Meeting News Dargaville RC meeting ABANDONED

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Meeting News

Dargaville RC meeting ABANDONED

 

The Dargaville Races have been abandoned after Race 3 due to a soft patch of ground becoming evident around the 700m mark. The decision was made after consultation between club representatives, the RIU and trainer and jockey representatives who agreed that it was unsafe to continue racing.

[inside edge 23]

For christs sake this sort of thing just keeps happening I bet the powers to be are loving this less money to pay out  more for their coffers.

I pity the poor buggars that hauled their horses all that way to have the rug pulled out from under them

Who's head should roll this time.

[Ascot 5]

No need to worry about the BYO now!

[Midget 4,489]

Let me start by borrowing (sort of) from a fellow named Einstein.

If you keep doing the exact same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, that's madness.

As long as we keep wasting all our revenue/money on stakes and spend nothing on infrastructure or maintenance you'll just keep getting more of this.

It's going to get worse not better, get used to it.

[Blue 1,099]

And I'd be mildly surprised if Dargaville was even given a date next season. Gradually screwing the small out-of-the-way clubs in favour of centralisation. No horses trained there now so.............. It's unfortunately just a glorified sheep block.

[meomy 971]

And without the smaller rural racing clubs we won't get kids or others learning to become jockeys or so keenly involved in the Racing industry.

It's to be remembered the kids in these rural areas are more likely to have access to ponies and horse to learn to ride on and about animal welfare and what lies ahead.

 

They need to return this and other outlying rural racing clubs back into two race days a year.

Or did they used to have three or four not that many years ago before the "corporates" took over the industry?

Now, how many rural racing clubs do they have in Australia where we are blessed to have there races on New Zealand Trackside TV and Radio to bet on?

Food for thought.

Do we support New Zealand racing or Australian Racing in New Zealand?

[fitzy 143]

Fascinating to read the opinions here. Midgets comment is on the mark, but perhaps its the reverse meaning which is true.

"If you keep doing the exact same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, that's madness." 

The reality is there is too much racing spread around on club tracks that race 2 to 6 times a year. By implication maintenance on these tracks is minimal. No horses are trained on the track so no one really knows what the track conditions are.

If Dargaville had raced at Ruakaka would this have happened? Probably not is the logical answer. Would the crowd have been bigger/smaller - who knows, but the industry would have had the benefit of the stakes being paid out, jockeys getting riding fees etc. What we have now is yet another cost for owners and the industry to carry.

Instead we get the inane comment above that racing in these one horse towns (actually its a no horse town) promotes racing - just how exactly??? I may have missed something but can someone advise who the last leading trainer or jockey was who hailed from Dargaville.

Wake up people - the NZ industry is far too small to carry the number of clubs and tracks we operate from. if you don't amalgamate and centralise your resources you will be all but finished in 10 - 20 years.

[meomy 971]

Tut, tut fitzy, you need to educate yourself and open up your eyes to the wider picture.

When was the last time you saw a horse been ridden in the city by children or others other than on a major raceday, or at the likes of Avondale Jockey Club?

The reality is country folk are more likely to be horse orientated than city ones.

Yes Ruakaka has it's place but really it already has a full calendar and it too has had it's issues over the years, we suggest you refresh yourself doing your own homework on that one.

Meanwhile have some though how your comments may be impacting on the late great Dick Stevenson and his family and their contributions to racing at Dargaville.

http://breambaynews.co.nz/pdf/19_6_14.pdf

page 12

Richard James (Dick) Stevenson

29/11/41 to 4/6/14

https://www.nzracing.co.nz/Downloads/Jumping/OverTheJumpsJuly09.pdf

Up and down but a lot of fun

By Dennis Ryan

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=10955674

Gumboots not graces on race day

By Lindy Laird

5:57 PM Thursday May 10, 2007

 

It isn't the flashiest racecourse around, but it's certainly one of the friendliest, say regulars.
The fashion stakes lean more toward gumboots than Gucci, and the grandstand ... well, rows of benches on a sloping grassed area makes a functional alternative.
It's also possibly the only racecourse in New Zealand where a gee-gee won by going over the finish line backside first (back in 1931 when jockey Joe Parson managed to stay in the saddle as his fallen mount Brampton slid over the line on its back, facing the wrong way.)
Welcome to the Dargaville races - an event that has been pulling in punters for over a century, give or take a few years of recess back in the Depression.
Yesterday's meeting once again proved the attraction of this favourite, old-time, country picnic meeting.
As predicted, a strong field over 10 races, a fine late autumn and the residual vibes of an excellent November meeting meant Northland's first race meeting of 2007 was a successful one.
Outgoing Dargaville Racing Club secretary Brian Campbell, for whom yesterday's event was his last in that role, said the turnout was reasonable for an autumn meeting. Traditionally, the spring meeting in November is the club's biggest event of the year.
While race-goer numbers were down slightly on last May's meeting, the betting was higher both on-course and off-course, Mr Campbell said.
The winner of the main race for the day - No.6 on the card, the $10,000 Totara Park Stud 2000 - was won by Spectacular Icon, No.1 at the barrier, ridden by Mark Hills and trained by Chris Wood from Cambridge.
Northland trainer Dick Stevenson's horse Letsgoparty, ridden by Michelle Wenn was second and Imapins, ridden by Lisa Cropp, was third.
? Originating in the late 1800s in Dargaville township rather than the present Awakino Pt site, the once prosperous Dargaville Racing Club limped through a few tough years and was forced into recess during the Depression years of the 1930s.
Resurrected in 1939 under the whip of the late Syd Thomas, the club then had to relinquish its race meetings to the Avondale and Whangarei clubs for some years until its own facilities were brought up to scratch.
In the early 1950s the Awakino Pt track was established and the facilities deemed suitable enough for a totalisator licence to be regranted.
The development of the course and club facilities saw a tote house, stables and a bar built, a local farmer's disused fowlhouse turned into a members' bar and dining room, and an old house hauled across the road to become the offices, jockeys' room and weigh station.
In 1958 the Dargaville Racing Club was triumphant once more when at the Awakino Pt racecourse it held its first race since 1934.
Dargaville, like many other country clubs, fell victim to the national body's centralisation drive to save the larger clubs and events from being eroded by the popular smaller meetings.
In 1999 Dargaville's race licence was reduced from twice a year meetings to only one in November.

