Auckland noms

[Nelli 432]

Interesting reading the Auckland noms. There are 41 trotters nominated for mile night with 9 maidens. With only trotting 3 races, race winners will be moved into the maiden race and field size will average 14. The noms are being held open for the pacers as the equivalent 5 pacing races have 50 nominations with 8 in the maidens and 10 in the f&m maidens. My question is why should novice trotters have to race in a full field against experienced horses, most which will have over 25 starts, and pacing novices do not? Surely noms should have same policy for both gaits.

[Nelli 432]

As expected - will be  full trotting fields with novice trotters set up to fail. And small pacing fields including amateur.  A big sigh from a trotting owner.

[mikenz 1,088]

2 hours ago, Nelli said:

As expected - will be  full trotting fields with novice trotters set up to fail. And small pacing fields including amateur.  A big sigh from a trotting owner.

They could always put the faster trotters on a hundred meter handicap

[mikenz 1,088]

2 hours ago, Nelli said:

As expected - will be  full trotting fields with novice trotters set up to fail. And small pacing fields including amateur.  A big sigh from a trotting owner.

Small pacing fields,be interesting to see how Palmy North fears in 3 weeks

[tasman man 11 979]

Will Star Galleria be allowed to race against horses rated 40 points below his 102 , from behind the mobile ?

[Navitas 108]

Field out & not 40, but up to 35 points & a whopping 25 points above the next highest rated. Is this a one off, or is this now the norm? Surely the best thing for NZ racing is to keep the rating bands as narrow as possible. IMHO this will lead to more intermediate grade horses being sold & heading offshore!!!

[Nelli 432]

Nice little sop to the trotting owners having the amateur drivers sponsoring one of the trot races. Hopefully wasn't a bribe to get the amateur race included instead of having 4 trots

[Bruce J Hadley 15]

14 hours ago, Nelli said:

Nice little sop to the trotting owners having the amateur drivers sponsoring one of the trot races. Hopefully wasn't a bribe to get the amateur race included instead of having 4 trots

Nelli, the NI amateur association agreed to sponsor a race but the Club decide which race .   And no it isnt a bribe.  We appreciate all the support that the Clubs give us, and we sponsor at both Cambridge and Auckland.

[Barry Lichter 179]

Nelli. I absolutely share your views on this. Pacers always get a fairer go than trotters. I am dead against maidens having to race against winners. It should be the one grade where horses get a fair go. It doesn't matter how out of form the winners are, horses like Lisa Marie P with 7 wins and $70,000 in earnings shouldn't be allowed to race maidens. The conditions stated the club might move lower graded trotters into the maiden TO ENSURE THE RACE WENT AHEAD. They got nine noms so why invoke that clause? I see only eight pacers are to contest the maiden pace. The graded pacers were split into three races with one fewer nom than the trotters who are squeezed into two races. The result is trotters are made to run in capacity fields with more on the ballot. What happened to the club's stated policy of giving the most horses a start.  I fully support running amateur races but this should have been an 11th race as it was listed as a reserve event.

[eljay 1,719]

I know these days with young green trotters, race winners are used to "make up fields" for benefit of "all" but the idea I understood was to place these race winners on a handicap.    However this was in standing start races but it has slowly crept into mobiles as well.    In mobiles I do not really see in trots any great handicap imposed by preferential barrier draws  

Does any one know when R horses have been put in non winners mobile paces to "make up fields".   Sure M pacers have raced against R horses but this usually at trainers wish.

We can only hope the starter realises he has maiden trotters and lets the field go at a fairly gentle speed rather than "burying the boot" over the last 50 metres!