Chief Stipe

Expensive. Slot lease price plus yearly expense. Probably only one or two in NZ able to afford to buy more than one.

Then who leaked it before hand?

You opening post had zero substance - AGAIN!! Where's the substance in that post?

Boy you seriously do have a red haze over your eyes.

Also how many auctions work. Your point?

Meanwhile all the treaty's involving the USA are getting bigger and stronger. However how will whatever it is not end well?

That's generally how auctions work.

You inferred Peter Vela DIDNT start with nothing. I would say he and his brother started with very little.

I just posted the rules.

Vela's father immigrated here in 1920!!! FACT. I'll bet you $100 he arrived with SFA.

The fields look great in my opinion. That first race is a ripper. Will be really interesting to see how the StrathAyr plays.

I realise that it is a novel concept for you as a communist that people can start with SFA and become successful. Vela's father was a Croatian immigrant in the 1920's. I would say he came here with the shirt on his back. They had some luck along the way but if they were anything like the Dallies I know they would have been hard working types.

Na a Protestant one in Christchurch. All the good buggers went to St Bede's or St Thomas's!

So what is Big Chief Vela contributing to the NZB Kiwi which his company appears to have naming rights for?

The Christ College reference was mainly because of your patronising sense of superiority! With regard to how I would run NZ Racing I suggest your actually read some of my posts. For the last 15 years online I have been lobbying for better safer tracks for our horses and Jockey's. That is the priority! I vehemently oppose the closing down of good quality tracks for no other reason to feed the metro tracks largesse for wasting money. I've argued that throwing stakes at the top end won't help rejuvenate racing in NZ - stakes disproportinately favour the top end and subsequently we have fewer and fewer horses feeding through from the bottom up. Hence the lowering of quality in our race fields which ultimately leads to less attractive fields to punt on which leads to less revenue. Essentially I'm suggesting to do the opposite of what has been tried for the last 25 years! Why? Because it isn't working. I see nothing in what Entain is doing that will fundamentally fix the key issues. Again it is throwing revenue around that will only benefit the already elite. I've had a lot of skin in the game over the years. My first horse I attended every one of her 52 starts. I've successfully bred horses but woke up one day when a horse that cost me next to nothing to breed (yep by a dud sire out of mare saved off the back of a knackers track) had not been out of the money in 15 starts including 4 wins in one season and we were still in the red. BTW I'm not bitter nor jealous of the big fish. Hell many many times on BOAY I have been accused of brown nosing the Tangerine or being part of the mafia. I applaud excellence when I see it and I'm not scared to do so.

Are you saying I live where it is disorganised and there are no civilised events? Are you sure you didn't go to Christ College?

Alan Foreman Joins TDN Writers' Room Podcast Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 5:00 pm | Back to: Shared News Updated: January 18, 2024 at 2:29 pm These are busy times for Alan Foreman, who is the general counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, a member of Maryland's Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA) and serves as an ombudsman for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU). He took time out of his schedule to join the TDN Writers' Room Podcast, sponsored by The Green Group. It is his work with the MTROA that has received the most attention of late as the Authority recently issued a plan that would completely overhaul Maryland racing. Pimlico will be rebuilt and when that is done, racing will cease at Laurel. The Stronach Group will turn the tracks over to the state, which will become the new operator, but will maintain the rights to the GI Preakness S. and the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. A new training center will be built. This is the evolution of a 2020 plan which called for the rebuilding of both Laurel and Pimlico. A total of $375 million was put together for that project, which eventually stalled because of a number of factors. Those same funds will be used to for a new Pimlico. “Pimlico became the hub property for this project, and working with the Maryland Stadium Authority and other experts that we worked with over the past six months, we have a plan to go forward and it is within range of the cost of the bonds that were initially authorized by the Maryland General Assembly,” Foreman said. “So that's the genesis of this project going forward. It's a mountain of work that's been done in the last six months. But now the rubber hits the road.” It is still not clear what the agreement means, which allows The Stronach Group to retain the rights to the Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan. Major questions remain, like, how will the revenue from those two days of racing be divided up? “There's a framework for an agreement that is now being negotiated between the state and Stronach,” Foreman said. “It's estimated that agreement will be finalized within the next 30 to 60 days. It's critical that the agreement be finalized because we have started the legislative session. Legislative leadership and the governor are going to be very interested in the outcome of those negotiations. But I think both sides are confident that they will come to a final written agreement because the ink is not dry on this deal and there are still matters to be negotiated. But the framework is that because Stronach owned the rights to the Preakness, they will license the event to the state of Maryland and the state of Maryland will, as a not-for-profit, run the Preakness. The division of revenues is being negotiated. It will be a fair agreement to both sides.” As far as his work with HISA/HIWU goes, Foreman admits that there have been problems, particularly when it comes to trainers receiving hefty fines and suspensions for infractions that may be the result of environmental contamination. He says work is being done to make a fair system. “I've never seen an intentional administration of a cocaine or a methamphetamine to a horse, and there wouldn't be a reason to do it,” he said. “The industry pre-HISA did a very good job of handling these cases. This was something that was not broken and needed to be fixed. And somehow in the new system it got broken. Fortunately, it's being fixed under new rule changes that we're waiting for the Federal Trade Commission to approve that will give HIWU the discretion to determine that it is more likely than not that the positive was a case of contamination or inadvertent exposure, as we like to call it, and not an intentional administration. The penalties have been substantially reduced per this rule change that's coming.” This week's look at a Coolmore sire focused on champion 2-year-old Corniche (Quality Road). He was undefeated as a juvenile with wins the GI American Pharoah S. and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He was purchased for $1.5 million at the 2021 Ocala April Sale by a team that included TDN Writers' Room regular Zoe Cadman, who recalled how she was blown away the first time she saw the horse. Standing for $25,000, Corniche's first foals are arriving this week. Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by WinStar Farm, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,1/ST Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Cadman and Bill Finley looked back at the impressive maiden win at Gulfstream by 'TDN Rising Star' Conquest Warrior (City of Light) who overcame a ton of trouble to post the victory. A $1 million Keeneland September purchase, he's one to keep an eye on as the road to the GI Kentucky Derby progresses. The team was united in its praise of Churchill Downs for raising the purse of the Derby from $3 million to $5 million, while also calling on the two other Triple Crown tracks to match Churchill's move. Cadman also brought up the point that the GI Kentucky Oaks goes for $1.25 million and is deserving of a substantial purse hike.

