By MIKE DILLON
You'll get no points for picking the Mercedes Horse Of The Year, to be announced at the annual awards dinner at Ellerslie on August 18.
Sunline will be at unbackable odds again, but the TAB should run book on who might be declared Mercedes Champion 3-Year-Old.
There has never been a year when the honours carve-up has been so widely spread by the 3-year-olds.
How about this for a list: Ad Alta, Buzz Lightyear, Giovana, Hades, Hill Of Grace, Sarwatch and She's Country.
And they are just the major race winners. Left out are group winners like Spottswoode, Durzetta and Moralee.
The betting spread would be enormous.
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Nice idea to truck gaming machines around the country from raceday to raceday last weekend, but there is a problem, it's illegal.
Government gaming regulations are so stringent, they require to know which part of a room a machine resides in as much as which part of the country.
The TAB's Jim Leach sees a slow rather than rapid increase in gaming machine action at racing clubs following last Friday's High Court confirmation of racing's right to alternative gambling.
"We'll always be stuck with the blanket limit of 18 machines at any venue outside a casino and that is going to suit only those racing clubs with access to large slices of the population," said Leach.
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Racing Minister Annette King's office yesterday declared it hoped to announce the new Racing Industry Board chairman and board members on July 28.
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The slowest maiden in the business draws on level terms with the $500,000 Blue Star Auckland Cup favourite at Ellerslie on Saturday.
The maiden will have the same drawing power as the group one horses in the draw for the new Holden Barina the Auckland Racing Club will give away to one of the owners who have raced horses at Ellerslie this season.
Owners are being hosted by the ARC for the third year, provided with light food and a complimentary drink and the club's chief executive David Lloyd expects between 400 and 500 to show.
The current bunch of racing's reactionaries, who delight in bashing the major clubs and promoting their own ends, need to take note of what the ARC puts back in.
They need to take note also that a major cost to racing is accessing raceday video coverage from each track.
Never publicised is the fact it costs the industry as a whole $4219 per raceday for Ellerslie video coverage and $13,292 for Invercargill, $17,731 for Kumara and $20,112 for Nelson.
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Interesting that the Wellington, Levin, Otaki, Masterton and Wairarapa racing clubs met with the TAB on Monday to discuss rationalisation of their administrations.
Makes sense, but there was no mention of rationalising a racetrack or two.
Everyone seems to be in favour of that, provided it's someone else.
It the classic line that no one ever voted themselves out of a job.
Racing: Sunline looks a cert- but 3-y-o honours well spread
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