TOM(the other Molloy)

Cromwell? Make em queue half an hour for a beer then only let them see 20m down the straight. All in 30 degree heat. Bloody great!

Not this year it's not. We might need the numbers but it's bloody dry.

It is patently obvious that irrigation or not if it has been dry and you get rain within 24 hours of raceday you have a huge problem. Doesn't matter if it is Ellerslie or Omakau it seems to apply. I am sure these guys are doing their very very best. Must be heartbreaking for Waikouaiti to have their big day destroyed but I have a bad feeling this will not be the last one.

It might be declining numbers of punters wise but those remaining keep loading plenty on. It has a fair way to go to decline to our levels. Their biggest threat is the RSPCA - we have about ten threats as bad (those those are a threat nevertheless)

I don't know if Aussie tracks are that much better. They do generally look very good but Ron Dufficy and co continually complain about leader bias, backrunner bias, inside bias, outside bias, fast tracks down the middle and whatever else. Then we have the Eagle Farm debacle. What the Aussie's do have is a competitive wagering environment, clearly an enormous number of keen punters, an administration that is competent in most if not all facets and, as a result, a selection of top horses, trainers and riders. Remember that Godolphin lost $120m or whatever for a year. The Aussie stakeholder blows just as much as does his Kiwi counterpart. I do concede that Aussie racing presents a superb looking product and that factor cannot be undervalued.

'...... everyone has been too slow in waking up to the fact that there are too few horses for the current program.....' sounds awfully like you are advocating fewer racedays to me. I think you might have consumed all the bottles already. Still it is New Years Eve I guess.

Great but in your previous posts you were advocating for reducing the number of racedays. What use is all this stuff going to be if we get to the nth degree on that basis and there are no racedays left? Bottom line is we need (1) increased revenue streams and (2) a curbing of the arrogance of the officialdom in the industry. If you want a third channel it would be helpful if it was independent of the TAB. Understandably employees of the NZRB/TAB can not and will not criticize the status quo. Stakeholders need to regain power in the industry not have a bunch of no name no talent idiots at the controls.

Well what are you going to do to fix it Berri? Simply reducing the number of racedays is not going to achieve much (like most others here I accept if not welcome venue rationalisation but drastically reducing the number of racedays??) What are we going to do to encourage more people to take up a stakeholder role? To breed more mares? It has got to start by kicking arse at NZRB and NZTR level not simply reducing racedays. Reducing the domestic product is exactly what the NZRB wants so they can build a bigger and bigger empire using imported product. As for NZTR do you think that bureaucracy will be cut back if the number of racedays is reduced? Like hell!

Happened to be there myself this very day VS and in the company of one of her favourite owners. I can assure you the sandflies are very mild this year and the Heineken is flowing nicely.

I ' looked into it' years ago and have talked to Tim about it more than once. Tim firstly doesn't make the calls and secondly, much as I like him, I can dream up my own ideas and rules without help from other Clubs or CEO's. Anyway the idea has long since been dispensed with. I won't claim credit for putting the idea in his head but nobody else was talking about it before I was (that I recall).

Possible WD but at this time of year the forecast is wrong twice as often as right. The 'Coast' stretches about 700 miles so what happens in Milford is not always the same as further north. Anyway we will see. Re the Claiming races the NZTR response (admittedly in the Alan Fenwick days so a while ago) was 'we don't have any rules for that so you can't do it' . I just thought the rules would be set by the club in the programming but it was not a concept they could grasp. And as far as programming goes they are set well ahead so you can't just rearrange to suit the horse profiles at the time. AND they are pretty clear Clubs like ours are allowed eight races and that is it.

It is a major concern but providing Dummy arrives with his usual numbers we will be OK. Without Pitty's team(an entirely understandable stance on his part) the South Island participation takes a hit. The big issue this year is the dry tracks. Reefton for instance while it is being as heavily irrigated as we can is so bloody dry you cannot keep the water up to the track. Some rain is forecast but often in this dry spell it has been localised and the race courses have had limited moisture. Years ago when I was the Reefton Secretary I wanted to run Claiming races. I thought the would be a great concept particularly to keep old geldings in the fold (not the top liners but the ones battling around). The vision was the higher the nominated price the higher the weight. If you were game enough to put your horse in at a low price you got a low weight (obviously). I thought it was a great idea but all too hard for NZTR. You could run series of them and I reckon it would be huge in terms of interest. A little bit depressing as I thought it a real innovation initially at least. Can anyone see a downer with the concept?

