By MICHAEL GUERIN
Have you had a chance to think about how you are going to spend New Year's Eve yet?
Probably not.
Should you go out? Should you have a few friends over. Or maybe a weekend at the beach?
Decisions, decisions.
Well, if you are involved in the harness racing industry worry no more.
Because those people working in the industry don't have to make plans for New Year's Eve. The Auckland Trotting Club has made one for them.
In one of the worst decisions made by a racing club - and that is a pretty distinguished list - the ATC has decided to hold this year's Auckland Trotting Cup on New Year's Eve.
This is a very bad idea. Stupid. Ridiculous. Take your pick of words but the reality remains the same. This is an embarrassment.
Why would anybody want to spend New Year's Eve at the races?
Three years of hard work has made Alexandra Park into an attractive and interesting racetrack, with good food, cafes, bars and levels of entertainment to fit most budgets.
But it is not where most people want to spend New Year's Eve while the rest of the country is out having a mass party.
New Year's Eve is a great time for people to get away to that summer bach for a holiday, the thought of which keeps them going through the winter chill (remember last week).
Or a good time to get into the city or down to your local and have a few beers, or water if that is your thing, a chance to wander from bar to bar and catch up with friends. Maybe have a little party at home. Hell, sit at home in your dressing robe and watch one of those sickening television end of year things if you want.
Basically, people should welcome in the New Year any legal way they want.
But that won't be the case for the hundreds of people who work at Alexandra Park, or train horses, or own horses, or are the partners and close friends of people who train and own horses. Most of them will be dragged along to the trots.
Sure, the racing will be great and we will all cheer a new Auckland Cup hero. Or maybe heroine (sorry Flight South).
But Auckland Cup night would be great if it was held on December 14, the opening night of the carnival, or the middle night, December 21.
Those ATC officials behind this nonsense say they want a significant date to be associated with the Auckland Cup. This is the wrong significant date.
For the last decade harness racing has been battling to get people on track as first Trackside and then the advent of Friday and Saturday night televised rugby gave people other options.
Harness racing administrators even went as far as moving all Saturday night meetings to Thursdays to avoid clashing with rugby, league and other forms of entertainment.
Turnover-wise it has worked because you have to give the customers what they want.
But now a handful of ATC officials want to go head to head with the busiest night on the world social calendar.
That can not be what the customer wants.
Because of that they can kiss goodbye to mass work functions like they may have had pre-Christmas Auckland Cup nights. They can also kiss goodbye to all those people who like to head out of the concrete jungle for the holidays.
And as for attracting that trendy, young crowd blessed with those magical two words - disposable income - forget about it.
Supporters of the idea may say Ellerslie has no problems attracting a huge crowd on New Year's Day but the reality is there is not a lot else to do on New Year's Day in Auckland. The races at Ellerslie are the only serious public entertainment, compared with New Year's Eve when every bar, nightclub, major hotel and restaurant in Auckland will be trying to woo customers.
But hold on a minute. What about if they start the meeting early, like 5 pm and have the Cup over and done by 9 pm, then surely people can have the best of both worlds.
Unfortunately that is not how the world and Auckland in particular works.
Anybody who has ever tried to get a taxi in Auckland on New Year's Eve knows they are as rare as coalminer's daughters from Blackball who can afford expensive clothes.
If punters choose to go to the Auckland Trotting Cup and want to head somewhere else afterwards they better bring their own transport and stay sober.
I can see the adverts now: "Come spend New Year's Eve sober at the races." That will get the crowds flocking.
Of course the Auckland Trotting Club has tried this before.
In 1997 the New Year's Eve meeting ended with a giant fireworks display that attracted plenty of people who wouldn't usually go to the races. The only problem is it cost so much to promote and stage the night was a financial disaster.
Maybe those out-of-date officials at the Auckland Trotting Club (and it is not all of them) will see sense, show an inkling of understanding for their customer base and the world in general and change the Auckland Cup to an earlier night in the carnival.
But I doubt they will.
Still, it could have been worse. They could have chosen Christmas Day.
Racing: New Year's Eve at the trots? You have got to be kidding
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