Huey

He's a socialist. Nothing good will come of this

I read often on this site about this mythical track of Foxton that exists and I would have to compare it to the lost city of Atlantis. The reason I compare these two is when you look at the facts Foxton does not appear to be as fantastic as people believe or are lead to believe.
Foxton Track actually has a worse record in the last two years than the New Plymouth Track for cancelations and postponements. At least five Trials Meetings have either been postponed or cancelled at Foxton in this period. And these are Trials with six horse fields not full race fields.
Have a look at the Heats from the last Foxton Trials which had been postponed a week due to the Track conditions and you will see that by the 3rd heat it was a scramble to the outside rail. Very reminiscent of watching Wanganui Races.
For a Track that has only 30 horses working there and some days down to single figures you would think that it should be in tremendous order. 
But is it. Today no grass tracks open and all grass tracks apparently closed all week. Last Thursday was the same.
People bag the shite out of Awapuni but their course proper was open today for gallops and was open last Thursday.
Now before all you patriots jump down my throat, these are facts not fiction. If NZTR were to give Foxton a Race Meeting in the Winter time and it went ahead, the horses would be lining up to race down the outside rail.
If the Foxton Track is as chronically bad as the Track Manager and President are telling Trainers then Foxton is not an option for the future and NZTR will have been watching the cancelations and postponements and can not be blamed for putting Trials on the Synthetic when it opens instead of the grass at Foxton..
It is a shame that it is not utilised to its potential as a Training Track. Thirty horses a day doesn't pay the wages and it would be hard to encourage new Trainers to a Training Track that is closed so often or only has an under water plough to work on.
 
 

To paraphrase the classic saying, if Trentham is the answer, it must have been a pretty silly question.

Of course and my point is so they should be downgraded. They are our least sustainable races on a revenue to stakes cost basis. If they were a business unit in your business you would have closed them down years ago.

No it was because they had done work on it for grass grubs and the grass wouldn't grow...what sort of dipstick waters a track in winter, it was the heavyiest Hastings had ever been...and today was always going to happen they ripped the course after the last meeting I was told 4 days ago it was a muddy mess in the straight how could they not have called it off before today....if senior jockeys were going to ride it would of been off, but hey send the kids around and how Mickey Mouse did NZ racing look again having to move the running rail in because they never allowed enough room...a joke in all every different way and what will happen who will be held responsible...nobody thats who.

The winner of the last race run summed up the organisation.

It would be good if you could backdate your advice about 15 years and then you could invoice them $50,000 a year for that period. With inflation, maybe $100,000 this year. Some of your surplus could be used to have upgraded the track infrastructure in the interim, sorted out the handicapping system and the programming model and you'd now be trying to work out what to advise them to do with all the increased revenue you have generated.

If I ruled the world and had all the money they seem to have, and the consensus was to increase group stakes, I would have done something like Group 1s $250,000, Group 2s $150,000, Group 3s $100,000, Listed $75,000. At the same time though I would have reduced the total number of group 1s by 2,  group 2s by 3 in total ,  group 3s by 4 in total and listed by 6 in total. That is 15 fewer group and listed races. Being a generous soul I would introduce a $60,000 category for those demoted races and for a few races in contention to be promoted. Under this approach the increases would be virtually self funding.
That would allow industry days to go up to $16,000 minimums, with rating 80s and open races on open days worth $20,000. More importantly I would add a 9th race on industry days in the SI especially for 2yos or 3yos. And still heaps left over to get races like the Reefton Cup up to $40,000.
That took me 20 minutes to think through so I could probably have invoiced NZTR about $50,000 for my expert advice.
 

Don't panic, we still have Trentham. Massive noms there this weekend.

Yeh well the experts said that’s what we had to do. They didn’t think long term and now it’s back firing with tracks overloaded. Getting Messara  wasn’t a bad idea. Expert on Ozi conditions. Expert on all aspects not just breeding. But they should have had a NZ expert ( there are a few on here) and Messara and have some sort of balance. Good tracks sitting idle while over used tracks getting hammered. Not ideal. 
My threepence worth 

But they are missing the point the battlers the lower end of the spectrum keep it all running...they should have increased the industry lower end more and the top end less...it makes no sense to keep trying to top up the races at the top end...anything any good goes for the real big money in Oz...grass roots is where its needed and they always lose sight of that...total wankers if you ask me....and the biggest one of all is running it CG...his CV is a shocker.

Just over a week to the start of my favourite five days racing of the year.
This thread is for any and all comments, thoughts, previews, reviews on the racing. Aussie, American and Japanese challengers set to make this a proper global racing event.
Hopefully it'll be live on Trackside for the insomniacs but I'll be putting up my usual previews and reviews and YouTube videos of the Group 1 races.
The running order has been changed a little this year.

