Forced into a winner?

In everything good there is a little bad and in everything bad there is a little good. The secret is finding the positive. Congratulations to Auckland Racing Club CEO Cameron George for his summation of Saturday’s disastrous abandonment of Saturday’s Auckland Cup raceday.

There was a lot of bad in that, but Cameron found the positive when announcing on television that all the main races will be encapsulated in a boutique twilight meeting at Ellerslie on Thursday.

Cameron: “Who knows, it might be the way forward.” Exactly.

As master visionary Australian trainer, the late Colin Hayes, once said: “The future belongs to those who plan for it.”

Hayes, father of David Hayes, currently slaying all before him in Australia, was single handedly responsible for introducing the fabulously wealthy Arab sheikhs to Australian racing. Where would they be without that today. Who knows that twilight racing is not the future of racing in Auckland. The half dozen or so twilight summer meets the ARC currently run are hugely popular. Why not the major races?

Gone are the days when the population flocked to the track because the only alternatives were rugby at Eden Park and league at a muddy Carlaw Park. Today there is a plethora of alternatives. Saturdays they still punt and go to an alternative event because racing is telecast live. A win-win.

There are less obstructions on a midweek twilight meet. The Karaka Million night at Ellerslie, run on Sunday twilight, shows conclusively racing has a massive walk-up audience when packaged to suit.

Who knows what Thursday may bring. A forced experiment for sure, but an experiment nonetheless.

The ARC needs kind weather and that is forecast to be the case.

— Mike Dillon