The ASBP Report: How can they be serious? Bad news for harness owners

[nat]

VVV & Mightymo

I agree to run races for fillies and mares no matter how many starters at full prize money maybe run it as a non TAB race like they do for the trotters and to keep the TAB happy run a full field at half prize money people will soon hook into line.

[triplev123]

G'day Nat,

Having somewhat but by no means fully expunged my extreme levels of frustrations over this subject in post #283, I'm growing increasingly confident that things will soon begin to improve dramatically, at least as far as fillies & mares racing opportunities in NSW are concerned anyway. Hopefully other States will then follow suit with a similar focus.
Now, one more time just in case anyone missed it.
WE DON'T NEED TO BREED MORE FOALS, WE NEED TO MAKE BETTER USE OF THE FORGOTTEN 50% OF THE ONES THAT WE ARE ALREADY PRODUCING, THE FILLIES & MARES.

[nat]

Hi VVV

You have me believing you I have 5 fillies and mares of different ages to race, 2 are over age racing and the other 3 are weanling, yearling and 2yld now the sad part is once they are over aged racing unless they are extremely good they will sit in the paddock till they are bred or moved on. So how many owner breeders are out there like me that have these horses in the paddocks I see so many good mares always running a good race that just cannot crack it against the stallions & geldings

[gutwagon]

agree with nat. under the current system we do need more foals, but only colts.
It's clear from the report that they don't have any major plans to increase racing chances for females so we need to keep breeding big numbers.

[aussiebreno]

agree with nat. under the current system we do need more foals, but only colts.
It's clear from the report that they don't have any major plans to increase racing chances for females so we need to keep breeding big numbers.

Firstly, much love to VVV.

Now Gutwagon...why would a breeders report focus on race programming? :s

[nat]

Maybe we could sex breed them like dairy cattle but in a role reversal just for colts and just have a 30-50 good mares that we embryo flush and do embryo transfers to the top stallions every year for our foal numbers

PS. I'm only taking the piss before anyone takes my comment seriously

[triplev123]

Firstly, much love to VVV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ua-7YpUtPA

[mango]

Its NZ and the drop in the last season is exaggerated to the prior 10 seasons. Hence my query to Mango; hope he has an answer. It probably has to be a dramatic change. Which now Lance has said below Govt stopped funding.
That has nothing to do with declining foals in Aust over a period of time. You may as well say the increase in pig numbers in Mozambique will result in an increase in chicken numbers in Antartica.
My figures show it isn't declining foal numbers rather horse retention.
VVV and others have put up great ideas to retain horses.
////thread

Hey Breno

I couldn't honestly tell you the reason for the big drop in mare's being served in n.z the reason it was sent to me is we were discussing the drop in mare's being served in Aus whilst i was in n.z and he said n.z just hit an all time low so he sent it through to highlight how big of a drop it was compared to other years.

[gutwagon]

Firstly, much love to VVV.

Now Gutwagon...why would a breeders report focus on race programming? :s

Well maybe they could see that half the horses we breed are being wasted just because of their sex !
They also should be looking at the industry as a whole , not dividing it up and only trying to help one section that they have financial interests in .

[Midfrew]

Lance Justice: the drop in foal numbers would correspond perfectly with the withdrawal of the nz governments support that was boosting prizemoney, ie the 600k nz great northern derby


I doubt that there is any linkage here. A former minister put up $3 million per annum initially to have a few elite $1 million races provided the clubs and codes matched the funding. Hence the $2 million NZ Derby for t'breds. It was a very poisonous chalice. Harness NZ negotiated a better deal that spread the money over about ten Group 1 races. The funding ended last season.

The reasons for the drop in numbers according to our NZSBA survey of 500 breeders were (a) drop in stakes primarily due to a significant drop in wagering in NZ over the last two years due to GFC, (b) rises in costs associated with breeding (vets, working fees etc), (c) stallion fees, (d) people being cautious with money after GFC and Christchurch earthquakes (50% breeders in Greater Canterbury) (e) the loss of over $7 million in funding from the community trust disributing pokie profits, and (f) a general negative feeling towards racing.

The prime boost to stakes four years ago came when the then government reduce industry taxation to match that of the pokies.

John Mooney