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tasman man

Easter Racing.....the good old days !

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Many cafers recall the 1970's and 1980's as the good old days of NZ racing !

Back then racing was mainly on Saturdays plus public holidays.

Easter racing was huge...led by Easter Hcp at Ellerslie......remember Grey Way ?.....and the Easter Cup /Derby for harness at Addington.

Riverton raced 3 days ..Sat ,Monday and Tuesday and it was the start of the jumps season .

Riccarton had the Great Easter [1400m] meeting on the Monday.

I seem to recall Roxburgh trots ran on the Monday.

Ellerslie also raced on the Monday and I recall both Feilding and Wairarapa raced both days in the CD.

Seems very close but I recall some jockeys travelling between the two.

Am I dreaming this ?

And Hawere Trots were in the frame too for two days.

No Trackside back then , wait on the radio for the half hourly results.

Lucky if the main double races were broadcast....this is the NZBC racing service[ Wayne Andrews or Murray King] we are now crossing to Syd Tonks or Peter Kelly !

Little information at the  busy TAB's......get your bets on 90 mins before race ,2 x hours for doubles.

The good old days !

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49 minutes ago, eljay said:

Good Friday/Easter Sunday - No racing NZ/Full Racing Australia

 

Great ride and a great horse. Sad that n.z racing has gone backwards.

Good horses are few and far between. At the moment the few good ones are in one stable.

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In the UK, we also had no racing Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

16 meetings on Easter Monday - four flat and twelve jumps. The problem was if Easter came late, the ground was very firm and there were often walkover and match races but that didn't stop the crowds pouring in to places like Plumpton, Hereford, Huntingdon, Towcester, Newton Abbot and Cartmel.

The bookies couldn't cover that volume of racing so concentrated on the Flat meetings and Chepstow along with the Irish National. It's no coincidence Bank Holidays have been the date of the big betting coups.

A few years back, the training centres held "open" days, first at Lambourn and later at Middleham, on Good Friday but commercial pressures have told and the all-weather championships now take place with Lingfield hoping for 9,000 on a good day. Monday has also fallen back from 16 meetings to just 5 as the bookies and media rights have taken over. We now have Easter Sunday as well so no break for anyone in racing.

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The old days of the tab written carbon copy tickets, did anyone know what rsi was back then, then there was changing your doubles tickets if your first leg was a winner, most of the officials were voluntary, right down to the birdcage gate attendant, these days the racing has reached saturation point, and sports betting also stretching the dollar, alot of changes over the years, and many not for the better.

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How true are these comments. I remember taking a week off every Easter and heading up to Auckland to go to the great meetings they held there. Saturday, Monday and the next Saturday, great fields and crowds. Always looked forward to it. Sure Trackside has certainly changed things a lot but on Saturday I heard them advertising the Easter meeting coming up soon. Why on earth is it not held at Easter?? 

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On 4/4/2021 at 9:35 AM, tasman man said:

Many cafers recall the 1970's and 1980's as the good old days of NZ racing !

Back then racing was mainly on Saturdays plus public holidays.

Easter racing was huge...led by Easter Hcp at Ellerslie......remember Grey Way ?.....and the Easter Cup /Derby for harness at Addington.

Riverton raced 3 days ..Sat ,Monday and Tuesday and it was the start of the jumps season .

Riccarton had the Great Easter [1400m] meeting on the Monday.

I seem to recall Roxburgh trots ran on the Monday.

Ellerslie also raced on the Monday and I recall both Feilding and Wairarapa raced both days in the CD.

Seems very close but I recall some jockeys travelling between the two.

Am I dreaming this ?

And Hawere Trots were in the frame too for two days.

No Trackside back then , wait on the radio for the half hourly results.

Lucky if the main double races were broadcast....this is the NZBC racing service[ Wayne Andrews or Murray King] we are now crossing to Syd Tonks or Peter Kelly !

Little information at the  busy TAB's......get your bets on 90 mins before race ,2 x hours for doubles.

The good old days !

The good old days,I think life was a little simpler then,have we really improved as a society,that's questionable despite all the supposed great new innovations,life will always change.

Back to racing I think Rotorua raced on Easter Saturday as well,5 northern 3 southern meetings,Forbury raced at night,Easter Monday was a big day too,boxing ,New Years ,labour day,all big days,gee today you compare and then you only realise how much it has changed,however it is what it is.

Gee when you think that you use to get the doubles races on radio then and now we get nothing at present,hard to believe in this day and age

One thing that must have irritated people was those long race results summary that use to run for about half a hour sometimes,,there weren't many radio stations then and they must have had a lot of people switch off at those times, in the event of this new sports radio setup coming and there is racing it's important to get the formula right,too much racing and listeners will turn off.

 

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2 hours ago, Cooper said:

How true are these comments. I remember taking a week off every Easter and heading up to Auckland to go to the great meetings they held there. Saturday, Monday and the next Saturday, great fields and crowds. Always looked forward to it. Sure Trackside has certainly changed things a lot but on Saturday I heard them advertising the Easter meeting coming up soon. Why on earth is it not held at Easter?? 

Could have something to do with directors thinking every Aucklander is off to their beach cottage on the Coromandel.

