some good points Charlie. Big investors get the biggest races. Mark had Millionaire owners nearly the whole time who spared no expense to get their horses the best prep there is (nearly on the planet going by the amazing results year after year). BarryP and Scott Phelan have 'taken off ' past couple of years with Multi millionaire Dean Shannon buying up big and putting 17 horses with them (including Merlin.)  The prizemoney is going up , with a lot put in by the slot holders too in the new Slots on Showday. that's a good thing. attracts interest from the Best horses around, the general public , and some great contests. Merlin winning the Grins Race this year at Cambridge. (to give Dean Money to buy some more at the yearlings sales lol 😅) Good for the breeding industry too. could be 5 years in a row the NZ Cup will fly out , as SelfAssured, Copy That , and Swayzee all Australian owned.  Think you need to buy a horse Charlie and try and stop the Nz Cups continually emigrating like that ?😆😉

The proposed tariffs may or may not effect us but the military might of the USA is moving closer to NZ and AU which may be very important for our future . The farming subsidies were funded by the tariffs that were charged , as I said zero effect on the farmers . Top export destinations of commodities from New Zealand in 2023: China with a share of 26% (11.3 billion US$) Australia with a share of 12.8% (5.42 billion US$) USA with a share of 12% (5.08 billion US$) Japan with a share of 5.51% (2.32 billion US$) Korea with a share of 3.46% (1.46 billion US$) Singapore with a share of 2.47% (1.04 billion US$) Indonesia with a share of 2.31% (974 million US$) Other Asia, nes with a share of 2.24% (947 million US$) United Kingdom with a share of 2.09% (883 million US$) Malaysia with a share of 1.86% (785 million US$) New Zealand's imports 2023 by country Top trading partners (import sources) of New Zealand in 2023: China with a share of 20% (10.4 billion US$) Australia with a share of 10.8% (5.45 billion US$) USA with a share of 9.74% (4.91 billion US$) Korea with a share of 7.51% (3.79 billion US$) Japan with a share of 6.81% (3.43 billion US$) Singapore with a share of 5.5% (2.77 billion US$) Germany with a share of 4.42% (2.23 billion US$) Malaysia with a share of 4.01% (2.02 billion US$) Thailand with a share of 3.66% (1.84 billion US$) United Kingdom with a share of 2.63% (1.33 billion US$)

Hokey said , There was nothing wrong with the economy, it was just the perception out there that it was bad…and ignorance of how global economies work. And there you have it we know best people are struggling to pay the bills but hey it's just a perception we dems are ok to hell with the rest .

Trump was right again wasn't he

Its all good they are putting up good prize money for some races , but that doesn't help the poor struggling trainers who don't have horses of that caliber . Mark has been around a long time and probably wants to enjoy life and lets face it not many want to own horses these days it's too expensive when you way up training fees to the stake money on offer  

Those are harder to quantify. At present there is only anecdotal evidence but plenty of it. The same down here at Riccarton. I think clubs are supposed to be collecting reports of those though and the other way to measure it is the racing longevity of the horses either trained or raced on different surfaces. I doubt we have sufficient data from either yet to do any robust analysis though.

I think the lack of dominance of one stable is good for turnover & for me makes the day more exciting.  As excellent as Allstars were it got a bit tedious for me seeing one stable clean up almost everything.  Purdon racing is still a significant factor, have some fantastic horses in their stable and will be a very positive contributor to Cup Week.  

I have just spoken to the TAB and after 3 separate conversations was told that they would be put up tomorrow afternoon , I asked is that fields and odds and the reply was that they would be up tomorrow afternoon .  So I am not sure if that is both or just the odds , hopefully they put the fields up before they put the odds out . I know it seems that sometimes I bet blindly but that is taking it a step too far .

Some on here and  Moreso  on other sites decried the dominance of the All Star team during the week. I on the contrary enjoyed their excellence and subsequent success. With fewer runners this year the small pickings are heavily reduced if not gone altogether. No Nat and Mark driving one horse, things are just not going to be the same this year IMO. The counter argument is that prizemoney will be shared around more evenly although the 2 stables who have spent massively on young stock in last few years dont appear to be dominant either

Exactly , how many have gotten injuries in training , whether at speed or in pace work , I have heard through the grapevine that there have been numerous at Awapuni .

im with you 100% on that point NM I might add that IMO this point is of limited use "with a fracture rate on turf tracks of 0.37 per 1,000 starts."  It fails to include off racetrack injuries and only records raceday incidents

My money is there will be nothing to see here , and I don't mean because there really is nothing to see .

IMO a lot of the issues we have now with limb injuries are because the horse is such a more refined animal than even 30 years ago . And we continue to breed the same way that has got us to this spot , what will it look like in another 30 years . The one rider is that our grass does make a difference to our young horses . 

I'm worried about Mitey does he not have channel 88, CNN probably waiting for the second day. Can someone contact him to tell him Harris was very unlucky.

That could put you off your porridge in the morning .

That maybe right but interest rates and cost of living were a world wide phenomenon and would only correct in NZ when the rest of the world started correcting . People in NZ have to understand that we are but a pimple in world economics and as such are at the whim of the big powers fluctuations .

Hope The White House is getting ready for this motley crew to return in January. I’m sure Lurch can help the “ model”  with the decor…..

"Analysis by Massey University of the 2023/24 racing season revealed that New Zealand remains one of the safest horse racing jurisdictions in the world, with a fracture rate on turf tracks of 0.37 per 1,000 starts.   While still world leading, the fracture rate on synthetic tracks appears higher than turf at 0.81 per 1,000 starts."   Information on the 23/24 season has been a closely guarded secret till now.  That figure on grass tracks has dropped significantly on other seasons.  However, the synthetic fracture rate that does not include the bowed tendons etc is alarming, you'd have to deduce. This analysis clearly proves the problem many in the industry have been trying to portray with regards to synthetic surfaces in this country.  NZTR should really be apologising to many passionate participants. One stat glossed over as NZ is hard to compare to other countries which run races for less credentialed riders, is the higher number of bone breaks of horses ridden by lesser experienced and poorer quality riders.  Our riders are lumped in together, and quality across the board is questioned in almost every post on here.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/475449532121124 N.W.O.