AWT

[Doomed]

I will be cheering for Pam to win the very first race on the Riccarton AWT. I'm sure it would be very popular with the locals for one of their own to win the first race. I'm sure Tim will be first in the queue to rush out and congratulate her.

[curious]

5 hours ago, Doomed said:

I will be cheering for Pam to win the very first race on the Riccarton AWT. I'm sure it would be very popular with the locals for one of their own to win the first race. I'm sure Tim will be first in the queue to rush out and congratulate her.

The first and the last on opening day for Freda would be pleasing!

[Tesio]

Only 61 horses starting for this race meeting today. People say low noms for Riccarton due to being lower stakes, but lets compare to Timaru last Thursday, that meeting had 112 horses run.

[mikeynz]

I think the real negative vibes about the new track isn't entirely about the track itself but the effect or affect it has on some other tracks, notably a track situated between Ashburton and Oamaru, I've always reckoned there is always room for all but Timaru need to be running the odd feature meeting maybe at Riccartons expense, all the clubs seem to have feature meetings except Timaru, maybe a tweaking of the calandar and everybody gains, Wyndham fought to stay afloat after being wiped for a while by the hrnz hierarchy.

It's easy for some to be critical of the new track but look at it this way, ok the weather is still pretty good but what would the scenario be if Canterbury had lots of rain as was the case last year ?

It will never be the be all of winter racing but it's there now and that's it, I guess it's up to the participants to either give it a pass mark or not, time will tell.

[Reefton]

17 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

I think the real negative vibes about the new track isn't entirely about the track itself but the effect or affect it has on some other tracks, notably a track situated between Ashburton and Oamaru, I've always reckoned there is always room for all but Timaru need to be running the odd feature meeting maybe at Riccartons expense, all the clubs seem to have feature meetings except Timaru, maybe a tweaking of the calandar and everybody gains, Wyndham fought to stay afloat after being wiped for a while by the hrnz hierarchy.

It's easy for some to be critical of the new track but look at it this way, ok the weather is still pretty good but what would the scenario be if Canterbury had lots of rain as was the case last year ?

It will never be the be all of winter racing but it's there now and that's it, I guess it's up to the participants to either give it a pass mark or not, time will tell.

You make a very valid point about Timaru missing out on any feature meetings at all Mike but these guys in Petone are absolutely set in their ways and incapable of seeing that Clubs like Timaru are the thing that keeps racing going by providing product at what might otherwise be unattractive times(mid week or mid winter) 

Timaru definitely deserves a feature day and the time for it is right in that nine week period between Cup week and mid January when there are only three Southern Feature meetings every one at least two hours south of the Waitaki River.  Being able to run their Timaru Cup mid December with a feature support card would let them promote it as a Christmas season day and try to engender some more enthusiasm locally.  Instead they are jammed into the post Christmas busy season with race days two ahead and two after them and only Industry day stakes save for their Cup.  It is wrong wrong wrong 

I had a huge crack at them about the calendar(they have buggered up our circuit next year) a couple of months back, told Bernard exactly how they needed to reschedule things though that early January period but they came back with essentially 'we couldn't work out how to schedule it'.  I'VE JUST DONE THAT FOR YOU YOU EFFING IMBECILES!  In fact when they came back with that response I told him if his people weren't up to it let me know and I would redraft the entire SI calendar for them.  It wouldn't be hard but up there you have a genuine lack of any sort of nous for the job.

 

[Mark D]

Got the day off and money in my account but as I did in regards to Cambridge AWT they're not getting my money.  Won't change anything but what the f@#k

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mark D

[The Centaur]

They have put up a monstrocity at the 100 metre mark casting huge shadow over the track. Haven't noticed horses shying away at trials but off putting for viewers.

