LOVERACING.NZ Thoroughbred Racing Update with Trackside NZ’s Aidan Rodley on Mornings with Ian Smith including the result of the abandonment at Hastings, Arrowfield preview & more
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Racing New Zealand
LOVERACING.NZ Thoroughbred Racing Update with Trackside NZ’s Aidan Rodley on Mornings with Ian Smith (1/10/24)
With Amex Platinum, you can enjoy access to dedicated card member entrances at select events, because skipping the line makes you the star of game day. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/withamex. Card member entrance access not limited to Amex Platinum card. Love racing! Don't hesitate! You're home of Thoroughbred Racing! Well, welcome into Aidan Rodley, who is in for Pipp Morris today. And Aidan has probably picked a pretty bad juice. Aidan pop in on in terms of talking to people about racing around the country, particularly those that are based in Hawkes Bay. But Aidan, the news has come through officially. That Hawkes Bay have lost the Liverpool, which is due to be raced in around 12 days time. And Butch Castle's into Rapper. We'll have it. What do you make of that? Yeah, it's obviously pretty unfortunate, pretty sad for Hawkes Bay racing, because there was talk on Saturday that basically, it was the one day that the club relied on financially. You know, someone suggested it was around about 80% of the club's revenue came from Liverpool classic day. So to lose that will be absolutely, it'll be heartbreaking for the club and who knows the future of the club now, because it's been a club that's been under sort of financial pressure for a little bit. It hasn't been one of the best performing clubs. And obviously, this is just the latest in a long string of sort of misfortune for the club, too, we've had, you know, even going back to the area field only two years ago, they lost that day and they had to be moved to Matamata. They've lost the arrowfield from Saturday. And again, moves to Matamata and now they've lost the Liverpool. It's certainly not the, it's not a massive surprise, because we've seen it happen so many times, but it must be just sort of strong for those involved with the club, those involved with Hawkes Bay racing, because, you know, this is the day that's so integral to the community, that to have that race meeting there means everything to Hawkes Bay racing. And they did it so well, the community came out and supported it so well with it. So many great festival days there of Livin' All Press. They can go back and dig, kill plastic for the days in the past as well. So yeah, it's tough, but, you know, New Zealand group one racing needs to be held on the very best tracks. And if, if it's to the upper, then it's to the upper, and, you know, Hawkes Bay's loss is obviously work out of his game. But, you know, as I said, you know, I feel for the Hawkes Bay club, those involved in the club and the community as well. Well, the Livin' All, as synonymous with being in Hawkes Bay, now it's going to, to wrap up with about 10 days preparation for which castles and as crew to get things together, and provide what you say is there's to be a very, very, very good surface. And that will be where the dependant, of course. I just wonder who re-compensers Livin' All, because not really a Livin' All day anymore. It's just another day at the races with some probably slightly better horses, and it will not be for intensive purposes a racing occasion, as such. It can't be now. Well, I guess that's a debate to be had, but I guess the track recorders with to the upper, they've picked up the race days, you know, two of the key race days of the Auckland count of a while, obviously, without a border, and the track race superbly were both days for those two group ones. And, you know, through upper trackers, it's got the, you know, do we say it, you know, the track record there that is New Zealand's best performing track, and has been for years. So, yeah, Livin' All, obviously the sponsorship of the race, you can understand the animal health care, that's what they do. They've put behind it, they've supported their Hawkes Bay Carnival, but I guess for them, you know, the most important things are their names attached to a prestigious group, One Race, and I don't think it's going to lose any of this prestige. What it does lose is that Hawkes Bay flavour, that real Hastings flavour, the whole idea that we've, you know, got a triple crown that's based in Hastings, it's, you know, got such great history behind it. It really does put a big, dark cloud over racing in the region, and that's got to be the biggest focal point here, is what happens to Hawkes Bay racing in the future. You know, we turned up on Saturday, and while there was, obviously, a little bit of Jew and moisture there, their track had been beautifully presented. It looked as good as any Hastings track you could. Obviously, there might have been preparation here, and that they may be irrigated too much of them. The softwort top was not right. But boy, it's been hell to pay because of, you know, one mistake, you know, had that track dried sufficiently, and raced really, welding would be lauding it at the moment. And instead, what we're doing is we're facing an uncertain future for Hawkes Bay racing. Okay, so we were lauding it after day one. I mean, I remember it quite markedly. The does, you know, everyone was lauding the condition of spring racing, the sun on their back. Everyone was saying how good this is. They had the exact same weather pattern three weeks later to get the track right. What the hell happened and why can't they say it's human error? Because they're saying it's not human error. They're saying it's the camber of the track and circumstances. Position of the rail, well, the position of the rail is, the decision on that is made by a human, isn't it? I absolutely, and I've got to take it on the chin, that it is definitely human error. I totally agree with you, and that's a bit, and Bryce Milden is a very experienced track manager. And obviously, I think he's just got to come out and say I've got it wrong. You know, I don't think, you know, there's too much question in that. And, you know, people do make mistakes. It happens all the time, but obviously in a situation like this, this is a dire mistake. You know, unfortunately, I just think it was probably over-water during the week. But as you say, the track, the first day, played very well. I'm sure the track would have played well the second day if it had dried a little bit more. But the overnight rain that they got on Friday night, said that morning on top of the irrigation was there, just it was disastrous. If this was not a group one meeting, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we be more patient? I