NZTR Update - Tracks

[Joe Bloggs]

NZ has a population roughly the same as QLD, our racing administration is only a half length in front of you, however, they do get strong support from the Gov, and the various codes especially galloping have strong representation.

So, when the going gets tough [and it has over time] the tough get going. Not so in NZ, QLD has a breeding industry that pales in comparison to NZ, the breeders in NZ have too bigger say, there are some that wave a big stick, and as for the leading trainers? why didn't Baker Snr stand up and stir the pot?.......why do you not hear from Roger James, Marsh, Pike etc etc........this shitfight didn't creep up overnight, the tracks are only a part of the problem, the diminishing pool of horses in NZ was alarming, the plunder by Asia and Oz has been going on for years, but the old adage applied....''I'm alright Jack'.

It's human nature to want the best, but at what cost, in all reality we can't blame the imports from Oz and UK, I've been guilty of that, but who wouldn't leave a mundane job and in some cases 'heavy clouds' to take up a high paid job in a small but beautiful foreign land? It's not like you don't speak English in NZ, so how hard can it be, and wow, look at the salary and perks they are offering.....if it all goes tit's up I can always do the bolt with their filthy lucre and resume or retire back in familiar territory.......and after all, the buck wont stop with me..........just the lunatic/s that appointed me.

Sad reading isn't it, and I haven't said this yet, ....but I fucking told youse so.....all those years ago, especially to the village idiots in the lovely little place we chose to settle in.......if anyone is hurting now, I just hope it's them, not the good buggers that have been powerless to stop the rot.

Thanks.

JB

 

[Chief Stipe]

47 minutes ago, Special Agent said:

If you are talking about cracks appearing in the Te Rapa track, this is one surface that was sand slit some time ago, many wouldn't call successfully.  Now one of the ideas floating is putting sand on most of our tracks as a remedial measure.  Decisions made in haste should really be challenged with anecdotal evidence.

Sand slitting is only a short term solution.  Eventually you end up with an uneven surface and grass struggles to grow and root in sand.  Add drains and the sand gets washed away.  

[Freda]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

Te Rapa were prepared to throw a bit more money at their problem.  However there are cracks appearing in that track.

Maybe so, but I wasn't referring to Te Rapa other than to point out the whereabouts of the former manager.

He managed Riccarton fairly well despite the many problems inherent in that job.

The current manager hasn't been so fortunate and it may be that financial and other constraints have impacted on the overall performance of the track.

[Doomed]

2 hours ago, Reefton said:

If it is any consolation I happened to have a gallop(well sort of a walk/waddle) around Reefton on Saturday and the track is in splendid nick

So you don't have to worry about the really important meetings

Is this season the tightest the whole circuit has been compressed? You wouldn't think too many horses would race 3 times. 

[Huey]

20 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Is this season the tightest the whole circuit has been compressed? You wouldn't think too many horses would race 3 times. 

Got to have it over and done with quickly, wouldn't want one of those meetings over shadowing one of the bigger events from a wagering perspective.

[The Centaur]

19 hours ago, Doomed said:

It is 100% obvious that NZTR had no idea HB and Otaki were both running appropriately spaced $19,000 rating 65, Dunstan staying races when they mucked around with the Otaki race. Its another cockup that went unnoticed amongst all the other cockups.

In all this track talk I hear no mention of Woodville. Why is that?

[Reefton]

1 hour ago, Doomed said:

Is this season the tightest the whole circuit has been compressed? You wouldn't think too many horses would race 3 times. 

that's a worry all right but these days they flit from Christchurch on race morning(three and a half hours max - half an hour less from Rangiora way) so there will hopefully be a pool of horses that come to us but not the others

And of course the KT Myers types know what is required and are as likely as not to run twice if not three times.

It is a fingers crossed scenario for me really but it seems to work out.  But my levels of disillusionment are so cronically bad that if the stakeholders tell me we are not wanted I will go gracefully.  It is Wellington arbitrarily telling me we are not wanted that irritates the shit out of me

As I said before I did though explain to them how to reschedule the whole lot to make the spacing better for us but they were not interested in listening.  'we can't work out the schedule' they said.  'You dumb pricks I've just done that for you!'

