Race distance - by jurisdiction

[mardigras]

We all know they run more races over distance in UK/Ire. But is it any wonder Australia is flooded with UK imports winning nearly all the major Australian staying races (with the odd exception).

Here is the percentages of races grouped by distances since 2018 for NZ, Australia, Uk/Ire. (flat meetings only in UK/Ire so excludes NH flat races). Excluding jumping races.

UK/Ire run over 17% of their flat races over 2300m+. Whereas NZ/Australia run under 2%.

Australia run a whopping 2/3s of their races over 1400m or less. That's nuts imo. NZ is high also.

The UK/Ire run more races for 'milers' than they do for sprinters!

[curious]

No hope here and less so in Oz without a fast one.

 

[mardigras]

To me, the racing over short distances in most cases, makes the sport less interesting. Sprint after sprint after sprint. Yes, owners wanting quick returns will cause some of that, but the scheduling and the promotion of these races - just further encourages it, which then leads on to the trends in breeding.

There is no balance. And it means, if you don't have a naturally quick one, there becomes very few opportunities for your horse. 

You'd probably be amazed at how many horses In UK/Ire start their careers at a much later age than they do in NZ and Australia. They manage it - their costs are high, their stakes for their low grade races are very low.

If NZ has a niche of 2000-2400m - then isn't that in itself an issue now. We run less than 1 in 5 races at 2000m+. If we breed them to head to Australia - they run even less. Which means you are left with breeding them largely for the classics. Once they're over, what have you go left. A bunch of horses and no where to race them. 

 

[VC!]

That’s probably why the Kiwis win so many Derby’s 

Thats probably a good stat you have raised Mardi

NZ should maybe aim to race over more distances 1600-3200 then take the riches from Australia 

Thats why a NZ trained 2 year old has never won the Golden Slipper ... Aussie breed for speed, this was one of the reasons Lloyd Williams went to the UK he dislikes the sprints

Time for NZ to take advantage of this stat

[mardigras]

Take the meeting today at Warwick for example. 8 races, the longest race is 1500m. The average across the 8 races is approx. 1100m. 

[Freda]

On 5/15/2020 at 11:56 AM, mardigras said:

To me, the racing over short distances in most cases, makes the sport less interesting. Sprint after sprint after sprint. Yes, owners wanting quick returns will cause some of that, but the scheduling and the promotion of these races - just further encourages it, which then leads on to the trends in breeding.

There is no balance. And it means, if you don't have a naturally quick one, there becomes very few opportunities for your horse. 

You'd probably be amazed at how many horses In UK/Ire start their careers at a much later age than they do in NZ and Australia. They manage it - their costs are high, their stakes for their low grade races are very low.

If NZ has a niche of 2000-2400m - then isn't that in itself an issue now. We run less than 1 in 5 races at 2000m+. If we breed them to head to Australia - they run even less. Which means you are left with breeding them largely for the classics. Once they're over, what have you go left. A bunch of horses and no where to race them. 

 

That's been a bugbear of mine for ages.

Even the supposed doyen of studmasters left his base of success and went to speedier sorts....and many flocked to do the same.

At my local track,  which can easily cater for 2500 - 2800 any time they like has made an artform of running 'open' handicaps over 1800m....

[VC!]

Unfortunately Australia is hell bent on speed

We aren’t going to see a lot of English sprinters over here Coolmore probably learnt their lesson last year with their Everest slot when they ran last with Ten Sovereign’s 

Not only is the Golden Slipper looked upon as a stallion making race the Everest is now falling into the same category as soon as Yes Yes Yes won the race off to stud he went, I’m betting on Coolmore to use their slot on an Australian 3 year old colt this year

My favourite race when I was at School was the Auckland Cup on New Year’s Day, then my second favourite race was the Melbourne Cup after that I was very drawn to watching the Waikato hurdles steeplechase and the Ellerslie Great Northern and Steeplchase 6400 mtrs on the first weekend of June

Its been disappointing to watch the derby fields drop away quality wise over the years imo 

Races like the railway and telegraph were great and watching horses like Diamond Lover were exciting, but watching Jock Caddigan on Kotare Chief was even more exciting 

With the long gap between races one would think the public would rather have a longer stay of proceedings for their buck than it be all done and dusted within 1minute 10seconds