21 flights to Coolangatta
5 flights to Ballina
3 flights to Lismore
3 fights to Grafton

All would be able to handle a pre-booked car.
Coolangatta fares would certainly be competitive with those to Bne.

Is there an election or something coming soon, lol?

Is it a case of accepting that 14 tracks will cease to operate in the near future for no good reason but from a decision made by the Government and Authorities, n possibly a further 5 tracks to go as well? Do people support the shrinking of our Industry by half to two thirds ?

I don't know whether it will fix the problem of dogs going over the border as they chase better prize money, but it gives trainers a chance to race their dogs instead of meetings being abandoned. It's early days.

Remember GRNSW lowered P/M from 400m sprint races because they wanted more 500m races!!! Now pushing more & more SHORT-COURSE / SPRINTERS. Dapto, Wenty, & now Lismore.

What of the reputed / alleged $800k paid to UTS to improve tracks, or the hundreds of thousands paid to WDA? Now wasting $$$$'s on some Sth Aust company, travelling this State doing Pet Prep Seminars or flying Compliance Officers around the state doing kennel inspections. Just how many CARS has GWIC purchased since their Introduction? Is sharing an issue? Does anyone care?

I still havent received a reply to my emails. However, I can tell you, someone has spoken to GWIC about two n three stewards previously being at non-TAB meetings because on the MNC there is now only one at our meetings and rightly so. Is it for my benefit or is it now happening across the State ? Cheers, Mark

This week's Lismore meeting, featuring the new 259m trip, averaged 5.4 starters per race. Shortages were spread across all distances.

259m, so far as I can tell, is the shortest Tab-track trip in the country. It follows Grafton's introduction of 307m races not too long ago and the elimination of Border Park (after an unexplained reduction in dates by GRNSW). Both succeeded the disappearance of Gold Coast. All told, that amounts to a big fall in demand.

Is there a reason for this fall-off, other than being in sympathy with the national drop in racing population? Hard to tell. Probably not. Albion Park numbers are pretty dicey as well.

The prize money question is different. The alleged disincentive to race dogs in the Northern Rivers - due to more attractive options in SEQ - suggests a yes/no answer. Lismore 520m events are competitive with Qld, shorter trips are not.

There is a good case that encouraging 520m racing is better for the advancement of the breed and for the industry generally. Hence the prize money differential.

On the other hand, 259m racing does the opposite and, to my mind, is a nonsense. Like the Neds280s, they are jumping contests, not real races. Sure, the running in the 259m races was fair enough, but why 259m? Why not 320, 330, 340 or 350 to complement the standard 420m with its bend start? Indeed, why not shift the 420m boxes so as to offer reduce early interference? Or even reduce the trip to 400m at the same time, making 259m redundant?

And, despite the publicity here, trainer patronage of the 259m races was no different to that for the other trips - poor.

So whose idea was it to spend punters' cash on building an extra start over a wishy washy distance to cater for bad dogs? I guess both the club (GBOTA) and GRNSW are jointly responsible. There is no future in this.

"I didnt see The Catching Pen but apparently Tony Mestrov was on and said that prizemoney announcements would be made in June. I wouldve thought that to make informed comments about the draft grading policy we would need to know the prizemoney allocations.

How can we possibly comment on A1 and A2 being graded as the same and Provincial B and C the same, if we dont know whether the prizemoney is also going to reflect that they are the same?"
End quote.

TAB C prize money increase is a step in the right direction, but long over due. As many will agree, TAB B p/m across the board for `Provincial Meetings' should be the next step.

Exactly Mark

You make the grass roots strong, the top of the tree will always end up stronger

You starve the roots, the whole tree dies

This was mentioned months ago
I stated half of the fields were coming home with pads ruined
Then you have Hocks broken ....... then you have hock sustained injuries not picked up on the night
Then you have muscle injuries

When is everyone going to realise the track is a piece of shit and do something about it ?

