What ever you want to call it!

[mary]

eg; the best horse might not be able to cope with 4 races in 2 weeks.

EXACTLY!

And it was great to watch & follow who had the points & by the last heat who had to earn those points to make the final.
This race IS NOT an inter dom & never will be, its already lost its meaning to me.

[Chariots]

As a traditionalist by heart I much preferred the old style three heats and a final but I think that you are all missing the points why the format was changed:

At a cost of approximately $1.8m less hard to get sponsorship conducting clubs no longer wished to be in the rotational arrangement. Those states that would be prepared to continue would have to weigh up any benefits against the cost that would have to come out of grassroots racing. I assume that NSW having it for three consecutive years has led to Government support.

Not an ideal situation but the option of the old format at one venue would appear to be financially unviable.

[Danno]

As a traditionalist by heart I much preferred the old style three heats and a final but I think that you are all missing the points why the format was changed:

At a cost of approximately $1.8m less hard to get sponsorship conducting clubs no longer wished to be in the rotational arrangement. Those states that would be prepared to continue would have to weigh up any benefits against the cost that would have to come out of grassroots racing. I assume that NSW having it for three consecutive years has led to Government support.

Not an ideal situation but the option of the old format at one venue would appear to be financially unviable.

With all due respect to you Ray, if the club/states (s) taking their turn at hosting could only afford to put on a race for say...only $800k, does that stop the general public from getting curious about harness racing? Mate I am a purist too, but I also see the Inter as our greatest marketing race, so if the race is for a bit less $$$ then so what?.

The rotation system of the interdomion, which has been in effect for donkeys ages, enables each area where our great sport in playing to get a first hand view of our games greatest horses and horse people, to me the main role of the interdominon is to attract attention to our sport, not pay the owners of the "best" horse a shitload of money.

Employ clever people and not dunces, stop "paying peanuts to the monkeys" get people who can deliver or get someone else who can!

cheers,
Dan

[2minuteman]

Employ clever people and not dunces, stop "paying peanuts to the monkeys" get people who can deliver or get someone else who can!

cheers,
Dan

What he said!

[Chariots]

The new format may well not work but the format that we all loved was struggling big time. I was at Alexander Park when Elsu won the inters and there was less than 4,000 on course.

Also not sure that trainers would be keen to race four times in two weeks for greatly reduced prize money when there are so many individual high stakes group races around.