Riccarton Noms

[Doomed]

I notice noms aren't good for the Jumpers and also the open sprinters and 3yos. You would hardly expect too many late noms for the jumpers.

By contrast Ruakaka has some potentially interesting fields. A pretty good line up of sprinters. A new precedent being set with the 65 stayers. They are planning to just split the field. No mention of the second race being run for a lesser stake.

[Freda]

4 minutes ago, Doomed said:

I notice noms aren't good for the Jumpers and also the open sprinters and 3yos. You would hardly expect too many late noms for the jumpers.

By contrast Ruakaka has some potentially interesting fields. A pretty good line up of sprinters. A new precedent being set with the 65 stayers. They are planning to just split the field. No mention of the second race being run for a lesser stake.

If K. Myers has a puncture on the way down there won't be any jumping races....

[Bid]

1 minute ago, Freda said:

If K. Myers has a puncture on the way down there won't be any jumping races....

Who do I send my float bill to if that happens? 

[nomates]

Well Mills and NZTR should be paying all expenses for one K T Myers , 16 horses nom's across 3 races and 12 trained by Myers . Scary , and only 3 other trainers with jumpers at the meeting . Absolutely none from the north of the NI . 

If ever there was a window into the future of jumping in NZ this is it .

Edited August 2, 2022 by nomates

[Huey]

47 minutes ago, nomates said:

Well Mills and NZTR should be paying all expenses for one K T Myers , 16 horses nom's across 3 races and 12 trained by Myers . Scary , and only 3 other trainers with jumpers at the meeting . Absolutely none from the north of the NI . 

If ever there was a window into the future of jumping in NZ this is it .

It's over (jumps racing) it won't recover from where it is now, 3-5 years tops .

[Doomed]

58 minutes ago, nomates said:

Well Mills and NZTR should be paying all expenses for one K T Myers , 16 horses nom's across 3 races and 12 trained by Myers . Scary , and only 3 other trainers with jumpers at the meeting . Absolutely none from the north of the NI . 

If ever there was a window into the future of jumping in NZ this is it .

There are only actually 14 noms from jumpers, two double acceptors. It will be interesting to discover how much work has gone on over the last few months from NZTR and the CJC to ensure there would be sufficient jumpers coming. I'm surprised they weren't a little more flexible in their programming, perhaps open entry races might have been an idea. No, on second thoughts, I'm not really surprised.

[nomates]

5 minutes ago, Doomed said:

There are only actually 14 noms from jumpers, two double acceptors. It will be interesting to discover how much work has gone on over the last few months from NZTR and the CJC to ensure there would be sufficient jumpers coming. I'm surprised they weren't a little more flexible in their programming, perhaps open entry races might have been an idea. No, on second thoughts, I'm not really surprised.

I do wonder how much of an effect having one of the days on the A/W in terms of northern horses going down has had , if a horse wants to run on grass twice has to stay over a week , all extra costs . Only 4 horses from north of Taupo nom'd , that says it all for me , northern trainers aren't interested in travelling that far anymore , even less when the Ellerslie is up and running and those big stakes start on a regular basis . 

Next target is the cup meeting , it was pretty average last year and i suspect it won't be any better this year .

The noise will keep getting louder for the Gns to be moved north in the next few years , the power base is up there and they don't want to travel unless it's Aus .

I would have thought that after 2+ weeks without racing in the CD that the Hawera nom's would be spilling over but nah , a lot lighter than expected , but as i keep saying the CD is struggling for numbers .

[Doomed]

Perhaps even sadder than the jumps situation is the 3yo situation. We always knew the jumps would struggle, and of course that 3yo race always struggles as well.

Just out of interest I went back to 1987. The Haldon Plate, run one week before the Nationals for maiden 2yos, was split into two separate races; one of 10 starters and one with 12. Then they ran 3yo races on the 1st and 3rd days of National week with 8 and 10 starters respectively. 40 starters in 2/3yo races over two weeks. Only six noms this week.

It is inevitable jumps racing will die off, but surely 2yo and 3yo racing struggling is a big worry. I thought we had lots of syndicates these days and they wanted instant gratification.

For all of the highly paid administrators employed in the head offices, the industry really does appear to be totally leaderless.

And as others have suggested, once ChCh loses the Nationals the two big Guineas races will follow very quickly, within two years I would say. Is the CJC too thick to realise any of this?

[Reefton]

24 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Perhaps even sadder than the jumps situation is the 3yo situation. We always knew the jumps would struggle, and of course that 3yo race always struggles as well.

