Chief Stipe

I'm not sure they'd count using @Huey criteria. They've won awards before and wasn't it last year that their employee Megan Winters won the ENTAIN Stablehand of the Year award?

Melbourne Cup set for prizemoney boost www.racenet.com.au Https://bitofayarn.com Australia's most famous race, the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m), has got richer. This masthead has established a long-held Victoria Racing Club (VRC) dream – a $10m Melbourne Cup – has finally been realised. Racing Victoria is set to confirm prizemoney for the 2025-26 season, as early as this week. The Melbourne Cup has carried an $8m prizemoney pool since 2020 – marketed as $8.75m including the iconic 18-carat gold three-handled trophy, valued at $750,000. It is only the sixth significant prizemoney boost for ‘the race that stops a nation' since 1990 – the first seven-figure ($1m) purse. The Melbourne Cup has increased in 2000 ($2m), 2009 ($5.5m), 2010-17 ($6-6.2m), 2018 ($7.3m) and 2019 ($8m). RV controls prizemoney in the thoroughbred racing industry. Laurie Sainsbury - Last 28 Days PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! The VRC has lobbied RV since 2022 for a $10m Melbourne Cup, as part of annual industry-wide prizemoney submissions to RV. This masthead in May revealed the latest VRC bid again included a $10m Cup wish. RV rejected past submissions due to a tough economic and wagering environment. READ: "Awesome again": Stern Idol reigns supreme in Thackeray test Wagering returns, which fund the racing industry, dropped 10-15 per cent year-on-year after an explosion during the Covid pandemic. While wagering income and cost control remains crucial, better collaboration between RV and stakeholders, including racing clubs has allowed for important prizemoney adjustments. The total Victorian prizemoney pool – $316m last season – is likely to largely be retained but greater flexibility at club level, in particular, to redistribute funds has afforded select changes. The Melbourne Cup at Flemington is set for a prizemoney boost in 2025 Picture: Jake Nowakowski It is understood the VRC has been able to trim prizemoney off other feature races to achieve the $1m and change required to secure a $10m Melbourne Cup. The All-Star Mile and Australian Cup dropped from $3m to $2.5m last season. The Group 1 features could be subject to further reductions. RV chief executive Aaron Morrison declined to comment on prizemoney discussions. However, Morrison said any changes for the upcoming season would benefit Victorian racing from grassroots to the top tier. Australia's best race, the Group 1 W.S Cox Plate (2040m), could jump to $6m – up from $5m – ahead of a historic last weight-for-age championship on the traditional Moonee Valley racecourse. The Valley is being redeveloped after the 2025 Cox Plate, with a return to racing on a reconfigured circuit slated for 2027. RV has yet to anoint a host for the 2026 Cox Plate but Flemington remains the logical frontrunner. The $5m Caulfield Cup (2400m) is likely to remain unchanged prizemoney wise however the purses of other Melbourne Racing Club events could be adjusted to afford select increases.

Bosson in right head space and weight range for racing return www.nzherald.co.nz Https://bitofayarn.com The most surprising aspect of champion jockey Opie Bosson’s comeback is his weight. The 44-year-old superstar of the saddle has confirmed what many horse racing industry insiders had suspected, that he will return to race riding in August after a brief retirement. Bosson stunned punters when retiring on 99 domestic Group 1 winners last December, his motivation at an all-time low after years of battling his weight and as he was also going through a marriage break-up. There was always the feeling that once Bosson got his body and head right, he would return. After all, who retires on 99 not out? But while the return isn’t a surprise, just how right Bosson has got his body is. He is 58.5kg, down from a summer high of around 65kg and aiming to weigh around 56kg when he starts back in the first week of August. “I have been training hard and keeping off the beer,” Bosson told the Herald. “I feel good and now I have decided I am going to do this I feel really good about it. “I want to get down to 56kg to give myself options as a lot of the good fillies and mares carry around that weight. “I have been riding track work and jump outs and return to the trials [Cambridge] on Tuesday.” While the Opie’s Century countdown will be a focal point of his comeback, he won’t get a shot at that until the Tarzino Trophy at Ellerslie on September 6 – but he already has a first main target in mind. “There is a $100,000 Polytrack Championship race at Awapuni on August 3 I’d love to win,” he sayheq After that he says he can’t wait to partner Group 1-placed two-year-old Hostility when he returns on a 2000 Guineas path. Whether he gets to ride Te Akau stars like Damask Rose, Return To Conquer and La Dorada is undecided, though, as that trio are all set to start their spring racing in Victoria. “We haven’t spoken much about the Australian horses [trained at Cranbourne] and my involvement over there,” says Bosson, who is expected to be on some sort of retained rider agreement with Te Akau. “Both Damask Rose and Return To Conquer are already over at Cranbourne and La Dorada heads there on Wednesday.” Te Akau heading into the new season with their stable strength split either side of the Tasman won’t be the only professional change for Bosson next season, with former jockey Michael Coleman taking over as his riding agent. Bosson’s return to the jockey’s room will mean New Zealand’s riding ranks, particularly in the north, are the deepest they have been in at least a decade in terms of experience. He will join soon-to-be premiership winner Craig Grylls, former champs Michael McNab and Warren Kennedy, Joe Doyle, Sam Spratt, George Rooke and a long list of other proven Group 1 jockeys, including Samantha Collett, who has returned from Queensland. Fewer than half of those seniors will be riding at Te Rapa today, with some still on holiday, while the card also has reduced opportunities, with three jumps races and the trainers of plenty of the horses in the main two races using apprentices to claim. The $40,000 main sprint pips the Te Awamutu Cup for race of the day at a typical winter meeting where how the horses handle the track will matter as much, if not more, than class on the Heavy 10.

