RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
We're Doomed

Canterbury Stayers

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I notice this weekend's open stayers race at Riccarton ($32,500) has been abandoned due to lack of interest. Not the first time this has happened. This follows 26 starters fronting up in two open stayers races over both days at Riverton: virtually all trained in Otago and Southland , so not luring away Canterbury horses for the big money.

To my mind this is a major structural problem. I wonder if anyone is doing anything about it? Have the people who compiled that big press release about everything NZTR is going to do to rescue NZ Racing noticed this, and have they worked out what is causing the problem and do they have a solution?

I am not sure that building an all weather track at Riccarton and virtually closing down the rest of the SI will resolve this problem.

Riccarton is going to stagger its way to 8 races on Saturday, including a maiden; Riverton managed 10 races each day with numerous ballots.

To the casual observer the South Island's problem doesn't seem to be Riverton, it seems to be Riccarton. I don't think all the "resources" that will be freed up when great swathes of tracks are closed down will automatically be transferred enthusiastically to Riccarton.

A couple of people on here often find me a bit pedantic bringing up these things that most people aren't interested in, but I keep thinking that if the great brains on the big money can't fix these basic structural problems how can we trust them to spend many millions on big picture stuff?

I wonder where the CJC expects the horses to come from for the Great Autumn in a few weeks? Does it worry them? Do the CJC and NZTR sit down together when things like this happen and say "we have a bit of a problem here, what can we do to fix it?".  Mr Pitman might know if the local trainers ever get together to discuss where things are going wrong. It probably only needed one trainer to toss in a couple of maidens to get this race off the ground. Does anyone consider this? $32,500 is quite a bit of money not to be spread around local owners, trainers and jockeys. It could have paid the winners training fees for the year, so it is quite important.

 

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Obviously not big on numbers currently.....Canterbury stayers......and they have had plenty of good opportunities since the Cup week began in November.

Then the better ones probably looking at Canterbury Gold Cup [ $100k ] in 2 x weeks time.

A few Southerners been racing in North  and those plus a few Northern raiders will clash over 2000m in 2x weeks.

Let not your heart be troubled WD.......stakes not used this week will be won next week.CJC has some good coin on offer.

A $32,500 winner ...$17k less deductions would not cover a years training fees.

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2 hours ago, Berri said:

No stayers program with commensurate stakes to promote stayers. Been a problem for years. We are heading towards mediocrity at a greater speed than I have ever seen before. Sayers races with over 20 runners are betting bonanzas

The saddest thing is that no one seems to care, or want to do anything about it. To be honest, they don't really know what to do about it.

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2 hours ago, Berri said:

No stayers program with commensurate stakes to promote stayers. Been a problem for years. We are heading towards mediocrity at a greater speed than I have ever seen before. Sayers races with over 20 runners are betting bonanzas

I guess the Melbourne Cup is a good example of a field over 20 being a betting bonanza but can't imagine how NZ could list fields of over 20 . Most courses have a maximum of 14 or less , most meetings couldn't drum up 20 plus jockeys particularly with the increasing whip suspensions and the poor resilient NZ owners barely get 20% of their 'investment' returned with average field size of around 11.

But if the potential is there a 'promoter' should put on the series along the lines of what you suggest and then we can gather some facts... eg .

Dunstan Stayers .

Many of our Group races are still of 2200 m and beyond. Some races like the Chalmers , St Leger , Parliamentary, Winter Oats seem to be losing their lustre in recent decades.

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14 minutes ago, tasman man said:

I guess the Melbourne Cup is a good example of a field over 20 being a betting bonanza but can't imagine how NZ could list fields of over 20 . Most courses have a maximum of 14 or less , most meetings couldn't drum up 20 plus jockeys particularly with the increasing whip suspensions and the poor resilient NZ owners barely get 20% of their 'investment' returned with average field size of around 11.

But if the potential is there a 'promoter' should put on the series along the lines of what you suggest and then we can gather some facts... eg .

Dunstan Stayers .

Many of our Group races are still of 2200 m and beyond. Some races like the Chalmers , St Leger , Parliamentary, Winter Oats seem to be losing their lustre in recent decades.

Australia seems to be importing a lot of fast stayers from the UK. It used to be something NZ specialised in. We seem to have lost our way somewhat; missing out on breeding fast 2yos and fast stayers. Not sure what our niche is these days.

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14 hours ago, Berri said:

No stayers program with commensurate stakes to promote stayers. Been a problem for years. We are heading towards mediocrity at a greater speed than I have ever seen before. Sayers races with over 20 runners are betting bonanzas

Currently NZ  racing struggles to provide jobs and /or job security for those seeking a career in racing....other than jockeys where imports growing.

But with Australias rich racing only a short ride away ,is this such a bad thing ?

Verry Elegant seems to be flying the flag pretty high at present , while Aussie fields are full of Savabeels, Tavistocks and descendants of Sir Tristrim.

There are currently a swag of horses in Aussie who originated in NZ and are doing very nicely with the bigger opportunities available over the ditch.

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