rob faux wrote: Racing has been trying to live down a reputation of being "crooked" and "fixed" for as long as I have been involved,at least,so it becomes important to find a balance between the pure guess/gamble and fair and reasonable chance.
Whatever the answer is though,it needs to be tidy......................which does not ,in my opinion ,mean creating a whole lot of rules,that don't really need to be defined ,because there is no intention to enforce them anyway.
Racing needs to keep looking for sensible solutions and in respect of preparing horses,maybe some form of barrier or other trials and/or public and timed extended gallops for horses, returning from rests and/or prepping for features, might achieve a compromise ..............horses get the grass work they need and punters don't have to play equine roulette!......just a thought!
I am surprised,Frodo, at your "if you can't stand the heat" comment as it logically has to be aimed at the complainant ie. me!
I have been withstanding the heat for over 40 years and surviving quite well but,racing as an ongoing choice of gamble isn't,and I happen to think trust is one of the main inhibitors.
When I talk about racing to non-participants,almost without fail,mistrust becomes apparent,and many of them are already gamblers who choose poker or sports instead.
I also don't think the answer to all things is "like it or lump it" ...............for instance,I don't agree with having to pay tolls to drive on roads I contributed to with my taxes,so I am in the "objector" camp,but it doesn't mean I'll be selling my car!
I think there are things worth trying to improve,and the NHA's effective regulatory role is one of them.
Interesting that the strong regulation was identified by both Japan and Singapore as vital in their plans to rescue their racing and both appear to have done a good job ..............and in Hong Kong it's draconian!
Lol rob, the 'can't stand the heat' comment was not aimed at you....so let me try and motivate my comments....
I agree with you that the 'NHA's effective regulatory role' has to be improved
Just in general (and I realize I am sort of 'swimming against the stream' here) if the 'punters' made the effort to learn more about the game, they may realize that we are dealing with flesh and blood here and not numbers on a roulette wheel
But I do agree with other posters that there can never me too much transparency....so let's find a practical way of introducing barrier trials (not that I'm sure the punters in the totes will actually take heed of them)
And let's throw the impractical rules out, or update them to be enforceable.
But also take into account that it is a trainer's job to prepare a horse to be at its peak in targeted races ....and I would argue that it is not his job to phone up Tellytrack or a racing journo and inform them to please tell the public that a horse is going for a prep run (which to my mind means that the horse will run to his best ability given his state of preparation)
I just think that there are too many punters who automatically assume that if the books price up a horse at odds-on, it 'must' win, or else there is some sort of skullduggery involved....and yes if the NHA and racing in general wants to improve the 'mistrust' in the game in order make the game more transparent and as a result increase participation, they need to consider which steps they can take to address this .....I'm just not sure what steps would be practical ....
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