[mikeynz]

50 minutes ago, Reefton said:

You make a very valid point about Timaru missing out on any feature meetings at all Mike but these guys in Petone are absolutely set in their ways and incapable of seeing that Clubs like Timaru are the thing that keeps racing going by providing product at what might otherwise be unattractive times(mid week or mid winter) 

Timaru definitely deserves a feature day and the time for it is right in that nine week period between Cup week and mid January when there are only three Southern Feature meetings every one at least two hours south of the Waitaki River.  Being able to run their Timaru Cup mid December with a feature support card would let them promote it as a Christmas season day and try to engender some more enthusiasm locally.  Instead they are jammed into the post Christmas busy season with race days two ahead and two after them and only Industry day stakes save for their Cup.  It is wrong wrong wrong 

I had a huge crack at them about the calendar(they have buggered up our circuit next year) a couple of months back, told Bernard exactly how they needed to reschedule things though that early January period but they came back with essentially 'we couldn't work out how to schedule it'.  I'VE JUST DONE THAT FOR YOU YOU EFFING IMBECILES!  In fact when they came back with that response I told him if his people weren't up to it let me know and I would redraft the entire SI calendar for them.  It wouldn't be hard but up there you have a genuine lack of any sort of nous for the job.

 

Many times I look at the calandar and wonder how they come up with ideas they do, one wonders if they just tinker for the sake of tinkering........as I'm not watching trackside will they be waffling on the normal shit come race 1 only to find by the last race it's probably worn off already.

[mikeynz]

6 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

Many times I look at the calandar and wonder how they come up with ideas they do, one wonders if they just tinker for the sake of tinkering........as I'm not watching trackside will they be waffling on the normal shit come race 1 only to find by the last race it's probably worn off already.

That last lines a bit fucked, was meaning the novelty of it all will have worn off.

[Huey]

5 hours ago, Tesio said:

Only 61 horses starting for this race meeting today. People say low noms for Riccarton due to being lower stakes, but lets compare to Timaru last Thursday, that meeting had 112 horses run.

61 starters at the point whereby enthusiasm should be at its highest,  as I've said before simply cannot see it doing anything positive for the industry & in effect it'll largely drive people out of the industry at an accelerated rate.  

 

I'm gonna say it now , I find it an awful watch. 

[Doomed]

I watched a couple of races and the racing seemed to be a bit boring, nothing much seemed to change from the turn: things may have been different in other races of course.

Hard to know if the small fields were because of two meetings in the same city in the space of 3 days or because of the AWT. Although that is pretty much what the powers that be want to happen going forward with racing centralised on Riccarton. Provincial Riccarton and City Riccarton of course.

When comparing the fields with those at Timaru last week, one thing I found interesting was that one 1,200m race at Timaru had 23 noms. 14 got into the field, 6 were balloted and 3 eliminated. Very interesting comparison with Otaki tomorrow. The 1,200m rating 65 split into two fields of 9. Always seems to be a different policy in that respect for NI and SI. I do wish someone would explain the rationale behind it.

[Chief Stipe]

3 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Very interesting comparison with Otaki tomorrow. The 1,200m rating 65 split into two fields of 9. Always seems to be a different policy in that respect for NI and SI. I do wish someone would explain the rationale behind it.

Is it because Woodville was abandoned?

[Bid]

🥱💤

[Doomed]

34 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Is it because Woodville was abandoned?

Probably, but you still wonder why 23 horses at Timaru get one race and 18 horses at Otaki get 2. You also wonder how the hell they would have had enough horses for both Otaki and Woodville.

[The Centaur]

Compare opening day to Cambridge then Riccarton was non event. 

The trainers interviewed seemed lukewarm to the track and probably the small muster present as well.

[Huey]

2 hours ago, Doomed said:

I watched a couple of races and the racing seemed to be a bit boring, nothing much seemed to change from the turn: things may have been different in other races of course.

Hard to know if the small fields were because of two meetings in the same city in the space of 3 days or because of the AWT. Although that is pretty much what the powers that be want to happen going forward with racing centralised on Riccarton. Provincial Riccarton and City Riccarton of course.

When comparing the fields with those at Timaru last week, one thing I found interesting was that one 1,200m race at Timaru had 23 noms. 14 got into the field, 6 were balloted and 3 eliminated. Very interesting comparison with Otaki tomorrow. The 1,200m rating 65 split into two fields of 9. Always seems to be a different policy in that respect for NI and SI. I do wish someone would explain the rationale behind it.

Not only that the spread of horse from the turn to the finish line is an awful look.

