There is normally a built in incentive to support new stallions in that they are most often a lot less expensive to breed to.  It doesn’t seem to work well however as most people want stock from stallions that give them a much better chance of success, especially at the top level. For that reason I suspect this new scheme may not be very effective.  We should not be using new owners we attract to the sport as the Guinea Pigs to find out if a new stallion will be successful or not.  Getting them to invest at all is an achievement. Let’s look after them. 

Race had to buy the land that Lisa Latta’s stables are on. (I presume that’s the $3.9m) The family of the late Kevin Platt (wonderful supporter) wanted to realise its worth. Sell it in other words, probably because of family distribution of his assets. Only guessing there and it doesn’t matter as with the sad passing of Kevin everything came to a head much earlier than was ordinarily expected.  P.S. I hope that I have the name of the late gentleman correctly. I didn’t know him personally but from what I understand, he certainly had Racing in the Manawatu foremost and centre in his thinking. 

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous 2025.  Thank you Scooby and Say No More and all who contributed to the fun comps here.

Did anyone go out and source a RACEFORM today? If I’ve read the end of Dennis Ryan’s Editorial correctly, one should have come out today and another one next Monday for New Years Day. 

Tom Bamford in the same boat.  Completely agree it should be based on age or perhaps trainers with 50 wins or less.  

The most important part of Next gen is Increasing ownership numbers.  Increase ownership participation & you increase demand for horses & increase punting revenue.  For the policy to work we need new owners to be successful.  No fun in investing in horses that  don’t race or can’t win a race.  We want them to become repeat customers & encouraging them to buy stock from unproven stallions decreases their chance-of success, Therefore the incentive to promote new stallions runs contradictory to the goal of increasing ownership. 

Merry Xmas to everyone and especially you Scooby. Your efforts in providing a forum which gives us all a great deal of pleasure is to be commended, robust discussion is healthy and to be encouraged. Thanks again, All the best for Xmas and the coming year.

Thank you Leigh 😘  Cheers John   Thanks muchly to Ponderosa ... thanks to everyone that has made this year for us all on RaceCafe, enjoyable.. whether we agree, disagree, have a poke at each other, or have a laugh, it's what a forum is all about and we'd be so much sadder without it   Have a safe festive season all and may the new year bring you so many things that you are hoping for            

Thanks Nelli, I was thinking along very similar lines.   They are trying to achieve 3 specific goals with one policy. 1- increase ownership numbers 2- Promote young trainers. 3- Promote new stallions.   The first two are necessary goals but I’m not sure about the 3rd.  I believe the best way to achieve these objectives is to have specific policies for each goal rather than intertwining all 3 into one confusing & contradictory policy. 

Video on here…. https://www.racing.com/news/2024-12-23/news-review-persian-caviar-231224

The Black Caviar story lives on. Her 7th foal wins on debut at Wangaratta, her first to do so. Looked good too.  

The launch of NextGen today demonstrates yet again more half-baked ideas even though the intentions are admirable.   1) I can see the rationale of restricting the scheme to sale horses, since NZB Standardbreds are major sponsors, but why restrict it to progeny of stallions in their 1st 3 seasons in NZ? For example, if you are after a trotter, this restricts you to a choice of just 22 horses with half by expensive stallions (a big windfall for the sellers).  2) Why the G1 restriction on the trainers when I think what they intend is to promote young trainers. This means 21 year old Zev Meredith in his first year of training is ruled out but very successful 80+ year old Luk Chin is eligible (not that he ever needs to buy a yearling with his great breed). 3) The alternative option is having a partnership of at least 4 owners with 30+% of the people under 40 years old and who have never owned a horse before. This of course is easily achieved by adding a couple of grandchildren on the ownership papers. A nice thing to do but will it mean more owners racing more horses in the future? I'd be interested what RaceCafers think.

Forget the car 

What is everyone’s best bet over the festive season….. just one tip to bet on…. 

Yes mate. They have been known to be wrong on occasion, so we’ll see. Up to 20mm now. Does look like a wet Wednesday and Thursday for most.

You couldn’t make this shit up. Doubt he knows what “diplomatic acumen” is…. This follows Kushner, Walker, Guilfoyle and Fertitta all into cushy jobs with no experience. Just waiting for some country to say “ You want a relationship with us and we get this ?.. “    https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2024/12/22/who-is-mark-burnett-the-apprentice-producer-appointed-by-trump-as-special-envoy-to-uk.html

Is that for Ellerslie? Current going is Good 4, Soft 5 at Otaki and Heavy 10 at Wingatui.

JOHANNES BRAHMS was second to LAKE FOREST in the 2023 Gimcrack at York - a race starting to look very good. He’s bred to get a mile - there’s a filly half called TATTYCORAM (ex Camelot) who was a very promising third on debut at Ascot in September to subsequent Fillies Mile third BALLET SLIPPERS. She’s in my notebook as a middle distance prospect for next year and as she’s trained by Arc winning handler Ralph Beckett, she’s very much in the “could be anything” folder. I hope we see JMac at Ascot next summer.  

Hong Kong Jockey Club. James McDonald closed a highly successful short-term stint in Hong Kong with a quartet at Sha Tin on Sunday, crowning his stay with two Group 1 victories while amassing more than HK$72 (A$14.8m) million for connections during the 11-meeting cameo. Acclaimed as the 2024 World’s Best Jockey, McDonald slotted four winners, a second and a third from nine rides at Sha Tin to finish his visit with 19 wins and 21 minor placings from 89 rides for overall prizemoney earnings of HK$72,033,605 – a figure bettered this season only by Zac Purton (HK$81.9 million). McDonald, who dominated at the Hong Kong International Races with victories on Romantic Warrior in the G1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m) and Voyage Bubble in the Hong Kong Mile (1600m), scored on Super Legends, Lady’s Choice, Divano and Johannes Brahms today. The New Zealander is scheduled to return to Hong Kong to partner Voyage Bubble in the G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) on 19 January after serving a seven-meeting suspension for careless riding following an incident at Sha Tin on 15 December. “I’ve absolutely loved every minute of it except for last Sunday (15 December), it threw a bit of a downer on the whole trip but we loved it – it’s been brilliant,” said McDonald, who sits in fourth place in the Hong Kong jockeys’ championship behind Purton (51 wins), Hugh Bowman (26) and Vincent Ho (21). “Those horses (Romantic Warrior and Voyage Bubble) have been the highlights, but I really enjoyed every meeting – most meetings, I got winners so it was good.” McDonald opened his account aboard Danny Shum’s Super Legends in the first section of the Class 4 Hibiscus Handicap (1200m) before adding the Class 3 Pok Oi Cup Handicap (1200m) on Lady’s Choice for Michael Chang, the first section of the Class 3 Tulip Handicap (1200m) on Francis Lui’s Divano and Johannes Brahms for Pierre Ng in the Class 3 Spruce Handicap (1400m). 2025 BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) hopeful Johannes Brahms, who was formerly trained by Aidan O’Brien in Ireland, earned a PP Bonus of HK$1.5 million for his first Hong Kong win.