Te Aroha Track

[Turny 1,224]

It is like a South Island track - say Timaru or Riverton - you just steer clear - but T Aroha has a massive frontal bias and if you can't settle in the first 3 you r gone - just don't bet there - really is too tough - but a lovely setting

[Berri 2,131]

41 minutes ago, army said:

I thin I know who you are and hey your horse run. Also it is an on the pace runner.  If you are who I think you are you have lived in our town and you know what the mountain and the weather is like in our area. Some rain feel Friday but their was fog Saturday morning also earlier on in the week.  The weather pays a big part and you cant change that

 

Yes I used to live in Te Aroha and I do part own Snapshot. We had to ride him positively because he drew the widest barrier and you didn't need to be Einstein to see that you couldn't accelerate properly in the ground because the top was totally chewed out. I understand about the weather but I also feel we are seriously mis managing our tracks. 

There are three issues that I have. The first is that we're pouring on conventional fertilisers which completely slaughters the microbes that are in the soil. These are essential for stabilising the fungus and bacteria that are essential for water storage in the soil. We do it on our farms and when the height of summer arrives, unlike our neighbours, our pastures are in great shape and still firing. If you start to put chemical fertiliser on, you kill the microbes.

The second part that is that the grasses need to be a deep root variety so that the plant has a firm anchor. If you have this then the soil and turf hold together providing you with a more robust surface, and at the same time the plants access the water from deeper in the water table. 

And finally is the watering program. This comes in two parts. The first is the long term maintenance of the grass itself. If you water it continuously to make it look nice, then the plants roots don't go deep because it knows that the water is readily available on the surface. Obviously this is not good for stability. The second part is how you manage the track so that when you race, the surface isn't dangerous. There are many arguments that say you need horses racing on surfaces that have give in them. It is meant to be better for them....but strangely enough I see very few horses breaking legs on really firm tracks. Most of the breaking leg damage comes on unstable tracks. We unfortunately saw the demise of Recite, and it makes my stomach churn thinking about how the owners must feel, especially using her as an example when the wound is so fresh, but these are the facts.

i believe we need to become more proactive in this field of concern. A bias questionable surface is not good for anyone

[Chris Wood 1,576]

I swore I would never return to the forum game, but here I am, for some reason. The venue is great, BYO sensational , the racing great, but due to the financial situation here in NZ racing, there is no money for infrastructure, and this is hitting home big time. 

The Track a Manager is a competent man, but how can he bo what he wants to get the track where it should be when the Club, and most others in NZ are losing money hand over fist! 

Until the NZ TAB are put in their place, and realise the owners, and trainers put the show on with their investment, the game will slowly disintegrate, and that may be an understatement, slowly being the wron term!

Sorry to some of you that I have returned, but for God's sake, we cannot go down without a fight, agree?

[Huey 2,037]

1 hour ago, army said:

There is plenty more tracks out there that they race more often than Te Aroha. We have a track that can be irrigated but not used over the summer months.  What was Elleslie like over those months not very pretty really was it.  Matamata who race nearly every second week leading into Xmas was a bit like that too. You cant change the weather the only thing you can try and change are the people at the top who are calling all the shots and making a mess of it.  A horse running round on Saturday for 40000 and their only six in a race.  Easy way to make a bit of money for some. The fields are a joke at some meetings and they need to use their nosh and sort it out. A Meeting a day apart in the same  area is stupid  and is not good for the industry because both meetings have average fields.

Agree with most of what you say, but these tracks that lend themselves to a majority of front runners being advantaged on them doesn't do a lot for racing. Te Aroha as I see it gets plenty of racing on it, is it 12 or 13 meetings a season . It's a lovely track and an even nicer town and back drop but even its most parochial supporter would have to admit it is at the moment lending itself to front runners. 

[Chris Wood 1,576]

Thanks Kakama, don't mean to be negative, but unless we speak the truth about our once great industry , doom and gloom is going to prevail!

