We're Doomed

Should get bigger fields at Oamaru. It opens it up to all the Timaru and Canterbury horses, while still being reasonably handy for Wingatui and Southland. Gee, aren't they lucky to still have Oamaru?

One word of advice for trackside from the more practical side of things. I usually have my head down looking at the form guide or the odds, with the TV and sound going in the background. My pet hate is when they switch something like Morphettville to channel 2 at the last minute and don't mention it on air. They might flash it up on screen but I don't see that. So before you know it the race you are waiting for has closed or jumped and you have missed it. A similar annoyance is the way they show recorded birdcage stuff from Brisbane then suddenly switch to the field about to jump. Some more audible clues for the distracted, busy or slightly dimwitted punter would help.

It will be interesting to see what sort of crowd they get. The Ellerslie regulars haven't been so regular lately. Quite easy to get out of the attendance habit when you haven't been for a while.

The Legarto bonus. One of the biggest wastes of money I have seen.

I have always thought of jumps racing in many ways as somewhat of a loss leader. It provides a bit of glamour and interest to a day that might otherwise be pretty ordinary. Yesterday's meeting would have been fairly boring without the jumpers. I'm sure quite a few group races don't come anywhere near covering their stakes through turnover, so we should probably look at jumps races in similar fashion. To be honest, I probably found yesterday's Northerns more interesting that the Karaka sweepstakes, and they wouldn't have cost the industry as much money. I don't think Entain and NZTR spent much promoting yesterday's meeting. I have no idea what the crowd size was like, but then again Te Rapa hasn't had a decent crowd since Bonecrusher finished 5th behind Regal City and Horlicks in the International Stakes back in 1989.

And very rarely does a race have a full field, generally one, or at most two races, with three divis at most meetings. To be totally honest, it has been an embarrassment really. They are ok as a totally separate form of racing, just as trots and dogs are separate. The problem comes when NZTR think of them as interchangeable with grass track racing. How stupid are the summer meetings at Riccarton, when a grass track meeting should be being held elsewhere in Canty? The problem if you have an AWT horse is that you only get about one opportunity a season to run for more than $17,000 or $18,500. And I think we are still waiting for the first instance of them preventing an abandoned meeting. What a joke that was.

It did look as if "she" would have got even further ahead if the trial had been longer.

Very good point Pam. She indeed.

Back to the actual jumping. In many ways it has been the worst possible timing for NZTR, who are obviously trying to get rid of jumps racing via their current survey etc. I think we have probably just seen the best jumping season for many years. Three champion race horses in The Cossack, West Coast and Berry The Cash, with a solid supporting cast, decent sized fields in many of the races, enough jockeys to ride the bigger fields, some very exciting racing, and some promising younger jumpers coming through. The major problem seems to be a lack of tracks with good quality jumping facilities, which in many ways is largely the fault of NZTR. Interesting times ahead.

I have been surprised there has been no mention of Zelia, the super impressive 2yo trialist from Riccarton. I don't think I have seen a SI trained 2yo do anything like that since the days of Straight Line. I know it was only a trial. What are the chances of him staying in NZ?

I must admit I find the whole Sharp n Smart situation quite strange. I was hoping we might finally have a top class male 3yo who would go on with it in subsequent seasons. Unfortunately, to be honest, he has been quite disappointing. He has hardly been trained like a champion race horse, as in being set a logical and well planned programme, admittedly that isn't always easy in NZ. Instead he seems to be set quite random races. It would be nice to see him come back and kick on to big things, but you wouldn't want to be holding your breath waiting for it.

Likewise, I find the current situation quite confusing. NZTR on one hand don't appear at all interested in on course attendance, and yet they appear to love the big high profile days, even if they aren't cost effective. And Entain don't appear to be structuring things to maximise turnover, which I expected would have been their priority. I do get easily confused these days, but I do find everything quite strange to be honest.

I missed all of that. Only watched the Northern and the Hannon. Are they trying to glam it up a bit?

And fittingly, left the winner of today's Great Northern Hurdles.

Bloody hell, that was hard work. What a performance from Say No More with the scoring. I have no idea how he does it. And he has probably won the day as well.