Improvement or lack of

[Greg Hando]

With a large number of NZ horse's coming over to race here,quite a few seem to grow a leg and improve their time's by quite a long way and race like good horse's while other's can't beat time with a stick.
With the improver's is it our climate,different training method's or some people just can't condition a horse to race ?
This is excluding the top horse's that come over. What are people's thought's ?

[Danno]

Tracks and racing styles differ greatly Greg and will certainly "improve" many horses times, the Kiwis have a number of big tracks with slow surfaces like grass for instance.
I certainly wouldn't think Aussie trainers are across the board superior to Kiwis,if anything it would be the other way around, but not to any great degree either.

Some horses will not go so well here for any number of reasons, not the least previous trainer had the "key" to the horse, whether thats in his shoeing, work regime, gear etc etc.

The usual stuff with horses Greg, more questions than answers!!!

Cheers,
Dan

[Triple V]

Greg, Dan...by far & away the two biggest things I've noticed and have heard about are the state of their Teeth & their Feet. SO MANY Kiwi horses seem to come this way with absolutely terrible feet & having NEVER seen any work done on their Teeth. My dinstinct impression is that by and large Kiwi Farriers get their money under false pretenses and that Kiwi Horse Dentists must starve to death. Add that to the fact that a lot of them come here on easy marks relative to what they were racing in NZ and there you have it. Better farrier work, get their teeth done, drop down in grade. The Trifecta.

[teecee]

Greg, Dan...by far & away the two biggest things I've noticed and have heard about are the state of their Teeth & their Feet. SO MANY Kiwi horses seem to come this way with absolutely terrible feet & having NEVER seen any work done on their Teeth. My dinstinct impression is that by and large Kiwi Farriers get their money under false pretenses and that Kiwi Horse Dentists must starve to death. Add that to the fact that a lot of them come here on easy marks relative to what they were racing in NZ and there you have it. Better farrier work, get their teeth done, drop down in grade. The Trifecta.

Can't comment on the first two factors with any authority other than to say many smaller NZ trainers who are the mainstay of your market do do their own shoeing. As for dentists, some of the horses I see getting around OZ hanging, throwing their heads and the vast array of soft bits could suggest a vast dental problem exists there too. But maybe I'll be generous and put it down to the small, tight and poorly cambered tracks hardly suited to today's modern swift standardbred.
The third factor however is highly significant IMO. one of our biggest problems in NZ is our handicapping system. It's be tweaked a little here and a little there but never met the needs of the horse population. We even have a special task force looking at the many ideas to improve the system. Horses of soso ability race week in and week out at Addington and Alex Pk against genuine good horses for minimal return. Best option is to sell to Oz. Hence the market of horses racing horses of like ability, dropbacks as the form falls away. and more importantly IMO a two tier assessment for each horse. If we came up with a truly viable I wonder what might happen to the sales to Oz...Go the same way as sales to USA lately....dry up to a trickle..

[Greg Hando]

Thank's Tony that explain's a lot. If handicapping is the problem why not try what we have here and see how it goes ?Surely you don't have to be Einstein to try something new.

[aussiebreno]

Thank's Tony that explain's a lot. If handicapping is the problem why not try what we have here and see how it goes ?Surely you don't have to be Einstein to try something new.

Not 100% up to date with no industry but to my knowledge they wouldn't be able to implement our handicapping system because of a much smaller number of horses.

[eliteblood]

Horses of soso ability race week in and week out at Addington and Alex Pk against genuine good horses for minimal return. Best option is to sell to Oz. Hence the market of horses racing horses of like ability, dropbacks as the form falls away. and more importantly IMO a two tier assessment for each horse. If we came up with a truly viable I wonder what might happen to the sales to Oz...Go the same way as sales to USA lately....dry up to a trickle..

I can't imagine that the selling of horses to Australia would dry up because I don't think you would be able to program and fund enough race meetings to cater for all the horses you breed. Regardless of the handicapping system employed, there is only so much money and only so many winners.

[teecee]

I can't imagine that the selling of horses to Australia would dry up because I don't think you would be able to program and fund enough race meetings to cater for all the horses you breed. Regardless of the handicapping system employed, there is only so much money and only so many winners.

Well I guess if they can come up with a better handicapping system then the numbers being bred will definitely not hold up the market. Breeding numbers were down 2 seasons ago so much that the sales are struggling to put up 2 days in Chch next year and that's nothing to the numbers bred last year. Three years ago I personally oversaw more foals born on my shift than we have mares to foal in total on farm. Breeding numbers have taken a dive and the outlook is not looking to improve.
One aspect of the Oz market which should and probably will improve is more and better quality 4yo either being sold or going to race in Oz. his is because the decimation of 4yo only racing in NZ. As it was there was very little racing for 4yo age group racing...basically Taylor Mile and Messenger and jewels. For the most ridiculous reason you could imagine these races have been opened up to 5yo. If you owned the 4 - 12 best 3yo last season you would have very little chance in these races this season. The good and very strong crop of now 5yo get another bite at the cherry. Chancellor Cullen is probably the first and a good example of this. Many will tell you that good 3yo often have difficulty progressing to the FFA / open level as a 4yo. Well this year in NZ these horses will now have the incrdibly extra pressure of meeting the very strong 5yo's. Althogh this strategy of supposedly providing more opportunities for 5yo....IMO they have plenty of opportunities but this strategy and an improved handicapping system are aimed at keeping horses here. There is a strong belief that there will not be the horse population here for the races we do have in approaching years.