Otaki Moved to Waverley

[blackcaviar56]

The meeting scheduled for Otaki has moved to Waverley.

Makes sense if needs another couple of weeks to be sure.

Love the last line of the message.

This change has been approved by Entain NZ.

 

[We're Doomed]

Good old Waverley. Good to see one of the premier tracks doing so well and holding up after all that racing. Certainly vindicates NZTRs decision to rate Waverly as one of the essential CD tracks.

[scooby3051]

Slowly one by one they are screwing what half decent tracks they had left, Hawera is useless the water pressure cant run the sprinklers, Otaki is far from ready and they wont even consider saving Woodville let alone give Hastings a chance, that is the single biggest joke this mob has come up with and thats saying something. Hastings problem has been around for 20 years or more how hard is it just dont run the distance races early in the day, why send a club broke over a minor issue , and whats more if it had been addressed 6 months ago it may have been ready now, but oh no these jokers just leave it to sit there and rot.

[racingoutsider]

17 minutes ago, scooby3051 said:

Slowly one by one they are screwing what half decent tracks they had left, Hawera is useless the water pressure cant run the sprinklers, Otaki is far from ready and they wont even consider saving Woodville let alone give Hastings a chance, that is the single biggest joke this mob has come up with and thats saying something. Hastings problem has been around for 20 years or more how hard is it just dont run the distance races early in the day, why send a club broke over a minor issue , and whats more if it had been addressed 6 months ago it may have been ready now, but oh no these jokers just leave it to sit there and rot.

And now next weeks trials at Ashburton have cancelled because the track is too beaten up!

[scooby3051]

Why does Timaru  not get used more???

[Insider]

1 hour ago, scooby3051 said:

Slowly one by one they are screwing what half decent tracks they had left, Hawera is useless the water pressure cant run the sprinklers, Otaki is far from ready and they wont even consider saving Woodville let alone give Hastings a chance, that is the single biggest joke this mob has come up with and thats saying something. Hastings problem has been around for 20 years or more how hard is it just don't run the distance races early in the day, why send a club broke over a minor issue , and whats more if it had been addressed 6 months ago it may have been ready now, but oh no these jokers just leave it to sit there and rot.

AGREE 100% 

The trouble is: THEY WONT ADMIT THEY THAT PANICTED, GOT IT WRONG, and now the decision NEEDS TO BE REASSESSED.

[Insider]

1 hour ago, racingoutsider said:

And now next weeks trials at Ashburton have cancelled because the track is too beaten up!

Of course. You can't hammer tracks and that's what centralisation has caused.

 

[We're Doomed]

2 hours ago, racingoutsider said:

And now next weeks trials at Ashburton have cancelled because the track is too beaten up!

I'm amazed Ashburton has survived this long. Largely by running 10 horse races. They were happy to hammer Ashburton just to get them through to the AWT season.

[racingoutsider]

3 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

I'm amazed Ashburton has survived this long. Largely by running 10 horse races. They were happy to hammer Ashburton just to get them through to the AWT season.

What AWT season? We still have no report on the track status and safety issues and more trainers and owners that I have spoken to recently are not willing to run on it. That said, I understand the recent work on it has finally restored it to a decent state for training.

[We're Doomed]

2 hours ago, scooby3051 said:

Why does Timaru  not get used more???

Absolute and total arrogance. They persuaded Messara to say Timaru wasn't needed and should be closed down. Now they are too arrogant to even consider they might have got it wrong.

Timaru is a crucial track to the SI, being so central. It is just over 4.5 hours from Timaru to Invercargill, and 2 hours to Christchurch. Timaru is also one of the few tracks that hasn't had housing built all around it. And with jumps racing gone for good there is plenty of room to reconfigure the track if necessary. The first thing I would do is build a 1,400m chute.

Close to 40 winners trained in and around Timaru so far this season.

Timaru should be having money spent on it not be closed down.

 

[We're Doomed]

13 minutes ago, racingoutsider said:

What AWT season? We still have no report on the track status and safety issues and more trainers and owners that I have spoken to recently are not willing to run on it. That said, I understand the recent work on it has finally restored it to a decent state for training.

Rather uniquely the Yaldhurst AWT season included December.

[racingoutsider]

1 hour ago, We're Doomed said:

Rather uniquely the Yaldhurst AWT season included December.

I won't complain. I won a race at that meeting a bit over a year ago. Though we might have stuffed the horse in the process.

[nomates]

What I find interesting going into the new season of A/W racing is that at both Cambridge and Awapuni are going to be taking open entry nominations over the 4 distances run at each course . Is this an admission that field sizes have been poor and so now they will just make fields up to maximum numbers regardless of ratings , so we could have R75s running against R55 horses , or even mdns taking on winning horses , some winners of multiple races .

But Riccarton is still running races by Ratings , is that simply because they have reduced grass track opportunities in the SI ?

The NI situation will be an interesting watch .

