----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 12:00
AM
Subject: Re: [racebase] Fw: Ellerslie -
final day weather report
Settle down, Dave and Muz.
I am not trying to "push Aussie racing".
As a bit of background information, I spent seven years in
Melbourne, in what now seems a lifetime ago, and I have a bit of a handle on
what it's like to live in a racing-knowledgable society. Actually, New Zealand
in the 1960s was a racing-knowledgable society . . . we lost it, they kept the
faith.
For all that, I returned to New Zealand and prefer living
here. I also prefer New Zealand racing. I'd say 99.5% of my annual turnover is
on New Zealand racing; 0.4% on New Zealand harness; 0.1% (tops) on Australian
racing.
These 3200m races which you claim are "part of our racing
heritage and should be preserved" were a concept imported from Australia when
they proved popular there. They were introduced (or, at least, certain of them
were given huge stakes and therefore prestige) because they were (and one
still is) wonderful ante-post betting mediums. When bookmaking was phased out
in New Zealand early in the 20th century, the 3200m Cups races
remained.
And for the type of horse produced in New Zealand for a good
part of the 20th century, a 3200m race was a suitable distance. But those days
are going; probably gone. If New Zealand breeders concentrated on extreme
staying types, in a short space of time they'd be out of business. Here's one
telling development in local racing. The Wellington Racing Club has dropped
the second day of its midwinter meeting. We simply do not produce enough
of the heavy-going sluggers to fill fields on three days of Trentham mud.
There are barely enough to justify the meeting covering two days. They're
lucky if they get ten horses per race and both the Whyte and the Parliamentary
are shadows of their former glory.
The Australian answer to the dearth of out-and-out stayers
was to limit the number of 3200m races run each year. This wasn't a deliberate
policy. It was a reaction to the secondary 3200m races (in Melbourne, New
Year's Day's Bagot Handicap for example) developing into little more than
jumpers' flats. Those secondary events have one by one been dropped and each
state now runs one major 3200m race . . . and they find that's plenty. The
most famous, the Melbourne Cup, has to be pitched to international competitors
to retain its prestige.
Now, while I'm not interested in Australian racing as a
betting medium, I recognise that it is, especially in Victoria, a highly
successful enterprise. And just as New Zealand builders, boatmakers,
publishers, bankers, any businessmen you want to name, keep themselves up to
speed by studying overseas trends, New Zealand racing can learn plenty from
Australia.
And here's a very important point: You cannot
compare New Zealand racing with "Aussie racing". Racing in Australia is
conducted on a state by state basis; there is Victorian racing, New South
Wales racing; Queensland racing &c. The legislation by which racing
operates is state legislation — the federal government has no input
whatsoever.
As well as New Zealand's population roughly equating to
Victoria's, we share quite a few other common areas. And if New Zealand racing
needs a role model (and it sure needs some leadership, some purpose, some
vision) then Victoria is the logical place to look. Victoria has one 3200m
race; the Melbourne Cup. And it's a beauty. Okay, it gets huge resources
pumped into it to keep it in its pre-eminent place but it's undeniably
the centrepiece of their racing year. Victoria stages two other great events
each spring . . . the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate. One is a 2400m
handicap; the other a 2040m wfa race. They sure as hell don't run another
two 3200m races, despite the success of the Melbourne Cup. That race is
successful because it is unique.
And if New Zealand were to take a leaf out of Victoria's
book, we'd run one 3200m race a season here too. And it wouldn't be at
Ellerslie. The 1200m starting point is a disaster area for kicking off a 3200m
race. Because no jockey wants to get caught wide early, and therefore probably
throughout the race, the first three or so furlongs are run at a farcical
pace and very rarely does a true tempo evolve. How many recent Auckland Cups
have been dinkum staying races? Bugger all, I'd say.
Not too many horses can take three 3200m races in a season.
The New Zealand Cup has dropped away to become a glorified highweight; the
Auckland Cup has the problems above; and the Wellington Cup (the best of the
three each year) suffers because there aren't enough genuine stayers left by
the end of January.
