Whilst the sentiments of this thread are based around ALL Stars they are not necessarily alone.....
Compliments of ALL Stars website...
ALL STARS "NOT GOOD FOR THE GAME"-ITS A MYTH
(EDITORIAL)
You hear it wherever you go from a vocal minority-the amazing success of Mark and Natalie is "not good for the game". It is hard to understand what this actually means given aiming to win and excellence in achieving that is what horse racing is supposed to be about. But it appears that dominating of Premier days leaving rival owners out of pocket is one factor.
While the real sportsmen and women in the industry applaud the remarkable chain of success unparallelled in 130 years of our history rivals frustration over what they call the "blue army" is understandable. Mark and Natalie's charges are always hard to beat But "not good for the game ?" -its a myth.
In 2017 All Stars won 50 Premier races, a staggering feat. But in fact horses from Rolleston started in less than 50 per cent of the Premier races held. That left 80 Premier races to be contested without any All Stars colours in the field. Hardly extreme domination-more extreme strike rate, which is quite a different thing.
Domination by large stables,hardly new, is as inevitable in harness racing as it has been with the thoroughbreds. It takes superior horsemanship and the business savvy to capitalise.The forces behind it-especially the dominance of the Yearling Sales now almost a trainer's greatest challenge of the season -and the financial power syndication brings, are similar. It's progress. Indeed relying on a torch-bearing stable like All Stars to raise the profile of the game is far superior to having a series of small teams with little national profile.
Of course this sort of thing is not new as Roy and Barry could tell you. Success always brings envy as well as admiration and success on the All Stars scale adds to both.
Their success can be put down to expert selection of yearlings (more like a genius); expert development of young stars but equally with older ones; patience success brings; a vision of how harness racing is developing at the top level; round the clock planning and hands on work ethic amounting to enormous dedication and so the attraction to owners willing to invest.
Most thinking administrators, far from wanting to blunt the All Stars success (as the new rating system has) know encouraging their long term committment to our industry is essential if they want to be on the big stage.
Stats show there are still plenty of races left to win for others if their horses are good enough. All Stars being "Not good for the game" is not an excuse if they are not.
(Site Editor)
This is relevant not just to NZ but across Australasia as a whole..
Your own research from another thread
We can see the AllStars dominate (and it is highly unlikely that this includes the $933k they have won in Oz) but I was surprised to see that there are 26 trainers who have won in excess of $100k in stakes (even if they are 5 months into their season compared to our 4)
We have to remember that NZ in total only run as many races as Victoria