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Bit Of A Yarn

Wingatui fields.


mikeynz

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42 minutes ago, Huey said:

It actually makes my tiny brain hurt just to think how stupid an idea it is to have an AWT in the SI.

I think if you were to ask a cross section of SI racing people what the top priorities would be if they had $15m to spend on SI racing, an AWT might struggle to make the top 20. Probably squeezed somewhere between a new tearooms at Winton and  a 1,200m chute at Reefton. .

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3 hours ago, mikeynz said:

What are the amenities like at Timaru as opposed to Riccarton,? 

People in the know will know.

I don't think AWT's are designed or intended as a spectator sport are they?

Just fodder for desperate off course punters to blow their dosh on

Even if it were designed for on course you would be half a bloody mile away (at best) from the action at the CJC.  The grass track is bad enough without being another 40m away

 

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6 minutes ago, Reefton said:

I don't think AWT's are designed or intended as a spectator sport are they?

Just fodder for desperate off course punters to blow their dosh on

Even if it were designed for on course you would be half a bloody mile away (at best) from the action at the CJC.  The grass track is bad enough without being another 40m away

 

Some of the harness tracks would be the same, as in a distance away from the spectators, the question regarding Timarus facilities was about if the place is fucked or not,sure everything is geared racing wise for the off course public but the course needs to be fit for purpose for those who do turn up, the public and of course the trainers etc etc.

Many courses today might have good amenities for maybe 1 day a year, I noted Te Rapa a week or two back, hardly a soul there.

 

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10 hours ago, mikeynz said:

What are the amenities like at Timaru as opposed to Riccarton,? 

People in the know will know.

Pleasant;  tie-ups good, nice track, facilities for spectators fine, overall dated but perfectly adequate.

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6 hours ago, Reefton said:

I don't think AWT's are designed or intended as a spectator sport are they?

Just fodder for desperate off course punters to blow their dosh on

Even if it were designed for on course you would be half a bloody mile away (at best) from the action at the CJC.  The grass track is bad enough without being another 40m away

 

Perhaps not, but such is the depth of racing in NZ that every race meeting should be. Particularly when they are taking away meetings from better locations.

We will get to stage and I think it won't take long in the SI , where meetings are scheduled at the AWT and noms are very low with trainers holding off for the more established venues particularly on the grass and then owners/trainers will just give up having horses in work sitting around doing nothing.

What the powers that be don't seem to realise is that opinions on the AWTs are polarizing , if  a horse has a poor run on the surface they are unlikely to support them running on that surface again or reduce participation all together ( as you say goal achieved).

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On 3/05/2022 at 10:15 PM, Doomed said:

I think if you were to ask a cross section of SI racing people what the top priorities would be if they had $15m to spend on SI racing, an AWT might struggle to make the top 20. Probably squeezed somewhere between a new tearooms at Winton and  a 1,200m chute at Reefton. .

foik a 1200m chute at Reefton would be starting in the Inangahua River!

A 1600m track would go down a treat though if you have a couple of mill in readies to lavish on us Mr Doomed!

 

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54 minutes ago, Reefton said:

foik a 1200m chute at Reefton would be starting in the Inangahua River!

A 1600m track would go down a treat though if you have a couple of mill in readies to lavish on us Mr Doomed!

 

How has Reefton fared in the calendar for next season?

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Noms for Riverton not bad bar the Open race, some from Canterbury, Wairio 4 days later might help yet very few from Wingatui, not that there is many left there anyhow, 5 to be exact.

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4 hours ago, Ludwig said:

How has Reefton fared in the calendar for next season?

I think we are Ok but they have compressed the circuit into five days (Tuesday Thursday Saturday) with us in the middle

Too tight and they refused another day which I guess shows they still have a snitch over the Westland thing.

The big issue here is Kumara - for all the 50 years I have followed racing Kumara has always been the second Saturday.  Next year they have plonked it on the first Saturday.  That would be all very well but it gives them very little time after New Year to organise their day(few working days I mean - it is a bloody big day to organise).  The other thing (and this is big) is that people book the Coast out for that meeting and they know it is ALWAYS the second Saturday.  So currently every Coast Hotel/Motel will be booked chocka for the second weekend when the races are the weekend before.    There will be some pissed off people when they find out and cannot get accommodation the week before.  Do you think I could get that through to Bernard and co? Not effing likely!

We(Reefton) have some very loyal supporters like Pitty and K Myers and a heap of other(lesser number but no less important) trainers who I hope will get us through but I say it often enough and will say it again - it gets harder and harder to remain motivated when you are dealing with numbskulls!

 

 

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2 hours ago, Reefton said:

I think we are Ok but they have compressed the circuit into five days (Tuesday Thursday Saturday) with us in the middle

Too tight and they refused another day which I guess shows they still have a snitch over the Westland thing.

The big issue here is Kumara - for all the 50 years I have followed racing Kumara has always been the second Saturday.  Next year they have plonked it on the first Saturday.  That would be all very well but it gives them very little time after New Year to organise their day(few working days I mean - it is a bloody big day to organise).  The other thing (and this is big) is that people book the Coast out for that meeting and they know it is ALWAYS the second Saturday.  So currently every Coast Hotel/Motel will be booked chocka for the second weekend when the races are the weekend before.    There will be some pissed off people when they find out and cannot get accommodation the week before.  Do you think I could get that through to Bernard and co? Not effing likely!

We(Reefton) have some very loyal supporters like Pitty and K Myers and a heap of other(lesser number but no less important) trainers who I hope will get us through but I say it often enough and will say it again - it gets harder and harder to remain motivated when you are dealing with numbskulls!

