I watched the race on Sky live and immediately saw the laps had been mistaken, as had Fred Hastings, the caller, but he did not make a big deal about! What a great diplomat for the sport! These things do happen!
Ok. I've misread who said what. Sorry.
I watched the race on Sky live and immediately saw the laps had been mistaken, as had Fred Hastings, the caller, but he did not make a big deal about! What a great diplomat for the sport! These things do happen!
I can't say on here what i think of your comment Tiny for i would be barred but in a nutshell your comment is bordering on stupidity IMO . How many professional's are there in the sport in NSW ? What keep's the game going here is the hobbyist and the die hard supporter's that like to watch and train their horse race regardless of the class.
Have whoever you want on but don't ever have yourself on
Just adding my two cents, and I've said it before, in country NSW the grassroots does not deserved to be shunned, just because the the metropolitan people want to be more professional. The smaller towns turn out in droves for their better meetings and when the big boys turn up to 'steal' the money the locals always give a good account of themselves. I am gutted that I no longer have a little track to attend anymore since leaving the central west 15 years ago but I still enjoy watching those little meetings via Sky. Go the country meetings!!! And go Blayney!!!
G'day Andy,
you are entitled to your opinion and, like everyone else you are fully entitled to voice that opinion.
As a long term hobbyist in this game I was appalled at your immeasurably narrow minded views about who are worthy participants in this game and who should be "wiped out".
I believe the subsequent responses to your beautifully articulated rant have adequately answered the shortcomings of your views.
Good luck with the leadership aspirations Tiny, can I suggest your wasting your time but keep at it mate!!
Cheers,
Dan
I sorry that most of you don't like what i’m saying. Harness racing is facing some tough times ahead and at the end of the day harness racing is a business and the racing is the product they sell. It is simple if harness racing doesn't grow its betting turnover, it will go bust. I can understand the emotion attached.
The comment by Daryl New that if you don’t like it don’t bet on it, is not good enough. Betting turnover can’t grow if the punters don’t like the product. So It is more of a case if you don’t like it its got to improve or be got rid of.
Daryl also wrote don’t bag the people that make up the fields and this only highlights the problem, if there are people or horses that are only going around week in week out to make up numbers is a problem. No one will back a horse they have never herd of with bad form that is trained a driven by some bloke that has a nine to five job and drives or trains a horse after work. Get half a dozen of these in a race and the punter doesn’t punt.
As a punter there are four things I follow, Horses, trainers, drivers and form if I look at a race and don’t know any names and nothing obvious in the form you don’t punt.
In recent time harness racing has had its share of integrity issues again causing a lack of trust in the product. Because the industry is so large and fragmented makes it hard to be correctly regulated.
I have wrote this before but the number of trainers must be reduced if harness racing had 10 trainers in Sydney with about 70-80 horses each regulation would be simple there would be better name recognition and plenty of quality horses to make up fields. The same can be said about drivers although more than ten are required.
As much as it is a hard decision to make it is for the better of the sport and doing away with the restricted meetings is a good one and a good step towards a stronger future.
The comment I made earlier about the Bulli race was wrong in the way it targeted one person but the point was all drivers have shockers but the part time ones have more than the ones that drive all the time.
PS sorry about the spelling I was never very good at it. But must also add I have never commented on anyone’s spelling ever. So I can’t spell but I’m not a hypocrite.
Tiny, let's talk hypothetically now, would you like to nominate the 10 professional trainers who would head your list at the moment???
CENTRALISED MODEL
So Andy, you are selling the idea of a centralised model. I've got a few questions for you after you nominate your ideal top 10.
1. How can every horse in a race have good form? What do you define as good form? Are you talking about runners having less variation i.e. more consistency in their form?
2. If you've got only 10 trainers then it's likely that many of them will have mutiple runners in a 10 horse race. The punters by your comments will have a new challenge on which horse to pick. i.e. like the challenge at the moment when Luke McCarthy has 3 or 4 runners in a race. Are they going to be put off when the favoured runner from the stable loses?
3. What similar sport has your suggested model worked in?
Hypothetically speaking I would like to see Luke McCarthy cloned ten times an take all of the top ten positions. He is every thing and more than you would expect from a professional trainer.
He presents his horses well
They always run to expectation
He presents himself well with the media marketing himself and his sponcers at every opportunity.
And the fact he doesn't punt or allow his staff to punt is an added bonus.
In a time when harness racing was not scared of its own shadow Luke would be marketed better by the industry similar to the way Chris Gleeson was in the 90s.