WA Pacing Cup Barrier Draw

JayJay · December 2025

1. Better Eclipse

2. Minstrel

3. Little Darling

4. Gee Heza Sport

5. Never Ending

6. Captain Ravishing

7. Wave Rider

8. Magnificent Storm

9. Penny Black

_______________________________________________________________

10. Lavra Joe

11. Mighty Ronaldo

12. Mister Smartee

GLAMOUR · December 2025

Minstrel,he has been so impressive lately.

Chariotsonfire · December 2025

The only query may be that Magnificent Storm crossed from 7 when Minstrel drew 2 last time they met.

Minstrel was still good enough to breeze and win.

Arapaho · December 2025

Think the safest bet, would Mighty Ronaldo the Place,is going really well and has a nice trailing draw and even a win is not out of the Question.

JayJay · December 2025

Lavra Joe out, Golden Lode comes into gate 10.

JayJay · December 2025

Free entry to GP on Cup for the $450,000 Free For All. Says it all.

warrenrobinson · December 2025

Can't understand how Lavra could get a start in front of Golden Lode.

warrenrobinson · December 2025

Biggest night of the year and yes JayJay they have to give free entry to hopefully to get a crowd. The management of GP have certainly grown the business 8-|

JayJay · December 2025

Searching for positives but the programming since the introduction of NR has been a breath of fresh air to the Industry.

Yes, not everyone is happy but field sizes hit the plus100 acceptors week in week out on a Friday Night, previously unattainable fully subscribed programmes (10 races, 120 acceptors) became a reality after 7 years of failure of the HWOE/Conditioned Handicapping/RBD disasters.

The application of PBD has seen the number of ridiculously short odds on favourites plummet, the average starting price for favourites rise significantly and the average winning starting price has risen greatly. I have kept quite extensive (though not 100% complete) data to support those claims and some anecdotal evidence of associated turnover increases.

No doubt RWWA would have the complete picture and why the impresarios at Hasler Drive are not advertising these facts is completely beyond comprehension.

How good is it to see qualifying divisions return for the Christmas Gift ( 5 PBD heats, first two through to the final), a race that had to declined into also ran status under the hopeless HWOE nonsense. Sadly, appalling programming saw many races fall off the radar of importance and relevance. I am not so sure about about the subjective nature of field selection for the Cup but at least with Golden Tickets and rankings being issued, there is a bit more transparency. But I'll let you in on a secret......nowhere near the transparency that you would get by reverting to heats and providing a promotable event to the public.

Hopefully, these positive trends in programming continue, albeit with fine tuning where needed, because there was an awful loto f ground to be made up. Vale the weekly hand out of $31,000 Free For All's to 4 or 5 horses, a disgraceful misuse of precious funds.

lick · December 2025

The live stream barrier draw was a low rent affair - not befitting the event imo.

JayJay · December 2025

Some may say mercifully so. Thank goodness that Matt Young was there ......prior to the draw actually beginning, the live feed consisted of incessant giggling from the morning show organ grinder and his monkey. Radio station wise, we traded in a clapped out 35 year old Magna and got a rent a wreck Lada Niva with a blown gearbox and diff in return. No owner engagement, interviews, nothing except about 8 minutes of dross.

Markovina · December 2025

My most vivid memory of the WA Pacing Cup ,and this about 45 years ago late70s early 80s when i was a Professional Punter for about 4 years ,was the harrowing time i had getting home from a WA Pacing Cup

Use to go to GP basically every week ,got their by car --- park in the car parks ,the ones near the front entrance,on a slope , get their about 15 minutes before the1st race

Arrived about that time at this Pacing Cup - all Car parks full , cars were turning around going directly opposite about100 yards then turning right ,going down a bit of a crescent , looked to be small white govt buildings on the left with small car parks say 15 to 20 spots , cars were streaming into them , i like many others parked their in good faith , thinking the GP officials had arranged with those govt offices , so the parking was open to Trots goers , however Trotting administrators hadnt done that , typically they had sat on their aarse and done nothing in the possible event of their car parks not accomodating everyone on their biggest night of the year

Either before the 2nd last race or 3rd last race i decided to leave for the night , it was a long walk back to my car etc , when i got back their , some baarstard had put a low ( about 2 ft off the ground ) double steel swinging chain attached to the 2 posts at the entry/exit . In the car park they were only smallish trees , but there were no gaps , im locked in their , i thought to myself im not catching a bus home at 10pm , im not being without my car for the weekend , and come Monday there will be a parking infringement fine as well

The only way out , is to somehow break that double steel swinging chain , so i reversed my old bomb of a car out , drove it , so the front of the car was firmly against the chain , got out of the car to make sure no one about to spring me , got back in my car , and said to myself , ok lets do the old Allan Moffat , give this thing full throttle , bust the shiit out of this chain and im out of here - hah

