RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
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Purdon buys Aussie horses

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On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 10:15 AM, tasman man 11 said:

So many contributors to social media on the demise of racing who have the answers to the sport/industry's woes spend so much knocking the AllStars and others when surely their enthusiasm could be better employed working on solutions.

I note Fridays 20/20 cricket match at Eden Park was a sellout with over 40,000 people there.A few years ago Cricket was on a steep decline ,20/20 was launched and many 'dedicated' cricket fans rubbished the concept.

Now we learn 20/20 has saved cricket.

Meanwhile at Alex Park trots the place was like Chernobyl.....take away the staff , families involved with Kidscarts , owners [some ,not all] and those at Top of Park dining , the place virtually empty!

During some races I counted 4 x people in entire asphalt area from Winning Post to 100m mark.

On a warmish night this was shocking.

Even the fact it was Chinese New Year was barley noticeable .

Sure the fields were shocking...no AllStars so can't blame them.......and 10 South Island horses have arrived to boost numbers.

Folk just not prepared to battle traffic up to 6pm to attend an event with little action and watch 8 horses run around for 2min 43sec every 30 mins........for 5 hours !

Its not considered entertainment.

Grass track racing in rural areas not the answer ,either !

You refer to the lack of spectators attending. I'm not from there,but when I visited about 12 years ago it was pretty much the same then. 3 people plus my partner and I  in the public stand ,which provided poor viewing.. I watched one race from the asphalt and thought it an awful viewing area.  Went home half way through the card and watched the rest on free to air tv at a motel. Of course many motels don't have racing anymore since free to air disappeared The whole alexandra park experience was a non event.

I don't rate addington much better. When I have attended I find the viewing better on the monitors than being outside,as it seems do most that attend.

So many tracks have lost one of the major things which attract people..That is the connection with the horse.  As well as a disconnect with the horse is the disconnection with the drivers.  There is no atmosphere ,they are simply too far away. Faceless people who the public would not recognize if they walked past them 10 minutes later. Stabling areas now are often no longer within viewing of the public and often inaccessible.  Another disconnection..

Personally I think the quality of horse competing is a total red herring. If it was important then why do you get so many at the grass tack meetings in comparison to the main tracks. People do come to watch good horses,but even more they come to watch competitive racing Not some 7 horse group 1 race with only 3 stables represented.

I agree racing needs to change. However I believe recent history shows many of the changes made have been destructive instead of constructive. 

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