chiknsmack

The type of horse (ie. sprinter) that is suited by the 2yo schedule isn't suited by the 3yo one, which is all about Guineas/KM 3yo/Kiwi, Guineas/Filly of the Year Series/Oaks, or Guineas/WFA/Derby. It's the same reason Bellatrix Star went straight to Melbourne at 3; she wasn't going to get 1600m so the better opportunities were over there. If we want continuity of our best 2yos also being our benchmark 3yos we either need to tweak the 2yo schedule (Ellerslie Sires' back to 1400m, Manawatu Sires' to 1600m) to favour horses who are also suited by the 3yo schedule, or tweak the 3yo schedule to add more 3yo sprints. There's also the upside of out best horses going to Oz; if they perform well over there they frank the form of our races. If Return to Conquer wins the Coolmore it makes those 2yo races he won here look like proper group races and not "soft NZ form" as they're widely perceived. It could also be interpreted as a positive that all the extra cash isn't keeping these topliners here; it could mean the cash is being spread more widely rather than only going into the pockets of those at the top. If the money's not keeping top 2yos here, perhaps it is instead encouraging people to keep racing R65s and keep buying/breeding in the hopes of finding something better than that level (with the expectation that if you miss and end up with a horse who is only average it can tick along and pay for itself). That's a better outcome than it all going to Te Akau or Aussie raiders. Throw in uncertainty around the Spring Triple Crown and the fact that Te Akau have an Aussie stable and so, for the good of their business, want to be winning things in Melbourne in the spring, and it just makes too much sense - regardless of dollars - to send all three of those you named straight to Melbourne.

Equineline has 339 foals of racing age from 136 mares. 140 runners (41% r/f), 87 winners (26% w/f, 62% w/r), 6 stakeswinners (1.8% sw/f, 4.3%sw/r). I can't find one of the SW, but the others are Sharp 'N' Smart, Swiss Exile (G2w 2yo in QLD), Stormy (G2w 2yo in NZ), and Grand Impact and Aitch Two Oh (both G3w spring 3yos in VIC).

There's a couple of obvious opportunities here. The first is that the weekend news tends to be slow and so there's room for Trackside to throw together five minutes of reporting/reviews on a Saturday's racing and offer it to TVNZ to pad out the sports news on a Saturday or Sunday night. We have the footage, we have interesting stories, if we give them a package lock-stock where they don't have to do any work it'd suit them fine. Five minutes a week on the news would be a start to lifting the profile of the sport. The other option is to have a big Lotto jackpot-style bet type (dare I say Race-O?) on a Saturday, with the last race run at 5:50pm. From 5:30 to 6:00 we can have a program on TV1 of which the first half is replays of the first legs of the Race-O/Pick 6/Triple Trio/whatever and the last 15 minutes is the live broadcast of the last leg and congratulating whoever won the million-dollar jackpot. You get hype from the jackpot-style bet type, you get racing in front of free-to-air eyes right before the news, you get racing back into the consciousness of the average Kiwi, you expand the social license, the industry doesn't die in a few years when Entain start taking half the betting revenue for themselves and we have a Green Party Minister of Racing emboldened by the banning of greyhound racing and looking for more scalps to take.

Suits the syndicators too. Buy a horse at 1, get it up and running at 2, aim for black type at 3 if it's any good, then move it on and get those owners back into another. We're capable of producing Melbourne Cup winners, in that we still have the mares and the stallions (Almanzor, Shocking, Redwood, Tarzino, Reliable Man, even Super Seth with a Derby winner the other day) to get elite runners over ground. We just have no path for the ones that aren't Cups class; it's rare enough that you'll see a R65 over 2400m, never mind 3200m. So there's no demand for them; they generally take time to get up and running and if they're broadly average there's no races for them. The problem is solvable, though it appears the powers that be aren't all that interested; their big move in recent years is to add a big money 1500m 3yo race to Derby Day to detract from one of the few races beyond 2400m that could be hyped as THE race. But it makes sense for us as an industry to try; we're at a disadvantage compared to Australia when it comes to breeding 2yos and sprinters, we're at a disadvantage to Europe when it comes to breeding older stayers (though we could still compete if we wanted to), but there's a perfect niche where we already have the stock and the knowledge to succeed; Derby 3yos who progress to tackle Cups. (I will applaud NZTR for letting 2yos into open-age maidens from April onwards; a staying 2yo gets far more benefit from running against his elders at 1600m or 2000m than from being run off its feet over shorter. The type of horse we should be directing all our efforts towards producing - the early-maturing stayer - is certainly helped by such opportunities.)

