Huey

MPI came out with a rediculous declaration saying that horses cannot be trained, only light excercise and no fast work. If you are training on your own property without outside staff, why should you be pevented from getting your horse ready to race as soon as the lockdown is over. Pressure for this has come from the big stables that decided to close down and now want to stop the little guys from getting the jump on them when the lockdown is finished

Bit bizarre.....Dean took the ultimate hospital pass.....the Messara report was airhead stuff anyway, orchestrated at short notice by Winston because he didn’t have a coherent racing policy and now proving to be largely inapplicable ......if you want to judge DM do it in a few years time 

How convenient.

In one month its basically NZ winter, these stables are hardly bastions of  winter racing its an obvious decision for them , the one month out effectively means their season is over. They hardly require a round of applause for it. 
Would have been interesting to see what they would have done if this occurred in Aug/Sept.

This post is about South Island jumps racing but my thoughts are towards North Island racing.
To get a horse ready to run 6400 metres of the Great Northern needs five months of slow build up.  So to get a horse ready for early September the work needs to start by early April at the latest.  But it would be disappointing for a horseman who had put in all the hard work to be told that the Great Northern has been cancelled.  Few people can comprehend the huge amount of time and money involved in getting a thoroughbred ready to compete over 6400 metres.
I recall, some years ago, a trainer who always had a number of jumpers, remarking at the fourth day of the Ellerslie Christmas carnival;  "Tomorrow we start on our steeplechasers."  That was at the height of summer!

You been drinking?

What I mean is the fanfare surrounding these announcements appears misplaced, take the 1 month out from here and their season is effectively over i.e. most of their stable going to the paddock in next 4-6 weeks anyway, the pressure is on the stables who normally get horses ready for winter racing do they continue or pull out.
Would have been interesting to hear the reaction from these stables if the lockdown was say July/Aug/Sept which would have completely finished their seasons.

How convenient.

What a difference a month makes.
Below is P4P posting 18 March 2020
poundforpound
Open Class - R121     Members  2,889 2,886 posts posted March 18 "One single person in NZ, one single person, has been hospitalized by this virus.
It’s a cold weather virus with a sweet spot around 8 degrees, it’s no threat to anyone who isn’t immunosuppressed, normal healthy people are at no risk from this virus.
What is more it’s critical the population is exposed to the virus in order that we build up immunity, otherwise we’ll all be vulnerable over a long period, particularly come winter.
The only groups we should be protecting are the elderly, the chronic smokers, those with respiratory dysfunction, and anyone compromised by chemotherapy or other conditions that lower immunity.
Why are jockeys suddenly allowed to be 2 kilos heavier ? Is NZTR finally admitting that making jockeys waste jeopardizes their health ? and even if they are where’s the evidence starving people increases corona infection given that Africa, South America, India and Russia all have very low infection rates, and fuck all fat people.
This pandemic is all about aged immunosuppressed and respiratory compromised people......but hey NZTR has failed to hit the mark on anything for a long long time so it comes as no surprise they’ve got it wrong again.. 

To be honest I think we should all be scared as the Jehovah Witnesses know the whole country is at home.  If they get the "Essential Business" classification like horse trainers.....

Its always good to have hard hitting Jason Tan interviewing  .Just thinking CEO's who think they are real smart and can' t see the forest for the trees  1. Bernard  2.Mark Robinson 3.Cameron George  4. David Dome   They all think they know it all  Cheers BH

If you've listen to any press conferences or any other CEO recently you've heard 99% of what he says.

The reason you should all be angry is because this government had the capability to enforce isolation by installing a cell phone app at immigration......the technology is there and available, it’s being used widely across the globe.....but these fucking liberal civil libertarian airheads didn’t use it......and now hundreds of thousands of people are gong to lose their jobs, the economy will collapse, thousands will die including the vulnerable little kids on chemotherapy ...... this is a national disgrace and a withering indictment of this snowflake idealistic government and you should take that into consideration when you vote 
Note the sycophantic media won’t tell you this truth....that’s why the silly cow exempted them from lockdown, so they owe her a favour and they won’t expose this crowd for what it is ...hopeless 

In these times of confusion ....I gotta admit this post made me laugh out loud.
I guess employers such as P4P are the ones under extraordinary stress right now.
Employing upwards of 100 people ,even many part-timers is an incredible responsibility and most employers really do care for their workers ..like family.
Add to that the financial pressure of trying to keep your business relevant etc ..its certainly not for everyone.
Customers too can be demanding and difficult.
So here's hoping all passionate racing and business people can ride thru this and come out the other side stronger !
And keep that sense of humour in tact !!
Amen !

As usual Berri has some great ideas........but then he gets on to his usual 24 horse fields solution......and jumps racing !
Kiwis don't like jumps racing ,they definitely don't like betting on them.
Trainers don't like training them..it takes years ,hence owners won't invest em them .Even less folk to ride em.
Our close neighbours Australia not over fussed with jumps racing ,most states don't even have them. A few years back they introduced a lot of $100 k jumps races...went nowhere.
It seems part of UK 's racing DNA...huge history ,huge crowds ,huge betting ,huge business !
A great idea to start afresh ,with a clean sheet of paper.
Bankrupt the TAB and start again.
Several great ideas Berri......but forget the jumps racing...please !!!!

That's a bit of a no brainer comment. Most of them at NZTR won't be required in the mean time though. We'll look after the horses and I think 4 months not 4 weeks would be a more likely estimate.

Like it , that's what we need positive thoughts , feed the horses , help the workers , look after each other from safe distance . Then in the downtime study horses with good fresh up records , then on resumption punt like mad , punt punt punt to help the game keep going .
Look after yourselfs and loved ones people .

You might be lucky If it's next March!!!

There goes racing in NZ. No way will it continue after today

You do wonder what was the point holding that meeting at Tauherenikau. That track is all about on course attendance. A meeting at Awapuni would have been more convenient for about 95% of the trainers.

8 weeks no pay for jocks,  I'd think they'd mind. 

And you and people like you are the 1st to whinge but you're part of the actual problem.
Not sure if you own or not, if you do you're shitting where you eat

The times, they are a changing. Besides showing my age with that opening, I am really disappointed to see that the investment value of the industry is rapidly disappearing in broodmares. Times we live in require delivery in an instant. If you do not have a black type delivery broodmare, then you are going to be under the pump. She has to be a stakes horse herself for a potential ROI on her first three foals, if she is a half to a stakes winner, then you are struggling to warrant the investment of a suitable stallion mating. Anything else as a base criteria means your broodmare has tangible emotional meaning to you, and you have some other means to make it sustainable, or you live in hope that what you have in the paddock is superior to anything else she has produced. The proposition is still the same as years gone by, is what we put in over capitalising the mare?.....................(This is in no way a shot at the real capital investors, the stallion owners, who know the odds before they start the purchase process)  cheers to all............ John 
 

Agree , whats the point in clubs with incredible facilities, event staff etc operating as per normal. Time to reshuffle the calendar head back to the back bone of the sport - country racing !

Of course they have to...not to do so means admitting their utter inability to grapple with a modern wagering environment.
We have been living beyond our means for years,  had to happen.