Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

The last time Parliament changed legislation around the New Zealand racing industry was when the Hon. Annette King, who was the Racing Minister, put up the Racing Amendment Bill which effectively merged the TAB and the Racing Industry Board.

Clauses 6 and 7 stipulated that the new board was responsible for, amongst other roles, encouraging participation.

I currently find Trackside so boring that I now hardly ever watch it, outside of our horses running.  In most cases instead of having on course presenters interviewing winning trainers and jockeys, we go straight to an off shore race or a greyhound event.  Really with two channels is this the way that we showcase our industry and 'encourage participation'?

I cannot believe the way that Trackside is being run.  They put an early season's end to Weigh In (the gallops' review programme) and yet the Box Seat (harness) and Dog Zone (greyhounds ) keep going?!  This greatly saddens me as jumps' racing for example has a huge following and is of a lot of interest to many people but the way it is being 'promoted', it's little wonder that people don't bet much on it and participation is arguably declining.

At Te Rapa last week I thought that the Waikato Steeplechase was a simply superb spectacle.  To see our apprentice Daniel Miller ride Brer into second place was a great sight - but aside from that personal interest, all of these sorts of races should be shown and reviewed on Weigh In - plus they could revisit the season and have guests on and give young trainers the chance for the racing public to get to know them and give them the opportunity to attract new owners to their stables.

As I say, it just saddens me the way the whole thing is being run - why wouldn't New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing demand a similar show to Dog Zone and Box Seat that goes for the entire season - or do they not even know/care that Weigh In is finished?

It's that time of year when my annual gripe comes around (well this annoys me all year long to be fair) - have the administrators in Wellington ever thought about having an all-weather track?  Occasionally - but this issue just seems to drag on and on and noone ever shows any leadership.

With racing at Counties cancelled on Wednesday, and trials called off across the North Island,  do the men and women in power realise what that does to the bottom line? - and you can be assured with winter upon us we will see plenty more of these abandonments, with the climate that we have in New Zealand - that is a given.

Under Clause 16 of the Racing Amendment Bill, the payout to each code is based on the betting that each code attracts on New Zealand racing, meaning every cancellation affects the galloping code far more than the other two codes that mostly race on all-weather surfaces.

Surely it is not difficult to work out that when you have 50 to 60 inches of rain annually like we do in the Waikato region, you need an all-weather track for trials and mid-week racing.  I have said this year in and year out - but the 'leadership' just doesn't step up.

Yesterday we all got a huge thrill out of seeing Royal Success win by six lengths at Otaki.  Te Akau trainers Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards now lead the Trainers' Premiership by seven wins and this morning I worked out that we have 30 horses still to race this season plus more to trial so we will be looking to at least hit the century for the season.

Have a great weekend!