Last weekend's Oamaru Cup day must rate as one of the most successful meetings of the Otago season.
Given the circumstances, it could be argued it was the best.
It did not have a particularly great date - a Sunday in the middle of July.
It did not have great weather as a blustery breeze was sweeping across the course.
And it did not have the advantage of being in a popular holiday destination (sorry, Oamaru) in the middle of summer, like most of Otago's most popular race meetings.
What it did have though was a club doing its absolute best to provide a quality racing experience.
From what I could tell, the club undertook several initiatives to ensure their patrons had a enjoyable day. I have had enough of a say over the past two seasons about how clubs could enhance their racing experience, so in this column I will throw it over to an unlikely ally.
Earlier this year, Aussie trainer Gai Waterhouse gave a frank interview about the on-course experience with a website called Racenet.
She made four key points.-
Nothing much happens between races.
"If you are not a regular racegoer, how much time do you sit there looking at a bare racecourse where there is nothing to see?
"You can only look at the roses for so long. I think racing is a drawn-out experience at present and I think it is boring for the non-racegoers."
2. Closing the gaps between races make for a more dynamic racing experience.
"I think they should run races much closer together. In Asia they do it beautifully where they often push the races very close together. I think people's attention spans are short and I think it would be fabulous if they had races 20 minutes apart which I think would be possible."
Racing needs to provide more entertainment for racegoers.
"I think you have to entertain people a whole lot better. A lot of people running racing don't realise we are an entertainment business."
Racecourse entry should be free for regular meetings.
"Of course you must let people in for free. If they go to a club or a pub they don't pay anything to go in. Let them in for free. They should walk in for free even if it's the Melbourne Cup. Or maybe just charge something very small but only on the big days. Racing must be on an equal footing with clubs and pubs.
Those are four pretty fair points.
And pretty strong working guideline for any club to work with.
New Zealand clubs just need to apply them on a scale that is feasible here.
Going by them, Oamaru achieved three out of four of those objectives.
The only one they did not was the one that was out of control - time gaps between races.
Whether the TAB has the foresight to speed up racing programmes looks unlikely.
So, well done to the Oamaru Jockey Club.
It's timely you showed what a committed club can do when the existence of some courses is set to be called in to question.
Happy trails.
