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Its more of the centralisation vibe, for goodness sake the place to begin revitalising racing is in the rural areas and racecourses its not just race goer interest that needs to be generated but some interest in working in the industry that is generated in those rural areas. It would be interesting to see how many of the staff at some of these bigger stables came from a rural background or rural courses that got them started in the game and yet they think getting rid of them is the answer, short term view for a long term disaster imo.

Most of your post is off the mark La Zip, the domestic scenes decline is not as a result of lower quality stock as you suggest, it’s a victim of the problems not the cause. The issue is that NZ’s population is uneducated about and doesn’t care about racing when compared to Australia’s. Racing’s leaders for many years have done a poor job of selling the story when say compared to the Wine industry which equally has negative connotations, it’s fluffy and made fun whereas racing is non existent. Many participants still have dreams of the 70s and 80s and have failed to evolve and instead it’s been a slow dwindle to now crisis. Relentless stupid decisions by administrators have hastened the decline, ignoring punters and owners at there peril. Couple that up with the rural community in NZ struggling through declining returns for many a year and you lose one of your natural ownership bases for the NZ industry, shutting down there race tracks will be the death knell for them.

Fun at the Beach for me. An upcomming star who was huge on cup day and was no show on show day when he sould have been showing.

Didn't even look today as a Tuesday , saw meeting abandoned thought brilliant nearly weekend works flown by this week , then shit it is only Tuesday. It's getting to tipping point for me where apart from Chch cup week, Christmas racing, Coast Circuit and GN meeting August iam not bothering too much with our racing , good horses sold , duffers running midweek at poor courses iam finding it hard to keep enthused , Spring Sydney and Melb has spoilt me .

Ultimate Sniper,an outstanding run. Marcoola was excellent and The Fixer looked the winner a long way from home

No Col, it was Marcoola by a distance....

Would have to agree with your sentiments RR. I’m afraid the drive to the cross roads is coming closer and to be honest, I don’t see any way forward because NZ industry won’t face the hard facts that the country is a bloodstock trading nation and not a racing nation. Domestic racing won’t survive...because as you say, quite rightly, there is nothing running around to encourage enthusiasm with the people the Industry needs more than anything else...punters. Unless there is a strategy to reconfigure trainers license and charge the trainers of trade horses, expensive usage charges should they use industry facilities to prepare the horses going offshore to Asia, then it will all go by the wayside... we need these trade horses to go through the system to generate revenue from the TAB...but as I stated to my other half over 10years ago, trading will be the death knell of the NZ domestic racing industry. The TAB revenue history tells you this... But where all of this could stop is Winston Peters....but as we know he is in favour of the export industry....but in a racing jurisdiction as small as NZ, you can’t have you cake and eat It too.

To: ‘rdytdy’ Thanks for the information about Grey Way’s race record on ‘nzracing’. I assume Grey Way’s electronic race record was input from the relevant editions of the New Zealand Turf Register. If so I have found a number of errors in the information copied. For example, while the 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75 and 1978-79 New Zealand Turf Registers list all starters, they do not list them in finishing order. In those years the New Zealand Turf Register listed in finishing order all horses receiving prizemoney (generally first to fourth). All the other starters were listed in weight carrying order (from highest to lowest) and where horses carried the same weight in alpahbetical order. Taking Grey Way's race on 17 March 1973 as an example Grey Way did not earn prizemoney (paid down to fourth). The other 17 starters were listed underneath the first four in weight carrying order. Grey Way was listed 13th of the 21 starters as he was weighted 7.13 (the 12th named was weighted 8.2 and the 14th named was weighted 7.12). The five listed 17th to 21st all carried the same weight and lowest weight of 7.7 so were listed in alphabetical order. He could have finished anywhere between 5th and 21st. The best that can be said of the detail provided by the NZTR is that Grey Way finished unplaced of 21. The rules applied Grey Way’s starts on 20/10/1973, 3/11/1973, 8/12/1973, 19/01/1974, 16/02/1974, 1/01/1975, 2/01/1975, 28/10/1978, 15/11/1978, 20/01/1979, 17/03/1979, 24/03/1979, 7/04/1979 and 28/04/1979. The same may apply to other races but I do not have that information. As records were not kept electronically in those days I imagine someone was given the task of entering the data much later without sufficient instruction. I have information which suggests Grey Way ran unplaced on 13/11/1979 in the GeraldineRC Gordon's Gin Hcp. This means Grey Way may have started 163 times not 162 according to the nzracing record. As the New Zealand Hall of Fame has Grey Way starting 164 times there may be another start missing from the nzracing record. Other possible errors in the nzracing record include the following. I think race date 6/02/1974 should be 4/02/1974. On 10/09/1974 there were 16 starters not 15, on 25/10/1974 there were 13 starters not 12 and on 27/10/1975 Grey Way finished 12th of 15 not 13th of 16. On 13/03/1976 there were 14 starters not 13. Cheers

Only 7 arrests but how many were escorted off the course. 2 as Iwas arriving at 12.45 were being lead out. Then I saw at least another 6 being escorted off during the day when I was outside which wasnt all day. There is arrests and then there is people who were removed becasue of intoxication they both need to be counted.

Sports Bet got The Shark at 15s for Cox Plate, same as Benbatl. Wins average mile handicap in South Island then 15s for best WFA race in Australia, that's mind boggling . Mind you they have Enable at 6s and she's 1000 to 1 to make the trip. I think she might be trying for a third Arc that month.

Ultimate Sniper.Unbeaten, untapped and how good could he end up.

No expert on healthy food that is for sure but from what i've read,chokeberry,black currant and elderberry have far greater health benefits than blue berries.Thats not to say blueberries aren't healthy for you because they are. I myself prefer the the $13 meal deal at the local fish and chip shop.

I went down for the week and had a great time.The highlight for me was the win by Media Sensation,this was after my biggest bet in a long time on the 3rd horse went astray. The Barnswood team are top people and always have a smile, even on bad days and deserve any luck that comes there way

Danielle is one gutsy ,immensly talented girl, Racing will miss her for a while...get well quick......Rusof very lucky to...