timw

To We’re Doomed Re: ‘attention to detail’! If an organization charged with the administration of racing can’t get the little things right then how much else does it get wrong. Judging by some of the posts on this website it gets a lot wrong. And once a high profile organization gets a reputation for sloppy work it’s pretty hard to shake it off. I have found the ‘nzracing’ website is one of the better ones for quality, quantity of information and ease of use so why stuff it up with sloppy work. Some of the early stuff (late 1980s) on ‘racingvic’ now ‘racing.com’ was riddled with errors. ‘racingvic’ even had one notable horse having two starts in Queensland when it had never set foot in that state. I hope they didn’t rely on that stuff for handicapping. Cheers

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

Hi I am an amateur historian/statistician researching the racing record of Grey Way (NZ) 1970 and I am hoping one of your contributors might be able to help as I have a few missing race details. In short Grey Way may have started 164 times but I have only been able to track down 161 possible starts. I am hoping one of your contributors may be able to assist Grey Way is one of the few remaining New Zealand horses where I do not have complete information. The racing record of Grey Way (unfinished) and other notable New Zealand horses can be viewed on the Australian website ‘racehorsetalk.com.au’ by clicking on the tab ‘Racing Talk’ and scrolling down to the tab ’Race Records of Champion Racehorses’. Grey Way’s incomplete record is on the last page (circa page 74 under that tab). He has not been indexed yet (the index is one page 1). Additional comments about the sources checked appear with his record. I do not have access to New Zealand Turf Registers (‘NZTR’) covering his whole career. If I have omitted any starts I think the missing race starts were most likely towards the end of the 1977-78 racing year. Otherwise possibly 1977-78 or 1979-80 racing years. The NZTR for 1975-76 shows the horse finishing equal third on 8 November 1975 however this is not reflected in the margins between the first four horses. I am not sure if he actually finished third or fourth. I do not have an ‘errata’ covering that NZTR. Any clarification about that would also be appreciated. Cheers