[Bimbo]

You'd have to be blind to not see that Timaru is a better track than both Riccarton and Ashburton. 

[Idolmite]

4 minutes ago, nomates said:

What I find interesting going into the new season of A/W racing is that at both Cambridge and Awapuni are going to be taking open entry nominations over the 4 distances run at each course . Is this an admission that field sizes have been poor and so now they will just make fields up to maximum numbers regardless of ratings , so we could have R75s running against R55 horses , or even mdns taking on winning horses , some winners of multiple races .

But Riccarton is still running races by Ratings , is that simply because they have reduced grass track opportunities in the SI ?

The NI situation will be an interesting watch .

The use of the word "interesting" - in both cases - is an interesting choice of words

I've had just one bet on an AWT, since they started, and that after it was tipped out on some racing show. I think it was actually in a multi, but I don't want to go there  It was successful however, but with generally small fields and uninspiring racing I'm yet to get excited by AWTs since watching a few meetings early on. Am I right that some trainers just don't run their charges on AWTs at all?  

[nomates]

1 minute ago, Idolmite said:

The use of the word "interesting" - in both cases - is an interesting choice of words

I've had just one bet on an AWT, since they started, and that after it was tipped out on some racing show. I think it was actually in a multi, but I don't want to go there  It was successful however, but with generally small fields and uninspiring racing I'm yet to get excited by AWTs since watching a few meetings early on. Am I right that some trainers just don't run their charges on AWTs at all?  

Well I will be interested to see how trainers and owners react to having their lesser ability horses having to compete against much higher rated horses .

I'm like you , don't bet on them , find them boring and uninspiring .

My understanding is that many trainers won't race their horses on them , for many tho it is used as a port of last resort for some horses .

[We're Doomed]

10 hours ago, nomates said:

What I find interesting going into the new season of A/W racing is that at both Cambridge and Awapuni are going to be taking open entry nominations over the 4 distances run at each course . Is this an admission that field sizes have been poor and so now they will just make fields up to maximum numbers regardless of ratings , so we could have R75s running against R55 horses , or even mdns taking on winning horses , some winners of multiple races .

But Riccarton is still running races by Ratings , is that simply because they have reduced grass track opportunities in the SI ?

The NI situation will be an interesting watch .

The southern situation is all about removing any alternatives and forcing trainers to race on the AWT. They would love to be able to do that in the north.

Unfortunately it does make it very difficult to place a wet track horse in the south, especially a lower grade wet tracker.

The options in the south are mostly to race for low stakes on the AWT or race for higher stakes on the Riccarton grass track against the best wet trackers going around. It is difficult to find a $17,000 lower grade race for a wet tracker in the south.

[scooby3051]

Well Waverley is now well and truly Donald Ducked...another one gone.

[nomates]

1 hour ago, scooby3051 said:

Well Waverley is now well and truly Donald Ducked...another one gone.

Exactly my thoughts watching the last couple of races , as much as the discussion around tracks is about the substructure and root depth , running numerous meetings at one track over a shortish period without proper recovery time is far worse in my book , when you look at Waverley and Trentham and the number of meetings they have had to carry , you have to think that the lack of repair time is far worse for a track than if they were given a decent amount of time between meetings . And the more meetings the harder for a surface to recuperate without a substantial break .

Thankfully they don't have any meetings programmed for a while but who knows when either of these tracks will be called into duty at short notice again .

Those involved will be holding their collective breaths for Awapuni and Wanganui this week .

[scooby3051]

43 minutes ago, nomates said:

Exactly my thoughts watching the last couple of races , as much as the discussion around tracks is about the substructure and root depth , running numerous meetings at one track over a shortish period without proper recovery time is far worse in my book , when you look at Waverley and Trentham and the number of meetings they have had to carry , you have to think that the lack of repair time is far worse for a track than if they were given a decent amount of time between meetings . And the more meetings the harder for a surface to recuperate without a substantial break .

Thankfully they don't have any meetings programmed for a while but who knows when either of these tracks will be called into duty at short notice again .

Those involved will be holding their collective breaths for Awapuni and Wanganui this week .

Wanganui  will be a borefest straight to the outside fence on a bottomless mud hole....Awapuni should get through OK I am hearing its in really good shape for the reopening.As you say  though many will be holding their breath ....

[Shad]

Today's track conditions bought back memories of the hokitika tracks raced on over  the years, looked tough going, but safe as houses.

[mikenz]

I watched just 2 races today, the last from both meetings, Riverton was a heavy 10 Waverley heavy 9, really.

[nomates]

I would be interested how they came up with a S6 before racing , surely if there had been enough rain before the first race they could have downgraded the track earlier and possibly saved some people from travelling .

[Crow]

Read the facts 1.12.44 first 1200m Waverley 2nd race then races eight 1.13.59.  Riverton 1200m 1.18.60 then 1.17.55 then 1.16,71.   Surely you could work that out before passing judgement.