RATTO races at Auckland

[Nelli 432]

If these races are supposed to reward horses that race regularly and are the backbone of the industry, how come this does not reflect the reality at Auckland where trotter numbers are much the same as pacers. In fact in the nominations at Auckland this week there are 25 trotters and only 17 pacers that would be eligible for the series. I can see no reason why eligible northern trotters and pacers should not have a similar likelihood of reaching their finals.

[tasman man 742]

Obviously working on what is generally the 'norm' with pacers clearly outnumbering the trotters.

Plus maybe they hoping that more Pacers will come out of the woodwork or out of the cotton wool.

Harness in the North should be keeping a current of list of all horses ready to race to keep any guesswork out of it.

If trotting connections want a little handout they could go around in the Group 1 this week at ATC ,with only 4 noms and $100k up for grabs.

$3k for just going around , and over $5k if one of the 4 x noms strikes trouble !

[Blue 1,095]

Auckland seem to be bending over backwards (or should that be forwards?) to run high stakes races for four, five and six horse fields. Programme is now entirely different from what was scheduled this morning.

[tasman man 742]

12 minutes ago, Blue said:

Auckland seem to be bending over backwards (or should that be forwards?) to run high stakes races for four, five and six horse fields. Programme is now entirely different from what was scheduled this morning.

Mostly these races are feature and/or Group races.

Pretty hard to cancel these races when horses have travelled from South Island and afar in the search of these much sought after features.

Another race changed from Friday was a 4 x horse mares race ,so it easy to transfer these horses into a their  race in rateing range !

As we have discussed on here many times connections are not willing to serve their horses up as fodder for the very best ,especially in mobiles.

Testing times for the new  HRNZ strategy of trying to herd all the good horses into one spot , especially as winter approaches.

The NZ Cup carnival still a magnet , ditto the Aussie Group race window but the now poor cousin ATC gets the late April - June spot .

What will the Rowe Cup /Auckland Cup night next week look like !

ATC will say it's all HRNZ's fault.

HRNZ will say it clearly lies with ATC ..'You got smug and took your eyes off the racing , your main responsibilty'.

The recent Board and Administration of ATC , many paid quite nicely , will be sipping cocktails in Fiji !

[Nelli 432]

As owners of a higher rated NI trotter that just in ordinary races has been beaten regularly by BFB and Temporale, we pick and choose when we are prepared to have our horse thrashed by the likes of Sundee's Sun. There are 4 group races over 5 weeks for the top trotters  at Auckland and not every horse can cope with gut-busters week after week. It is scarcely a surprize a week out from from the Rowe Cup some horses are having a breather.

[tasman man 742]

11 minutes ago, Nelli said:

As owners of a higher rated NI trotter that just in ordinary races has been beaten regularly by BFB and Temporale, we pick and choose when we are prepared to have our horse thrashed by the likes of Sundee's Sun. There are 4 group races over 5 weeks for the top trotters  at Auckland and not every horse can cope with gut-busters week after week. It is scarcely a surprize a week out from from the Rowe Cup some horses are having a breather.

Exactly........that's why the current strategy , along with poorly thought out race programming should not be adhered do...what is the definition of insanity again ?

The same happens at the other end eg young trotters. Even in the south. 10 race one week ,then the next week , 6 days later there are 3 noms.

Even allowing for the known few  trotters having a breather ,the Rowe Cup will be lucky to get 7 ! Good luck , Valmagne got second a few years back ! No Mufaso Metro or the good Neal trotter to help boost the field ,they blazing around Aussie !

Back to RATTO , it worked well down South where there are plenty of horses.......will the North's connections be wowed by the chance to win $11 k first prize by racing more often than would normally be the case ? The trotters at least know the 'final' is a handicap stand start while the pacers have a 2700m Mobile....rare these days .