Trevor Best race I've ever seen was the Easter Handicap won by Grey Way (from memory in 1977). Anyone at Ellerslie that day was a fan of racing for the next ten years. In my early involvement in the sport, the Easter was probably the most talked about and reminisced about race each year — Sleepy Fox's four in a row seemed to come up in racing conversations at least once a month — and was the highlight of the year for me. Another race I always enjoyed, in later years, was the Air New Zealand Stakes.
The greatest indictment against successive ARC administrations is the way they let the Easter slip from its pre-eminent position to "just another race" . . . for a while in the 1990s what had started out as a lead-in race by the Bay of Plenty club had overtaken the Easter's stake ($120,000 to $100,000). Then, in another monumental blunder by the ARC, they lost Air NZ as a sponsor. By putting on a $1 million race, which they had no hope of sustaining, they relegated the Air NZ to lead-in status. Within a year the airline was gone; within another year so was the million dollar race. What the Easter and the Air NZ did each year was showcase New Zealand's best horses (one in a handicap, one at wfa) . . . and over distances at which each runner was capable, and known to be capable, of performing at its best. The Hastings club puts on three terrific days each spring . . . and all of New Zealand's best are there. If the ARC was a decently run club, and not a social gathering, they'd be making the best use of the dates they've got (the pick of the calendar) and putting in place something along the lines of Hastings' efforts; only better. Time will tell if they've got the wit. Gil ----- Original Message ----- From: "Trevor Plunkett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 11:13 AM Subject: [racebase] Entering the fray!!!! > > > Hi - Perhaps I should stay out of this - but here goes!! > > I enjoyed you Lesson Gil ---- I think we need to move on and I'm > looking forward to see what the ARC new racing programme does for > racing. I think we have clinged on far too long to past icons and > you're right some are failing for us -- the example of Wellington > winter racing is bang on - yet nothing can better summer racing at > Trentham. > > I don't think it really means anything outside of NZ if you have won > an Auckland Cup and our NZ cup at Riccarton doesn't deserve its Group > classification. > > I'm afraid for the future of the Kelt Capital. I think it was > originally put on the calendar to give NZ horses a good race just > before travelling to Oz to lift the Melbourne Cup. Well nowadays if > you aren't in Victoria early in the spring you aint in the Melbourne > Cup - that's the effect the Northern Hemisphere horses have had on > entries. > > The Hawkes Bay club have done wonders with the race and it is now the > most important spring race in NZ. But what does it really do for > racing here. We get NZs best horses racing on winter tracks to get > ready for a $million race in October. And then the whole scene goes > quite for 2 months. Some top horses have won this race but I'm not > sure that will continue. This years race would have been > uninteresting if it hadn't been for Starcraft and his stay in the Bay. > > And I can't see other Oz owners bringing horses of the quality of > Starcraft that often in the spring - the risks are too high - with > similar races (of only slightly less value) available at home. > > You're only got to look at the quality of Oz horses (apart from > Recurring) that crossed the Tasman for our summer carnival (What is > so disppointing for NZ racing is that some of them did pretty well > here) > > Our best WFA races should be on summer tracks - we shouldn't try to > compete with the OZ spring races. Let our spring horses go to Oz > where they can prepare for the Victorian meetings and save our best > prize money for the summer months. A better time would be the > January 1st date or the Cup meeting in April (although April is too > close to the Sydney carnival) > > I think we should put our efforts into the summer - Oz has two racing > seasons - spring and autumn - we can fit into the gap with our summer > racing and encourage them to send the better type of horse by > boosting stakes in quality races eg WFA middle distance or miles(can > you tell I'm a fan for WFA). > > Thanks for the opportunity to hear your views - it's great. > > > Regards > Trevor > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/racebase/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
