Otaki Races

[Hesi]

For the trainspotters, this used to be one of THE days in NZ racing, Bayer Classic day, all the best 3 year olds lining up, horses like Tidal Light, Veandercoss!!, huge crowds, all the rural folk mixing with the townies, great atmosphere

Now it is just another ho hum day, the heavy track has not helped.  How could they have fucked it up so badly.  How can you call that field in the Wellington Stakes, group quality.  Why do they even call it the Wellington Stakes, when it is run at Otaki

[Hesi]

I've posted about this before, but we used to be big clients of Bayer, so always used to get an invite and tickets to this day, for many years

That involved a couple of us, leaving Auckland at about 4 am, usually quite hungover, as it was the season for supplier functions, and driving to Levin.

The racecourse was always packed, as was the Bayer marquee, with all sorts of clients of Bayer, many from the agricultural and horticultural sector, as Bayer supplied a lot of chemicals to both.  Bayer withdrew sponsorship in the early 90's, but the big race still continued as a premium race at Otaki.  The thing that undid it, was when they put up so much money for the 2000 Guineas, and those 2 races being so close in dates, it became a second tier race, although still a G1

[Freda]

To  be fair the 2000 has to be the premier race.

The placement of the Bayer did cause problems  as it detracted from the quality of the Guineas at one point.

Some N.I. trainers preferred the Bayer option as the travel was easier on their charges.

[Hesi]

Fair point for a Mainlander