Nelli

Working for me today. But as I mentioned in the post last week, the TAB link dropped off the HRNZ fields 2 days after they first went up. Perhaps this new initiative is still work in progress.

Both right! The official racing season is 1 Aug - 31 July as defined in the Racing Act. Since that incorporates all racing in NZ, that's not going to change anytime soon. However, harness racing in NZ and Aus have changed our horse "birthdays" to 1 Jan. Accordingly our racing calendar is 1 Jan - 31 Dec.

And today the TAB shortcut has gone.

Love the new shortcut to the TAB through the HRNZ race fields. So much quicker to get to the race I want.

I'm all for conditioned racing and good on Cambridge for trying something different but did they really think through the outcome of programming a race for maidens that can't place? A win could be the end of that horse's racing career, because if they can't place there, how could they do so against race winners, even if lowly rated. Apart from the usual split by sex, one variation could be money won in last 5 starts. That would separate the newbies and non placing horses from the more experienced and better performing maidens. Of course some may argue that gives an easy win for top horses starting their career but with the low stakes starting next month, owners and trainers of such horses may prefer to start elsewhere (a boost for lower NI clubs?).

I think much of what is happening was set in motion before Steele took up his position on 1 July. For example the new calendar with the Tuesday races at Cambridge were announced in April. Probably Entain is calling the tune and Steele has been given the task to make it happen.

The press release on 5 July stated that 75% the new funding was going to everyday racing. This should be good for southern owners. However, in the northern NI from the start of August we'll have cheap Tuesdays ($8K) at Cambridge most weeks. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I predict with the concessions junior drivers will be in demand at Cambridge. One unintended outcome could be that some owners of horses that don't race well Auckland way round may elect to send them to Canterbury or Aussie for better and more lucrative racing opportunities.

In this business we need to keep owners and punters happy. Everyone else depends on them. One of my frustrations as an owner is having good honest horses that if they win, get into a level that costs me months of training before they get back to a rating where they are competitive again, especially if the sort of horse that can't race every week. It's tough on both the pocket and the horse. It doesn't matter if they are a high rated horse at Auckland or a low rated horse at Cambridge, but at least at Auckland the winning stake will make a decent contribution towards my hobby. The danger with the 5 points at Cambridge is that owners will be most pleased with their trainers and drivers if their horse just places - and I bet the punters will know that too. I'm sure if points earned for a win were at max 3 (2 for JD), there would be more competitive racing at Cambridge and possibly we could win back the punters.

I see in today's announcement that winners at Cambridge will get 5 rating points. Still not that tempting for me as an owner paying the bills if my horses were any good, though the junior driver concessions would help. I see they consulted with 60 or so trainers - I wonder if they consulted with any owners?

I inferred from the quote that ATC thought Cambridge should chip in "to keep racing going up here". Little chance of that happening as that club is also selling off land to raise funds.

Why would any owner want to start their horse at Cambridge for such low stakes and be hit with 7 points for a win in the rating system when for the same points (or less if in the R40s!) they could race for double the money at Auckland in the same week? Certainly wouldn't want my trainer to start my maiden there until it had proved itself hopeless and had dropped 10 points!! I believe if they want to fill fields at Cambridge they should drop the rating system for these cheap meetings (or give them a token 2 points a win) and just base the fields on money won in last 4-5 starts with an upper limit. That way the battlers and out of form horses can have competitive races but aren't rated out of business when/if they race up the road.

Wine and skiing may be similar to racing standardbreds in that they are optional luxuries, but unlike the first two, there is a growing and vocal sector of the population that are very anti racing. Only 23% of the population live in the South Island. If we want the social licence to continue racing, it is essential to reinvigorate the North where the other 77% live. We too to have great race courses for picnic meetings in the North. Unfortunately instead of the multiple country clubs we used to have across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, they have been "centralized" and the current business model is to have everything based at Cambridge with multiple paid staff. Of course this means we've lost all those regional sponsors and volunteers which we'll never get back. I will be very interested in seeing how HRNZ plans to reinvigorate the North. While I believe it is vitally important to promote harness racing to wealthy Aucklanders (and ATC needs to be more effective here), as an owner I'd love to see some grass track picnic racing back on the calendar. Perhaps joint meetings with the galloping fraternity would help reduce costs and maximize exposure for everyone.

The North is just the "canary in the mine" for the drop in ownership/ horse numbers nationwide. It is vitally important we keep and grow ownership everywhere but particularly in the North where over 50% of NZers live (= our license to operate). One essential component of that is the availability of regular racing opportunities for their horses, so we can't drop meeting frequency in the North. Let us hope our new leadership can truly initiate "transformational change" to revitalize our industry.

If it was simply stakes, Auckland would have full fields! If we want to keep and grow ownership, everyone (HRNZ, clubs, trainers, breeders and existing owners) must work together. What do I feel would work to keep me in the game? We want to be treated fairly by the system (handicapping, breeding incentives etc.). Clubs need to make all owners feel special (I enjoy mixing with other owners pre-race at Auckland). Trainers need to communicate well (we've been fortunate in this aspect). And depending on our individual abilities , we owners should put something back into the game, It could be as simple as asking friends or family along to see your horse race. Under current economic conditions, I feel well run syndicates are the way to go to attract new owners - shared costs and greater social opportunities.

All these issues arise from using standing starts to handicap horses. There are alternatives. We could adopt what the French do or we could lead the world by developing a mobile HCP system using technology (lasers etc). Why keep using a 100 year old method?