Racing: Party time proves hit with punters

Chad Ormsby drives British Ensign home at Ellerslie last night. Picture / Dean Purcell

If champagne and a perfect near-city environment is your bag then yesterday's Ellerslie six-race meeting is the new face of twilight racing.

Ellerslie's 4.23pm to 7.40pm inaugural 'mini-meeting' had quickfire racing, food for the after-workers and an atmosphere and crowd missing from most recent Ellerslie weekend race meetings.

The Auckland Racing Club was delighted with the betting even though it regarded it as secondary to the concept working as an occasion.

The ARC budgeted for $100,000 on-course betting on the six races, which ended up at $149,664. And the off-course betting of $848,030 was above the budgeted $800,000.

What was less appealing for many, and that includes all the racing regulars, was the introduction of colour-coded numbers - orange for number one, blue on the number 2 horse, white for number 3 and down to black for the "Dark Horse", a horse nominated by a pre-race draw, one that carried, for on-course punters, a 10 per cent increase on the winning dividend if it won.

Sadly, although the Dark Horse proved popular it did not win a race.

Most jockeys admitted they were unable to identify the right horse to follow or the horses to beat in each race because of the difference of racing colours.

Auckland Racing Club CEO Chris Weaver said the sponsorship of the colours throughout the programme had been sold for good money.

Prominent Matamata trainer Jim Gibbs is adamantly opposed to horses carrying other than their owner's colours

"I'm a professional, I have to watch my apprentices ride in a race, and I've got no idea where they are. It's a joke.

"I know they're not, but if they considered doing it for Sunday's meeting, I'd scratch all my horses."

Weaver said the coded colours would be reviewed.

"This is the first of these meetings. Like everything else involved with today, the colours will be reviewed."

The good crowd, which was increasingly getting into party mode, seemed to be taking little notice of the changed colours, in distinct contrast to the Dark Horse black colours, which worked well as a gimmick.

Jockeys declared their favourite "Tunes of Glory" before the races and were encouraged to play it up to that music after winning that race.

Probably the best of them was Vinnie Colgan who with Scribe's Not Many If Any looked very pleased with a victory by Rowdy Yates in the fourth on the card.

British Ensign came back to winning form with victory in the New Zealand Still Destination Summer Holiday Racing Twilight Cup - try getting that out in a race call - but the victory did not appropriately excite trainer Graham Richardson even if the owner Graeme Thomson was thrilled.

"He gives the impression he is trying to get out of it, like he did in Australia, which is one of the reasons we brought him back here to race," said Richardson.

Regardless, British Ensign finished third in this year's Easter at Ellerslie and will be aimed at the Rich Hill Mile at the Christmas Carnival.

The crowd was well and truly in party mood when Jordan Luck's band kicked off before the last race at 7.120-pm with "Whatever Happened To Tracey ".

The fact that the Black Caps were 84 for none in the cricket on the big screen at the time did no harm to the atmosphere.

If you are looking for a party in lovely surroundings, and which has the occasional diversion, this is the way to go. 
 

Twilight time

Ellerslie's inaugural mini meeting is a major success.

If the atmosphere and crowd are any barometer, the Auckland Racing Club has hit on a popular formula.

And that extended to the betting which was above budget both on and off course.

Slightly less popular was the introduction of colour coded numbers.

If champagne and a perfect near-city environment is your bag then yesterday's Ellerslie six-race meeting is the new face of twilight racing.