Doomed Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 (edited) This has always intrigued me. Some enlightened soul may be able to explain how it works. I note that they have added an extra rating 65 at Ashburton next week, which is hardly surprising as they had 28 noms for a 65 mile and 25 for a 65 1,400m at Wingatui this weekend. So lots of horses missed a start, but no worries about that, it's only the SI. The bit that interests me though is that there will be no splitting of races at Ashburton as the TAB can only service 9 races. Why is this? Is it part of a union agreement or what? If they have to finish by a certain time so workers can get back to chch for a piss up why not just start 25 minutes earlier or reduce the gap by 5 minutes between some of the races. I note the trots race at Ashburton 2 days earlier and they are running 11 races, potentially. I also note there is no problem splitting races to run 11 at Te Rapa next Wednesday, despite 6 and 7 horse fields today at Tauranga for big stakes. This has happened several times in Canterbury recently with never an explanation as to why. If the TAB can manage 11 trots at Ashburton why can they only manage 9 gallops? Edited January 13, 2023 by Doomed 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomates Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 1 minute ago, Doomed said: This has always intrigued me. Some enlightened soul may be able to explain how it works. I note that they have added an extra rating 65 at Ashburton next week, which is hardly surprising as they had 28 noms for a 65 mile and 25 for a 65 1,400m at Wingatui this weekend. So lots of horses missed a start, but no worries about that, it's only the SI. The bit that interests me though is that there will be no splitting of races at Ashburton as the TAB can only service 9 races. Why is this? Is it part of a union agreement or what? If they have to finish by a certain time so workers can get back to chch for a piss up why not just start 25 minutes earlier or reduce the gap by 5 minutes between some of the races. I note the trots race at Ashburton 2 days earlier and they are running 11 races, potentially. I also note there is no problem splitting races to run 11 at Te Rapa next Wednesday, despite 6 and 7 horse fields today at Tauranga for big stakes. This has happened several times in Canterbury recently with never an explanation as to why. If the TAB can manage 11 trots at Ashburton why can they only manage 9 gallops? I personally think will see more of this , they will be trying to keep down stakes costs as much as possible seeing as how they are now subsidising stakes due to the 8.5mil deficit from the TAB . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomates Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 as to above , Te Rapa next Wednesday , i reckon there is 5 races that could be split , but only are going to be , one of them possibly into 3 , but what about the others ? have to wait till the following week for Matamata . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefton Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 3 hours ago, Doomed said: This has always intrigued me. Some enlightened soul may be able to explain how it works. I note that they have added an extra rating 65 at Ashburton next week, which is hardly surprising as they had 28 noms for a 65 mile and 25 for a 65 1,400m at Wingatui this weekend. So lots of horses missed a start, but no worries about that, it's only the SI. The bit that interests me though is that there will be no splitting of races at Ashburton as the TAB can only service 9 races. Why is this? Is it part of a union agreement or what? If they have to finish by a certain time so workers can get back to chch for a piss up why not just start 25 minutes earlier or reduce the gap by 5 minutes between some of the races. I note the trots race at Ashburton 2 days earlier and they are running 11 races, potentially. I also note there is no problem splitting races to run 11 at Te Rapa next Wednesday, despite 6 and 7 horse fields today at Tauranga for big stakes. This has happened several times in Canterbury recently with never an explanation as to why. If the TAB can manage 11 trots at Ashburton why can they only manage 9 gallops? to be fair to the TAB on course staff they are not bad people doing their best. And they have had shiite squeezed out of them with cost cutting and staff cutting too. Not saying these people are the cause of this restriction and I have had arguments with them before but they are certainly not living the highlife on the industry. The hierarchy maybe but not those guys 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomed Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 3 hours ago, Reefton said: to be fair to the TAB on course staff they are not bad people doing their best. And they have had shiite squeezed out of them with cost cutting and staff cutting too. Not saying these people are the cause of this restriction and I have had arguments with them before but they are certainly not living the highlife on the industry. The hierarchy maybe but not those guys Certainly not criticising the on course staff, who actually do some work, but it is amazing that absolutely no one knows why they can only handle 9 races regardless of how many horses have to be eliminated, but in the NI and at the trots there is no problem running several extra races. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Agent Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 When there is talk of splitting races it usually says the decision will be made by NZTR in conjunction with the club. I don't ever recall it saying that the TAB would have any input. If these discrepancies are truly only happening in the South Island for goodness sake get some solid north island support and fix it. There are obvious north island trainers and owners who predominantly support racing in the south. Join forces with those people and ram raid the current non listeners. Stop moaning and do something about it. Remember those who are not listening are being paid indirectly by you. Their income needs cutting off for non performance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doomed Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 28 minutes ago, Special Agent said: When there is talk of splitting races it usually says the decision will be made by NZTR in conjunction with the club. I don't ever recall it saying that the TAB would have any input. If these discrepancies are truly only happening in the South Island for goodness sake get some solid north island support and fix it. There are obvious north island trainers and owners who predominantly support racing in the south. Join forces with those people and ram raid the current non listeners. Stop moaning and do something about it. Remember those who are not listening are being paid indirectly by you. Their income needs cutting off for non performance It happens regularly in Canterbury and often at Ashburton. I have no idea why. It just seems strange that 2 days earlier the trots will hold 11 races at the same venue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freda Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Recently there was a twilight meeting held, either Timaru or Ashburton, not at Riccarton [which isn't the worst idea considering population proximity] and a couple of trainers contacted NZTR to ask why the timing of the raceday was such given that nearly every participant had to travel some distance. They were told that the TAB could only give them this time slot because of dog races. We were a bit stunned at that answer. There could have been several other much more believable answers than that one, surely. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Agent Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 There is quite iften a twilight meeting at New Plymouth followed by an Awapuni meeting the next day. Awapuni trained runners get home from the twilight meeting at midnight. Those trained further afield obviously get to bed a lot later. Paying staff in these situations, plus allowable turnarounds, makes life difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 13 hours ago, Doomed said: It happens regularly in Canterbury and often at Ashburton. I have no idea why. It just seems strange that 2 days earlier the trots will hold 11 races at the same venue. Nelson trots tomorrow have 12 races with mostly small fields, lots of strange anomalies, how come they get 12 Westport only had 8., there is no consistency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Agent Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 The more races, the higher the turnover. Is this a ploy to put the screws on unfavourable clubs? I think so. Every club should be given a chance at the oncourse turnover revenue. If your club has innovative ideas to get patrons to the track they should be commended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Another factor restricting the number of races per meeting can be the number of stalls available . Anyone who held onto a horse for hours at the old Thames course would know Matamata and Te Rapa -12 races no problem, others like Ellerslie may be restricted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Agent Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Haven't been to Ashburton or Timaru lately but, can't remember that being a problem at either venue. Otaki and Tauherenikau on the other hand ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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