Chief Stipe

Well there is a story in their accounts too.

LOL!!! Are you saying the published financial statements are false?

Well aside from @Freda doing your homework for you @Huey you are both wrong. Neither was earning enough from core activities to maintain core racing assets. Hokitika was doing exactly what the big Clubs have been doing - selling assets to fund operations.

I agree plus it seems they picked up more in November driven by the Melbourne Cup Day.

Seems some Trainers are taking some initiative to turn around the sit, stack and sprint racing pattern at Ellerslie! Chris Wood and Peter McKay had quite strong and colourful words to say about Jockeys sitting back on a slow pace and expecting to sprint home and win!

You compared 20k extra accounts at the time the statement was made which was post the Melbourne Cup and then drew an inference regarding October 24 vs October 25. How do you know they didn't? Would be interested to see your calculations based on the information provided.

$53k in Cash Assets 2024. The $450k in Capital Assets were land, buildings and plant. In 2024 Reefton received a Grant from NZTR which appears to have been spent on "Non-track Asset Maintenance" - if memory serves me correctly that might have been Stewards towers? Very little over the years has been spent on core racing assets and you'd agree that $53k doesn't go very far. How did Hokitika get their kitty? Around 2005 their land assets were revalued and that valuation was considerably higher than the previous valuation. At the same time they disposed of a part of those revalued assets (does Riccarton, Ellerslie and Trentham come to mind?) and put approximately $450k in the kitty. The Westland Racing Club barely made an operational profit from its core business - the majority of the time (before AND after 2005) they ran at a loss. That new "kitty" was being run down. Barely any funds were spent on the maintenance of core racing assets. Basically they were doing what every other Club does - run down the value of their assets to fund operations WITHOUT investing in core infrastructure.

The Melbourne Cup runs in November NOT October. So I'm not sure where you get "the plenty not using accounts in October" from.

Really? If Slot Holder Coolmore has the three best sprinters racing what are the odds are that other Slot holders that own horses will choose one of the two that Coolmore don't? The final starters are the result of a closed auction rather and deals rather than on talent.

Correct me if I'm wrong but does Ellerslie have raceday protocol exemptions: They seem to be able to irrigate closer to raceday than any other Club; They don't use a penetrometer or any other measurement device to derive a track rating; They don't gallop horses on raceday mornings to confirm the rating or a safety test as well. Yet they do at Pukekohe - "because we have horses available there"; The "Soft 5" rating seems standard rather than measured and is achieved by verti-draining late in the week leading up to raceday. What does this do to the stability of the surface? Is this why some horses find it shifty particularly on the bends?; They rely on what the Jockeys say to determine when the rating should be upgraded during the day. If that is the case why don't they gallop horses prior to Race 1? If they don't use a standard rating measurement device how do punters compare the arbitrary "Soft 5" with other NZ tracks?

True but without restrictions is a moot point. Doens't it depend on how much money you have? Although the Asian Pattern Committee has approved its Grp 1 status.

Because it isn't a true statment. It is a self evident truth that dogs are bred to have four legs - you only have to provide evidence of ONE dog that has four legs. You disagree with my statement and you only need to provide one example of where I'm wrong. You could argue Ellerslie is one but then you have shot that one down many many times.

How can I ignore statistics you haven't produced? I may very well be silly by your defnition but you are silly and very negative about everything. I'm surprised there hasn't been a mass escape from the retirement village!!

Is the quality of the field really a Grp 1 though? Some years they have been poor and certainly not representative of the very best sprinters.

How is it flawed apart from the Aussies making their own rules over sweepstake (restricted entry) races?

Why? With multiple agencies?

Right so what have you decided to do with that 80% ($1m)?

Geez is everyone looking for ghosts and crabs under rocks?

LOTTO as well? Will they also tax winnings?

Uh? You are the one that is coming up with spurious statistics to support your negative hypothesis that the NZ Thoroughbred Breeding industry is stuffed. None of us have a clue what you are trying to achieve with your obsession.

I already have. I said NONE. As in Zip, Nada, ZERO! You really are quite thick aren't you.

Could be a number of things. There are two sets of customers that could be affected. Those NZ punters that didn't have accounts with the NZ TAB and only bet with overseas agencies; Those NZ punters that had accounts AND overseas accounts. So what would delay punters punting on the NZ TAB? Well some would throw their toys and give up punting altogether. That won't last for long - the itch will get itchier; Those that had only bet overseas might be waiting for compliance issues to get their punting money back to NZ. I imagine for some it wouldn't be straightforward as they would have done all sorts of ruses to get the accounts created. If they don't have an NZ account then they have to go through the account creation process; Some would have NZ accounts and are already restricted so they can't up their betting. Probably trying to convince mum to create an acccount; Gone to underground options which might be temp or permanent; .... There is of course the possibility that it wasn't near the esitmated leakage that the NZTAB and DIA estimated although reading the online moaning going on it seems there was a fair amount. What percentage of your punting was in overseas accounts?

That's your interpretation of his reaction. If it was his expectation that the transfer would be immediate then it was a bit unrealistic.

I never had the expectation that it would be $10m a month nor that it would happen very quickly.

I doubt the "casual punter" worries about any of those factors. A regular punter might and a serious punter would. Although the latter tends to look for value anywhere.