I can still picture this , i had my foot flat to the boards on the acclerator , and my car was absolutely roaring , if you have ever watched the car racing , where they are waiting at the start , the roaring sound , that was the noise my car was making

But i didnt budge/move that double steel chain even 1/16th of an inch , it point blank refused to break , however obviously im putting tremendous pressure on it , when all of a sudden the right hand wooden post drivers side and it was a big post , it got continously sucked out of the ground with the chain still attached to it , it was like an elevator , it went straight up , high in the air with plenty of momentum , and both post and chain still attached got flung over the roof of my car

I thought beautiful im free , another quick look left and right and i dissappeared into the darkness like a thief into the night

And there would have been another 15-20 Trots patrons when they got back to their cars and saw the state of the post and chain , they would have been delirious with joy because my heroics meant that they got their vehicles Friday night , not Monday morning and no parking infringement

JayJay · December 2025

Early markets are up for ALL races on Friday Night, bravo for that. $2.25 the field in the Cup (Minstrel) and Mister Smartee at 5.50 which I think is a pretty good price and will get some of mine. FREE entry and a $28.5k boost (from somewhere?) for the first four on the cup, warm night, competitive racing, surely a decent turnout? Surely they will rock up to smell the geraniums.

Speaking of which, of the 10 races, just one odds on favourite (Skip A Beat at $1.75 and on the drift). I can recall very few (if any) Friday night meetings in the last 8 or 9 years that have had 10 favourites all in the black. Did a bit of a search and found one (August Cup night this year) and then gave up.

Just goes to show that having the regularity of 100 plus acceptors, week in, week out, with primarily Preferential Barrier Draws, is producing the most competitive fields we have seen in maybe a decade. Last real shorty was Storm last week in an RBD at less than $1.10.

The basket case that existed prior to this turnaround was pre-loaded with ridiculous numbers of $1.04 to 41.20 favourites, they stifled betting and no one wanted to bet on them. My limited data suggests that favourites at less than a $1.30 -$1.40 have largely disappeared off the landscape as have small pay 1/2 fields. Last years Cup meeting attracted just 87 starters.

As far as starting price of favourites, and I have gaps in data, I can't do every meeting but I have a rough estimate of the Start Price for favourites at around $2.60 and the average price of winners holding above $6 in the last 12 months.

I am positive RWWA or TAB would have the complete picture and yet nothing published from headquarters. It would be easier to get gold out of Fort Knox than get data and information from that failed QUANGO. Once again, it is December and no sign of the Industry Status Report. How is harness turnover traveling? Are the rumoured green shoots that we see in improved TABtouch Pools (yes, yes, just an indicator) real or not. For heavens sake, earn you salaries and service the industry and it's participants. Uncertainty is an insidious disease.

Chopchop43 · December 2025

Rumours are that turnover has increased slightly, does that amount to the industry turning around and heading in the right direction? Not necessarily. I'd assume if everything champagne and caviar the big wigs at rwaa wouldnt of hesitated to share the relivent information

Markovina · December 2025

I personally hope that Minstrel is victorious in the WA Pacing Cup

Deni Roberts is a champion driver , and i posted years back that i rated her the best female driver in Australia - and that is 1000% correct

I can remember many years back when Darren Hancock was at the peak of his career , you know Jofess and all the rest of it

And they would have little video clips of drivers at the time , and the interviewer said to Darren , who is the sexiest person in Harness Racing , and Darren laughed and said he hasnt met that person , and that person just does not exist

Well i think if Darren watched that 5 minute clip of Deni , which the WA Harness site has got this week , then i think Darren might change his mind

Bushbookie · December 2025

Any Bookies fielding at Gloucester Park on Friday night the 12 th December . Staying in South Perth and will walk down if a Bookies on track .

JayJay · December 2025

I doubt it.....there was one there a few years ago.

Frog · December 2025

I think Steve will be there. Has been for last few big races plus at the gallops.

JayJay · December 2025

Well, that would be good and hopefully he does some business. I have given up going, it depresses me far too much to see the decline of the place, both it's presentation and the dismal patronage. Like visiting the Alamo Mission after Santa Anna did a number on Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.

JayJay · December 2025

TABtouch early markets that were up yesterday have now disappeared from races 7 through to 10.

It is only WA Pacing Cup Night, the so called showcase event of the year, the biggest night of the year. You could be forgiven for thinking they are actively planning to destroy harness racing?

Can this sideshow amateur hour of an organisation get any worse?? Royal Commission, where art thou, the current adminsistartion couldn't run a cold bath.

warrenrobinson · December 2025

Frog said:
I think Steve will be there. Has been for last few big races plus at the gallops.

