Nelli

How is the new calendar is going to work in the North with two meetings every week, even with fewer races/meeting? We simply don't have the owners (=horses) up here. I assume more details will be coming out and will be interesting to see if HRNZ has any initiatives to boost owner numbers. However, if their thoughts are to run a distinct 2 tier system with existing stakes at Auckland and even lower stakes than currently at Cambridge, then there would have to be a total revamp of handicapping and race conditions to make the latter viable and attractive to owners.

Entain's business is betting and gaming, so of course, their #1 priority should be the punters. IMO the responsibility for attracting, retaining and generally looking after owners (=horses) lies with HRNZ, the clubs and trainers. Entain has provided funding to supposedly encourage breeders but the schemes are administered by HRNZ and are so horribly flawed and unfair I cannot see how they they will halt the decline in foal numbers.

Any good driver can tell what the horse has left in the tank. I know a number of times I've gone down to the stables after one of our horses has won by a head and the driver has said he "always had him covered" while I'd been holding my breath down the entire straight. The drivers are in a far better position to tell if their horses chances were affected than someone watching from the stand or tv.

Great to have racing back on free to air (can watch on both our tvs now) and seem to see more of the race aftermath (happy owners etc) in harness races. However, we find some of the text too small to read on our tvs and there is no time (we record races when we're out so now harder to fast forward past the dogs to find the races of interest). However, I assume we can give Entain feedback through their contact link on their website, and if enough of us do it, they may do some fine tuning.

It was also totally predictable that no North Island trotters are nominated for the Racing Rewards races this Friday at Addington even though a NI horse was the leading point earner and many have the points to be in the fields (haven't checked the pacers). Why would any owner of these lower rated horses fork out the money and put their horses through the stress and risks of the long distance trip/ferry crossings? It's different for top horses racing for big money and Group Race glory (they earn enough to fly) but IMO both this series and the Country Cup series should have North and South Island divisions

Only 3 noms for the Trotters' Flying Mile at Cambridge. It's almost as if the current programming is designed to accelerate the decline of interesting harness racing in the North. What South Island trainer would enter this even if bringing horses up to race in the slot race or be staying on for the Northern "carnival". Few horses could race in a Group race on Saturday, take the long trip North, and be ready to race at the top level the next Thursday! It's bad enough the rating system encourages the export of most of our potentially "open class" horses and the proliferation of R35-R40 fields.

The drop in numbers of open class trotters is just symptomatic of current conditions. We've always had the superior champs (e g., Lyell Creek, Monbet, Marcoola) and they are aspirational to all of us in the industry. But with dropping owner (=horse) numbers combined with the harshness of the rating system on any good performer, in the last decade many of our potential open class trotters either went quickly to the broodmare paddock after earning black type as juveniles, or have been exported.

The article says the company bought the land from ATC 3 years ago and it seems the club is not part of the project. I assume the sale of so much land was to reduce debt and the museum was demolished to replace the lost parking. Members in the know should be able to confirm this.

Totally agree. At present it seems everything is stacked against Auckland. Their own poor decisions turned what should have been a gold mine into a sink hole. However, the North is just the barometer for the ill winds besetting our industry nationwide. IMO decisions made by HRNZ have accelerated the North's decline (e.g., scrapping the northern summer carnival and the Jewels). If we want our industry to survive, we need city folk to experience the good things about racing. Turning our back on our biggest city leaves ourselves wide open to the anti brigades. We need new ways to attract Aucklanders into the racing game.

One of the side effects of these conditions is that commercial breeder companies (including those sending mares to their own stallions) don't face the same problems. Eg Ultimate Racy Girl has earned over $7K for Alabar.

Aha - in the small print in v3 of the conditions is the reason the principle breeder misses out. As the mare is a 5yo, it is likely that the breeding entity (the group of people listed) for Baltimore Jill hasn't bred anything within the last 5 years. Yes it does seem unfair that the very people that go to the effort to get additional people into owning and breeding Standardbreds are excluded from both schemes.

Baltimore Jill has not placed in a f&m race (f&m) bonus nor won a race this season (NZ stallion bonus).

We've not qualified for any bonuses yet. Having different "breeding entities" eliminated us from the old scheme (we get partners in to race and that detail came into play too late for us to change ownerships) and we race trotters which effectively eliminates us from the new scheme in the North Island. The NZ bred bonus only goes to winners (I cannot see what at all use it is to give a sizable bonus to a breeder for a decision they made 3-8 years ago).

It still comes down to having enough owners. The costs are the same to feed and train a good or poor horse but the latter will earn less. If other owner/breeders are like us, we focus our resources on the ones who can pay their way (and for the education of our young ones) and find new homes for those who are a big drain on our resources. Will low grade races change the numbers of horses we can afford to race? If it means funds shifted away from the higher grade races and our good horses will earn less, then the proposal may actually have a negative effect on how many horses we can afford to own.

Back in the 1960s people were worried about the dominance of Adios! Breeders always try to breed to the best to the best and the marked improvements in times, conformation and gait that I've seen myself since I started going to the trots seem to confirm the benefits have outweighed the negatives to date. And now we have access to frozen semen which for the trotters has opened up a heap more in terms of out crosses/genetic diversity. Also, I've just checked out our copy of the 1998/1999 Sires Register and there was only 1 more registered stallion than in 2023/24. So as a breeder, stallion choice is not a worry to me. I worry more about where the new owners are going to come from to make it worth breeding in the first place.