 

 

Waikouiti at Wingatui dont help the Coast situation, but what will the next calandar be like ?

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2 hours ago, Reefton said:

I think we are Ok but they have compressed the circuit into five days (Tuesday Thursday Saturday) with us in the middle

Too tight and they refused another day which I guess shows they still have a snitch over the Westland thing.

The big issue here is Kumara - for all the 50 years I have followed racing Kumara has always been the second Saturday.  Next year they have plonked it on the first Saturday.  That would be all very well but it gives them very little time after New Year to organise their day(few working days I mean - it is a bloody big day to organise).  The other thing (and this is big) is that people book the Coast out for that meeting and they know it is ALWAYS the second Saturday.  So currently every Coast Hotel/Motel will be booked chocka for the second weekend when the races are the weekend before.    There will be some pissed off people when they find out and cannot get accommodation the week before.  Do you think I could get that through to Bernard and co? Not effing likely!

We(Reefton) have some very loyal supporters like Pitty and K Myers and a heap of other(lesser number but no less important) trainers who I hope will get us through but I say it often enough and will say it again - it gets harder and harder to remain motivated when you are dealing with numbskulls!

 

 

I don't think I can ever recall the Coast racing every second day before. Can't imagine many horses racing at all 3 meetings. Would you put it down to incompetence Reeton, or do you think they are trying to kill off the circuit?

They are probably full of enthusiasm now they have seen how successful the AWT has been. 

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2 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Waikouiti at Wingatui dont help the Coast situation, but what will the next calandar be like ?

One thing for certain you can bet on in the NZ racing industry, the calendar will be worse than the year before .

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8 hours ago, mikeynz said:

Waikouiti at Wingatui dont help the Coast situation, but what will the next calandar be like ?

Waikouaiti being jammed in is the problem all right but I don't blame that Club.  Just the reshuffle created an issue when New Year's day is the wrong day of the week.   When I am back in my office I will post the submission where I told them exactly how they should reschedule it but they came back with 'we can't fit it together'  Doh!  I just did it for you you half wits.

And yes the next calendar will be a challenge but I think there is an extra Saturday in January so we will go out a week?   Not sure but there is a way around it as I recall.  Will have to check that.

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7 hours ago, Doomed said:

I don't think I can ever recall the Coast racing every second day before. Can't imagine many horses racing at all 3 meetings. Would you put it down to incompetence Reeton, or do you think they are trying to kill off the circuit?

They are probably full of enthusiasm now they have seen how successful the AWT has been. 

They are clearly pissed about Hokitika still.  It is a popular circuit and they could have(I did the work for them) fitted an extra day in no trouble but no go they said.  

I have said before - there were eight NZ meetings that week and three of the top four oncourse turnovers were on the Coast.  Reefton on a workday Wednesday(with a frigging sight less industry financial input to stakes as well) had a higher turnover than Ellerslie on a weekend Sunday!   People want to attend those meetings and that is how new devotees are obtained but you can't tell these Petone mob. 

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On 5/6/2022 at 2:42 PM, mikeynz said:

Noms for Riverton not bad bar the Open race, some from Canterbury, Wairio 4 days later might help yet very few from Wingatui, not that there is many left there anyhow, 5 to be exact.

Fair bit of rain in Southland this morn, I assume Riverton wont be exempt so I'm taking that tracks gunna get a decent hammering, maybe shift up to Riccarton, im sure the locals will all be keen, (or maybe not).

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On 7/05/2022 at 3:41 AM, Reefton said:

They are clearly pissed about Hokitika still.  It is a popular circuit and they could have(I did the work for them) fitted an extra day in no trouble but no go they said.  

I have said before - there were eight NZ meetings that week and three of the top four oncourse turnovers were on the Coast.  Reefton on a workday Wednesday(with a frigging sight less industry financial input to stakes as well) had a higher turnover than Ellerslie on a weekend Sunday!   People want to attend those meetings and that is how new devotees are obtained but you can't tell these Petone mob. 

They seem very risk averse at any venue that doe not fit onto their farcical venue plan simple as that really. 

See Woodville for an example,  used to be ok to have meetings at these venues but they are most certainly not allowed to be successful or popular 😉 

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4 hours ago, Huey said:

See Woodville for an example,  used to be ok to have meetings at these venues but they are most certainly not allowed to be successful or popular 😉

Yeah not allowed to race on a Good 2 because they can't irrigate yet wasn't it last year they let the Steeplechasers run round on a hard non-irrigated track at Riccarton!

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6 hours ago, Huey said:

They seem very risk averse at any venue that doe not fit onto their farcical venue plan simple as that really. 

See Woodville for an example,  used to be ok to have meetings at these venues but they are most certainly not allowed to be successful or popular 😉 

Little bit surprising that Woodville has not irrigation.  We have it and had to drown the bloody track with a seven day 30degree plus run into our meeting.  We would never have been able to run without the irrigation.

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11 hours ago, Reefton said:

Little bit surprising that Woodville has not irrigation.  We have it and had to drown the bloody track with a seven day 30degree plus run into our meeting.  We would never have been able to run without the irrigation.

Point is , it wouldn't matter . Woodville are clearly not part of the "progress" these gurus are bringing forth to finally sink the industry.

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20 minutes ago, Huey said:

Point is , it wouldn't matter . Woodville are clearly not part of the "progress" these gurus are bringing forth to finally sink the industry.

Surprisingly we seem to be a part of it but I would have thought Woodville contributes a lot more to NZ Racing than Reeton does

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51 minutes ago, Reefton said:

Surprisingly we seem to be a part of it but I would have thought Woodville contributes a lot more to NZ Racing than Reeton does

Youre probably not making some other venue look bad though.

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