Ellerslie

[Doomed]

I was interested to see comments about there being a very small crowd at Ellerslie compared to Kumara. I didn't watch Ellerslie myself, but did check the results. It made me wonder how successful all the extra money they are plowing into stakes has been. Don't get me wrong, I think its great they are topping up stakes, I just wish some other big and wealthy clubs would do it. But do the results justify it?

I assume Ellerslie was a basic feature meeting with $30,000 minimums in which case they added about $15,000 to some stakes. I certainly hope NZTR  didn't give them extra just because they are Ellerslie, while keeping the rest of the industry impoverished.

Interesting to compare the feature stayers races at Ellerslie and Kumara. Kumara: $30,000, a capacity field of classy and evenly matched horses. A rating 89 beats an 85 and a 74. Ellerslie: $55,000, seven starters, a rating 69 beats a 70 and a 74. Everyone would agree the Kumara race was a vastly superior race in every respect.

I would love to be able to compare on and off course turnovers for the two meetings, as we used to be able to do. I do realise some patrons use their phones to bet on course, but the total turnovers would still be interesting.

A neutral observer comparing these two meetings would almost certainly compare the two results and think there is something wrong with the model. I do question whether the neutral observer would come to the conclusion that the problem rests with Kumara and the industry as a whole would be better off if Kumara and the other Coast clubs were shut down. I suspect they might even suggest that it seems a bit stingy to only fund most of the Coast races at $12,000, and perhaps the 74s and 80s could justify another $2,000 to $3,000 each.