Brodie Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 (edited) Who woulve thought that a Southland harness meeting would be abandoned due to lack of entries? Obviously a very bad sign for racing in the deep south! Invercargill meeting set down for Friday this week has been abandoned due to lack of entries! Not sure whether Michael House had entered his horses but he has been keeping field no.s up at various meetings including Palmy! Reality is that things have been going backwards for owners for many years and is going to get worse with the cost of living and very few new owners coming through! There are many issues at play here that is making it look like harness racing is in a dire position and unless HRNZ and NZ TAB change policy and wake up, there will only be racing at Addington in the future. Edited September 13, 2022 by Brodie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freda Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 Perhaps that is what they want? ...apart from the grass track meetings, that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 The general living cost is definatly going to have a impact on everything in life, but if racing puts on poor meetings that produces poor turnover which ultimately halts stakes rises and possibly a drop,(who knows) then naturally the decline will continue. Probably there is too much racing, but it is early enough for Southland to improve but it is a first to see a meeting scrubbed through lack of numbers. Next week is Gore gallops, going to be very interesting to see how numbers stack up, I noticed the two friday meetings at Oamaru and Wingatui recently had very small late quaddie pools indicating limited interest but the fields were poor so what does on expect? Challenging times indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 (edited) Just to add there seem to be some anomalies in the calandar, whether they are getting the right days, seems Canterbury get sundays, thursdays may not be the best date yet for some reason now and then they, Southland end up being the third NZ meeting on Saturdays. Personally I think it gets pushed into the background competing with the aussie gallops, maybe switching some of those non event sunday meetings from Canterbury around with Southland might work better, maybe just the grass meetings in Canterbury like Methven and Banks Peninsula. Maybe and here is another thought, trainers might prefer a weekday so their weekend is free for other things, fucked if I know really. Edited September 13, 2022 by mikeynz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brodie Posted September 14, 2022 Author Share Posted September 14, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, mikeynz said: Just to add there seem to be some anomalies in the calandar, whether they are getting the right days, seems Canterbury get sundays, thursdays may not be the best date yet for some reason now and then they, Southland end up being the third NZ meeting on Saturdays. Personally I think it gets pushed into the background competing with the aussie gallops, maybe switching some of those non event sunday meetings from Canterbury around with Southland might work better, maybe just the grass meetings in Canterbury like Methven and Banks Peninsula. Maybe and here is another thought, trainers might prefer a weekday so their weekend is free for other things, fucked if I know really. What HRNZ and the TAB are doing is not working if they want a financially viable harness racing industry. Things are pretty tight out there for most people but they don’t seem to want to improve things! What happened to the brainstorming initiatives that were discussed? They can bury their heads in the sand and think they are great but it will be to the harness racing detriment. They need people to want to go on course so that they become addicted and then be punters and they won’t do this on a Thursday or Friday night which are work nights for most. Saturday nights are what the metro tracks should be racing to get people a greater chance to have a night out. It was a huge backward step when they decided to race Thursday Friday rather than Friday Saturday! From what I am seeing, the industry the way it is currently being run,is on a downward spiral that needs fixing. When the Trackside announcer says from the Bookies desk that $200 fixed bet is an amount worth mentioning then they are pretty deluded. Seriously the TAB needs to be encouraging wagering and get the turnover growing rather than stifling it with their pathetic restrictions on punters including the pedantic $1k anti money laundering limit. Nothing to do with AML the Clowns just want control like someone else we know!! Edited September 14, 2022 by Brodie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 (edited) I think Saturday nights, and Saturdays as a rule are a gone burger for harness racing, once it was the main night but , things have changed, Aussie racing late in the day has become the main focus, outside racing there is other sports on tv that capture people's attention, Invercargill have it seems a twilight meeting on a Saturday before Xmas with the Cup race, will be interesting to see how that goes,. I don't care what people say losing radio coverage is a backward step, racing was always freely available but only people who will follow racing now online are diehards who as they die off will not be replaced, kind of similar to putting all sport on pay tv, you don't get the new followers. Totally agree about the TAB telling about 200 dollars here and 300 there, no one cares, don't matter if you spend 2 bucks or 2000, it's not relevant to watchers, listeners, only relevant to the person taking the bet, unless it a major punt like the guy who put 140 grand or whatever on the ABs not to win the World Cup, that's kind of newsworthy or some of the big multi winners A lot of harness meetings these days ain't really captivating me no more, only noting the small fields or meetings like Invers being scrubbed , that is catching my attention., very interesting times indeed. Edited September 14, 2022 by mikeynz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 No one has commented about the numbers or the lack of in the Hannon Memorial, 2 or 3 are top performers, no doubt but 2 or three are just middle class, that's why they have only won 5 or 6 races so far, not a great race for betting, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) Good numbers for Saturday,(Winton), maybe the bigger tracks are more appealing, not much choice if you are in the north. Interesting Winton get Saturday, yet most days are Thursdays , Fridays, thats another anomaly. Edited September 19, 2022 by mikeynz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spatchcock Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 The Sapere Report suggested getting rid of Ascot Park and with good reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 As I said earlier in this thread, it's going to be interesting to see how many nominate for the Gore Gallops, Friday, strange how they don't want harness racing there but one would think the more a venue is used the better I would have thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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