I did tell them I would redraft the entire South Island Calendar for the season(At a price of course) but I think they might not have liked to be shown up by common sense in action.

The issue is Waikouaiti getting a January feature Saturday promised to them.  Why they couldn't have a feature New Years day Meeting I have no idea but it jams an extra Saturday meeting into the South Island January.  Riverton on Jan1 with an industry day is hardly riveting.

Last year in that week the three Coast Clubs had three of the top four on course turnovers in NZ(Kumara's the highest by a  mile of course).  Even Ellerslie on a Sunday couldn't compete.

Extract from our dates submission(have to admit we were chasing an extra day but hey at that time of year we are doing NZ's best on course turnovers so why shouldn't we get an extra day?)

'CIRCUIT SCHEDULING

This past circuit's spacing of three meetings in six days also adversely affected runner numbers and no doubt contributed to the aforementioned non attendance of several long term Coast Racing supporter Trainers.  The 2022/23 calendar proposal seeks to shorten that further to five days. The days when horses could be expected to race three times in five days are unfortunately long gone and we seek a more realistic  spread of racedays.

 The Waikouaiti meeting was granted feature status last year and placed in the 'vacant' January weekend spot created by the loss of the Central Otago and (one) West Coast dates.  Next year that Waikouaiti meeting is scheduled for the second Saturday January 14th.  Traditionally Kumara has always raced on the second Saturday in January with the rest of the West Coast circuit pivoting around it depending on the date the second Saturday fell on.   The suggestion here is that Waikouaiti be reallocated the Tuesday January 3rd(two days after Riverton on the first) then Reefton on the Thursday January 5th(as it is now) Greymouth on Sunday January 8th and again(or Reefton) on Wednesday January 11th(the aforementioned requested extra day) then Kumara on Saturday 14th.  That means a nice spread of two clear days between each of the four West Coast meetings.  What's more it alleviates a potential issue with racebooks where form from the last meeting is often omitted because of short timeframes between meetings(which is an unprofessional look for the industry when provided to regular racegoers).  

The question might well be asked why the West Coast circuit, probably the best sequence of meetings in the South Island in terms of return on NZTR investment in stakes and grants, continues to be pushed around dates wise to fit(in this case) a date(Waikouaiti) that never traditionally existed?  Kumara in particular is a(probably the) truly iconic racemeeting in this country and everybody knows it is the second Saturday in January.  Hotels in the District will be booked out already for that weekend in 2023 and that alone will reflect extremely poorly upon NZ Racing when people realise that that date has been changed for no logical or justifiable reason.  And reflecting poorly on NZ Racing will do nothing to achieve the objects of NZTR mentioned on the first page of this submission nor encourage the community engagement specified in the December 18th circular also mentioned in the introduction. 

The only significant dates issue we see from that is to cut Saturday January 6th back to one thoroughbred meeting(Marton) BUT the ARC could be approached to transfer it's feature(and high stakes) day at Pukekohe back from the Sunday January 7th to Saturday January 6th(thereby leaving the Sunday with only one(not two) thoroughbred meetings).  Alternately Greymouth could run on the Saturday if the ARC did not like that scenario.

Note that the third is still a holiday date for Waikouaiti with New Year's day falling on the Sunday making Tuesday a holiday date(so they do not lose anything in terms of attractiveness for crowds).  The other benefit is that it creates a better spread of feature days in the South whereby as it stands in the ten weeks post NZ Cup day there are only three South Island feature meetings with every one at least five hours from the major training centre of Riccarton.  Then follows a sequence of seven feature meetings in eight weeks - better class horses go from no opportunities to an abundance and lower quality horses the reverse.   Shifting Waikouaiti will at least partially address that issue.

An additional advantage would be to make a more logical travel progression of Riverton(Jan 1) two hours to Waikouaiti/Dunedin(Jan 3) then seven hours to the West Coast(Jan 5) versus Riverton then a nine hour trip to the West Coast.   