[TOM(the other Molloy) 1,774]

1 hour ago, Chris Wood said:

I swore I would never return to the forum game, but here I am, for some reason. The venue is great, BYO sensational , the racing great, but due to the financial situation here in NZ racing, there is no money for infrastructure, and this is hitting home big time. 

The Track a Manager is a competent man, but how can he bo what he wants to get the track where it should be when the Club, and most others in NZ are losing money hand over fist! 

Until the NZ TAB are put in their place, and realise the owners, and trainers put the show on with their investment, the game will slowly disintegrate, and that may be an understatement, slowly being the wron term!

Sorry to some of you that I have returned, but for God's sake, we cannot go down without a fight, agree?

I don't know that most clubs are losing money hand over fist Chris - if you live within your means obviously you will not be losing too much.

However ......

Like all of us the frustration is with incompetence at the NZTR and NZRB levels and the lack of decent money finding it's way to the clubs to distribute(and accordingly the decline of the industry overall)

Plus the idiot decrees that come down to us from on high.  Including all the shiite over tracks.

A classic example that I know will be close to your heart.  Why oh why do they insist every time there is a premier meeting in the Central Districts on flying George down when they have a perfectly competent caller right there in Tom?  Just a waste of bloody money.(like a few years ago when they flew the Dunedin Man to the Coast, Trevor Wilkes from Chch to Dunedin to do the Dogs and had the invercargill man travel to Central Otago to do the Trots there - the only one making money was Air New Zealand)

It is a sad and sorry state of affairs but for someone like me we can just shake our head and walk away.  For those with real skin in the game it is not quite so easy

 

 

 

[Chris Wood 1,576]

 

TAB promote the Premier commentator for the Premier meeting... Case closed. Tom will get his turn! TAB has plenty of cash, food for thought!

Most clubs try to live within their means Tom, but it is a no win situation because of the funding set up the Racing industry provides. Sad that the $7000 is still out there and it gives no value for owners if they are lucky enough to grab the thick end of the stake. Sad that if you do get a winner, chops  are not as good as Steak.

[scooby3051 10,865]

2 hours ago, Chris Wood said:

I swore I would never return to the forum game, but here I am, for some reason. The venue is great, BYO sensational , the racing great, but due to the financial situation here in NZ racing, there is no money for infrastructure, and this is hitting home big time. 

The Track a Manager is a competent man, but how can he bo what he wants to get the track where it should be when the Club, and most others in NZ are losing money hand over fist! 

Until the NZ TAB are put in their place, and realise the owners, and trainers put the show on with their investment, the game will slowly disintegrate, and that may be an understatement, slowly being the wron term!

Sorry to some of you that I have returned, but for God's sake, we cannot go down without a fight, agree?

Chris good to see you back...you are spot on the money.

[Shad 1,554]

The lack of horses and light fields has been happening for a while now, owners and trainer's are dropping off or heading to australia, a restructure is desperately needed, but i do fear it maybe to late. Owners and trainers  just can't survive on the stakes being offered, i also thinnk racing has reached saturation point with way to many meetings, the monday racing was a disaster as we knew it would be, the powers that be just bury there heads in the sand, racing has been a big part of my life from a young age and it pains me to see its demise.

[Huey 2,037]

You feel like youre repeating yourself on here but anyway.

I believe the sport needs two elements sorted out fairly quickly.

The sport desperately needs a rethink of the funding policy the new one just isn't going to work long term , the current one is confusing (perhaps deliberately so) ambiguous and advantages  the few and not the many. Get away from this idea that NZ racing is going to be able to be modeled on Asian or Australian racing , it just isn't it has its own unique characteristics that make it special just as those other two regions do, but stop trying to force a square into where a circle should fit.

The stakes model needs a rejig , now to me its a very simple one.

