Actually, New Zealand in the 1960s was a racing-knowledgable society . . . we lost it, they kept the faith.
The racing knowledge era for me extended till about 1990 then all racing became was a vehicle for fortunes to be won and lost .... Won by about 3 or 4% and lost by about 96 or 97%
The bits you wrote about history and the 3200m race is I don’t think history quite yet. Sir Tristram and Zabeel and Cambridge Stud are all testament to that. The most successful stud has founded its reputation on staying bloodlines and that looks to continue for the forseeable future. The strange thing is that Australia produces champions from our staying bloodlines and we can’t anymore .... Champions that is at any distance. They send over two? Or three? Horses for the Auckland Carnival and get second in the Cup and win the Railway.
As well as New Zealand's population roughly equating to Victoria's, we share quite a few other common areas.
That bit there had me thinking for abit. It was almost as if you were saying Victoria has a pop of 4m so NZ should do as well. I think the answer there is that Oz has a potential betting pop of 20m and NZ has no hope of ever doing as well as Victoria in the racing game.
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
Either you like jumping races or you don’t and you obviously don’t .... Mainly because they aren’t a very good betting medium for you I suspect .... I actually think they are a far better betting medium than maiden races, two year old races or fillies and mares races which doesn’t leave a lot that they aren’t better than in my book. But then you judge betting by how much you win. I judge it by how much I don’t lose. For me the Grand National in Britain is just ridiculous. I prefer my jumping races to be at Ellerslie where there is very little mayhem and loss of horses lives. For me it has never been about making a jumping race hard.
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
I don’t think the comparisons in the above quite fit somehow. NZ farmers have always been the best in the world, about as much better than what Victorian racing is better than NZ racing. Racing to a NZ farmer was a hobby and when guys like Sir Patrick moved in we moved out and to be perfectly honest NZ farmers did it better for longer because NZ Racing from where I am standing is just about down to running computerised races on TV for the punters to bet on ..... I commend you on one of the best written emails I have had since about 1994 and someone like you Gil should write a history of NZ Racing .... Seriously ..... Muz
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