The allocation of the Wednesday January 11th to the West Coast would clash the meeting with Matamata on the same day but given the relative success(turnover wise) of scheduling two meetings on Wednesday January 5th this year that ought not to be a problem.  If however the Greymouth Club is allocated the Saturday January 7th rather than the Sunday January 8th that fourth day could be placed on Tuesday January 10th and retain at least in part the three day sequencing.  

As covered elsewhere the placement of Kumara on the Saturday January 7th 2023 puts the Kumara club in an impossible situation in terms of organising its meeting(from the public perspective) with only three working days beforehand.

Whatever happens the sequence of three meetings over five days is simply unworkable in regards obtaining fields that justify the industry investment in the days.  Whereas the last two years have proved that to schedule a fourth West Coast day is a logical and likely positive addition to the NZ Racing Calendar'.

 

  

 

[Assange]

4 hours ago, nomates said:

The issues are piling up , on top of all the issues we discuss regularly the TAB deficit last week and what is becoming an endemic issue with particular tracks that were earmarked as "A" list tracks NZ racing is at a real cross roads . 

I call it a crisis now , if confidence was shakey before it could be hitting a new low now , particularly in the CD .

I think myself Race are a huge part of this issue , they have issues with both tracks and Otaki before that when they had control there . From what i can gather they also have real financial issues , which were only exacerbated with financing the A/W , they have far too much invested in real estate and are heavily relying on the projections from those real estate deals paying off , and we know which direction real estate is moving at present along with interest rates .

Now they have race day payments withheld from the lost meeting and it looks like Awapuni could well be out for an extended period which is a huge revenue stream turned off .

But NZ racing as a whole is at a water shed , how they deal with recent events is going to be telling for our future .

Correct me if Im wrong but didn't Darren Balcombe work for RACE at Awapuni?

[nomates]

2 minutes ago, Assange said:

Correct me if Im wrong but didn't Darren Balcombe work for RACE at Awapuni?

Not sure , but it's a small pool who do just take turns .

[Doomed]

36 minutes ago, Reefton said:

that's a worry all right but these days they flit from Christchurch on race morning(three and a half hours max - half an hour less from Rangiora way) so there will hopefully be a pool of horses that come to us but not the others

And of course the KT Myers types know what is required and are as likely as not to run twice if not three times.

It is a fingers crossed scenario for me really but it seems to work out.  But my levels of disillusionment are so cronically bad that if the stakeholders tell me we are not wanted I will go gracefully.  It is Wellington arbitrarily telling me we are not wanted that irritates the shit out of me

As I said before I did though explain to them how to reschedule the whole lot to make the spacing better for us but they were not interested in listening.  'we can't work out the schedule' they said.  'You dumb pricks I've just done that for you!'

I did tell them I would redraft the entire South Island Calendar for the season(At a price of course) but I think they might not have liked to be shown up by common sense in action.

The issue is Waikouaiti getting a January feature Saturday promised to them.  Why they couldn't have a feature New Years day Meeting I have no idea but it jams an extra Saturday meeting into the South Island January.  Riverton on Jan1 with an industry day is hardly riveting.

Last year in that week the three Coast Clubs had three of the top four on course turnovers in NZ(Kumara's the highest by a  mile of course).  Even Ellerslie on a Sunday couldn't compete.

Extract from our dates submission(have to admit we were chasing an extra day but hey at that time of year we are doing NZ's best on course turnovers so why shouldn't we get an extra day?)

'CIRCUIT SCHEDULING

 

This past circuit's spacing of three meetings in six days also adversely affected runner numbers and no doubt contributed to the aforementioned non attendance of several long term Coast Racing supporter Trainers.  The 2022/23 calendar proposal seeks to shorten that further to five days. The days when horses could be expected to race three times in five days are unfortunately long gone and we seek a more realistic  spread of racedays.

