Chief Stipe

My understanding is the profit from racing is small and often close to break even. The main source of profit is the sale of horses for breeding after racing.

You are telling us all that they aren't good for the industry but like most of your posts you can't substantiate your claim.

Are you inferring the playing field isn't level? We have seen many instances of those YOU label battlers winning one way or another in the last couple of weeks but you haven't mentioned them.

I think the key part of that sentence is they generate interest which must be good for racing.

You have no answers. Do I need to repeat the question?

Yeah and how many lawyers do you know that race a horse? Other than Dame Sian Ellias?

No please explain how yearlings from OZ lower the quality of NZ Racing.

Eh? Do you know @nomates ?

Maybe you should give @Brodie a few tips on how to get round the limits. But then again @Brodie is up 7 figures.

Perhaps they didn't copy your file across?

Or was INCA, the process it followed and the outcomes an indication of a RIU culture/competence that wasn't up to the task? That is it was the RIU that drove INCA.

I did read it. Specifically what did I miss?

That's obvious however we are still waiting for you to tell us how it is lowering the quality. Over to you.

Geez don't show @Brodie those bets!!! He can't get $20 on! Mind you reading the grey print the TAB must find you profitable.

I don't feel sorry for them. They signed up for the job. However the saddest part of INCA was the way the whole thing was handled and the intransigence only served to severely weaken the relationship between the RIU and participants and the latter's respect for them.

Really? Can you honestly imagine Natalie Rasmussen toting a gun or even a hay pitchfork? In any case the RIU, as far as I know, doesn't have an automatic right to dress as Police.

It is more important that they are accurate and consistent than being "hard". It is also .orw important that they have a high level of competency when it comes to charging people. At the end of the day it is often innocent people's livelihoods and reputation at stake. Standing around pretending to be policemen and joking about it isn't being "hard" or more importantly professional.

Seriously @Gammalite the RIU raid the stables of Dunn and Purdon wearing hi-viz flak jackets and walkie talkies with a full police contingent? With office staff grinning from ear to ear with pre-raid photos being taken. How can you take that seriously? I heard one story from a raid later in the day where the trainers wife was the only one home. She said he was down at the Golden Mile and good luck getting him out of there!

That's a different topic entirely. However in your example the charges would be laid first by the Code and RIB and heard in the equivalent of a Racing Tribunal. A defendant could have the option of going to a higher court if they felt the outcome was unjust. The example I referred to was where a defendant was first charged and sentenced in a higher court and then the Code/RIB tries them again and gives a far harsher penalty on top. That in my opinion is manifestly unjust. In the INCA case there was insufficient quality evidence to secure a conviction for the majority of charges laid in a higher court. What you are arguing is they should have been laid in the Racing jurisdiction which has a lower evidence threshold. The defendants may have been found guilty and then likely lost their livelihood. INCA was driven by ego, a predetermined outcome of guilty and a double down attitude when it started to unravel for the prosecutors. Aided of course in the first instance by information from some dubious embittered types. I saw a picture of RIU office staff taken before the police raids commenced. Individuals smiling and proud as they wore Police provided flak jackets, hi-viz and walkie talkies. That picture confirmed all my assumptions.

Well there you go. It is a case of well bred OZZIE young horses improving the quality of our racing and proving that it does raise the return to those you label battlers (I hate that demeaning term BTW). But I guess you don't want those successes to interfere with your race for mediocrity.

I'm surprised @Huey why you haven't started a Topic on how what you would describe as a battler just made a fair chuck of dosh on the sale of one of their horses. But I guess your support for your battlers is confined to cutting tall poppies to make the paddock level.

Thankfully.

Yeah well the main driver of the whole affair had already been let go from his previous job. As far as I know still has a job.

Mind you that was paying $1.10.

Eh? Well at least we have established Paul that there is no Waikato Mafia. Progress at last.