Fill ya boots @Huey !

No no unless you are all wind (which seems to be a real possibility) I'm giving tbe floor to shine your light. Quite happy to start a new Topic perhaps titled: The Huey Awards for Excellence in Thoroughbred Racing.

No.

Yes but to be fair any award based on merit and voted on by your peers is valid. 😉

Two things that will help is consolidating the bookies not that I think many bookies are involved in many in play bets with the system doing it programmatically. Which leaves the network latency issues. I've long been of the opinion that many of the app and website issues are network and system issues not the programmes themselves. Unfortunately we still have third world telcos in NZ who think they are industry leaders.

Are you this miserable and cynical in real life?

ENTAIN have it sorted on their USA platform. I'm sure they'll get it sorted here. I'm guessing the biggest issue is with their network provider.

Name them. Here's your chance shine your torch!

The Boys Get Paid squad are even more happy - they can go back to their old chant.

Have you handed yours back in protest?

I'm sure he has got that well covered as he will be aiming to ride regularly at 56kg. So hardly "stringent licensing terms for his license" as they apply to all. Next...

Then don't diminish those that work the hardest.

There you go you just did what you said you weren't doing. It bloody well is achievement and I bet all the award recipients have done more in racing already than you have. One who stands anonymously in judgement.

Because they don't listen to Grumpy Old Men on the internet and know that they work bloody hard in a tough sport that needs as many young people as it can get. Afterall who would want the industry run by you?

I didn't say I was an authority but hell I'm not one of the people diminishing his achievements. You chose one aspect of what I said which may or may not have been an embellishment when congratulating him on his achievement. I'm surprised you haven't come to the defence of any of the female award recipients who have been rubbished by @Huey.

I gather his other grandfather was a trainer as well. But don't let your cynicism consume you.

❗️Otaki-Māori Meeting Postponed to Tuesday❗️ Https://bitofayarn.com After an inspection of Otaki Racecourse this afternoon adecision has been made to postpone this meeting to Tuesday. The Otaki track is saturated and has some surface water. There is more rain predicted between this evening and through to early Saturday. The forecast for the days after that is relatively clear. All scratchings will be reinstated. Race 1 will be at 11.45am with the last being at 4.10pm.

Which woman? There were six individual female winners.

In your case 1.

Have you read the report? The banning of access to overseas operators was definitely floated as an option to stop leakage. It was actually Option A. However it was rejected as the favoured option for a number of reasons - one of them being the difficulty of enforcement. Which ironically is what you are complaining about. What was being investigated was how to get a fair return on the NZ racing product (and sports) that has been invested heavily in.

I understand there were a considerable number of discussions behind the scenes about the precarious situation the TAB was in. However there was a disconnect between what the accounts were showing and what was being reported publically and to the Minister (McAnulty?). Although with the latter I wouldn't be surprised if whoever was the Minister at the time didn't know the true picture. Ultimately it culminated in the Minister (Winston Peters) publically showing displeasure and providing a bailout package at a politically convenient time. Many of us on BOAY were posting here for a long time our analysis of the accounts. I was particularly critical of McKenzie the transition CEO. What would they be held to account for? There was hardly any corruption as the accounts were reporting accurately the state of the organisation. A decade or two of incompetence and mismanagement definitely - corruption no. Allen signed up to two or three contracts which were the millstones i.e. the Spark contract, the Broadcasting contract and the Betting system contract. They were all contracts that stunk from the beginning and had all the characteristics of contracts negotiated by a Government Bureacrat. ENTAIN is a FTSE 100 company and could buy and sell our biggest companys. They have taken some hits in the last two years but in the last 6 months their share price has rebounded by over 30%. Once ENTAIN took over there would have been immediate cost savings e.g. the betting system contract. I'm also sure that because of the change in operating structure ENTAIN as an experienced private sector company would have renegotiated many of the existing contracts. They also had negotiated that after a period they could start to lay off staff. Now I'm not sure that this is the case but for example why would you need two sets of bookies in the Australian and NZ market? In all core overheads would have reduced since the takeover. Sadly that is, in my opinion, a malaise inherent to NZ as a whole. Racing is a competitive sport and everyone is into to win. Afterall that is the essence of racing. Where things have failed, and have failed for a very long time, is sectors in the industry haven't had strong sector organisations with strong leadership. When they do try to stamp their feet they get it wrong and look stupid. An example of that is the recent Owners and Trainers Association call to action over the tracks. The outcome was that they blamed track managers NOT themselves for promoting increased stakes for decades at the neglect of maintaining infrastructure. Which doesn't surprise me because how many Owners or Trainers have ever bothered to walk a track on a regular basis.

Obviously a number of systems failures. The ultimate one being the RIB Raceday Stewards didn't notice.