 The Waikouaiti meeting was granted feature status last year and placed in the 'vacant' January weekend spot created by the loss of the Central Otago and (one) West Coast dates.  Next year that Waikouaiti meeting is scheduled for the second Saturday January 14th.  Traditionally Kumara has always raced on the second Saturday in January with the rest of the West Coast circuit pivoting around it depending on the date the second Saturday fell on.   The suggestion here is that Waikouaiti be reallocated the Tuesday January 3rd(two days after Riverton on the first) then Reefton on the Thursday January 5th(as it is now) Greymouth on Sunday January 8th and again(or Reefton) on Wednesday January 11th(the aforementioned requested extra day) then Kumara on Saturday 14th.  That means a nice spread of two clear days between each of the four West Coast meetings.  What's more it alleviates a potential issue with racebooks where form from the last meeting is often omitted because of short timeframes between meetings(which is an unprofessional look for the industry when provided to regular racegoers).  

The question might well be asked why the West Coast circuit, probably the best sequence of meetings in the South Island in terms of return on NZTR investment in stakes and grants, continues to be pushed around dates wise to fit(in this case) a date(Waikouaiti) that never traditionally existed?  Kumara in particular is a(probably the) truly iconic racemeeting in this country and everybody knows it is the second Saturday in January.  Hotels in the District will be booked out already for that weekend in 2023 and that alone will reflect extremely poorly upon NZ Racing when people realise that that date has been changed for no logical or justifiable reason.  And reflecting poorly on NZ Racing will do nothing to achieve the objects of NZTR mentioned on the first page of this submission nor encourage the community engagement specified in the December 18th circular also mentioned in the introduction. 

The only significant dates issue we see from that is to cut Saturday January 6th back to one thoroughbred meeting(Marton) BUT the ARC could be approached to transfer it's feature(and high stakes) day at Pukekohe back from the Sunday January 7th to Saturday January 6th(thereby leaving the Sunday with only one(not two) thoroughbred meetings).  Alternately Greymouth could run on the Saturday if the ARC did not like that scenario.

Note that the third is still a holiday date for Waikouaiti with New Year's day falling on the Sunday making Tuesday a holiday date(so they do not lose anything in terms of attractiveness for crowds).  The other benefit is that it creates a better spread of feature days in the South whereby as it stands in the ten weeks post NZ Cup day there are only three South Island feature meetings with every one at least five hours from the major training centre of Riccarton.  Then follows a sequence of seven feature meetings in eight weeks - better class horses go from no opportunities to an abundance and lower quality horses the reverse.   Shifting Waikouaiti will at least partially address that issue.

 

An additional advantage would be to make a more logical travel progression of Riverton(Jan 1) two hours to Waikouaiti/Dunedin(Jan 3) then seven hours to the West Coast(Jan 5) versus Riverton then a nine hour trip to the West Coast.   

The allocation of the Wednesday January 11th to the West Coast would clash the meeting with Matamata on the same day but given the relative success(turnover wise) of scheduling two meetings on Wednesday January 5th this year that ought not to be a problem.  If however the Greymouth Club is allocated the Saturday January 7th rather than the Sunday January 8th that fourth day could be placed on Tuesday January 10th and retain at least in part the three day sequencing.  

As covered elsewhere the placement of Kumara on the Saturday January 7th 2023 puts the Kumara club in an impossible situation in terms of organising its meeting(from the public perspective) with only three working days beforehand.

Whatever happens the sequence of three meetings over five days is simply unworkable in regards obtaining fields that justify the industry investment in the days.  Whereas the last two years have proved that to schedule a fourth West Coast day is a logical and likely positive addition to the NZ Racing Calendar'.

 

  

 

They wouldn't have liked that Reefton, you almost sound as if you know what you're talking about. They won't be wanting to introduce common sense and logic into the dates setting process.

The Waikouaiti and Banks Pen situations are fascinating. They created two extra feature race-meetings with massive stakes increases to encourage them to move. My guess is that the turnovers at both meetings are less now than on their original dates, on course certainly. If money was no object I don't see why they didn't give them a few thousand each and leave them on their original dates.

In an ideal world Timaru would have been given a feature meeting to race on New Years day. That would have encouraged quite a few Boxing Day Wingatui horses to back up a week later, and provided a reasonably close opportunity for Canterbury horses. As it is, many horses only race once and then wait for the feature meetings down South a month or so later.

Also in an ideal world, the Coast would be given four meetings and a decent spread of dates.

I'm not sure if I should be holding my breath for this ideal world.