A bottom up approach of the stakes model should be the initial aim and not an aspirational top down approach that we are currently suffering from. A portion of the Saturday/Premier stakes needs to be diverted away from those days to the industry days to support the base of the sport. The aim should be min $10k races on industry days and not $30-$50k races in feature days , at least not yet. I'm a strong believer in supporting the base I think if thats done you'll keep many owners in the game, also imo you'll inspire owners to put that extra horse in work thats sitting in the paddock or keeping going with the one thats ticking over - a very important part of the industry.

As for putting up a fight , well I'm not sure what that entails. But in my experience it would have to be something fairly significant as the governing body of the sport just do not listen and the industry participants we have had who have attempted to put up a fight if you like in the past have been devoid of any decent ideas or any fight for that matter. Not to mention most of them have had a conflict of interest in doing so as well , which hasn't helped.

You won't fix the sport overnight but with some sort of decent plan in place to support the roots of the industry I think it can turn around in 2-3 years and as others have pointed out it needs to as its in a very sad state of affairs at present.

 

[barryb 2,064]

 

Try mentioning at the work smoko table today that you spend $1500 a year on race betting and many will think you are a Looney, have a serious problem and will hide the petty cash from you. Yet mention you spend $25 a week on lotto and no one will blink an eye.  The same outcome at the end of the year and most likely worse off with the lotto.

Racing suffers from a serious public perception issue in this country, solve that and racing survives, ignore it and racing is doomed within 25 years when those in their 60s now are gone.

 

[Swoopa 281]

Agree with Huey and Shad,I haven't  raced a horse in NZ for a few years simply because  of the math.

Here is an example:Sunday racing this weekend at Gatton. 2yr old maiden 14k prize money with about 9k to the  winner.But wait there's more!QTIS bonus 8.5k-2.3k-1.2k for the place getters.If you are lucky enough to have a metro runner for 60-80k a race.For me, i know which side of the Tasman I will be racing.

As Huey has said,if the building  is  weak it must be rebuilt  from the foundations up.10k minimum  racing is a good start to get new and old owners back  into the  sport.

Let's hope sooner rather than later.

Petone, please "do the math".

Cheers 

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Swoopa
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[gubellini 3,993]

Chris all power to your arm! The Racing administrators are having a banquet every day while the participants are fighting over the crumbs. Nauseating!

[Shad 1,554]

9 hours ago, barryb said:

 

Try mentioning at the work smoko table today that you spend $1500 a year on race betting and many will think you are a Looney, have a serious problem and will hide the petty cash from you. Yet mention you spend $25 a week on lotto and no one will blink an eye.  The same outcome at the end of the year and most likely worse off with the lotto.

Racing suffers from a serious public perception issue in this country, solve that and racing survives, ignore it and racing is doomed within 25 years when those in their 60s now are gone.

 

Well said barry i agree, people that dont follow the game just dont understand and as time goes by  there is getting less people to talk racing with, most of the ones i know are well over 60, and the younger generation aren't interested.In my work place there's 1 other person out about 40 that follows it with a passion.Sad really, 20 odd years maybe optimistic. I don't mean to be negative, but there's not alot of positives.

[TOM(the other Molloy) 1,774]

Until they get elected Members back running the ship(both NZTR and NZRB) there is no hope(and I suspect it is too late now anyway)

These people are accountable to nobody (except theoretically the Minister who from the look of things is sailing along merrily listening to Glenda and Co who would know as much about racing as I would about the shot put - ie f...-all)

It is often said we need to start at the bottom - well this is clearly a case of start at the top.  Off with the Minister's head swiftly followed by all his henchmen Hughes,Allen, Purcell Moncur et al........

And regardless as I say I think it is too far gone.  Whatever happens we are never going to complete with Aussie and to be fair I am not sure how the hell they do what they do stakeswise.  Obviously the Aussie mix of races(ethnic I mean) and genuine interest in racing over a board range of the population stands to them.