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The only Easter Handicap winner i remember with affection was CHOUCUANA the 1969 winner trained by Bill Sanders.

She was a local and the picture appearing in the Herald the next day was of a giant looking Miss World or Miss Universe bending down to give Rodney Heaslip a peck,

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On 4/4/2021 at 9:35 AM, tasman man said:

Many cafers recall the 1970's and 1980's as the good old days of NZ racing !

Back then racing was mainly on Saturdays plus public holidays.

Easter racing was huge...led by Easter Hcp at Ellerslie......remember Grey Way ?.....and the Easter Cup /Derby for harness at Addington.

Riverton raced 3 days ..Sat ,Monday and Tuesday and it was the start of the jumps season .

Riccarton had the Great Easter [1400m] meeting on the Monday.

I seem to recall Roxburgh trots ran on the Monday.

Ellerslie also raced on the Monday and I recall both Feilding and Wairarapa raced both days in the CD.

Seems very close but I recall some jockeys travelling between the two.

Am I dreaming this ?

And Hawere Trots were in the frame too for two days.

No Trackside back then , wait on the radio for the half hourly results.

Lucky if the main double races were broadcast....this is the NZBC racing service[ Wayne Andrews or Murray King] we are now crossing to Syd Tonks or Peter Kelly !

Little information at the  busy TAB's......get your bets on 90 mins before race ,2 x hours for doubles.

The good old days !

Remember you could ring up and ask for the result...which they reluctantly gave.

Wayne used to ask “ What did you have ?” You would say horse and get the reply “ No, that didn’t win..” and that was that.....!

The canny then started to say “ Took the field... “ to which the sarcastic response was “Yeah right...” At least you then got the result...😆

Customer service hasn’t progressed that much really has it.....?! 🤔

.

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5 hours ago, Blue said:

I used to think like many of you re broadcasts but now if I'm not near a tab or tv I watch the races live on my phone. Dont say you cant afford the technology because it's all out there plus its 2021. Radio commentary is history.

No it isn't. Many situations its preferable to listen to live radio then later replay the vision off a website. Lets say you are on the golf course or driving a car. What do you stop the car or tell the other golfers go find my ball I am watching the races.

How do you snare advertisers and sponsors? Many still relate to the radio. 

If say Des Coppins was doing a live interview then no big deal putting the interview on podcast as well. 

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Easter 50 years ago 5 gallop and 2 harness meetings.

Highlights:

Wairarapa- Shelley Burford won the open sprint by 6 lengths.

Feilding-Ballycastle won his first race.

Ellerslie- Evenstead won the Easter.

Rotorua- Battle Heights won his first race.

Riverton- 5 Kurdistan horses won.

New Brighton- Radiant Globe won the Cup.

Hawera- Peter Wolfenden drove 5 winners on the 12 race card.

 

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3 hours ago, slam dunk said:

No it isn't. Many situations its preferable to listen to live radio then later replay the vision off a website. Lets say you are on the golf course or driving a car. What do you stop the car or tell the other golfers go find my ball I am watching the races.

How do you snare advertisers and sponsors? Many still relate to the radio. 

If say Des Coppins was doing a live interview then no big deal putting the interview on podcast as well. 

Radio reaches more places than tv, and the internet,and it's so convieniant,hopefully this new setup will get the races back on in some form,there is still a lot who dont bother with devices.

The rova app trackside is a miss mash but it's better than nothing at present,I only tune in if there is a specific race I want to hear. other than that forget it

 

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2 hours ago, mikenz said:

Radio reaches more places than tv, and the internet,and it's so convieniant,hopefully this new setup will get the races back on in some form,there is still a lot who dont bother with devices.

The rova app trackside is a miss mash but it's better than nothing at present,I only tune in if there is a specific race I want to hear. other than that forget it

 

The advantages of 5G are still some time away. Obviously then there will be a plethora of possibilities. Smart broadcasters are gradually planning for it.  TAB on the other hand destroys all the goodwill and leaves a sports organization to carry on into the 5G era. Someone tell me if thats good for racing.

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I just use the TAB app and would far rather see (though there is the odd pause) than hear. There are lots of things and movements in a race that commentators don't always see having a narrower focus. Just mho.

 

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On 4/6/2021 at 5:30 PM, gubellini said:

Easter 50 years ago 5 gallop and 2 harness meetings.

Highlights:

Wairarapa- Shelley Burford won the open sprint by 6 lengths.

Feilding-Ballycastle won his first race.

Ellerslie- Evenstead won the Easter.

Rotorua- Battle Heights won his first race.

Riverton- 5 Kurdistan horses won.

New Brighton- Radiant Globe won the Cup.

Hawera- Peter Wolfenden drove 5 winners on the 12 race card.

 

Remember Shelly Burford Gub. Took a $50 double with Purdie-Shelly Burford ( both looked good things ) at Tauherenikau which was a huge investment back then.

From memory Codeine knocked off one of them so another one bit the dust......🙄

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21 hours ago, gubellini said:

On the second day Purdie beat Miss Harleigh by 1.5 lengths. Codeene won the second leg in 1.22.4 equaling the 7f NZ record 

That was the one.....Shelly B was the hotpot that got beaten......bloody thing....😡

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