[Freda]

43 minutes ago, Assange said:

Correct me if Im wrong but didn't Darren Balcombe work for RACE at Awapuni?

Oh....it just gets worse.

[Reefton]

35 minutes ago, Doomed said:

They wouldn't have liked that Reefton, you almost sound as if you know what you're talking about. They won't be wanting to introduce common sense and logic into the dates setting process.

The Waikouaiti and Banks Pen situations are fascinating. They created two extra feature race-meetings with massive stakes increases to encourage them to move. My guess is that the turnovers at both meetings are less now than on their original dates, on course certainly. If money was no object I don't see why they didn't give them a few thousand each and leave them on their original dates.

In an ideal world Timaru would have been given a feature meeting to race on New Years day. That would have encouraged quite a few Boxing Day Wingatui horses to back up a week later, and provided a reasonably close opportunity for Canterbury horses. As it is, many horses only race once and then wait for the feature meetings down South a month or so later.

Also in an ideal world, the Coast would be given four meetings and a decent spread of dates.

I'm not sure if I should be holding my breath for this ideal world.

Quite right.  And Marlborough is another feature day that did not exist and has been given to the CJC.  We turned over well over $1m last year which would have more than paid for ourselves and with the horses here they could easily have added another day but there is a bit of a snitcher going on with the Westland Racing Club and hence the refusal.  Even if they didn't give us the fourth day they could have gone Waikouiaiti on Jan 3rd(Public Holiday) then Grey Sunday 7th us Wednesday 10th and Kumara Saturday 13th but no -  too much logic there.

The other thing is our gates cartage and also TAB costs.  Our gates are stored at Reefton so as it stands we have to cart them to Greymouth then back to Reefton then back to Kumara and back home to Reefton.  Do you think I could point out the efficiency of having Reefton either first or last to save cartage?  And the Reefton Trots the week before means the TAB have set up all their cabling, Tv's  etc etc etc.  If we were first of course they can leave it all in place but again cost is no problem to these people.  After all the game is absolutely awash with money just now isn't it?  Quite frustrating because as a business person(and an Accountant in my case) you look and strive for efficiency.  Then you deal with a quasi government department not spending its own money and nobody cares.

And Reefton first or last would save some of the Canterbury guys who stay a night's accommodation because they can arrive race morning(an hour and a quarter less travel) and fuel for that extra one hundred miles.  Plus the Northerners heading to or from would benefit as well.  But hey who gives a shit about saving the owners money?

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Reefton

[Assange]

56 minutes ago, nomates said:

Not sure , but it's a small pool who do just take turns .

So they just change carriages on the gravy train then???

[nomates]

30 minutes ago, Doomed said:

Also in an ideal world, the Coast would be given four meetings and a decent spread of dates.

 

Doomed , it was the same with the East Coast circuit , 2 days Gisborne followed by 2 days at Wairoa , for years a successful circuit . It brought people into the districts , hence money , exposed people to racing and industry participants took horses there and owners and trainers alike used it as a working holiday , a choice they made , everybody who went loved it and went year after year . I personally got to go to Wairoa when it was a 3 day meeting , hosted by the then president thru his son whom i worked with , to this day the most enjoyable 3 days of racing and associated week of events i have ever been to .

But for some reason Saundry and his cohorts said it must cease to save owners money , duh .

This type of thinking which is still inherent within NZTR , is what has , and still is stalling NZ racing .

As i keep banging on about , the sum of all the small parts help make our whole industry bigger and better , but somehow they just don't get it .

 

[nomates]

1 minute ago, Assange said:

So they just change carriages on the gravy train then???

Yes alas , i prefer to call it the lazy Susan of suits .

[curious]

1 hour ago, Assange said:

Correct me if Im wrong but didn't Darren Balcombe work for RACE at Awapuni?

Yes. For 14 years.

[Doomed]

19 minutes ago, curious said:

Yes. For 14 years.

At least he would have some insight into what the problem is.