If the NZ Cup was run at 2500m and the Auckland
Cup flagged for something more appropriate to the 21st century, then the
Wellington Cup would become something to rival the Melbourne Cup for quality.
But try and spread the talent over three 3200m cups each season and you get
three ordinary races.
As for Australia (read Victoria and South Australia) and
their "pony sized obstacles" . . . here's something to chew on. Some 30 years
ago I was travelling by car to a Victorian race meeting with a Kiwi
racing journo and one of Victoria's leading jumps jockeys, an ex-Kiwi. Talking
about Oakbank and its famous fallen log, the journo made the claim that it was
overrated as an obstacle — "not much more than a telephone pole" was his
opinion.
"Try running at it at 30-40 miles an hour on a tired horse's
back . . . it's plenty big enough," from the jockey. And he'd been around
Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton plenty of times.
Take a walk around Ellerslie's steeplechase course and study
the fences. They're live bamboo. Try to remember the last time a horse fell in
an Ellerslie chase. Every year in the Great Northern the entire field gets
around. Horses at Ellerslie don't jump over the fences, they jump through
them. They might be sizable obstacles, but they are the world's most
forgiving. As long as the horse rises two feet it'll brush through. I
don't buy that overhyped stuff every June about the Great Northern being the
"world's toughest steeplechase". They are all tough; and plenty are tougher
than Ellerslie's.
Dave, there is a huge difference between "knocking New
Zealand racing" and pointing out areas where it might be improved. You don't
like 10-race cards with six maidens. Fair enough. But by making that
statement, are you sure you're not knocking New Zealand racing? Those 10-race
cards with six maidens are a fact of racing life here. I could give you
your own advice to head for Australia, specifically Melbourne, because city
racing there, every Saturday and public holiday, consists of an eight-race
card with nary a maiden in sight.
You don't state what your objections to bookmakers are, so I
won't go too deep there. I just reckon that if you want crowds on
course, give people a reason to go. And bookmakers are the best reason I know
. . . way ahead of fashions in the field, anyway.
What else? Muz, if Cup day racing is the best racing day of
the year, it ain't because of the Cup. Best races of Auckland's carnival were
St Reims' win on the last day and the Derby on the first. Pick any one of a
handful of PQ events and it would be a better contest than the Cup. Even
the juvenile race yesterday was a beauty. Worst race of the carnival? The
Cup.
And if farmers still conducted their businesses in the way
their 19th century counterparts did, New Zealand would be a poorer country
than Bangladesh. You don't plough fields with teams of horses and you don't
milk by hand. No farmer wants to become a museum piece . . . no soundly
run business in the nation wants to. Why should racing?
That's plenty to be going on with so here endeth the
lesson.
Gil
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 12:56
AM
Subject: Re: [racebase] Fw: Ellerslie -
final day weather report
Gil
Lets be fair here.
There are enough of them on trackside trying to
"Push Aussie Racing".
Telling us when we have a good horse that it
reminds them of some Aussie nag.
And the crap on Trackside when quoting a
price of 7 to 3,
We don't have "True" bookmakers in this country, ( just
plastic ones ) and god forbid we ever do.
No, I'm not anti Australia, but we have a unique identity in the
racing world----LET TRY AND KEEP IT.
As for your comments re 3200m races, I find it
unbelievable you could even think that.
They are part of our racing heritage and should
be preserved.
Don't compare us to Australia---we are not, we are
New Zealand, be proud of it.
And don't counter this with, "It will be better
for racing", because that is just rubbish.
I have enough trouble coming to grips with the
10 race card ( 6 Maiden fields ) that we are confronted with now, a
thing that never used to happen.
And you are concerned with 3200m races in this
country ??????
Yes, it is a good move to shift the Great Northerns,
so long as you don't want them abolished as well ( because Aussie have
no equivalent with their pony sized obstacles )
I am sick and tired of people "Knocking" our
racing here, and if racing is better over the Tasman, well, Airfare and
housing are not prohibitive in mini America.
Anyway, season greetings to you Gil and good punting in
2005
Dave
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