coro fan

J Mac back for The Hunter after ban reduced.

BYO is a great idea, bring it back.
The inside at Ellerslie, Thames and a lot of other courses with the picnic atmosphere were great.
A lot don’t attend the races anymore for the specific reason of over priced drinks, poor on course catering and inexperienced staff beh8nd the bars with no idea.
Remove the monopoly I say!
 

Sad to hear of the passing of this fine young man way before his time after a fall last week at Cambridge.... Fly high Tiger gone way too soon thank you for the memories...Thoughts and prayers go out to his his Mum and sister here with him and to his manager and close friend Ted...and the greater racing industry family who are all no doubt hurting........RIP young man...soar with the angels.

John Oatham must be the best rider in NZ by a long way surely … otherwise how is it that he’s forever telling the stars like J Mac, Billy Pinn, and whomever else he decides to harass, what they’re doing wrong ?? 

And yet they continue to close the rural tracks  taking the  sport away from them. No new customer is going to get the 'bug' by watching races on TV let alone on there phone or computer.  Those that go to the party days like Welly,nz,auckland cup days barely watch a race that day let alone head to the TAB the following  Saturday for a bet. 

And that is only going to get worse as they take racing away from the rural areas and centralize it. 

Scares me as well. 
As a small player who does do things on a low cost model because I do everything but ride them myself I guess I'd be gone. I keep costs down a bit because I crush own oats and cut my own chaff, all to make it affordable to some owners who would have no chance of affording a horse in a bigger stable. 
I'd say 95 percent of the people I have got involved in ownership through syndicates would not be involved at all if I hadn't have chased them,cricket and rugby mates  etc,   yeah some are only small percent owners but from these guys who knows who might win lotto or have a wealthy uncle leave them money and want to get involved in a bigger way in the future. 
Our industry is losing people by the day,closing racing in regions like East Coast ect those areas will be lost forever and no one will be following racing in five years in those regions the last thing we need is to be  doing is killing off trainers who  are still getting new people involved.  
 

All useful, agreed, but I’d have thought the endogenous EPO production via the hypoxic chamber was the jewel in the crown of this show 
When you can increase your RBC count without stressing the animal you’re cooking with gas 

Watched the races all around Australasia yesterday.
I had only bet at Wingatui and the reason i backed it was because it was ridden by J Lowry.
I try to watch races in my old home area and I am of the opinion,J Lowry is riding better than anyone in the SI.
His ride on Hasabro was a 10/10 ride and the horse was good enough to deliver.It is just a pity he has weight issues , so a tip for punters who are having a bet, do not forget to have a look at him.

The guy is a outstanding rider and obviously is crying out for help...why does somebody not try to fix the guy...he is a huge loss to the industry as it is...and we need jockeys like him here not sitting on the sidelines.
 

Seems weird that a club that can't even afford to demolish its condemned public grandstand, and has a much maligned turf track, suddenly has a $15m AWT that is largely intended as a way to facilitate the closing down most other Canterbury tracks.
The net result of all of this is that SI racing won't be better off in any way. I presume the theory is that AWT tracking will be so successful and popular with the punters that they will be able to race for minimum stakes of $20,000+ on the AWT. 
Winston's previous contribution to racing was 15 $1m+ races. That had no lasting benefit considering the money wasted. Lets hope this one goes better.

I was going to say Timaru myself. In my view Timaru is a crucial track for SI racing due to its central location, and really should be given priority and should have money spent on it

Perhaps one simple question for 4 hooves; don't want to tax his brain too much.  If SI form is that bad, can he explain why a four win Southerner is top weight in an open handicap at Ellerslie, and having to give heaps of weight to the rest of the field including an Avondale Cup winner? The handicapper must rate Southern form even if no one else does.
As Cooper mentions above, at least a southern meeting wouldn't start with six horses going around for $50,000, and very seldom would you see a Southern meeting with only one capacity field.
I should probably explain for 4 hooves benefit why Southern form can look inconsistent. He may have noticed yesterday that there was only one maiden distance offered, 1,600m, although it was eventually split. Some of those horses would have preferred 1,400m and some would have liked 2,000m, but if they wanted to start somewhere they had to take what was on offer.  
The SI doesn't have the luxury accorded to the CD of five meetings in 15 days with lots of 5 horse fields over every distance imaginable. Interestingly, for all the money poured into the CD only five horses are considered worthy of sending north to one of NZs flashest race-days today. 5 from the CD, 2 from Otago/Southland. I hope someone thanks those connections for travelling all that way.
If one of those unneeded CD meetings going on at the moment was allocated to the likes of Timaru they could easily put on a 10 race meeting over several distances and classes with large fields. The casual observer would probably consider that a better use of industry resources.
SI racing certainly isn't perfect. One of the major problems is a very poor leadership role and example set by the CJC. An innovative major club would have every prospect of making SI racing great again. The CJC certainly isn't the Richie McCaw of Racing.

The difference with All weather tracks here Stodge is that in the SI especially they aren't needed as there are already tracks available to use throughout the winter that can offer dead conditions most weeks.
I think it would be fair to say that a typical mid winter meeting at Asburton, Timaru and Oamaru on a dead track would offer better racing conditions than the heavily watered dead track dished up at Riccarton yesterday. I don't recall horses racing down the outside fence at any of those three tracks I mentioned.
And you need to remember this is a $16m extravagance for a struggling industry that runs for $10,000 stakes most days, and where many horses are balloted each week because the industry can't afford to fund any more races in the South.

