Chief Stipe

Why? Specifically? Or are you another nostalgic old dude remembering "when times were best"?

None of that is correct @Huey and you know that.

Really? How condescending of you. Quite frankly your posts are negative and cynical. If stating the facts constitutes being "out of touch" then whatever you are "in touch with" I don't want a bar of.

Well you obviously have a different definition of "peer" than most. I talked to him with no preconceived notions on amything. I certainly didnt condescendingly post about his state of mind online.

That is the intention. However if you are watching the live feed then you might have a different set of questions for your Jockey than if you had been looking through the binocs.

They have said it will be made publicly available. So fill your boots not that you believe in it.

Thats because he couldnt understand the numbers.

That may happen in Wellington but certainly not in Canterbury. As for too much back patting and arse licking well that attitude is your cynical assessment of your neighbourhood. Do you really think the moaning and bitching achieves anything except put two tribes at war?

Yet again you miss the point which was where once there were local volunteers to help with maintenance work and local businesses gave of their time or donated services/cash this no longer happens. So instead of the amateur club being subsidised they had to hire people and pay them at least the minimum wage. I remember 55 years ago my father and half his staff to shift the old and installing a new running rail. With his best mate who was an agricultural contracted we helped and create grade a dirt track for training. Very little of that happens today nor is it sustainable if you wish to race more than two or three times a year.

Or if you stopped to think about it is reflective of what has happened and is happening to Racing Clubs. In the Cities why have some Rugby Clubs survived when others haven't? The stronger clubs today amalgamated and refocussed on their core business.

Again you miss the point and are as adept at obsfucation as I am. If a Training Centre is running at a loss there can be only one reason. Income is less than expenditure. You have two ways of addressing that deficit - you charge more and/or reduce costs.

@Freda could put one on the collar of her Greyhound and monitor its whereabouts or movements! Thinking about that Trainers in the bigger training centres could use the technology for training purposes although some of the top ones already are.

@The Centaur as my old man used to say to the consistent moaner - "you'd moan if your arse was on fire!" Regarding your lead post the extra marginal cost of providing the data on screen in real time and storing it for later is neglible. I just hope some Trainers take their Jockeys aside and show them how badly they read pace in a race and point out where and when they could have improved two lengths to at least give their horse a chance of winning. Just like in Rugby the data collected has the potential to improve the quality of our racing. Here's hoping NZTR facilitate the education of Trainers and Jockeys on how to interpret the data.

Get with the programme! You can buy GPS tracking tags for less than $10 now. With a local wireless set up which every course now requires for broadcasting the extra cost is stuff all. Super Rugby franchises have been doing it for close to 20 years!!!! Data storage is now cheaper than chips. It is good to see that they will be creating an online database with historical data as well. As for the system being "State of the Art" well it will be even if other jurisidictions had similar technology 10 years ago. You should congratulate ENTAIN for bringing NZ racing forward.

Crown backs $11.7m of racecourse-edge project with underwrite Four new contracts brings the total number of agreements to nine, with 690 homes backed for a total $165.9 million by Alice Peacock18/11/2025 Share Stage 9D of Trackside, the final phase of the Gillies Group's Wallaceville Estate development. Photo: Gillies Group The group behind a residential development in Upper Hutt says the backing it received from the Government was “indispensible” in enabling them to start building.https://bitofayarn.com Gillies Group is one of four developers to receive a residential development underwrite agreement in the latest round of Ministry of Housing and Urban Development contracts. The pre-sales commitment from the Crown to bail out developers unable to sell homes helps them secure bank finance for consented, costed and ready-to-commence projects. https://bitofayarn.com The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s Charles Mabbett says the four latest developments to be approved will deliver around 270 homes. The four agreements bring the number of residential development underwrites to nine, with the value of the contracts for 690 homes totalling $165.9 million. The limited-time initiative was introduced in October 2024, intended to support the residential development sector while the economy recovers by offering a financing bridge to successful applicants.https://bitofayarn.com A total 53 applications have been received, 25 of which are not progressing due to ineligibility or failure to pass the Government’s assessment process. https://bitofayarn.com The ministry agrees to purchase the underwritten dwellings in the case that the developer is unable to sell them on the open market after an agreed marketing period. The ‘underwrite price’ is lower than market value. Trackside is the final phase of Gillies Group’s Wallaceville Estate. It comprises 64 lots in a greenfield development integrating parks and bush into a residential setting and flanked at either side by train stations. The homes are a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom houses and units. Sales manager Jamie Gillies says the underwrite supports the 30 homes that make up stage 9C. Earthworks are complete and building is underway, with five homes pre-sold. Stage 9D – the other section of the Trackside development – was built first and all but one of the 34 homes are sold. Stages A and B targeted first home buyers and were part of the KiwiBuild scheme.https://bitofayarn.com Gillies Group is “well underway” in having the rest of them sold without the Government having to act on its underwrite, but Gillies says this doesn’t mean the backing agreement wasn’t a crucial aspect to get it started. “Given the timing of when the underwrite was available, it was indispensable. It allowed us to start that development when we wouldn’t have otherwise been able.https://bitofayarn.com “That was because of bank funding; they’re requiring you to get so many pre-sales before starting. It allowed us to go to the bank with 20 pre-sales underwritten for 20 of the houses, albeit at significantly reduced rates than what you’d normally sell them for, and say to the bank: ‘Look, worst-case scenario we’ve got the residential development underwrite behind us’. “So that allowed us to get the funding to get on and start the building.” Gillies notes it’s a lot easier to get funding now than it was 18 months ago. The market is much smaller for homes built off the plan because most people buying a home to live in don’t want to wait up to two years for a house to be built. Buyers are typically speculators and investors.https://bitofayarn.com “This programme has done exactly what it was supposed to do, which was to bridge the gap between a market that had fallen … and stabilisation. Getting confidence and financing from the banks and third party lenders was at that point really difficult. “In a market where there was no building going on, it’s kept a lot of families employed. So it’s been a win-win for everybody.” Mabbett, from the ministry, says the residential development underwrite supports developments that align with local market demand and have a low risk of the underwrite being triggered. If it is triggered, homes could be sold to community housing providers, iwi or sold to the open market. “Developers with eligible projects are welcome to apply for an underwrite. Each eligible application is assessed against the residential development underwrite’s objectives and assessment framework. The highest-scoring applications progress. We expect to make further underwrites as eligible applications are received and processed.” The three other successful applicants in the latest round of underwrites includes CG Waimarie Limited, which is at the helm of the Waimarie development in St Heliers, Auckland; Modus Group, which delivers medium-density developments in Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown; and a company named CS No.2 Limited. Two of the three companies did not respond to a request for comment. The other did not wish to comment, due to concerns that advertising its Crown backing would put off prospective buyers. Residential development underwrites were also used for the former Labour government’s KiwiBuild scheme, which was aimed at boosting affordable housing supply for first time buyers. The underwrite scheme was later widened out to support stalled affordable housing developments.

