Ballarat meet is perhaps moreso because there is an AFL match in town for the first time that afternoon.
Club will be hopeful people will wander across to the trots afterwards.
Luke and I are sharing calling again this night so that is an attraction on its own!
At Echuca today they started late as they only had 6 races and they tried to place the bigger field races in the 5-6pm timeslot and what happens - 3 scratch from the last to drag it down to 7 starters!
You can see what a difference having at least 8 starters makes as Race 5's turnover easily beats Race 6's
https://www.tab.com.au/racing/2017-08-10/ECHUCA/ECH/H/6
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
You mean they normally charge to get in?
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
You might have to enlighten me, are you talking about vested commercial interests of only some, a minority, the prize money won clause increased from $6000 to $10,000? Or?
With reference to the placement of the race/series on the calendar, the 2yo pacers, do you think if the Tatlows (which might be a better and more appropriate lead up race to the Vicbred Super) were brought back to May and the Home Grown run in July it might be something that better meets the need to encourage more people to breed at the grassroots level?
And for that matter, the 3yo series run later than the first month of the season?
The series was supposed to be one of the "grassroots" initiatives and the reason for the 2yo series being originally slotted into May was it had to be conducted before the end of that financial year.
Well as an off the cuff suggestion I don’t see how as 2yos it’s possible to determine who will or won’t reach lofty heights so perhaps rather then a race series redistribute the monies allocated for the series as a bonus on wins/placings in base level 2yo events in the lead up to the Vicbred series to encourage people with 2yos to have them ready to race during this period, and with a fixed number of eligible starts to discourage anyone from over racing their 2yos seeking the bonus. Not everyone will agree but there is a school of thought that increasing the first win bonus would be the most effective way to increase breeding in general and this would be one way to do it specifically for 2yos. The Tatlow could go back to being an open lead up race to Vicbred.
Obviously more bench marks available for assessing 3yos, 3yo could be as a race series, or maybe 2 race series, probably better latter in the season, for 3yos with low earnings and a minimum number of starts to show they have likely established their credentials as not likely to reach lofty heights and paid their dues to keeping field sizes up to be eligible. Hopefully there would be no trainers wanting to put 5 starts into their 3yos in a fortnight or the like to be eligible but could be prevented with a clause in the conditions if necessary
I agree Dot, hard to know how far a horse will go based on it's 2yo year but within the 2yo season it would be more appropriate if the series was run later in the season.
What about a bit each way Dot, increasing the first win bonus and how you might run the Home Grown.
I'll just speak about the pacers as I don't follow the trotters very closely at all but it might work as well, what if you made the finals worth $30000, later in the season, and allocate the $40000 (from the 2 x pacing finals) to the first win bonus for 2yo's early in the season. Off the cuff as I haven't done the maths or research but I imagine you might nearly be able to add $2000 to the first win for a couple of months and introduce it in January. Or try to get the first win bonus for that period for the 2yo's to a nice round figure like $10000.
During one of the rounds of 'meet the CEO' paying a bonus just to make it to the races was mooted so your idea of a bonus based on wins and placings has merit.
Something for the whiteboard.
Last edited by arlington; 06-04-2019 at 11:37 AM.