Are we still playing second fiddle?

Last Friday nights meeting at Alexandra Park started at the unbelievably late time of 6.44 pm (usually two races have been run by this time) and finished at 10.50 pm (by which time the lounges were fairly desserted except for a few who obviously had imbibed too much and weren't betting anyway.
Tomorrow's meeting at Cambridge starts at 5.07 pm and extends right through to 10.32 pm. The intervals between races are (in minutes) 35, 39, 40, 39, 35, 35, 37, 33, and 32. This on a Thursday night when people have to work the next day. The standard answer is "these are the times given by the TAB"!!!! Have they ever heard the saying "A quick game is a good game". I get very annoyed with administrators who blindly accept such roughshod treatment without so much as a peep. The Industry is in a crisis situation as it is without further fuelling the spiralling downfall.
I know nothing will be done, or attempted to be done, but the patrons must let the administrators know their feelings. This was written before seeing the turnover for last Friday's Auckland meeting, so if such programming proves to have been beneficial, then I will eat humble pie.
Interested to read others views.

I'm horrified by these changes too Eljay. Intervals of about 40 mins is too long and I won't go to the meetings as combined with the treatment re members facilities at Addington there is very little satisfaction in attending these days

Yes we get shafted with race times to fit in with overseas racing.
For me the 30 minute interval is ideal from the point of view of the stablehand with horses racing and from the punter preparing to invest. Any longer and boredom can set in which for me stops me from investing as i normally would.
Forbury had the same issue at their last meeting- last race was 10.40pm, when we had been treated well in recent times with around 10pm last race times.
NZ races should get preference for their desired between race intervals and then the tab should find the overseas races that suit us- not the other way around.

30 minutes thats tooo loooong....

I agree twenty minutes is plenty of time between races today. We have an anxious betting public and thirty minutes is just too long. We woder why we cannot keep our punters interested. Without them we have not got a business.

I think 30 minutes is ideal for both on-track spectators and those in the hotels and tabs.

On track you need time to have a feed, go to the bathroom, chat to friends, bet on other races, do the form, talk to bookies etc etc.. 20 mins would mean you are rushing to do things between races.. but a gap of more than 30 minutes is certainly not good.

I remember the good ol' days back in the 90's here in Australia on a Saturday night. The times were always the same and you knew what was coming up... Moonee Valley at 7pm, Newcastle or Maitland at 7.06pm, Albion Park at 7.10pm, Globe Derby at 7.20pm, Moonee Valley at 7.30pm etc etc..

Here here Phoenix that right arrr those good old days but now with gallop races going over the top cause they cannot hold for anything and the endless dog races you dont know when your comming or going and the switches from Sky 1 to Sky 2 the more channel was to free everthing up now its all crammed up.

I agree 30mins is good and normally the Harness and Greyhounds run on time, the Gallops on the other hand might want to ace it up and take a leaf out of Hong Kongs book if the horse can not be loaded after 2 attempts the horse is scratched it might make these so called top flight horse trainners to educate there horses a bit better, even in Harness racing if a horse fails to score up twice it's gone.

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Originally Posted by nat

Here here Phoenix that right arrr those good old days but now with gallop races going over the top cause they cannot hold for anything and the endless dog races you dont know when your comming or going and the switches from Sky 1 to Sky 2 the more channel was to free everthing up now its all crammed up.

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Totally agree.... and sometimes they get their priorities all stuffed up.. For example.. the NZ Cup last month... Sky takes a live feed from some two-bit gallops race and elects to show a full replay of the NZ Cup straight after..... They seemed to forget that the NZ Cup was a GC event worth a stack more than the gallops race...

I'd rather QUALITY over QUANTITY any day... but that doesn't make the $$ for the TAB and the sports so my pure ideals are out the window.. unfortunately.

I recall having to watch a replay of the nz cup for a tuesday gallops race at the brisbane casino had absolutely no build up to the race speaks volumes of where harness racing in australia stands similarly the miracle mile hardly got any coverage over here, I am sure the coverage was a lot more in depth in NZ. Yet we had a 5min build up to early races as no gallops were ocurring this shows how inferior harness racing is compared to gallops in aus.