Chief Stipe

Is it? If it is then that is a fundamental issue. Unless a Club has alternative revenue streams then it is impossible for them to maintain their core racing assets.

Are rebates the only way he makes a profit?

Wrong again. In the first instance it is the responsibility of Clubs to provide safe tracks and to maintain them. Obviously under the current structure NZTR can only advise. As for the Whip rules - NZTR sets those rules. The RIB enforce them and they should be doing more as the QA arm of the industry enforcing raceday protocols e.g. rating tracks properly and making sure horses gallop on them prior to the first race etc.

I think you are missing the point. The Messara plan needed to be sold (still does) and sold hard. There wasn't enough hard reality talking particularly around the finances of Clubs.

There's the conundrum. The assets aren't earning enough to maintain themselves now. We are rapidly heading towards a scenario of "do you want 25 racecourses or none"? All well and good sounding altruristic saying that "the assets should go to the community that built them" but that isn't the case. They are racing assets.

Really they broke 1:23 for 1400m and went 1:09 flat for 1200m on a G4? By the time the Pakenham Cup ran it was listed as a Good 4.

The plan was derailed by self-interested Clubs aided and abetted by a few loud mouth stirrers. Coupled with that and a lack of strong charismatic leadership it all turned to shyte. Now everyone is entrenched and the problems are not fixed and if anything are getting worse. Reinforcing that are half arsed renovations constrained by a lack of capital and expertise. Even those that had the capital didn't get it right and are now believing their own propaganda e.g. Ellerslie. The "iconic shape" justification is hilarious!

I have no idea. But in my opinion that track didn't play fair or consistent and I suspect the upgrades were done on polling the Jockey's.

In my opinion and experience supports that opinion the industry participants at all levels focus on the wrong things. For example isn't it more important to focus on the safety and consistency of tracks first rather than issues that are further down the line like counting whip strikes? When working in IT I used a process I learnt through an academic course that worked well. That process in brief was to identify the constraints (bottlenecks) in a system and elevate that constraint to the number one focus. The first step was to measure that part of the process accurately especially the variance from the mean - then assign all change resources to that constraint. The first step in the change proces was to remove the variance (make the process outputs consistent) and once that was done raise the mean. THEN only then once that constraint was eliminated focus on the elevate the next constraint. As you know for a very long time I've been advocating the focus of all the industry resources on fixing the tracks - making them more consistent, safer and fairer. If we did that you'd see an improvement in lots of other areas e.g. race riding tactics. You'd also see an improvement in revenue and a rise in the optimism of owners and trainers. The same should apply to rule enforcement. Focus on those rules that affect horse and Jockey safety. Whip strike counting and placement is a distraction that as you point out some major jurisdictions have less emphasis on.

Beating the Aussies at their own game! He will probably rate over 130 now.

Mmmm something doesn't seem quite right with those sectionals nor any of them. They upgraded to a Good 4 after Race 1 from a Soft 5 and then after Race 7 to a Good 3. Yet they barely broke 12's in the Race 7 over 1200m running 1:09.76.

@Huey best horse in the world bred in NZ!!

Ka Ying Rising

Romantic Warrior

Who is Dane?

You can't take their fees from a race they didnt break the rules in. Well you could but that wouldn't be justice. As for the suspension days a simpler model would just use calendar days.

Are you sayimg that there is inconsistency in the penalty given to each Jockey? That is for some reason Kauri was given favourable treatment?

I see they don't give a damn about hitting the flank in the Grp 1's in Hong Kong!

I suspect @Newmarket the issue I experienced is related to the same issue you and your friends experienced last week. A network issue. Picked up some good data to send to ENTAIN.

Two lengthy online chats with ENTAIN support and no fix. Lucky in the end so I saved $2 and ENTAIN lost some profit.

Was it actually or did they mathematically calculate it? What is the average length of a horse that they use?

3 maybe 4 of those that are classified as injured won't be back. At least one has retired. LOL and you wonder why they don't count ALL the whip strikes or are harsher on other misdemeanours!

Has anyone else had trouble getting the Sunday Surge offer of $4 on Dealt With (Currently at $2.30)? They must be banning $1 each way punters!

Blah blah blah. The old 1 second equals 6 length theory.... What about the theory that it is harder to carry 59kg over 2400m than over 1400m? Oh great form guru - how many Caulfield Cups have been won quicker than the Waikato Cup was run yesterday? They ran 2:35.8 for the Pakenham Cup yesterday over 2500m. S 'N' S would have won it by 18 lengths! If you don't think the performance yesterday was a top one then keep looking for excuses for your betting strategies!

Yes some of the Anti comes from the tall poppy slayers and much from a reaction to Rogie's personality. Every horse Rogie has that wins he says "I really think this horse is going places and is a potential champion"! A great salesman. Unfortunately in recent years the stables strike rate has dropped a lot. I was in the winners bar post race celebrating a win at Te Aroha. Rogie had run second. The race was in memory of some recently departed committee members of the Club. Rogie had come in to pass on his respects to family and friends. When he left I made a light hearted comment about how every horse Rogie has is going to be a champion. Boy did I get a passionate lecture on Rogie's virtues! Not long after that I saw a Trackside interview of George Simon in which he made special mention of Rogie. The story about when George started out and only had a pair of toy binoculars. Rogie was heading to Hong Kong for racing and asked George what he needed. George said a better pair of binoc's. Rogie asked him what is the best that you can get? A couple of weeks later when Rogie got back from HK he handed George a pair of the best binoculars money could buy. Since then I've heard a lot of very similar stories. But congratulations on getting S 'N' S back to somewhere near his best. Funny the same day my friend was standing next to Frank Ritchie in the birdcage chatting as their horses paraded in the bird cage. I said to her did she know who she was talking to? I said the champion trainer of Bonecrusher. Frank replied that champion horses make champion trainers not the other way round. Which is true but few of the armchair experts realise how hard it is to keep a horse racing at the elite level for long. More often than not something goes wrong and it takes a lot of work to bring them back. Congratulations to Team Rogerson for doing that with Sharp 'N' Smart. Easy to give up, rest on past acheivements and not persevere but by all accounts the horse still loves to race and that is what he was bred to do.