Viewpoint

David writes:

There are two things that most clear-thinking people know we have a problem with in New Zealand racing - and they are both closely related.

Most people realise that we have a serious need for a good all-weather track similar to the best in Australia eg Geelong - and most people realise that we have too many racecourses in New Zealand for our population.  However until we have an all-weather track, we need every grass track we can get in order to sustain the trials and racing that our industry needs to stage.

This would avoid the cancellations that we have seen in the last 12 months - for example Riccarton and Trentham in the last 48 hours and we could hold trial meetings through May, June, July, August and September.

If I was running the New Zealand Racing Board, I would instruct New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing to come up with costings as well as a suitable venues at which to install world class all-weather tracks with the proviso that there has to be at least two racecourses close in each region - in other words - two north of Taupo, two from Wellington to Taupo and four in the South Island.

It is just ridiculous to see the cost of grass racing at this time of the year in New Zealand and I don't really think having racing at Te Aroha this week, by way of example, does a lot to promote the New Zealand thoroughbred - watching it in Australia with its Heavy11 was a bit of an eyesore sorry!

You will never have everybody agree on an all-weather track but 95% of the clear thinking friends that I have all support it.

So let's get on with it - stop talking about it and get on with it!  Let's have some leadership on this - every day wasted is another day down.

Back