Just out of interest I went back to 1987. The Haldon Plate, run one week before the Nationals for maiden 2yos, was split into two separate races; one of 10 starters and one with 12. Then they ran 3yo races on the 1st and 3rd days of National week with 8 and 10 starters respectively. 40 starters in 2/3yo races over two weeks. Only six noms this week.

It is inevitable jumps racing will die off, but surely 2yo and 3yo racing struggling is a big worry. I thought we had lots of syndicates these days and they wanted instant gratification.

For all of the highly paid administrators employed in the head offices, the industry really does appear to be totally leaderless.

And as others have suggested, once ChCh loses the Nationals the two big Guineas races will follow very quickly, within two years I would say. Is the CJC too thick to realise any of this?

They may be too thick or they might not be but it is the inevitable result of (1) the neglect of the grass roots (2) the fact that jumping is stuffed and when K Myers and P Nelson chuck it in that will be the end of it and (3)the growing influence of the Waikato mafia in controlling NZ racing.

I really doubt there is a hell of a lot the CJC can do about the inexorable march of 'progress'.

Unless they sell up of course and take the money to develop a new facility and feed higher stakes

 

[Chief Stipe]

17 minutes ago, Reefton said:

the neglect of the grass roots

Finally you are getting onto the problem - the turf!

17 minutes ago, Reefton said:

I really doubt there is a hell of a lot the CJC can do about the inexorable march of 'progress'.

They have no one to blame but themselves. 

[curious]

5 hours ago, Freda said:

If K. Myers has a puncture on the way down there won't be any jumping races....

My greater fear is that if they scrap races that he has prepared runners for all season, he will turn the truck around or leave it parked at home.

[Doomed]

I don't know about everyone else, but for me the most fascinating race for all of National week will be the 1,400m maiden race on the last day. The only grass track maiden race in all of Canterbury for almost 14 weeks. Will lots of owners have said to their trainers "sure, keep it in work for 14 weeks there's a $15,000 race on the the last day of National week, that will do."

[mikeynz]

I might be wrong but it appers to only be 2 jumps races now, with the domination of one trainer its gunna replicate a lot of higher stake harness races.

[Chief Stipe]

51 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

I might be wrong but it appers to only be 2 jumps races now, with the domination of one trainer its gunna replicate a lot of higher stake harness races.

You are right.  They decided this morning but have yet to make a statement.  9 races scheduled for the first day - two Open Jumps races.

 

All races will remain open until Wednesday 03 August at 9.00am

 

Jumps Races – All Three Days
The jumps races will be reviewed at 9am Wednesday 03 August (for all three days) and a decision made at that time re any deletions.

[mikeynz]

15 hours ago, Doomed said:

I don't know about everyone else, but for me the most fascinating race for all of National week will be the 1,400m maiden race on the last day. The only grass track maiden race in all of Canterbury for almost 14 weeks. Will lots of owners have said to their trainers "sure, keep it in work for 14 weeks there's a $15,000 race on the the last day of National week, that will do."

I'm not doubting ya but the dates please, your up with things much more than me.

[curious]

Paul Nelson on things.

https://loveracing.nz/News/37337/AustralianfocusforNelsonthisweekend.aspx

[Chief Stipe]

Ironic that the picture they use is taken at Riccarton!!!

 

[Chief Stipe]

Australian focus for Nelson this weekend

NZ Racing Desk

2 August 2022

Champion jumps trainer Paul Nelson will be in Australia rather than Christchurch this weekend as he watches his star hurdler The Cossack take on Australia’s best.

Nelson won last season’s New Zealand jumps trainer title with 19 successes, including a startling eight prestige jumps races, but he won’t be represented on the first day of the Grand National carnival at Riccarton on Saturday.

Instead he’ll be at Sandown in Melbourne on Sunday for the A$300,000 Grand National Hurdle (4200m), where The Cossack takes on local champ Saunter Boy and a high-class field.

“We are very happy with him,” Nelson said.

“He’s bright and he’s wanting to do his work, and that’s all we wanted.”

Though Nelson’s former main rider Aaron Kuru is now based in Australia, he said he had no hesitation in giving The Cossack’s regular New Zealand rider Shaun Phelan the mount at Sandown.

“Shaun has stuck with us right through the season and he’s ridden everything that we asked him to ride,” Nelson said.

“I wanted him to have the chance, and I’m sure Aaron would see it that way as well, and Shaun’s ridden over there before as well.”

Nelson plans to fly over to Melbourne for the weekend, return on Monday, and then head back later in the month if The Cossack is able to compete in the Grand National Steeplechase (4500m) at Ballarat.

