ashburton is affected will that make the lower class race logjam even worse?

If it looks like being an absolute bog with heaps of scratching if should move to that flash new AWT. That's what its there for. I seen to recall they did exactly that at Caloundra just recently.

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