NZ racing resumption a fair go?

So the initial-draft NZ harness racing calendar post COVID-19 level 4 and 3 lock-downs has been released.

You can view the racing dates here 

And, in a move that seems almost out of character, authorities have made, on the surface, logical decisions regarding just where and when race meetings will take place and on what days.

There’s nothing ground-breaking or cutting edge about their response. The very conditions of the virus, and the circumstances which it’s imposed upon participants and racing, means that limiting the amount of tracks raced at and attempting to maximize their usage could be the only way forward in this early stage of returning to pre-covid conditions.

Addington, arguably the easiest course to make a case for when delegating workloads, has been “rewarded” with an additional meeting on Sunday (with the Sunday meeting logically replacing traditional regional racing through the Winter period that existed pre covid) to go alongside a consistent offering of meetings to be run on Friday. Both Alexandra Park and Cambridge mix up their gait a bit by alternating Thursday dates with Wednesday being used at points also, while Invercargill proves the Southern siren-on-the-rocks, luring in an afternoon slot. The Invercargill days of activity include both Thursday and Saturday with the club running race cards once a week.

The total number of meetings initially communicated within the time period described by the draft signals one additional meeting to be run when compared to pre-corona dates. A small victory one would tentatively surmise.   

While a slightly more fleshed-out look to the calendar would have been nice (increase the visibility of the harness racing product by running six meetings per week, two within each region with limited races per card) the simple reality is that horse numbers (and the limitations of the current handicapping system) may simply not be supportive enough of such aspirations. Any dynamic post-dickhead-virus return to racing would seem a bridge too far given the Winter months this racing resurrection is set to take place in.

A large amount of stables will simply have their eyes on preparing their horses for Spring racing calendars with the top echelon most probably thinking ahead to feature racing in September-November. That being said I’m sure they’ll be a large appetite from license holders to get their teams up and running and racing as quickly as they can possibly do so.

The Key here is to get a product on the track producing turnover for those that rely on it. The draft dates at least achieve this. Get people, horses, trainers and support staff ( along with punters obviously) back in the game and pulling hard to mount their runs for both relevance and survival.    

And until racing does return in a few weeks time… let’s hope one of us doesn’t get a bloody runny nose or dry cough…    

Ben McMillan