think so, but geez, how many chances does Hawkes Bay Racing get? You know, the track had been out of action for so long because I've been doing all the three innovation work. Richard Benwick had obviously had fallen on his sword prior, and he'd done a terrific job over many years as well. That brought a guy with, you know, good Australian experience, good New Zealand grounding. He understands too very well, Bryce. But it maybe just didn't know the Hastings track so well just yet, because it walked really well. But everyone says about walking Hastings that it actually carries more moisture than it actually walks. It was drying out all the time, but yeah, it's, I agree, it's human area. Unfortunately, you don't want to see through the repercussions because, you know, Bryce will know his track a lot better from here on in. And I doubt whether he's a guy who's going to get it wrong in the future. But obviously there's a support team around them into TR. So there's a few people who have just got to be saying, you know, we've got it wrong on this occasion. But what can we do to make sure that the racing and the Hawkes Bay region thrives on the future? So we all know, I mean, it was pretty well known throughout the country, really, that the very first night that they resumed racing at Alice Lee was correct a night. They had massive issues with the track, but the jockeys and whoever decided to race on there. What's the difference here? I guess the one thing that happened there, the horses were slipping, but no one was, you know, the, I think the big thing was the lateral slips on, on Saturday. Like when we walked past that winning post, when horses are actually not running in a straight line, when they're actually starting to move, you know, they're starting to lean their bodies into the turn, when an inside leg goes sideways under a jockey, it's a little bit different to a horse who's maybe just not gaining traction on grass that hasn't been better than so far. I think that horse and jockey safety was potentially more at risk this day, but I do understand what you're saying. Million dollar prizes and things in the jockeys may be saying, you know, we've got to do this for the Alice Lee for the good in New Zealand racing. I can understand that, but, you know, talking to the two jockeys that we had on our broadcast on Saturday, Leekton, it's in Jane Eyeball. Both of them said, you know, that would have been like driving a car on, on the icy roads. And when you slip, you've just got no control. And so we were, seven races to go, where horses didn't have to go around that bend as part of the race, but they did have to finish on that area. So they're coming off top speed, slowing down, going into a bend which, you know, just it wasn't safe, it wasn't clear, it wasn't safe for jockeys or for horses. And that's the difference. And if we can make it, that's like, you know, differentiation. So I don't know, I know it's been a bit of a negative chat, and I apologize for that slightly. The racing tomorrow then, you've got the Arrowfield tomorrow is a matter matter. Tell us about that. Yeah, so obviously the big thing is that the field is basically the same. The rest of the fields that we lost on haystings have ever, you know, they've been reopened, but the Arrowfield, because it was an early nominations race. So they didn't allow extra horses, which was a shame for say a horse like Camp Denis, who now has to go into an open 1,300-meter race to get ready for a 2,000-meter live mole classic. You know, there was the benefit that they would have had because the matter of the caps now have been, you know, just gone into thin air. It was sort of the open 16 that was going to be run on Saturday. So now these are 1,600-meter race that cater for those open handicappers, but yeah, they're a little bit different. So Skiwef obviously draws a little bit wider than makes it a little bit harder for her, especially when Gasporden had scratched on the first day. It looked as though she was just going to get the run of the race into the 1, 1, and then be perfectly placid. The draw was a little bit tricky, but yeah, outside there, racing will still be the same. Yeah, it just doesn't have that Hastings flavour. It still does have that Group 1, which has got to be running 1-4, and, you know, we're going to be looking at hopefully a high-class winner of tomorrow's race. And by and large, do sponsors stay the same? Do they stick with the races like a if a Hawkes Bay based company was big on sponsoring a race like on our field day or or live them all day, do they stay locked in or does someone from Whitecat have to take over a certain race because it's in their backyard all of a sudden, they get the benefit. If I hadn't gone into it that day, but I would have thought that the people who had paid the sponsorship money, they would be up to them to say, well, hang on, I've sponsored a race on the basis, it was at Hastings, and I really don't want my name going to a race at Matamata or it maybe just goes straight across. I spoke to Bruce McTagget, a guy who was sponsoring two races there on Saturday, and as well as they're giving a whole lot of money to cancer-based charities, and he was happy enough to be leaving his money and for sponsorship on to the next day, because he just wanted to be supporting the cause. But I can understand what you're saying, and there's something about losing a Hawkes Bay day. There's a lot of local sponsorship, there's a lot of community-based activities that happen there, especially in Bruce's case, he was supporting at least two Hawkes Bay based cancer charities. While he can still do that by having the race at Matamata then, it sort of doesn't have that real local Hawkes Bay flavour. Okay, and thanks very much. It was great that we had you on, because you were Johnny on the spot, you were actually interviewing the key people, and you actually saw the trek first and so that was cool that you were able to come home with us, I appreciate that, and have a reminder of a really great racing week, let's hope it stays that way. Yeah, we just hate having that real controversy in racing, but I think you're doing the right things, maybe by talking about it, as Jane Eyeball said afterwards, you've got to be transparent in everything that we do, everyone's got to be upfront, we've got to find out reasons why this happened and do our very, very best to prevent it from happening again. Absolutely, and that's at the end of the day. Safety is paramount for all concerned. It's a tough thing riding a big horse, and when you're a little fella, a little lady, you want it to be very safe on top of it, there's no, and that can never ever be denied or forgotten. Cheers, Aidan, thank you. You're already sweating tears for that, mate.