I am not aware of the Te Rapa thing you are talking about having not watched any of it but the trouble with the Rutherfords of this world and a lot of the committee people is that they have to deal with these dickheads(NZTR/NZRB) all the time and do not want to bite the hand that feeds them. So they just rumble along protecting their patch(whether it be dates or stakes races or whatever) so as not to offend and risk retribution. NZTR and NZRB seeing this passive acceptance pat themselves on the back and plan another junket or employ another high paid janitor. Being a tiny cog in the wheel It has never worried me letting them know how I feel but equally they could comfortably afford to ignore me(and if I had been them I would have done the same thing). As far as I am concerned I can sit there on a Saturday afternoon and watch it on the telly and forget about whether the industry is rooted - if NZ racing goes west then there is plenty of Aussie stuff to watch and o be fair in terms of ownership there are plenty of Aussie syndicators advertising shares in horses to be trained by Baker and Wier, Waterhouse and Hayes and Dabernig. So if I want a little ownership interest over there no problem. God knows where this industry is going to end up but while there is no accountability at the Board level there is a certainty that nothing significant is going to change. Whether letting amateurs run the clubs and venues is right wrong or indifferent I don't know and no longer care but there has been a lot of enthusiasm and effort rewarded at Club level with utter contempt from NZTR and NZRB.

I'm not worrying In a matter of a few of weeks I will be gone from racing club admin myself I was up scrubbing the birdshit off the Reefton Grandstand again yesterday. Campbell, Bernard and co must have had something else on.

Yes well i have had dealings with a bloke called Campbell and well.............

I bag the hell out of these guys but just watched the video of trail #5 from Waipa today only 20min after it was run Good effort people!!!

You will note that they rush the initial majority of the runners in then seem to go into slow motion with the reminder It is not a question of staff levels it is a question of acting to promptly complete the loading process once it has began One of those races(the J Swap I think) was well over a minute overdue and they were still plodding around like their feet were in treacle with the last few runners It is almost getting the stage where it appears to be a rort with the principal beneficiaries being those aforementioned major stables

The number of barrier attendants does not affect the order of loading and nor does it influence the habit of starting the loading process, getting most in then going to sleep for five minutes before loading the favoured few.

Good point and is there justification for a schedule to be published at the start of the day of horses intended to be loaded out of order?

Consensus is not the point(although she is as disadvantaged as any other horse). This is wrong on so many counts. In my view the horse draw the outside already has a massive disadvantage so should be the one loaded last(unless they are doing the half and half thing whereby the horse drawn the middle should be loaded at the same time). They should commence the loading process and show urgency until it is finished and notorious bad loaders should be put in first so other do not stand there while tardy loaders bugger about. Bottom line horses standing in the gates for several minutes is not good enough. They know what they are there for and standing time should be minimised full stop. No horse should be advantaged by a hap hazard modus operandi in terms of the gates. And when certain stables are getting repeated advantage one begins to get very suspicious. It wouldn't happen in Aussie , Singapore or Hong Kong.

I didn't watch any Te Rapa races yesterday but in view of the stipes report thread previously decided to watch the Cal Isuzu and J Swap group 3's Lizzie Lamour drew three, was last loaded and won then Royal Success who drew one was last loaded and won. Last week Kawi drew four, was last loaded(I think or was certainly loaded a couple of seconds before the jump) and won. In each case there were horses standing in those gates for two minutes or more while the ones out the back just strolled around as relaxed as you want. That is three group races in a week where the last loaded horse wins and in each case the draw order would indicate that the horse concerned should have been in far earlier. AND we have this thing of getting the majority in then buggering about before putting the rest in. It is not good enough and how the hell do they decide the sequence of horses being placed in the gates? It is like the starter is deciding who will win the race and if it is my horse(whether an ownership share or one I have backed) being disadvantaged then I am not terribly impressed. The other horse loaded late last week was Cold Play so we have two Baker horses, a Te Akau horse and a Sharrock horse getting clear advantage over the rest. There seems to be a pattern of the glamour stables getting favours from the starters. Can anyone explain this to me?

Does a high standard of racing get them to the races or does 'the event' get them to the races? I am not saying last night was not high quality - I didn't see it - but it would be nice to think that a combination of the two could be implemented. The problem with relying on 'the event' is that the public are fickle and there might be another 'event' down the road that they abandon racing for at the drop of a hat. And really if you are creating an event then you need the capacity to run it at night if it is going to be regular. Lights and a strathayr/all weather at Ellerslie anyone? Though no doubt that would lead to an Eden Park scenario of complaining residents and restricted nights of operation.

Bit of a tough call that isn't it? Do you try to attract this younger crew who might in 1% of the cases become a devotee or do you maintain the quality of the racing for the diehards? And having a commentator confused is not the way to maintain the racing quality. I didn't watch or listen to any of it but clearly it is an attempt at a similar attraction to Kumara, Cromwell or NZ Cup day. 5 million young people, many flashly dressed, on the piss with no real interest in racing and the purists getting agitated. Personally I hate those days but equally I can see Blind Squirrel's point in regards innovation. I do not think playing about with colours however is going to attract more people to the races just irritate the shiite out of those trying to watch their horse or their punt go around.

Indeed though I am an employer and I don't behave like that

He is not an employee of Racing Victoria. But it seems like a 'lets show how tough we are and put the boot into the poor prick while he is down' to me.