HRNZ urged to not make any change to conditions

Barry Lichter writes for Lincoln Farms that Addington officials will urge Harness Racing New Zealand not to make any change to the conditions of the New Zealand Trotting Cup this year.

The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club met today to discuss Sunday night’s decree from HRNZ that the cup and four other 3200 metre feature races will be run as handicaps in future to hopefully boost betting.

Board chairman John Hartnell, through Addington’s Racing Industry Manager Darrin Williams, said tonight that while the board supports a review of Group One racing in the interests of the code, it believes it is too late to make such a substantial change this year.

Horses were too far along in their cup preparations, and the first lead-up race, the Maurice Holmes Vase was in just four weeks, with cup nominations to be called for two weeks after that.

“The club welcomes reviews of the full programme of races, group race conditions and Group One race handicapping and would welcome the opportunity to sit in on those conversations.

“But it strongly believes such reviews should be data based, including stats, horse numbers and revenue information.”

It was not enough for HRNZ general manager of racing, marketing and communications Catherine McDonald to simply say in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style that she believed handicapping the best horses might strengthen the competition and boost dividends.

Met officials were stunned on Sunday night when notified of the changes, reportedly approved unanimously by the HRNZ board, when it had not been consulted.

“We were asked for feedback on handicapping in feature races, on whether Group races should be handicaps or preferential draws, but at no point was there any discussion about the Cup or Dominion,” Williams said.

“It was our (board) member’s understanding that clubs would be spoken to before a change was put into place.”

Williams said he was surprised that HRNZ should be concerned at betting on the cup, in particular, when three years ago cup day betting of nearly $7 million was the largest of any meeting in any code that year.

Even in the intervening two years when attendance at the meeting was restricted by Covid, the crucial gross betting revenue figure came in at between 23% and 25%, well up on the average of 18%.

Few administrators are as well versed in the effects of handicapping as Williams, who was at HRNZ for 26 years and was handicapper when the decision was made to return the big features to free-for-alls in 2008.

Impossible to win

Horses were finding it impossible to win the cup off marks, he said – only six horses in the last 53 years have won the cup from a handicap – Flashing Red (15m, 2007), Just An Excuse (10m, 2004), Yulestar (10m, 2000), Il Vicolo (10m, 1996), Neroship (10m, 1990) and Luxury Liner (10m, 1988).

Williams wonders how horses will ever be able to be promoted as household names if the best are forced to race from handicaps.

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by Barry Lichter, reprinted with permission from Lincoln Farms