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Interesting Ballesty Interview Trentham A Gonna

scooby3051

By scooby3051
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  • scooby3051 changed the title to Interesting Ballesty Interview Trentham A Gonna
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nomates
nomates

TBH most of us have called it for a long time , those in charge over many years should hold their heads in shame . My spiritual home and it really saddens me , but I will always remember the plac

Leggy
Leggy

Speaking of Riccarton, I noticed that Guerin's idea of moving down the country from the north ends at Cook Strait!

nomates
nomates

Heard that , arrogant twat , and he wonders why people think he's a twat . Some of the smartest people I know and have met don't have degrees , and some of the dumbest had multiple degrees .

nomates Open Class - R121

nomates

Posted
Posted

TBH most of us have called it for a long time , those in charge over many years should hold their heads in shame .

My spiritual home and it really saddens me , but I will always remember the place as the Champagne Turf .

The capital city and no racing facility , beggars belief .

Those that have gone before would be shaking their heads in despair .

CabooseKid Maiden - R50

CabooseKid

Posted
Posted

I don't think this guy gets to decide ...and in any case I note that while he said that NZTR would not be keen in investing in existing buildings he did not address options of replacement race viewing infrastructure ... which I thought were more likely a way forward. Hopefully .... there only seems to me to be two full sized tracks in NZ being Trentham and Riccarton. Long may they last. 

Leggy Open Class - R121

Leggy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, CabooseKid said:

I don't think this guy gets to decide ...and in any case I note that while he said that NZTR would not be keen in investing in existing buildings he did not address options of replacement race viewing infrastructure ... which I thought were more likely a way forward. Hopefully .... there only seems to me to be two full sized tracks in NZ being Trentham and Riccarton. Long may they last. 

Speaking of Riccarton, I noticed that Guerin's idea of moving down the country from the north ends at Cook Strait!

We're Doomed Open Class - R121

We're Doomed

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, nomates said:

Come in We're Doomed .

I have just watched the interview. Guerin did say he would get Ballsy back in over the summer. I'm sure before then someone will point out to Ballsy that we do have racing in the SI. I would have expected Guerin to know that though.

I noted Ballsy's last comment about the foal crop. We have 111 horses going around at trials at Ashburton today on a soft 5. But no racing in Canty for 12 days. That does seem to be a bit of an oversight. Of those 111 horses going around at Ashburton you would expect at least 40 or so to be balloted and eliminated if they try to get a start at Timaru next week.

We're Doomed Open Class - R121

We're Doomed

Posted
Posted

Watching something like that it does make you realise that it won't be long before the only proper racetrack left in the country will be Riccarton. It shows the importance of making Riccarton work properly. It also shows the importance of getting Canty properly organised. And the more I think about it the more it becomes apparent that Canty needs Rangiora back in action as an alternative track close to ChCh.

nomates Open Class - R121

nomates

Posted
Posted

I have watched this interview twice now , last night and again this morning just to make sure I understood all that was being said .

My takeaways from it :

Avondale still seems resistant , and that it might require the Minister to wield the big hammer to make this happen . And some of the money from it could well prop up the building of the Waikato Greenfields project , something that I believe is necessary , being the heart of the horse population it makes sense .

Now the CD , what a crap shoot he's walked into , IMO they have to be very careful before jumping into anything , there has to be some certainty around Entain and returns to the industry after the 5 year contract is up , there's no point in spending gazillions on glitzy facilities with a struggling product racing on it because our funding has dried up . With Trentham appearing to be the one on the chopping block I'm not convinced the HB is the place to be building a new state of the art racing and training facility . It's not really metropolitan and it's hours from anywhere .

The Trentham situation annoys the shit out of me because of how poorly it's been managed by decisions over the last 20+years and then cannibalized by RACE once they got their claws into it to supplement their financial woes . The dye is cast as far as Awapuni being the go to facility in the CD , personally as I have stated in the past I would've much rather future proof the CD racing by selling both Awapuni and Trentham and built our own Greenfields track but that is no longer a possibility as they have put all their eggs into Awapuni , a track which is limited by space and a track that doesn't give a lot of flexibility over rail movements . But it is what it is now . 

I will say it again , RACE have a lot to answer for .

So going forward I think rather than build a flash new track at Flaxmere they should utilize Trentham whilst doing a complete track refurbishment as well as substantial facilities upgrade at Hastings , lesser cost and a safer venture with great uncertainty over funding in the future , then sell Trentham .

At the end of the interview Ballesty was asked for his priorities and surprisingly to me he mentioned the foal crop , hoorraahh !!! finally someone has shown that they recognize one of the biggest issues facing the industry , unfortunately he didn't offer any solutions , not surprised , it's going to be a hard one to reverse , mainly because costs have sky rocketed , let's see what they come up with .

 He should have also added increasing owners as a priority , a major one , because without them big flash tracks and such will mean nothing .

Other than the above I thought he came across as a decent guy , he spoke plainly and clearly wants to fix things , good luck to him , he needs it , in spades .

 

nomates Open Class - R121

nomates

Posted
Posted
Just now, We're Doomed said:

Breeze

No , they have wrapped Trentham in that white plastic they use for buildings , got a job lot on the cheap and seemed too good to say no to .

The problem will be can they unwrap the track in time for racing to start .

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