However, five years later the club regained its licence for an autumn meeting as well.

- Northern Advocate

Read more by Lindy Laird Email Lindy Laird

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[fitzy 143]

Thanks Meomy you have obviously taken the bait, but its a shame you haven't actually read what I have said. Actually I drive past the St Heliers and Kohi Pony clubs most days so the answer to horses in the city would be almost daily.

As you profess to know so much about Ruakaka and Dargaville maybe you can quickly outline the track related "problems" you refer to at Ruakaka, and also tell us how many meetings at Ruakaka have been abandoned due to unsafe tracks over say, the last 20 years.

I await your stats with great interest......

[Midget 4,489]

According to a very well known senior jockey whose name I shall not mention that damp patch at Dargaville has been there for twenty years at least. 

If that's true ( and I've got no reason to doubt it ) it does rather beg the question as to why the issue hasn't been addressed and rectified before.

 

[Huey 2,037]

On 11/14/2016 at 11:52 AM, fitzy said:

Fascinating to read the opinions here. Midgets comment is on the mark, but perhaps its the reverse meaning which is true.

"If you keep doing the exact same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, that's madness." 

The reality is there is too much racing spread around on club tracks that race 2 to 6 times a year. By implication maintenance on these tracks is minimal. No horses are trained on the track so no one really knows what the track conditions are.

If Dargaville had raced at Ruakaka would this have happened? Probably not is the logical answer. Would the crowd have been bigger/smaller - who knows, but the industry would have had the benefit of the stakes being paid out, jockeys getting riding fees etc. What we have now is yet another cost for owners and the industry to carry.

Instead we get the inane comment above that racing in these one horse towns (actually its a no horse town) promotes racing - just how exactly??? I may have missed something but can someone advise who the last leading trainer or jockey was who hailed from Dargaville.

Wake up people - the NZ industry is far too small to carry the number of clubs and tracks we operate from. if you don't amalgamate and centralise your resources you will be all but finished in 10 - 20 years.

That's a very naive and simplistic view to take. 

For starters you're not comparing apples with apples, for some reason small under funded/staffed/utilised country racing venues are being compared to their city equivalents who have full time staff, numerous race dates to get things right and monetary assistance from the powers that be if you're one of the right clubs. Doesn't matter if youre track is crap, the racing on its boring, uncompetitive , draws small fields , races like a BMX track or  you have race meetings called off  the prevailing view is that you're ok because you have a great place for people to have lunch and a nice fancy bar to buy a beer from. Lets not forget the debacle at Te Rapa last year, the hole in the track at Ellerslie , the track reading at Rotorua etc. Are you calling for all of those venues to be shutdown? 

What has happened in this country is that all the peripheral nonsense has been put first before the racing itself , when what should have happened is the tracks should have been assessed for what was best for racing and then the peripheral adds on added. That being the case some of the over funded main centres may not have been persevered with, despite this inane argument about there needs to be tracks where the populations are.

I empathise with Dargaville , they are probably one of the race clubs who don't have any of the power brokers on their side and if anything goes wrong no matter how minute or insignificant this will be the result.

[Shad 1,558]

Add winton to the ever increasing list of abandonments, these situation must be a financial disaster for the clubs concerned. They seem a weekly event these days, but i guess with all the health and safety laws they have no other choice.And it applies to every profession around, along with the mandatory paper work as well. I know in one work place they have a in house auditor, then a independent auditor and one that overseas the other two, its a sick world we live in,and i reckon one day you'll have to fill out paperwork just to fart.

[rdytdy 5,343]

4 minutes ago, Shad said:

 its a sick world we live in,and i reckon one day you'll have to fill out paperwork just to fart.

You have go for the paper work now if you find lumps in your farts.     

[puha 2,177]

They are racing at Palmy this weekend  one of the main centres and it will be a disaster BY RACING