[Doomed]

54 minutes ago, Reefton said:

Quite right.  And Marlborough is another feature day that did not exist and has been given to the CJC.  We turned over well over $1m last year which would have more than paid for ourselves and with the horses here they could easily have added another day but there is a bit of a snitcher going on with the Westland Racing Club and hence the refusal.  Even if they didn't give us the fourth day they could have gone Waikouiaiti on Jan 3rd(Public Holiday) then Grey Sunday 7th us Wednesday 10th and Kumara Saturday 13th but no -  too much logic there.

The other thing is our gates cartage and also TAB costs.  Our gates are stored at Reefton so as it stands we have to cart them to Greymouth then back to Reefton then back to Kumara and back home to Reefton.  Do you think I could point out the efficiency of having Reefton either first or last to save cartage?  And the Reefton Trots the week before means the TAB have set up all their cabling, Tv's  etc etc etc.  If we were first of course they can leave it all in place but again cost is no problem to these people.  After all the game is absolutely awash with money just now isn't it?  Quite frustrating because as a business person(and an Accountant in my case) you look and strive for efficiency.  Then you deal with a quasi government department not spending its own money and nobody cares.

And Reefton first or last would save some of the Canterbury guys who stay a night's accommodation because they can arrive race morning(an hour and a quarter less travel) and fuel for that extra one hundred miles.  Plus the Northerners heading to or from would benefit as well.  But hey who gives a shit about saving the owners money?

 

 

 

And at the same time its the cost of servicing that is used as the reason for eliminating the likes of Waimate, Gisborne and Wairoa. I note the Ashburton meeting that has ridden to the rescue of Riccarton in January is restricted to only 8 races for servicing reasons. So tough luck if there are heaps of noms. I can see Ashburton being the next track in trouble if it has to keep covering for Riccarton. Nowhere to hide if Ashburton goes out of action for any reason. Used to be 5 or 6 tracks within a couple of hours of Riccarton, now just the one option.

[Joe Bloggs]

1 hour ago, nomates said:

Doomed , it was the same with the East Coast circuit , 2 days Gisborne followed by 2 days at Wairoa , for years a successful circuit . It brought people into the districts , hence money , exposed people to racing and industry participants took horses there and owners and trainers alike used it as a working holiday , a choice they made , everybody who went loved it and went year after year . I personally got to go to Wairoa when it was a 3 day meeting , hosted by the then president thru his son whom i worked with , to this day the most enjoyable 3 days of racing and associated week of events i have ever been to .

But for some reason Saundry and his cohorts said it must cease to save owners money , duh .

This type of thinking which is still inherent within NZTR , is what has , and still is stalling NZ racing .

As i keep banging on about , the sum of all the small parts help make our whole industry bigger and better , but somehow they just don't get it .

 

A few years ago I stood with some mates at Randwick and watched a race or two from Wairoa, or was it Gisborne, they remarked how wonderful the track looked among the grapevines, oh, and the huge happy crowd. I think Rogie had bazillions in that day, and Myers, he had a coach load........the only meeting to match that here is Penola in Sth Oz, where that great red Petaluma Coonawarra comes from, the gold medal of reds, I digress, apologies, but the consensus among a very knowledgeable and well travelled lot was, wow, we must put that on the bucket list....

Unfortunately Saundry and his sidekicks ruined that, their pig ignorance of what a good race meeting is all about is damning, the committee room at Flemington has harboured some underachievers over the years, but the WFA champion would be Bernard Saundry.

NZ had some wonderful, traditional, iconic race meetings with good old fashioned Kiwi hospitality and where black type was inconsequential in favour of a roaring good time to be had by all.

The coming generation has been robbed of that experience by these fools, to give a youngster a wonderful day out sows the seeds, those very seeds that encouraged the boomer generation to embrace racing, punting, breeding, owning and in general support for our industry.......it could be saved you know......and you do really know how to save it.....you really do, it's Petone that doesn't and therein lays the problem.

[nomates]

24 minutes ago, Joe Bloggs said:

A few years ago I stood with some mates at Randwick and watched a race or two from Wairoa, or was it Gisborne, they remarked how wonderful the track looked among the grapevines, oh, and the huge happy crowd. I think Rogie had bazillions in that day, and Myers, he had a coach load........the only meeting to match that here is Penola in Sth Oz, where that great red Petaluma Coonawarra comes from, the gold medal of reds, I digress, apologies, but the consensus among a very knowledgeable and well travelled lot was, wow, we must put that on the bucket list....

