Saturday night racing in NZ - back to the future?
Note: This piece primarily concerns New Zealand racing.
While recently glancing over one of my regular bookmarked sites, Racecafe, I came across a thread where it was suggested that the powers that be are looking at moving racing back to Saturday night in Auckland to maximise the punting dollar.
It won’t be a weekly thing, just on the nights when Alexandra Park and Addington currently race on the same night.
A quick perusal of the new season dates suggests this to be somewhere around 22 weeks of the year. Whether it is implemented this season or next remains to be seen, but HRNZ would like mighty silly changing 22 key kates so soon after releasing the new calender.
Those of us who have followed racing for more than five minutes will remember the change that happened around the turn of the Millennium when they moved all Saturday meetings to Thursday nights to make it easier on stable staff and to attract more turnover instead of competing with Rugby, League, Lotto, Parties etc etc on Saturday nights.
It was hummed and had at the time, people said ‘no, you’re crazy, it won’t work!.. you can’t not have racing on a Saturday night’.
But the long and the short of it is that it did work, people now commonly associate harness racing with Thursday and Friday nights. It works in well for stable employees who get Saturday afternoons/nights and Sundays off, and it works in well for guys like me who would prefer to go to the casino and play poker, go to a bar and watch the rugby or league, go clubbing or even go out for dinner.
So why is this supposedly happening? As the story goes, officials are sick of the two premier tracks competing for the dollar on the same night.
Perhaps these same officials don’t go to Alexandra Park on a Friday night. I can’t speak for Addington, but at the home of racing in the north it works perfectly having races from Addington beamed on course half way between the local races.
By the time the local race has run, most people spend five minutes looking at the form in their guides, on the TVs or on the walls in the TABs, deciding what they will bet on in the next at Addington.
By the time that race is run and won, it is time for Alexandra Park to race again. There is no boredom, it provides a good alternative to the wall-to-wall Australian greyhounds and trots, and I am sure Addington are maximising their potential for wagering in the north as without a doubt the Addington turnover on course at Alexandra Park would be the biggest off course turnover by a decent stretch.
So what about those people at home, you say? How does it benefit them? Well the same theory applies. On the odd occasion I don’t go to the trots on a Friday night, i.e. it is a storm, bitterly cold or I am sick, then sure, I will park up in the Lay-Z-Boy and turn to Channel 35 aka Trackside.
Do I want to watch Alexandra Park and then 25 minutes of overseas dogs and trots? No, I want to watch Alexandra Park, one overseas race, Addington, one overseas race, Alexandra Park etc etc.
This is how it should be. An equal serving of local and international product on our premier harness racing night.
If these meetings are suddenly split to Friday and Saturday, and there becomes a 20-25 minute window for international coverage between races, then I, and assume many other people, are going to change channel and watch the footy than endure three Aussies races.
My bully, and I’d almost stake my name on it (but not quite :)), is that it is the intention of officials at Alexandra Park to drastically change the dynamic of your on-course racing experience, and not just by changing it to your weekend.
Among the list of changes would see the winner’s circle scrapped and the parade ring extended out further to maximise exposure pre-race.
There would be no on-course announcing between races, instead the big screen in centre field would go on with football and league commentaries transmitted across the airwaves.
It is expected people will come to the races dressed to the nines… watch the races, with the league and footy in between, and then head to the viaduct on a party bus afterwards for a night of debauchery.
This is all rough hear-say of course, but the nuts of the issue should be on the money.
It actually comes across as though they are trying to follow lead of their friends at Ellerslie Racecourse down the road, who have developed niche twilight racedays along similar lines… quickfire racing followed by a massive party and then ventures to town.
But the same philosophy can’t be applied… gallops racing is more aesthetically pleasing to the public… and better-endeared to embrace such a culture.
People don’t ‘dress up’ to to go to the trots - unless they are a business group in the Top Of The Park Restaurant - so if you try and introduce a concept like that you are going to have Grandma Beverley and Grandad Jim in their winter sweats sitting at the next table to Miss Auckland Cindy Legsapart and her table of high-society PR friends.
There is no exclusiveness to Alexandra Park like there is at Ellerslie.. there is no dress code (within reason), no entry fee, cheaper drinks, more regular racing and it is at night-time, on a week night, too.
If they try and make this night something it’s not, they are only going to drive away the current clientel who have slowly crept back in with the introduction of the Sports Bar and Chinese Restaurant.
They aren’t coming back to Alexandra Park. They just aren’t. Not with races on TV. So why they would want to upset those loyal faithful who do turn up every week, and lets not be mistaken here, there are still plenty that turn up to watch racing there… maybe 1500 people?
Anyway..that’s enough for now… I feel liberated for having said this… I will watch with interest to see how things develop on this topic and whether the rumours are justified.
Do you attend Alexandra Park regularly? How would you feel if it got moved back to Friday night to seperate itself from Addington? Do you enjoy the current regime? Or do you want change? Can you see this working?
