Vicbred Super Series 2019

Anne, I think most of the problems are caused by the lack of horse numbers at present. They could program Open mares races more often but they wouldn't get enough nominations to run a race. Also doesn't help that one strong stable dominates the big money races and scares many others away. I think the blame lays with poor planing by past and present boards. They continue to ignore falling foal numbers and only offer token short sighted solutions.

Just my opinion and I mean no offense to you or your horses and I hope that you continue to have success. Our industry needs both large and small owners, trainers and breeders to survive , I think having any one stable dominate so much is driving away the smaller investors.

I love racing and breeding my fillies and mares Rick. Have been doing it for 50 years and I am still passionate about my horses. Frustration and disappointment got to me when I searched for a race for Abbey . It’s been the same for decades but I agree smaller fields and races not standing up have highlighted and exacerbated the problem. Without racing opportunities and decent prize money many owners and breeders are walking away.
As a breeder I feel the industry is in crisis. The upcoming change of direction from a leading Vic stud this season will have a huge impact on the small to mid sized breeders with added costs for all. Yabby Dam Farms have announced a substantial reduction in their participation and this comes from an owner who has made a major investment in the industry.
I posed a question to David Martin recently regarding the NR of one of my horses and was told to give the system “time “ . I fear time is running out !

Unfortunately Anne the new "Handicapping System" will not solve the lack of horses being bred or people leaving the industry. It may help some owners and frustrate others. They are hell bent on running more and more races, they don't seem to care about how uneven the races are or small fields ! The tiered prize money races were going to fix everything but as most expected it has made it worse.

In my opinion the new board and the previous one are/were just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and refusing to admit there is a leak. Anybody that mentions the leak is told to "give it time" !

Out of interest Rick what would you propose to get more horses bred and stop people leaving the industry? And how would you fund it?

I don't have a magical fix for the industry Dot but I know what they are currently trying is not working. They should not be using turnover as a measure of success , they should be using foal numbers and industry participant numbers.
Breeding bonuses need to be aimed at smaller breeders . They need to concentrate on getting people back to the tracks. They need to remodel the Melton facilities to make it a more punter and people friendly place. I don't think the idea of running as many races as possible with small fields will help in the long run. The tiered prize money system is a disaster and is driving many away. Integrity is still a big issue.

I think that the bottom line is if you can get more people on track and interested in the sport it will eventually solve the problems. Aim more at the ownership, breeding and social experience and not just all about gamboling.
How you do that and fund it ? That's the job for people in charge, and they should be people with passion and experience in harness racing.
They need to start really listening to people in the industry, look at the reasons they are leaving. At the moment many of the people that I speak to and including myself think that the current board is treating us like idiots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I love racing and breeding my fillies and mares Rick. Have been doing it for 50 years and I am still passionate about my horses. Frustration and disappointment got to me when I searched for a race for Abbey . It’s been the same for decades but I agree smaller fields and races not standing up have highlighted and exacerbated the problem. Without racing opportunities and decent prize money many owners and breeders are walking away.
As a breeder I feel the industry is in crisis. The upcoming change of direction from a leading Vic stud this season will have a huge impact on the small to mid sized breeders with added costs for all. Yabby Dam Farms have announced a substantial reduction in their participation and this comes from an owner who has made a major investment in the industry.
I posed a question to David Martin recently regarding the NR of one of my horses and was told to give the system “time “ . I fear time is running out !

Perhaps this is a help to you Anne, I confess HRNSW has put a heap of stuff out and I’ve only just scanned through it so I’m not sure of the frequency of these races, every week might mean a trainer change but Pistol Abbey would be racing mares as you wish Anne.

https://www.harness.org.au/NEWS/news...uly%202019.pdf

Thanks Dot.

Interesting to look at the sire lines of the six Vicbred Super Series finals at the weekend.
No Cam Fella sireline winners.That's a change from the domination by Bettors Delight in Group 1 finals.