If someone can let Steve know that's it's free admission. ;)

Chariotsonfire · December 2025

I spoke to Steve on Italian Night and he said that turnover was virtually non existent.

warrenrobinson · December 2025

It's turned into a **** show, in any other business management would get the don't come Monday.

JayJay · December 2025

Hard to attract business when there are no patrons. No fireworks tonight, will free admission alter anything? Will the masses be drawn away from the end of year office parties?

The good news is the pre post markets fixed odds for races 7 to 10 have made a welcome return this morning and it looks like being a really competitive race especially if Better Eclipse tries to lead all the way from gate 1.

The Albany Meeting running in tandem tonight is interesting...it is a "high stakes" meeting, ($9,360 per race plus two $11,000 features) totaling $77,940.......which seems at odds with the treatment dished out to other clubs that run "tandem" meetings on a Friday night....Narrogin last week Dec 5th, 7 x $6240 races, Wagin Nov 28th, 7 x $6,240, Narrogin Nov 21st, 7 x $6240 for a stakes payout of just $43,680.

Both of those clubs copped the knife from the Impresarios at RWWA with respect to feature race stakes (cut from $8,000 to $6,240) with "saving money" as the reason, yet in what seems blatant discrimination against those clubs that copped the chop, Albany is immune and not only that, races for the same money or more than Pinjarra on a Monday Afternoon? If there is any logic to that decision, please explain it to me.

That aside, the question is, with Gloucester Park shelling out $671,000 in stakes (plus the $37,000 meeting fee from RWWA) tonight versus Albany's $78,000 (plus whatever it's meeting fee is, $6,000 orpossibly more), will the turnover at GP will be more than 8.6 times higher than at Albany?

Can we still afford to run a $450,000 Cup/FFA with no interstate representation (Blakes A Fake, Vic Cup, Hunter Cup are now $250k races) and if the well is running dry, why can't stakes cuts at GP be front and centre, before the rumoured 40 to 50 meetings, including all Sunday Racing, at Country tracks cuts the remaining heart out of Country Harness, all done to prop up stakes at GP for entitled few? You'd get the same field for the Stratton Cup at $50k and the same WA Cup field at $250k, and would save a quarter of a million dollars at the stroke of a pen? Despite smoke and mirror suggestions that Don Hugo and Catch A wave would come over and chase the big $450k Cup stake, that didn't and was never going to eventuate. So many questions for a Royal Commission to ask, so many answers to be avoided.

warrenrobinson · December 2025

JayJay, Keep documenting the abnormalities and one day you may need to put those questions to a inquiry.

LightningJake · December 2025

Hi JayJay. I have been told by a reliable source that the Albany club put their own money in, to bolster the stake money for this meeting. I don't know how much or to which races but they have done what Kellerberrin did.
Cheers

lick · December 2025

Keeps the money in WA - that way local owners can reinvest in the industry.

savethegame · December 2025

Tabtouch Funds the codes - First off the common reply is get account but theres alot punters

revolve around walk-ins, added social aspect catchup with mates, no trail of their punting activities, don't trust themselves with accounts etc.

Two unbelievable area's i know Northam 12.000 population theres no option for a walkin bet.

Couple mates drive from Leonora to Kalgoorlie every third Sat, for supplies but visit centres around day on the punt..

Just wonder whats thought process regards every punter is vital ?

Markovina · December 2025

NSW have started cutting stakemoney to balance the books

The recently run TAB Regional Championships both the Riverina one and the Hunter/Valley Newcastle one both formerly 100k races are now 75k races

I worked out last week re GP if stakemoney was cut by 25% it would have saved 50k approx multiply that by 52 and thats a 2.6 million saving . Add to that cutting Northam/Bunbury/Pinjarra by 2k a race that would save another 1.6 million annually , thats 4.2 million , and to survive that is what is needed

Does Cam Brown and Dennis bigshot from RWWA , do they know how to balance a Balance Sheet , do they know how to read and understand a Balance Sheet , do they know how to produce a Profit and Loss Statement

The bottom line is , you cant just keep losing annually sizeable sums of money , or if you do you you will end up like Victoria , you wont have any RetainedEquity/Net Tangible Assets

They should immediately start cutting stakemoney and i suggest by 25% approx

JayJay · December 2025

So no TAB facility in Northam other than at the two tracks? No Pub TAB? ?

aussiebattler · December 2025

JayJay said:
So no TAB facility in Northam other than at the two tracks? No Pub TAB? ?

FYI Hasn't been TAB facility in Narrogin either for Many Years now closest Pub Tab is Williams or Pingelly

G'day Punter!

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