He didn’t cause any controversy, a steady hand on the wheel, he was approachable and I always found him a fair & reasonable bloke to deal with
I’d suggest he was quite an improvement on the bloke before him !!!
 

Running a radio station is probably easier than running a racing industry. Hard to think of anything memorable he left behind him here.

What did he do and more particularly, what did he do well?

Doesn’t make for good racing though, lets all scramble to get to the fast lane

No different to in their day Foxton least there is a fast lane ask  D Walsh or watch trials from Foxton you might learn something.  Trentham, Awapuni , Otaki Hastings don't seem to have one. Only Winter CD track they can come from anywhere on , inside or out is Waverley yesterday proved that.

The best? It was shit racing watching them all charge towards the outside rail where the fast lane was.

Bernard Saundry appointed as CEO of RSN Radio in Victoria the primary race broadcaster for all three codes.
Well Done. Obviously oversaw the creation of Racing.com and knows his stuff. A loss for NZ but he did a job and did it well

This is very bold and a leading idea from the TAB, will win many customers back from Aus bookies. It’s a sign they may be taking there customers seriously and are listening to feedback.
Hi Barry, 

Today we are introducing Punters Promise. This is our promise to you that every punter will get a fair crack to take us on and win big with TAB. We are now guaranteeing to sell all of our customers a bet to win at least $2,000 on all three domestic racing codes.

We know there is nothing worse than finding a horse or dog you like at good odds, but then getting your bet limited when you try to get on. We also know that we need to ensure we are maximising the returns to New Zealand’s racing and sports communities, so it is a balancing act for us, but we are committed to operating a level playing field for all of our customers.

Here’s what you need to know about Punters Promise:
It’s available on all New Zealand racing and on all three codes It’s available as soon as a market opens, right through to the jump It’s available on the fixed odds win market as soon as the odds are available, and It guarantees customers a $2,000 win threshold across every race, calculated as a bet to win amount For example: a horse/dog at odds of $5, we will guarantee to sell each customer a $500 bet, to win $2000 ($500 x $5 = $2,500 potential return, less $500 stake = $2000 potential win amount)

How does this compare to Australian betting operators and the Minimum Bet Limits (MBLs)?
It’s much better! Australian betting operators are forced to comply with the terms and conditions of each state’s racing administrative body, so they’re not offering the MBLs by choice. This means that there are varying thresholds in place and different conditions which makes it very confusing, but we’ve simplified it:
While $500 is the lowest threshold (provincial harness and greyhounds), we’ve decided to adopt the highest threshold ($2,000) in Australia (which exists for metropolitan thoroughbred racing) for Punters Promise, across all three codes. In Australia, most of these MBLs only apply on the day of the race meeting. We’re committed to letting our customers have a fair crack from the time that we release our odds, so Punters Promise will apply as soon as the market is available to bet on.

Why don't you guys get off your arse and promote racing yourselves in your area. It seems too easy to blame NZ Racing in general.
Why not have open days at race tracks inviting the general public to come along and watch the horses being trained. Have a sausage sizzle going to feed the people. 
I bet not many of the general public have seen horses being trained or even been to stables. Here's your chance to invite them along and experience what goes on behind the scene.  
Other businesses promote themselves, they don't rely on others to help them. They may even sponsor sports events and the like to get their name out there. 
And no I am not a trainer or even a owner, a past owner yes. So I won't be promoting racing i have other sporting interests which I am heavily involved in. 

The trouble in NZ is that everytime the Govt has got involved in Racing they have backed the wrong horse so to speak and just thrown money away. You can understand their reluctance to ever get involved again.

No the reason is young people see no future in the game and there is no active marketing to get them interested now everything  is pushed to be centralised the country kids get lost to the industry now and we also do not even have any sort of academy to train them as riders or strappers so we have missed the boat...guess nobody in the halls of power thought it was something that was needed...just another total cock up.

Sign of the times with worse to come. 

All very well  requiring track riders to be licenced and I think there is an age restriction as well , must be 16?? anyway I have a grand daughter who is 12 close to 13 and would be quite capable of riding  track work on a quiet horse , she has been riding for 4 years and now competes in the jumping arena at shows on a very tough difficult to manage fast horse , perhaps the age restriction is wrong and 14 would be a realistic age for a rider with her back ground . 
EX Southland times , A Southland trainer has stopped racing his horses because he can’t find a trackwork rider to employ. Stephen Blair-Edie has not had a trackwork rider since the two he previously employed  left his Birchwood stable in western Southland in late February.
It had been difficult for Blair-Edie to get sufficient training into his horses and knowing he couldn’t get them as sharp as he wanted, he decided to stop racing them in mid-May Blair-Edie won’t race another horse until he gets a trackwork rider working for him permanently. 
He and his stable hand, Shane Howe, are now exercising 12 horses in pairs, off lead ropes, from a quad bike in paddocks. “It stops them from getting fat and out of condition,” Blair-Edie said.