Pukekohe Sale Falls Over – Watches is About to Go Knocking on Doors
For the second start in a row the Sale of Pukekohe has galloped in the score-up and taken no competitive part. First the mooted $100 million sale to the Chinese Developers went west. At least the Auckland Trotting Club got to keep the deposit from that one, although most of it went to the bank […]
Tim Vince to Stand For Election to the Auckland Trotting Club Board? – A Man of His Undoubted Talents With Dope Would Be Much Better Served Running the RIB
Tim Vince with one of his favorite doped to the eyeballs pacers We are pretty sure this is a gee-up so we will treat it with the contempt it deserves, but mail from an anonymous tipster in the South Island is that Tim ‘Stonefish’ Vince – a founding member of the uber successful Hong Kong […]
Observations From a Night Out at Alexandra Park Mingling With the People – All Fifteen of Them, No Reserves
60 percent of the Everest crowd were under 26. 95 percent of the Auckland Trotting Club members are over 70. The person charged with bringing young ones to the trots has failed,. Courtney Mackinnon – the Fairy Princess – is by all reports a lovely young woman, but is surely overpaid at $25k a year […]
NZ North Island Race Field Sizes Collapse – Is It Time to Send an Administrator in to Run the Auckland Trotting Club and Sell Alexandra Park?
The problem with small field sizes for harness races in the North Island of New Zealand continues apace, with 2/3rds of races run or about to be run this month in the region having fields of less than 8 runners, the sort of numbers that spell wagering turnover death. Cambridge is the worst affected track, […]
The Southern Region Wins the Right to Retain the Proceeds of the Forbury Park Sale – Auckland’s Nightmare is About to Become It’s Reality
About three months back we wrote a story illustrating the problems with Harness Racing New Zealand CEO Brad Steele’s proposal to use proceeds from the forced sale of the Forbury Park track to help the Auckland Trotting Club (ATC) build a new training center and track to replace the Franklin Park facility the ATC is […]
In Fake Latin the Auckland Trotting Club Trusts
Out of a combination of idle curiosity and a desire to benchmark Merlin’s time for the 2700m at Alexandra Park on Friday night I decided to go looking for the records at the track. It started off pretty simple, as you can see from the screenshot at the top. The slogan was pretty stupid, particularly […]
Alabar/ATC Rumours Addressed and Put to Bed
By Garrick Knight; Harness Xpress Rumours have a habit of getting around like wildfire in our relatively small industry and the main one over the past fortnight relates to the former Alabar Stud. The well-appointed 102-hectare seaside Waiau Pa property is up for lease after being vacated by Alabar recently. Concurrently, Auckland Trotting Club officials […]
The Fix Is In
Have you ever before in your life seen a race like this one at Alexandra Park on Friday night? It’s a rating 55 -70 BUT a horse rated up to 115 can run in it IF its driven by a concession junior driver. That means that a junior driver concession is worth up to 45 […]
There are More Questions Than Answers About the Pukekohe Sale
Auckland Trotting Club members voted on Wednesday night to approve the sale of the Franklin Training Center (Pukekohe) to a company named Oyster Capital for circa $70 million, which after legal and sale expenses is about exactly the $68 million we told you some months ago that the property would sell for, a figure that […]