2 Direct Scooters (Somebeachsomewhere)
3 Adios Line ..or Abercrombie line ( Art Major)
1 No Nukes.. (Western Terror)

Finally home and I got the time to listen to the RSN Stewart and Tonkin extended interview
Although I previously listed their achievements on the night, it sounds more mind-blowing when they state that their horses filled 16/18 places in the Gp1's
I would have liked it if they had delved a little further into the secret to their success - saying that it is just hard work makes it sound like the rest of the industry are lazy layabouts
They did say that Clayton has a special talent for picking yearlings - something you cannot teach
He is a serious believer in light weight drivers
Reminiscing about Safari's win over Blacks A Fake in the Ballarat Cup

They kept talking about the training partnership and yet it is not one officially

https://www.thetrots.com.au/news/art...layton-tonkin/

Kevin, most people that I speak to in the industry call them "the Tonkin horses". I think it makes a joke of the integrity push that they are not officially a training partnership.

We would all like to know what their secret is !!!!!!

Oh come on boys Emma’s the trainer, and Clayton’s just another bloke trying to steal a woman’s thunder!!

All men are b@$+@£#$

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

I love racing and breeding my fillies and mares Rick. Have been doing it for 50 years and I am still passionate about my horses. Frustration and disappointment got to me when I searched for a race for Abbey . It’s been the same for decades but I agree smaller fields and races not standing up have highlighted and exacerbated the problem. Without racing opportunities and decent prize money many owners and breeders are walking away.
As a breeder I feel the industry is in crisis. The upcoming change of direction from a leading Vic stud this season will have a huge impact on the small to mid sized breeders with added costs for all. Yabby Dam Farms have announced a substantial reduction in their participation and this comes from an owner who has made a major investment in the industry.
I posed a question to David Martin recently regarding the NR of one of my horses and was told to give the system “time “ . I fear time is running out !

Empires switch to all frozen semen stallion roster confirmed and pricing released. No change really for Captaintreacherous and SBSW who are booked out but I think breeders will vote with their feet for Betting Line (third season always difficult anyway) Heston Blue Chip and Well Said as pricing and incentives do not appear very favourable to breeders for the extra costs and risk involved with frozen semen.

Should be a “win” for studs providing fresh semen and better opportunities for locally bred sires ( particularly if HRV begin to support them as other states do) and an incentive for others to source frozen semen sires at better terms then offered by Empire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonnie

Thanks Kev. Pistol Abbey is an amazing mare ; just gets the job done in a very professional way. The enquiries are coming from US buyers , my head says Yes but emotionally my heart says No. She is only 4 but her racing career is very limited and I certainly don’t need another broodmare. There is one Open Mares race next week and no more until the Breeders Crown 4 year old mares on August 24 ( not even a lead up race for that ). I will not break her heart racing against the boys at the top level. Certainly there are early issues with the NR but programming leaves a lot to be desired. If you are a breeder a mare with a good track record adds value but it’s frustrating when the opportunities are not provided equally to both sexes.

One of Australia’s best mares Soho Burning Love has been sold to the USA to continue her racing career. Owner says reluctant to sell but lack of racing opportunities for mares is the reason behind the sale .

Conspiracy Theory: provide no mares races in order to force them into the breeding barn to improve horse numbers

Implausibe, I know, as it results in a -1 to the horse population and only turns positive if and when they finally produce 2 racing progeny :confused:

One big problem with that Conspiracy Theory is that the board doesn't seem to want people to breed horses. They are giving very little incentive to breeders.

My theory is the TAB and Labor government want Harness racing to die. TAB has plenty of racing and dog races, they don't need Harness racing with long races and false starts.

Agree there’s not much incentive coming from HRV to breed. You might be right but does the Vic government really want to lose a $400m plus industry based predominantly in regional Victoria or is the message just not getting through to the right people in government? Tab may have plenty of gallops and dogs races but they don’t actually have enough to fill every minute of their wall to wall business model, so they do still need harness racing.

TAB could benefit from longer races if they activate their Betting Exchange license