mckenzie

Based on her trackwork connections are not confident that she's a 2400m horse so she's now being aimed at the Bonecrusher.

The Bonecrusher Stakes is also a possible target for La Crique, they are not keen on going to Sydney https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/horse-racing-aussie-plans-shelved-as-la-crique-looks-to-home/ESWVJZCTMZB4XL4PWHKVKZEV74/

Yeah it seemed crazy to stick with the R88 race in Australia that was running quite late and miss any build up to the highly anticipated Group 1. No interviews or shots of them parading. Surely they could adopt a policy that local Group Ones get 5 minutes minimum of lead in coverage to show some respect for the local industry. Don't we have two channels so we can do just that?

Hopefully a few of the less favoured ones go forward and we get a properly run race... you wouldn't think they have much chance at all if they go back and try to outsprint the two mares. I think they'll try and position Levante as forward as possible. As you say she can't afford to give La Crique a big head start. Will be game on from the 600m.

Levante was beaten less than a length in the Champions Sprint at Flemington though

I have La Crique just ahead of Levante. To be fair I think this is a better field than we've seen for this race for a while. True there's not a lot of depth but at least we have a few that would be competitive at Group One level in Australia.

They need a Ron Dufficy type who isn't afraid to say "that was a poor ride" and be straight up about things. Luke Radich was a bit like it back in the day, calling a spade a spade. It's not going to make you friends but ultimately Trackside is about providing entertainment and they need to offer more than just reading out the odds and saying how well presented every horse is.

Saturday's card at Ascot was postponed to Sunday due to a forecast top of 39 degrees in Perth. Initially, the forecast was for a top of 38 degrees, but the slight change led authorities to err on the side of caution and push back the nine-race card highlighted by the $100,000 Ascot Mile. A statement from RWWA on Friday read: "Due to an increase to the forecast temperature for tomorrow, the meeting at Ascot has been postponed until Sunday. "The meeting originally scheduled for Belmont will now be run on Monday. Lark Hill trials will now be run on Tuesday." https://www.racenet.com.au/news/ascot-races-postponed-due-to-forecast-heat-20230203

Off topic but Jessie seems to be a highly capable interviewer and presenter, a shame she's not on Trackside.

Yeah gave them a start and then rode for luck. She never had a chance.

Ardern was democratically elected as our PM. When the threat to her life becomes so great that she can't attend events because of the violence towards her and she figures it's not worth it, I really don't think that's a good thing for democracy. There's plenty of Prime Ministers and politicians I have disagreed with a lot over the years, I've never thought abusing, swearing at, and making threats towards them is acceptable as some seem to think it is today. Imagine if we all did that when we didn't agree with a politician or public figure.

Do we need this kind of political rhetoric? She is a human being. Also someone's mother, and perhaps the constant abuse to her and her family is part of the reason she didn't want the job anymore.

Yeah it's a great tournament. The Aussies do a good job at putting on sporting events in general. A few of the bigger names are gone so will be interesting to see how it unfolds. Swiatek and Djokovic off to good starts but bigger tests will come.

Seems like Key is a better golfer than policy maker.

Not ideal but Riccarton did run about 8 minutes late and they went straight back afterwards for interviews.

Yes, excellent to see the kiwi sprinters stacking up well over there with both mares running top races.

They've always been one channel short. It should be: Trackside 1: NZ Racing Trackside 2: Premium Australian Racing Trackside 3: Everything else And it will happen again on Melbourne Cup day, people will tune in for coverage from Flemington but instead get shown a whole lot of coverage from racemeetings of little interest!

Given the way some of our senior jockeys have been riding recently I'm not sure we are in a position to say it's the less experienced ones who are too much of a risk

She's handled the wet in the past... many others in the field might not.

Surely they go to the $10 Million Golden Eagle, which looks a race she will be a great chance in. The other option is the Empire Rose which is a G1 but only worth $1 Million and will still have some top fillies and mares in it.

Yes I thought after her last start they should ride her like she is the best horse in the race because she is, by far. It will be interesting to see what they target in Australia.

They need to get presenters back to the racetracks asap. Having interviews with trainers, jockeys etc is vital to keeping the sport alive and viewers feeling connected to it as well as punters getting knowledge about horses from the trainers, feedback from jockeys on the track conditions, updates on how horses look in the parade ring. At the moment for NZ racing you just have someone in a studio reading out the odds and it's pretty poor coverage compared with other sports and racing coverage in other countries.

I wonder if they had considered this scenario earlier in the week and could have moved the races to Sunday or Monday at another venue. A week delay is pretty disruptive at this time of year when some are preparing for Australian campaigns.