Danno, punting trends in the past 5 years have less to do with the tracks and more to do with the increased sports betting market.
Thats precisely the point I was trying to make Brenno, we have bigger fish to fry! our market share of the punting dollar is diminishing at an alarming rate and the major cause is not sprint lanes and track sizes!!Originally Posted by aussiebreno
Cheers,
Dan
This topic has run its race (the horse in the sit got up) but has raised a more relevant one - in the hope that the powers that be are listening let's give it its own thread and hope the many smart brains I know we have on this forum can come up with the answers
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
I totally agree Danno. Plenty of horses get held up at the finish on tracks that have sprint lanes. Conversely Ballarat and Horsham don't have sprint lanes and horses rarely get held up on those tracks. For mine, I'd much rather no sprint lane.
Why didn't Courageousnquick use the sprint lane in The Silver Chalice Race 8 on Friday night at Melton? Stewards Report mentions leader Spokeswoman hung in - was that it? It would seem to have cost her the SHHD winning margin manoeuvering 3w
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When Petroff decided to come over the heels of the winner there was still 20/30m to travel before the sprint lane came up. Touch and go as to whether it was the difference between gold & silver but certainly not a terrible manoeuvre IMO Kev.
Isn't it funny that the tracks with the most atmosphere and people turning up are the like of Gloucester Park and Mildura. When sprint lanes were introduced they didn't take into account the punters that loved doing the form and the joy they had in winning when the opposition was locked up. Runners being locked up is actually one of the greatest joys in harness racing that should be embraced. Every race has a winner. The states that said no to sprint lanes are now the successful ones.
The greatest irritant in harness racing as an owner and a punter is the incredible advantage offered to the sprint lane horse. I would suggest that watching great drivers lock up other runners is a great spectacle. Seeing a speedy squib winning in a slow tempo race with a last quarter of 27 is my definition of boredom.
I have expressed some of the same sentiments Jeroen but have been a little swayed by the argument that to win punters we cannot have runners going to the line hard held. It would seem to me that there is a new element to form study - who is going to find the leaders back and you often see No's 1 or 8 well supported for this reason.
Where did you get the statistics to support your opening sentence? WA has always had in its favour that gallops are not nearly as dominant over there and although I am not a gallops follower, I have a feeling that they have never been as dominant up in Mildura either, so I am not sure sprint lanes have anything to do with your supposedly factual first sentence anyway.
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Kevin, you seem to want to summarise this thread as going to the line hard held is a bad thing for the industry - very debatable.
The tragedy regarding sprint lanes (especially at Albion Park) is that the trapped runners are now the 1-1 and 1-2 horses. It is likely that you will see a higher proportion of horses held up at Albion Park due to the 3-wide train being stagnant and not putting pressure on death seat horses. Death seat horses never hand up (unless its a stablemate) as they know they will be the ones that don't get out.
The reality with sprint lanes is less pressure for the early lead, death seat horses controlling the tempo and 3-wide horses blocking any action.
In my "opinion" Albion Park racing has become extremely boring as a result of the sprint lane. The sprint lane horse has a cushy run and for the vast majority of races it becomes mathematically impossible for at least half the horses to earn - irrespective of the horses ability.
Now this cannot be good can it ?
The Newcastle way for me is the primary option to consider for fair racing.
I started this thread saying sprint lanes suck - remember
BUT
if you think that sprint lanes are the cause of the death and 3w horse controlling the race you must be under 30yo
- at the very latest, that has been happening in Vic since the Mannings came on the scene over 20yrs ago
How you summarize the thread is what most people on here seem to see as a bad look in terms of attracting punters
The 1x1 and 1x2 horse are not compelled to stay in the running lane when the 3w horse starts to make his move.
I hate that the horse with the easiest run is guaranteed a run in the straight but I am now more concerned that we need the opposite of what I love (small tracks where we can see them with the naked eye all the way) ie maybe not sprint lanes but big tracks with huge straights that enable every runner time to get out
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
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