Just being silly now.....obviously 35 of scratchings were ballots and/or double acceptors....add a few wide draws ,plus change of track conditions .
Very adequate field size .....met the industry average......130 horses raced during the day.
For mikenz benefit i w il l e x p l ai n.......d o ub l e a c c e p tor and b a l l o t s m e a n n o h o r s e s m i s s e d s t a r t  !
As for the South Island I been following a few 'maiden' stayers who have had their fair share of opportunities since racing resumed.
McGowan made my cup week ,where stayers had plenty of opportunities then Cromwell ,Asburton , Gore ,Southland, even Reefton .....so many maidens.
Check the history of Eisenhower and Super Tap and see their racing records....sure a bit of travel involved.Supertap has now won twice !
This time last year we had a maiden stayer in North and in the end had to race at Ruakaka adding $600 to travel costs.....no paying back to last then.We actually won about $6k before deductions and expenses....in the terrible field we faced ,and beat , only one horse has won since and that was at Greymouth !
Maiden staying fields tend to be of poor quality and  generally attract poor betting. They are often 'slugs' with no turn of foot or as in the South , North Island rejects.
But as the above mention Southern horses records show ,trainers are prepared to travel......its their choice where they have their stables and the ones who plan find a way eg they travel when they can work out how to get a couple of races in the one trip away.And MPitman up to recently would house horses at Waikouaiti to assist logistics .
They don't cry , they create !
NZ owners are very resillient.
Then there was the Waimate trainer who bought a couple of cheap horses off Gavelhouse ,potential jumpers ,so when lockdown wiped Southern jumping they took their 2 x horses up to Cambridge for a couple of months and had several wins and placings on both flat and jumping.
They got moving...didn't sit at home a moan....poor me...we're doomed , there's no races for us !
 
 

Would just like to pass on a big Congratulations to the Kumara Racing Club for putting on a wonderful days racing and fun yesterday. I was watching on my TV at  home and wished I was there. Great fields, amazing crowd, plenty of entertainment for the kids, great weather, everyone looked so happy and enjoying country racing at its best. Of course the icing on the cake was everyone’s favourite Overtheriver winning the Nuggets. The whole West Coast circuit can give themselves a pat on the backs for their great racing. I only hope the hierarchy can see how much we need days like these. 

I can take it, hiding behind a nom de plume and throwing stones, I love it!
So we wait for a death of another horse or a jockey, constructive criticism I think you will find it is called!
Love to meet you Blossom, voice your concerns face to face, I look forward to it!
Have a great day!

https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/racing/nztr-boss-stresses-need-synthetic-track-si
 
 

History doesn't give a lot of confidence in that option.

No I’m pretty sure they didn’t, however in years gone by there used to be a very successful two day meeting over Christmas at Timaru, the 28th - the date they run on now and New Year’s Day.
 

Apologies - my source thought it was the 28th and Jan 1, they knew ie was a two day meeting.

Timaru has never raced on New Year's Day. Until about 1982 they used to race on the 27th and 30th Dec each year. The first day was Cup Day, a day after Wingatui. When Showgate won the 1,600m Timaru Cup she did it the day after winning the 2,400m Dunedin Cup. She was a pretty fair type of horse. Her's was one of the first 1,600m WFA Cups, it had previously been a stayers handicap. The second day in latter years used to feature the Showgate Stks for 3yo fillies: a pity no club in the SI considers it worth remembering that great horse these days. I often think that if Showgate and Grey Way had been Australian horses they would have feature races named after them at Flemington. We are very poor at that sort of thing in NZ, but that is another story.
 

No I’m pretty sure they didn’t, however in years gone by there used to be a very successful two day meeting over Christmas at Timaru, the 28th - the date they run on now and New Year’s Day.
 

After the M report and the absolute crock of s*** drive by inspection he did, the club launched a petition that got 5000 plus signatures and presented to parliament - one BJ Anderton amongst others, was one of the first to sign it.
Unfortunately the local MP who was supporting the Club and petition was the one at the centre of the text/dick pic saga and has since resigned.........:D
The Club had to insist on a meeting on course with Bernard Saundry, who didn’t realise what facilities the course had including the farmland that is leased out, the on course caterer who runs a business out of the Greyway Lounge, and the turf farmer in the middle of the track, the motor homes and caravans that pay for short term stays etc. The only money this track ‘costs’ the industry is the money that comes from NZTR  to run a race day and the occasional grant from the safety fund.
The M report decreed that millions needed to be spent on the track - which is a load of absolute BS, yes the facilities need some refreshing, but the track is fine.
It was pointed out to Bernard that the PL track is dual code, an approved jumping venue, the flat races consistently attract good noms from all areas of the SI and that trainers want this track to stay open.
The venue is a good winter track, but could also be a good summer track - irrigation is available if needed.
There are also approx  60  gallopers plus 30  trotters trained at the course - not the huge numbers, but they all pay track fees.
The course is used by the general horse public as a venue to meet saddle fitters, chiropractors, farriers, Horse transport drop off and pick up point, schooling over the schooling fences in readiness for A & P shows etc
The Waimate Club is also going to run their date at Timaru, in spite of being pushed toward Oamaru, not sure why given that Waimate is in Canterbury and Oamaru is in Otago. Some background politics there I suspect. 
The trainers are supporting the venue and club - the number of horses nominated proves this, not sure what else can be done......
 
 

No I’m pretty sure they didn’t, however in years gone by there used to be a very successful two day meeting over Christmas at Timaru, the 28th - the date they run on now and New Year’s Day.