Originally Posted by
Danno
Unfortunately Anne, many of our handicapping problems are stemming from a smaller pool of available horses combined with the unenviable task of our handicappers to continue to provide evenly balanced fields that will encourage punters to invest on as many as possible chances in each race.
This problem has been growing for quite a while and is certainly not restricted to 3yo's good, poor or ordinary, one the one hand the drop back clause has assisted in holding more horses in the pool, but to the detrimental effect that too many horses are finding it impossible to be viable at a C1 front because they are meeting horses that were once C4,5 & 6 that have lost a bit of form....big ask for a horse that was maiden 2 starts ago to meet a horse that was once a potential city performer.
Our Game is shrinking due to many factors, one of which is out pricing itself, the returns to owners Vs their costs have gotten completely out of kilter over the last 35 years compared to our competitors, the gallopers and dogs.
Personally I think it is unfathomable that some Stallion owners believe the fees they are asking are anywhere near sustainable in the current market, they will obviously get support from the bigger end of town, but only from those that expect a return at the yearling sales, so they are restricting their own marketplace right there and of course whinging about sale prices. At what stage do you think the commercial breeders will come to grips with the damage their short term, self serving lobbying and influencing of State and National bodies has done to the overall health of Harness Racing in Australia?
Placing horses of all classes to their best advantage is getting more and more difficult for EVERYONE with all classes of horses in every area/region. What the game desperately needs is a realistic vision back to growth for the whole game, in particular the grass roots regional racing because that is where new involvement more often starts than anywhere else. The "event" and "carnival" advertising for any event is great to see, but it rarely leads to more than a one night stand.
Time for everyone to think and act more wholistically, rather than for their personal interests, the cannibalisation is getting to the bare bones and there is nowhere else to turn.
cheers,
dan