“He’s had the one race over fences in New Zealand but he’s got to have a school at Ballarat before he can race in the steeplechase,” Nelson said.

“It will all depend on how he comes through the race this weekend.”

Nelson said he wouldn’t be taking any horses to the Riccarton winter carnival because of the impact it can have on the horses for the rest of the jumps season.

“If the horses went to Riccarton, that would be them for the season. The track’s very wet, and it’s hard going and it looks like they’re going to get some more bad weather,” Nelson said.

“I was going to take Nedwin for the hurdles but he wasn’t quite right, and you’ve got to go down there 110 percent right.

“We’ve taken hurdlers down there and still returned for the Great Northern, like The Cossack did last year, but we haven’t done it for a steeplechaser. They seem buggered by the time they get back from there.”

With Nelson not going down, and given the fact that jumps racing in the South Island is now restricted to this Christchurch carnival, the nominations for the first day jumps races have been very light.

Nelson said it was extremely disappointing that jumps racing had all but come to a halt in the South Island, with none of the nominated runners hailing from the South Island.

He said a meeting held in Christchurch last year had some enthusiasm for jumps races to be staged at Riccarton on the same day that the Riccarton synthetic track was used for flat racing, but it wasn’t pursued.

“Those at the meeting thought it was a great idea, it would give South Island races a boost, it would make sense to have it at Riccarton so riders could get down there – it’s too difficult for riders to fly in and then drive down to other tracks,” he said.

“Everybody was very happy with the idea and it was in New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing’s hands, but they decided to do away with jumps racing in the South Island bar the National.

“I don’t believe the Canterbury Jockey Club can do without this weekend of racing, and without jumping being a huge part of it. As far as most people are concerned, it’s not the Winter Cup meeting, it’s the Grand National meeting.”

Nelson said the lack of tracks in the North Island wasn’t helping either, and the fact that Ellerslie, where jumps racing has ceased with the steeplechase hill sold, and Te Aroha, where the Great Northern jumps racing carnival was held last season, were being remodelled at the same time didn’t seem to make sense.

However, he said attendances at the jumps meetings that were taking place had been very encouraging.

“At the Wellington Steeplechase meeting three weeks ago there was a bloody good crowd. The stands were full and all the rooms were chocker,” he said.

“Hawke’s Bay, both days they’ve had, were huge. There were people around the parade ring before the first race. When do you get that in winter other than jumps racing?” 

[Doomed]

57 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

I'm not doubting ya but the dates please, your up with things much more than me.

From a very quick perusal there are no grass track maiden races in Canty between Ashburton on 7 July and Riccarton on 1 Oct, other than one next weekend at Riccarton. So I imagine there will be very few wet track maidens in work.

[curious]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

Jumps Races – All Three Days
The jumps races will be reviewed at 9am Wednesday 03 August (for all three days) and a decision made at that time re any deletions.

Anyone seen or heard what that 9 am decision is?

[Chief Stipe]

44 minutes ago, curious said:

Anyone seen or heard what that 9 am decision is?

They're still discussing it and have just stopped for lunch.  They'll be back at 2pm.

[Freda]

18 hours ago, curious said:

My greater fear is that if they scrap races that he has prepared runners for all season, he will turn the truck around or leave it parked at home.

You know - a thought - Kevin Myers could guarantee numbers for next year [ not being anywhere akin to his nickname ]  and the continuation of the Nationals here for a year or two more at least, and end up taking home the thick end of the not inconsiderable stakemoney.

Not a bad week's business with no opposition.

 

[Freda]

18 hours ago, Doomed said:

I don't know about everyone else, but for me the most fascinating race for all of National week will be the 1,400m maiden race on the last day. The only grass track maiden race in all of Canterbury for almost 14 weeks. Will lots of owners have said to their trainers "sure, keep it in work for 14 weeks there's a $15,000 race on the the last day of National week, that will do."

Do you think it might be divided three times to compensate for the lack of jumping races?   🤣 🤣

[mikeynz]

11 minutes ago, Freda said:

You know - a thought - Kevin Myers could guarantee numbers for next year [ not being anywhere akin to his nickname ]  and the continuation of the Nationals here for a year or two more at least, and end up taking home the thick end of the not inconsiderable stakemoney.

Not a bad week's business with no opposition.

 

Thats what i thought.

[Doomed]

11 minutes ago, Freda said:

Do you think it might be divided three times to compensate for the lack of jumping races?   🤣 🤣

Are there that many local trainers with mudders champing at the bit Pam?