Good to see some fresh faces banging on about what I have been banging on about for years and years.

You are bang on.

A very good argument has been discussed here folks and one can only hope that the powers that be read and take notice of it.
I for one have avoided betting on Sydney events for a while now as most fields don't pay three divs. Also you need big fields to get respectable exotic divvies.

Also who is the genius who programs meetings to almost clash routinely. Last week with just three meetings on a midweek,we saw a twenty minute gap between two and then eight minutes to the next at one point. You guessed it! meetings under way before divs were paying on the previous race.Quite a lot of my friends and I were prevented from loading up using a winning ticket to pay for a bigger bet.

I guess the industry hasn't worked out yet that totes,venues operating TABs and race clubs and all associated staff depend on turnover and margins to fund their cause.

Surely it's a no brainer to have meetings equally spaced to limit time lost to hard to load horses,dumped riders,missing ambulances etc.

Come on racing industry and politicians get your act together and clean this mess up.

Regards, The Pig.

Racing is for Punters

No Punters,, No Racing

Punters in this country have been giving Racing the SLOW 'Turf' for years

Even I, now Punt more Heavily in other Sporting Areas

Race Clubs, just like people on Racing 'Chat' Sites are unable to come to terms of what is actually 'Happening out there'

Outside of Melbourne, Horse Racing is in steady decline throughout Oz

Jet said -

"The three Group Ones fail to attract capacity fields.
The field sizes in other group races verge on the pathetic.
Is there a solution ? "

There are multiple problems, but lets start with the obvious - Why can't a $500,000 handicap attract a full field ?
Because it is not a handicap.

The Metropolitan is a good example. It has a 58kg topweight and 55.5kg limit. A spread of just 2.5kg or 5lbs in the old money. And yet the handicap ratings have a spread of 38lbs.

When you compress the weights to such an absurd degree the result is that horses disadvantaged by the compression (i.e. the lightweights) do not accept and you end up with less than a full field.

Under the current handicapping model the topweight must carry 58kg and if the topweight on acceptances has less than 58kg then weights are raised until he does. In this case Junoob was elevated from 54.5kg to 58kg, a raise of 3.5kg - and everything else was raised 3.5kg as well.

Is there an alternative ? I think so.

Issue the weights proportional to the handicap ratings on acceptances. Everyone knows what the handicap ratings are and the difference between them. In this case on acceptances Junoob would receive 58kg and the weights would be proportioned for the rest of the field on the basis of their rating until the minimum (52kg) is reached. The weights would look like this -

58 JUNOOB (GB)
56.5 BAGMAN
56 SPILLWAY (GB)
55 OPINION (IRE)
54.5 TRAVOLTA (NZ)
54.5 BRIGANTIN (USA)
54.5 LA AMISTAD
54.5 OUR VOODOO PRINCE (GB)
53.5 ARALDO (GB)
53.5 KINGDOMS (NZ)
53.5 WISH COME TRUE (IRE)
53 DEANE MARTIN (NZ)
53 DISCLAIMER (GB)
52.5 TUPAC AMARU
52 IGGI POP (NZ)
52 KHALID (GB)


Note : These weights were calculated on the horses current ratings not their ratings when the actual weights were declared.

We maintain the 6kg spread of the original handicap. The race would be far more attractive to lightweights (i.e. any horse that rated less than 100 or 55.5kg) and a full field would virtually be guaranteed. I would also suggest that the weight spread would be inclined to inject more pace into the race with the lightweights seeking to take advantage of their advantage.



Problem #2 : Why aren't the good horses accepting ?

Of the 20 original top raters that nominated for the race,
- 7 are racing in Melbourne, and 5 of those are stabled in Victoria.
- 5 have broken down or have not come out this Spring
- 2 are acceptors in the Epsom
- 2 were acceptors in the Craven Plate
- 3 are acceptors for the Metropolitan
- 1 (Destiny's Kiss) is racing in NSW but did not accept for the Metrop.

We can't do much about those that have gone amiss, but of the next 5 on the list, all of them are racing in Melbourne, so the first problem seems to be that the Metropolitan is not sufficiently attractive to draw horses up from Melbourne, or keep them in Sydney.

Secondly, if you hold a 2000m WFA race on the same day as a 2400m handicap you are only getting in your own way. 3 Craven Plate runners were nominated for the Metropolitan.

Better prizemoney, more sensible handicapping and more thoughtful programing would make a difference.

A couple of weeks ago we had 1600m and 2000m WFA races on the same card. The decision to take the Spring Champion off the Epsom card and run it the same day as the Caulfield Guineas justs beggars belief.

The one big club appear to have thrown all their resources at the Autumn carnival and practically surrendered the Spring.

It's a pity. The Randwick spring meeting used to be one of the jewels in the crown of Australian racing.

Remember the days when the likes of Northern Meteor would come and Sydney would dominate.

Now Gai telling us she thinks Almalad can beat Rich Enuff around Caulfield... Ha Ha Ha, thats cute.

Jet, I reckon it is time for the ATC to have another round of acceptances say 2 weeks out, to cull all the horses that were early nommes but no longer with any intent to start.

This may give a few more trainers/owners of horses lower in the order entry a greater desire.

The other thing is that the ATC is throwing big money at races in the autumn, and the time honored Epsom and even the Metropolitan are being ignored. They should be million dollar races at least, so that more horses target these 2 races. They are far enough out from the Toorak, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate to be part of the prep for any hopeful. It's as though the ATC has given up trying to compete with Melbourne.

Galilee, Might and Power and even Cole Diesel, came via the Epsom and there are more examples re the Metro.

None of the above explains the poor field numbers that confronts Sydney metro racing.

Dominating stables - maybe, the over abundance of barrier trials - definitely in my book, the decent prizemoney now available at near metro venues with lesser competition - maybe, the more attractive programming in Melbourne (if this is the case) - maybe, the high cost of ownership, less owners and dwindling horse population - probably although why isn't this a problem in Victoria.

The Group handicap races all over Australia are suffering from the weight compression. This benefits the better quality horses and perhaps this is the aim, but the Toi Port's or Bob Teint's of this world, no longer get a crack at glory. They were both QLDer's btw.

On another note, I went to a luncheon at Randwick a few weeks back, and long time members were complaining about a myriad of issues.

I went to the George Main stakes day and the ticket office opened at 10.30, there were security staff there then and more arrived well before 11am when the gates opened. Why sell tickets so early or vice versa, why not open the gates earlier. On bigger days, I like reserved seating or seating with easy access to betting. The geometry of the new stand is ridiculous, with this in mind as far as I am concerned. The racing experience at Royal Randwick versus Flemington is a no brainer and no prizes to guess which venue is streets ahead.

Has the ordinary wage earner been catered for at Randwick? I don't have all the answers but surely there are solutions.