Why would that be @Freda ? The Hunter I spoke to a couple of weeks ago seemed very happy with life.

We may never know because it hasn't happened in a timely manner. Now we are in a frantic race against time. Which highlights my point about Racecourses being run like amatuer hobbies instead of businesses. The statutory minimum annual wage in NZ is $49,000. If a Club can't earn enough to pay employees to do the work then someone needs to subsidise them. What would you rather have? A racecourse every 50 to 100km or a much smaller number that pay their way and provide professionally run businesses that provide safe racing and training facilities? I remember in my rugby playing teens the town I lived in with a population of just of 3,000 had 5 rugby clubs - Excelsior, St Marys, Kiwi, Kokatahi and one other I can't remember the name of. Today it barely has one! The population of the town has grown but not by much. Not one of those clubs owned their fields as the local ratepayer provided them and maintained them with professional amenity horticulture experts (some who helped out at the local Racing Club) but they all had Club rooms. Over time the stalwarts of the Clubs have passed on as have their "ladies in the kitchen", membership has dropped and the Club rooms have been sold and the Clubs themselves amalgamated. The Rugby fields are still funded by the local ratepayer and maintained by the council - the Clubs can't afford to do it. Their income is probably about the same as what it costs to train a race horse.

Your argument falls down on one fundamental point. Not one of the successful or unsuccesful (by your determination) were accumulating enough savings from profits to maintain their assets. They got by for a long time with the assistance of donations and club member volunteer labour. Some Clubs ensured the inevitable came quicker than others by investing in the wrong assets and not the core racing assets e.g. tracks. Another reality is that Trainers, Owners and Jockeys were largely subsidised by the efforts of those Clubs, their business donors and their volunteers. Every time I hear someone say that a Training Centre runs at a loss the first thing I think is well those that train at it aren't paying enough.

Really? Is that your bias clouding reality? Both Te Akau and Wexford put up YouTube commentary every week as well as Facebook and website updates. Would you like me to create a special Topic for you and aggregate the information available as you don't appear to be very good at finding anything.

Probably would have been better off. However the flaw in the plan was not enough capital was released to fix the issues. As it is there isn't enough to fund operational costs. As us evident from thw comments of many the industry still runs as an amateur hobby rather than as a self sustaining business.

What logic is "plain silly"? You are working from an old paradigm. With the benefit of modern computing and algorithms they spend a lot less time "doing the form" than you realise. The NZTAB may have had numerous bookies pouring over fields and form in the past but since ENTAIN has taken over and more data has become available much of the hard graft is done by computer. Hell I know part-time punters that have developed computer programmes with multi-factor algorithms that produce odds and then compare against the odds on offer to flag value. In fact there are a few posters on BOAY past and present that do that. If they're doing it you'd be mad to think the bookies aren't doing it with all the computing power they have. Well we all know that jumpouts in OZ are akin to our trials so yes it does have relevance. I fail to see what value a trackwork watcher offers and comments from most Trainers I tend to ignore. Owners pay for that information - why should it be available to EVERY punter? That said I've heard information from trainers that more often than not has been turned upside down in a race. I remember my first winner - "Oh we'd be happy if she finished fourth"....bolted in and paid $36!!! No it isn't a waster of time getting the information - afterall the owner pays for it - but the value in terms of its chances in a race are very limited. Generally I've learnt that the best I can hope for from a trainer is "the horse is bright, fit and very happy and there have been no problems in the lead up".

I doubt the pre-race analysis accounted for the extreme track bias though.

Where are the "thousands" going to come from to attend country tracks? Certainly not the country.

In other words - sand.

I don’t know. I can remember taking my piggy bank down to the Post Office to change the coins but can't remember the exchange rate. Knowing Muldoon he probably short changed me!!!