Unfortunately Saundry and his sidekicks ruined that, their pig ignorance of what a good race meeting is all about is damning, the committee room at Flemington has harboured some underachievers over the years, but the WFA champion would be Bernard Saundry.

NZ had some wonderful, traditional, iconic race meetings with good old fashioned Kiwi hospitality and where black type was inconsequential in favour of a roaring good time to be had by all.

The coming generation has been robbed of that experience by these fools, to give a youngster a wonderful day out sows the seeds, those very seeds that encouraged the boomer generation to embrace racing, punting, breeding, owning and in general support for our industry.......it could be saved you know......and you do really know how to save it.....you really do, it's Petone that doesn't and therein lays the problem.

Amongst the vines is definitely Gissy . But as you say Joe , younger generations are being robbed , unless of course they move to the cities and go for a piss up , still doesn't come close in my book tho .

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Joe Bloggs said:

A few years ago I stood with some mates at Randwick and watched a race or two from Wairoa, or was it Gisborne, they remarked how wonderful the track looked among the grapevines, oh, and the huge happy crowd. I think Rogie had bazillions in that day, and Myers, he had a coach load........the only meeting to match that here is Penola in Sth Oz, where that great red Petaluma Coonawarra comes from, the gold medal of reds, I digress, apologies, but the consensus among a very knowledgeable and well travelled lot was, wow, we must put that on the bucket list....

Unfortunately Saundry and his sidekicks ruined that, their pig ignorance of what a good race meeting is all about is damning, the committee room at Flemington has harboured some underachievers over the years, but the WFA champion would be Bernard Saundry.

NZ had some wonderful, traditional, iconic race meetings with good old fashioned Kiwi hospitality and where black type was inconsequential in favour of a roaring good time to be had by all.

The coming generation has been robbed of that experience by these fools, to give a youngster a wonderful day out sows the seeds, those very seeds that encouraged the boomer generation to embrace racing, punting, breeding, owning and in general support for our industry.......it could be saved you know......and you do really know how to save it.....you really do, it's Petone that doesn't and therein lays the problem.

Geez Joe, that's possibly the best thing you have written. I suspect they hate associating racing with wine, both Gisborne and Marlborough had race tracks surrounded by grapevines, now both gone. I think the Clare Valley track is surrounded by vines as well. Lucky they aren't in NZ, they would be shut down years ago.

[Joe Bloggs]

Spot on Doomed, Clare does sit amongst the vines, never been there, would love to.

[Extra Dollars]

6 hours ago, Joe Bloggs said:

A few years ago I stood with some mates at Randwick and watched a race or two from Wairoa, or was it Gisborne, they remarked how wonderful the track looked among the grapevines, oh, and the huge happy crowd. I think Rogie had bazillions in that day, and Myers, he had a coach load........the only meeting to match that here is Penola in Sth Oz, where that great red Petaluma Coonawarra comes from, the gold medal of reds, I digress, apologies, but the consensus among a very knowledgeable and well travelled lot was, wow, we must put that on the bucket list....

Unfortunately Saundry and his sidekicks ruined that, their pig ignorance of what a good race meeting is all about is damning, the committee room at Flemington has harboured some underachievers over the years, but the WFA champion would be Bernard Saundry.

NZ had some wonderful, traditional, iconic race meetings with good old fashioned Kiwi hospitality and where black type was inconsequential in favour of a roaring good time to be had by all.

The coming generation has been robbed of that experience by these fools, to give a youngster a wonderful day out sows the seeds, those very seeds that encouraged the boomer generation to embrace racing, punting, breeding, owning and in general support for our industry.......it could be saved you know......and you do really know how to save it.....you really do, it's Petone that doesn't and therein lays the problem.

Totally agree about the iconic&the traditional racemeetings.....I fondly remember attending,with Mum&Dads chillybin,meeting up with the extended family,us kids joining the kids punters club&winning some chocolate,or even better collecting up all the tickets on the ground with the cousins,then waiting for the next newspaper so you could check ALL the results.