What an embarrassment

Piss it off and allocate city money to Richmond with an extra meet on Saturday for 535 mtr + races only and an extra meet to Bulli on the Wednesday

Dont nominate there , or is the bigger dollar priority over the dog ?

Good to see someone with balls stand up and say it how it is !
Fancy having 80% of your runners come home damaged from racing at wenty

Well done Britton , say it again and say it louder
Awesome welfare nsw ....... deplorable

Two different subjects here.

I must have missed any earlier comments about the surface - which has been fiddled with recently. However, given the availability of comprehensive information it is unforgiveable that any surface would cause such sustained damage.

It is a straightforward and specific issue. It's either right or wrong and should have been picked up long ago. It warrants serious independent investigation.

One reminder is the abortive test of synthetic material at Shepparton some years ago. The heat burned off all the pads so they quickly dumped the experiment. Why has that not happened at Wenty?

As to the layout, I long ago suggested dynamite was the answer. But analysing hocks etc is a complex subject.

As to Richmond and Bulli - that's a frying pan and fire matter. Richmond will remain unacceptable until they take the obvious step of ironing out the first turn and the 400m start area - it's too flat and too disruptive, respectively, even after spending $0.7m on rebuilding the track.

Pauline,

I accept your great knowledge but I have to deal with the facts.

Since Jesus played fullback for Jerusalem the outside boxes at Richmond(535m) have fared poorly. Only the Meadows has a more extreme bias. When you watch races you will often see some inside dogs veer off - en route to messing up the chances of dogs outside them. Hence low figures for 5 6 7 8.

The remaining question is whether this is unusual or common. In practice, it occurs more frequently at tracks where there is the two-pronged clash like Richmond - ie dogs trying to get around the corner on the 500s and the 400 dogs coming out of the bend. Other examples are Ipswich, Gardens and Gosford, each to varying degrees. Others have had comparable problems with the turn into the home straight - Singleton and Parklands are two where the builder gave too much weight to the distance start as opposed to the dogs coming around from the shorter trips.

What we have got is a track builder trying to accommodate two different needs fighting for the same space. It is physically impossible to do the right thing by both if they continue to place the 400 boxes where they are - ie on the track proper. So you end up with a compromise. In such cases it is unavoidable that the banking will suffer unless you put the 400 boxes on a hill.

Of course, there is a solution. You pick up the 400m boxes and stick them around behind the 331m boxes (so to speak). Necessarily, that would mean they are off the track proper and in a mini chute. So why not? You then shape the 535m first turn with the ideal banking and the problem goes away.

A mini example is the 600m start at Canberra. Different but relevant is the Maitland change from the right angle start for 575m at Maitland to a much more accessible 565m start at the end of the back straight. Otherwise no Oz club or authority has bothered to do this. They hate any change which affects what they have been doing for the last 50 years.

I could be wrong but my memory of the $0.7m covered an upgrade of loam to loam. Roughly speaking, it happened around the same period as Dapto sucked up yet another $0.5m (which was also a waste).

Yes, all 500s have some sort of first turn hassle, some more than others. But by far the most important element is to have a decent banking angle. If you don't have that, nothing matters.

I forgot to answer your initial question.

Yes, I have been to Richmond many times, man and boy. Recently not - why would I bother and the drive is terrible.

Fortunately, science has progressed and I can now watch Richmond races any time of the day - as well as the other 30 or so tracks you need to keep up with. It's much more efficient that way and you get a better view of the race. Getting repeat plays on Ozchase is often a pain but I have to put up with that. (Vic is not a problem).

Geez, our stock in NSW just doesn't spread that far and wide. Maitland has only seven races for its meeting and most, it not all of those races, are not full fields. There are vacancies for TAB B The Gardens, but full for its TAB C Meeting and Taree, with TAB C p/m is full too. So in all, I suppose the Hunter and MNC still gets well patronised. Richmond and Goulburn C (tomorrow) look good too as well as Dubbo on Friday.

All the best and happy punting.

pmsl.

or even within 10km of there?