Racebooks are always a variable for a racing club - do we charge?
Do we not?
How up to date should the form be?
What other meeting shall we put in?
I'm provided with a race book free of charge anyway, so the monetary spend is not a problem for me, but it's always interesting to see how much each racebook costs, and what the value for money is like.
The racebook for the Waimate Trotting Club's meeting at Oamaru on Sunday was something else.
Not only was it free, but it had the last three runs of each horse and it had fields for a proliferation of meetings in between their own races.
Something for other clubs to aspire to.
Believe it or not, despite the internet taking over our lives, the racebook is still a vital addition to any racegoer's back pocket.
Shaping the form
Speaking of details, for those of you who missed the announcement in Wednesday's paper, you will note changes to the form in today's Ubet.
Apologies for repeating some of the information from Wednesday, but here is the background to the new form:
● This new layout is replicated in The New Zealand Herald, the Dominion Post and The Press and will continue in all future NZRB-supplied form in all four papers.
● The New Zealand Racing Board told the ODT the aim was to make the form more visually appealing, to provide coverage comment and selections for more races, and to get more information in for Australian thoroughbred meetings.
● Those of you who use the U-Bet regularly will notice there are no track and distance statistics, trainers' names, and reduced form analysis (i.e. a horse's previous runs).
● To give feedback, contact the TAB helpdesk on 0800 102-106 or helpdesk@tab.co.nz
Manic monday
All race meetings are created equal.
OK, maybe not.
For example, if you're a borderline racegoer - you like the idea, but really can't be bothered - you can't do much better than Monday's Otago Anniversary Day dual-code raceday at Wingatui.
It's cheap to get in - $5 - and there's 13 to 14 races packed into less than 4 hours.
The biggest complaint you hear from people in the industry and racing fans in general are the large gaps between races.
Well, that is not a problem on Monday. Hopefully, the weather comes to the party, too.
Lazy Fiver
I hope you backed Speeding Spur in the final of the Great Southern Star.
A brilliant drive from Josh Dickie got him home at around $5. Arguably, his run in the heat was just as good despite running second. I've rated the efforts of Nek Time recently, and I think she can win despite her poor draw in race 9 at Winton tomorrow.