Don't know about anyone else but the racing just looks wrong and a tad cruel on the AWT (witness several horses under a ride a long way out). It just looks homogenised and it has that greyhouds look to it.

[Doomed]

40 minutes ago, Huey said:

Not only that the spread of horse from the turn to the finish line is an awful look.

Don't know about anyone else but the racing just looks wrong and a tad cruel on the AWT (witness several horses under a ride a long way out). It just looks homogenised and it has that greyhouds look to it.

It just looks like an incredible amount of money to spend on something that wasn't needed. Makes the industry look pretty incompetent when you look at its priorities. 

You do wonder how Marlborough, Banks Pen, Waimate, Timaru etc feel when they look at what they have been scarificed in favour of. I wonder if those clubs consider that their sacrifices were all worthwhile when they see how exciting the racing was today. I wonder what the turnovers looked like compared to Timaru last Thurs. The industry must be saving a hell of a lot of money by abandoning the Timarus to be able to fund today.

[Reefton]

33 minutes ago, Doomed said:

It just looks like an incredible amount of money to spend on something that wasn't needed. Makes the industry look pretty incompetent when you look at its priorities. 

You do wonder how Marlborough, Banks Pen, Waimate, Timaru etc feel when they look at what they have been scarificed in favour of. I wonder if those clubs consider that their sacrifices were all worthwhile when they see how exciting the racing was today. I wonder what the turnovers looked like compared to Timaru last Thurs. The industry must be saving a hell of a lot of money by abandoning the Timarus to be able to fund today.

Deeply and disturbingly ironic thing is that those rural clubs were sacrificed to ensure the success of a city facility funded via the provincial growth fund - which(as its name indicates) was an NZ First Initiative supposedly to help the country areas.

Winston charged into Reefton in 2017 telling them how he was going to save the little Town then promptly as Racing Minister endorses shutting down their racecourse!

Sort of like a sick Robin Hood scenario in reverse

 

[Doomed]

It would be good to hear what the trainers and jockeys thought of the track. Freda's staying maiden stopped a long way out. You would like to think that was because it didn't handle the track.

[Mark D]

17 hours ago, Reefton said:

Deeply and disturbingly ironic thing is that those rural clubs were sacrificed to ensure the success of a city facility funded via the provincial growth fund - which(as its name indicates) was an NZ First Initiative supposedly to help the country areas.

Winston charged into Reefton in 2017 telling them how he was going to save the little Town then promptly as Racing Minister endorses shutting down their racecourse!

Sort of like a sick Robin Hood scenario in reverse

 

Dennis Moore Reefton

 

[Freda]

41 minutes ago, Doomed said:

It would be good to hear what the trainers and jockeys thought of the track. Freda's staying maiden stopped a long way out. You would like to think that was because it didn't handle the track.

Freda's staying maiden was ready for a holiday after her last run....but due to issues I won't discuss here, we decided to have a shy at the stumps and hope that a) she could manage another run and b) would handle the track.

So, while I'm not blaming the track specifically, I won't be keen to run her again on one.

[Huey]

Just in case anyone missed out on the Cambridge style hoopla(PR) for Riccarton AWT well here it is ...

 

 

 

and remember its just a "Tool"

[Doomed]

59 minutes ago, Huey said:

Just in case anyone missed out on the Cambridge style hoopla(PR) for Riccarton AWT well here it is ...

 

 

 

and remember its just a "Tool"

Interesting. Sounds like its a nice to have if you can afford it item and if there is nothing else to spend any money on. Rather ironic I thought to interview Winston in front of the mothballed public grandstand.

All the talk referred to it as a training option, no mention of it as a racing surface.

[Reefton]

20 hours ago, Mark D said:

Dennis Moore Reefton

 

Always partial to a bit of Monty Python

[Huey]

28 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Interesting. Sounds like its a nice to have if you can afford it item and if there is nothing else to spend any money on. Rather ironic I thought to interview Winston in front of the mothballed public grandstand.

All the talk referred to it as a training option, no mention of it as a racing surface.

You gotta love how they are always saying its an alternative option for trainers if the weather and track surfaces get too bad, I bet no trainers will start there horses on it if they don't like it no matter what.

I didn't think it possible but the new CEO speaks more Corporate style BS than all his predessors put together.