RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
arjay

Wingatui

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7 hours ago, arjay said:

A very poor lot of fields for friday, not many from Christchurch, what's up there? To many recent races? Not at all like southern racing.

This is probably the second time in 100 odd years that Wingatui has raced in July. It gets wet down there at this time of year. They got away with it last year because people were desperate for a start after lockdown, and from memory the weather was better than usual.

Years of experience showed that if you must race in Otago during the middle of winter then Oamaru was the only viable option. But the half wits currently running NZ racing don't like to encourage the smaller clubs, they want to close them all down and centralise everything, so they pour all the resources into Wingatui. 

I notice three of the eight winners at Riccarton last Saturday came from Southland. Destroying Southland and Otago racing won't help Riccarton in the long term. And another winner last Saturday came from Timaru; another of the despised tracks.

Also, until a few years ago all Southern winter meetings would have held two jumping races; but that is another category that has been written off as "too hard".

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2 hours ago, MTH said:

Too dam wet, showery and track 11

Last year after covid they raced at Ascot Park mid july,then Wingatui twice and Gore early the following few weeks and at a time when it's a bit too wet  but they all turned out good fields and reasonable tracks but the numbers just ain't there,I'd say there are probably as many if not more harness horses trained in the Dunedin area.

Just to add as stated before it would be interesting to see if the Andertons and Tyler's didnt turn up if they would even run a race meetings,its not a great state of affairs really.

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Yeah.  And just to endorse shove comments,  Southland used to end racing after the Riverton Easter meeting.  Dunedin's Queen's Birthday meeting ( 3 days from memory) finished that Club's involvement.  Rex Cochrane would move his racing team to Waimate as racing moved up the island heading towards the National meeting.  The management knew,  in those days, how cold and wet and difficult it was to conduct racing at that time of the year.

Now we have random days all over the place, no strategic plans and little to structure race preparations on.

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3 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

Yeah.  And just to endorse above comments,  Southland used to end racing after the Riverton Easter meeting.  Dunedin's Queen's Birthday meeting ( 3 days from memory) finished that Club's involvement.  Rex Cochrane would move his racing team to Waimate as racing moved up the island heading towards the National meeting.  The management knew,  in those days, how cold and wet and difficult it was to conduct racing at that time of the year.

Now we have random days all over the place, no strategic plans and little to structure race preparations on.

 

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8 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

Yeah.  And just to endorse shove comments,  Southland used to end racing after the Riverton Easter meeting.  Dunedin's Queen's Birthday meeting ( 3 days from memory) finished that Club's involvement.  Rex Cochrane would move his racing team to Waimate as racing moved up the island heading towards the National meeting.  The management knew,  in those days, how cold and wet and difficult it was to conduct racing at that time of the year.

Now we have random days all over the place, no strategic plans and little to structure race preparations on.

Yet Wingatui has always been considered one of the major 'steeplechase ' courses in South. Ditto Riverton and Washdyke .Many of the top jumps trainers were in south.....RCochrane ,WHillis/Hazlett, BAnderton .

Locals in South claim Wingatui one of the best tracks and Southern weather OK and improving/changing over the years.

Wingatui was one of the top ,by numbers ,training centres in NZ possibly the top in South Island and historically had several good dates for racing....eg 2x days around Xmas including Boxing Day. Anzac Day from the intro of racing on that day ,2 x days [Sat and Mon] at Queen Birthday plus Saturdays when racing booming like sept/oct and February. Plus they inherited Beaumont and possibly Tapanui and held the Otago Hunt Day with Duke of Gloucester ....and always had feature races and glamour horses in the area.

So what went wrong ?

Forbury Park ,one of only 2 x tracks in South Island  with lights after Greymouth closed has also suffered similar decline !

Both tracks have been given lousy dates in recent times including poor winter ones but did anyone care ?

These current ones must have been accepted and agreed to and Fridays meeting had 2 x $20k jumps races budgeted..

Many on here want jumps racing continued with in South but it seems Southern trainers not so enthusiastic !

The Otago malaise seemed have started decades ago ........though recent washed out bridges and usual snow and ice on Kilmog would not help.

Can't finger the National Admin for all of Otago's Racing Woes.....even Bonecrusher tried to help !

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2 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

No jumping at Wingatui at all, now.

The races were planned and budgeted for so one can assumes there were not the horses.

Can this fact be blamed on the  National Administration ?

It seems that jumping got an extra push a few years ago by local admin [Klein] plus Otago had a prominent administrator or two eg Aklin plus seemed to benefit by funding from MO'Brien schemes , at least Harness did.

So the demise of racing in Otago seems to go back to the trainers ,horsepeople and local racing folk who possibly didn't bet enough to sustain the Industry in the area.

Folk like Brian Anderton who has devoted his life to racing must be saddened by this....I remember when he seemed to be the volunteer in charge of maintaining the track as well as being a big trainer in a big training centre and running a big stud.

In previous post I mentioned their prime dates and forgot the biggest day of all.....Melbourne Cup Day.

Otago had much in its favour.......many champions in gallops in horses, trainers,owners and jockeys .....plus they held the Interdom in Harness ,and even had a champion greyhound.

An example of......Even when you on the right track you can still get run over if you don't keep moving !

 

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43 minutes ago, tasman man said:

Otago had much in its favour.......many champions in gallops in horses, trainers,owners and jockeys

Farmers held the key to most things in the good old days of Otago racing . It was almost as if it was  a status symbol to breed and race horses and many did especially up Omakau way. Whites and Francis Kenalley to name but a few

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With the fields carded of  small numbers, there is not much for the joe punter to enthuse over apart from the last, a reasonable field and quite open to a number of chances Turnover will be way down. This problem needs to be addressed urgently.

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Race 1 at Wingatui was a $10000 maiden yet only 8200 was actually paid in stakes,another 1800 to those who still make the effort to keep going  would seem more logical than being shortchanged,no wonder a lot ain't bothering.

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