The Trainers' Association. It's their job to stick up for trainers, so every time there's an abandonment, every time there's a flaw in the schedule (no races south of Ashburton for six weeks, one 2yo race in the SI before the Karaka Million), and every time a club tries to make life difficult for a "trouble maker" the TA should be all over NZTR and asking/telling them to fix it. Winter Cup trial abandoned? The TA should've been straight onto NZTR giving them 24 hours to line up a turf meeting between now and Oamaru to run the race. If the TA won't do this, the trainers should be straight onto the TA telling them to do their job. If the trainers won't do this then, like @Tesio said, the trainers need to either grow a pair or just keep getting bent over.

What have those in power been saying when you've been bringing these rule breaches up to them? The RIU have always addressed my questions and complaints pretty promptly.

The dam is Zamrud (Emerald). Sugarloaf is a type of gemstone cut. Though maybe I'm being led astray by the second-highest rater, named Juwelier.

The "lost rider" and "pulled up" runners competed in the race, so get paid. The disqualified runners are considered to have not competed in the race, so don't. Rule 1102: "If a horse placed by a Judge in a Race is disqualified pursuant to these Rules after running that Race, then for the purposes of placings it shall be regarded as if it did not start the Race and the placings will be altered accordingly."

Smug will have to be a bet next time; took the long way home and still won. The DQ looks a bit harsh really.

That's $185 ex gst, and NZTR throw in another $15 ex gst. https://nztr.co.nz/sites/nztrindustry/files/2024-07/NZTR Riding Fees 2024-26_0.pdf

Trentham 2-7 The Republican.

Except they do contribute to the NZ industry. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Racing-Policy---Point-of-Consumption-Charges

Before Singapore shut down Fortuna picked up a few "Colts Syndicate" rejects off Inglis Digital and had some fun with them. There's a chance to do the same for a few years before racing shuts down here too; not competing in the mid-six-figure range like yesterday's saletopper ($1.4m yearling flop sold to HK for $500k) but $60k for a midweek maiden winner in Sydney who can win a few races over a few years here.

On pedigree you can see why they sent him north; Justify over Fastnet over Cape Cross seems perfect for Galileo mares. He won't get many of them though without reverse shuttling. A Slipper-placed son of a global super-stallion, who may or may not have been mismanaged and so been even better than his record, for $15k doesn't seem a bad deal.

Both Coolmore horses sweated up badly, then the pacemaker ran them along with the stablemate on his back and they both went too hard. Odd tactics, though I'm personally never upset to see a plan involving pacemakers go awry. Scandinavia in the 3yo 2800m Gr. 2 was somewhat impressive; three-wide no cover the trip and he was entitled to fold but he was fighting on better than anything late. One Look stood out as a very pretty mare (though there have been a stack of impressive-looking horses on both days), and I'm now in the See the Fire fanclub (I love her pedigree). On Day 1 Tadej (6th in the Coventry at 100/1) looked like a big, scopy horse who might want further than the typical Ardad. Trackside had (I think) Jack Dawling, Simon Mapletoft, and Graham Cunningham, with maybe one or two others - we heard from Rishi Persad (maybe?) a couple of times - and with calls from Ian Bartlett and Stuart Machin.