Letter to the Editor: 'Absolute Insure Rule is a Farce' Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 5:08 pm | Back to: Shared News Coady I appreciated Bill Finley's conversation with Alan Foreman on TDN Writers' Room. Your question to him about trainers who are not guilty of cheating hit home for me. As a trainer who is dealing with this same issue prior to HISA in the state of Florida, I was hoping to make a brief comment. The banned substances provisions are more complicated than they want it to be in an era where the testing has become so fine any trainer can get a banned substance positive at any time no matter what precautions and provisions have been implemented. Nanogram results can pick up any contamination that occurs in places that the trainer cannot protect the horse from. Inadvertent touching by anyone between the morning of the race up to and in the test barn can cause a positive. Receiving barns where horses are housed prior to racing are notorious for contamination (see testing at Charles Town). This issue of “Testing” becoming so fine was not addressed in your conversation with Mr. Foreman. He and HISA still blame the trainers. Not their protocols. The trainer still spends many thousands of dollars defending themselves from something they cannot control. The absolute insure rule is a farce in this regard. No one at HISA wants to discuss this aspect of the problem. Sincerely, Donald L. Brown

Entain have guaranteed a set amount of funding to the codes for the next 5 years. Entain earns their revenue off wagering. Therefore the profitability of an event that Entain offer wagering on is Entains problem.

I thought Kumara was really special. You contradict yourself. You said racing was a TV sport. Enough time for 8 races if run efficiently. They'll be there before the first and will be still there well after the last. So given the right bribes the young generation will be there for a day out. Just as they were at Kumara (without the bribes). I'd love to go and take my daughter and reintroduce her to the sport of racing. However I don't belong to the BGP so can't get tickets through them and I don't belong to the elite breeding, training and ownership group such as yourself. The latte lot probably get in free. Actually the whole event excludes a potential new group of participants. I guess Kumara gets that part right.

Making what up? The best 2yr old colt in OZ at the moment and Golden Slipper favourite. Nice big horse that is doing it easy and with authority.

But @the galah has a point. What revenue value is a sub 7 size field of two year olds?

What's your point? The sale price is irrelevant. The horse you describe meets the criteria - bred in NZ. Irrelevant what sale it went to. A horse bred in NZ and sold at say the Magic Millions in OZ would also be eligible.

Why would you close the doors when you still have space? Anyway you win the BOAY prize for the persistent Topic Diverger.

Don't the conditions say it is open to ANY horse bred in New Zealand? However the way the press release is written it would appear that an Australian bred horse sold through the NZB Sales would be eligible. ELIGIBILITY The NZB Kiwi will celebrate the best of New Zealand’s world-class breeding industry and showcase the premier three-year-olds in the land. To qualify for The NZB Kiwi and for a Slot Holder to be able to nominate a contender, the horse must have been bred in New Zealand, as determined by NZTR in accordance with the New Zealand Stud Book and Register of Non-Stud Book Mares Regulations (as published from time to time by NZTR), or purchased at an NZB official Sale. Eligible NZB Sales are the National Yearling Sales Series (January), the National Weanling Sale (May) and the Ready to Run Sale of Two-Year-Olds (November).