Chief Stipe

Another agenda.

A message from NZTR COO, Darin Balcombe. No images? Click here Following the partial abandonment of Rotorua Racing’s meeting on Sunday 15 October due to a slip in Race 4, the crossing and area just past the crossing were inspected by Regional Track Advisor Graeme Styles, Racing Integrity Board Stewards and Club representatives. It was identified that the crossing had become particularly hard and this, combined with tightness in the area after the crossing, created the issue that caused the slip. This area of the track is under constant close management by the Club due to thermal activity. Remedial work has been carried out including vertidraining and removal of the top 50ml of the crossing, while sand will be applied to reduce the hardness of this crossing area. Following consultation with the RIB, Racing Rotorua and the New Zealand Jockeys’ Association, it was agreed that this remedial work would mitigate the issue. Racing Rotorua will organise gallops over the affected area post-completion of the work on Tuesday 24 October, with anticipation of the Thursday 26 October race day proceeding. Yours in racing, Darin Balcombe Chief Operating Officer Darin.Balcombe@nztr.co.nz

You don't read Barry Lichter?

Probably bought all five.

Just thinking......were there any photo finishes further down the field? Does the official result include a look at the rolling photo?

Why would I bother just to entertain your warped view of the world? No return in it for me. You obviously only choose to read what you want to read. As I said one method of selecting the Pick 12 in Order for The Everest was to use the available fixed odds just prior to the race. You would have got 10 out of 12. That's what I did but I thought Overpass would do better than he did.

Have they? Was that in the terms and conditions? That's an oversight on Entain's part. I would have thought if $10m was put on the line as a marketing promotion that you had in the T's & C's the right to at the very least take a photo of the winner! Quite frankly I haven't been impressed by Entain to date - I just can't work out where they are going to make more revenue from to match their promises. One area is possibly in dumping the wagering software and the broadcasting contracts. They could save at least $10m a year on the software for a start by leveraging off their other agencies contracts e.g. Ladbrokes.

No they were the Fixed Odds on offer about two hours BEFORE the event. Hell you even told us Think About It was a shoe in!!!!! So that left you with 11 to find. Alcohol Free the $10m mare who hasn't done that much against top-class (I didn't think the Everest was that good a field) horses and was a last minute call up was odds on to finish last. I bet you would. Perhaps they wrote the winner a cheque? Every TAB account holder I know put in a free entry. Why wouldn't you? Are you telling us you didn't or that you don't have a TABNZ account? Geez there was even an easy bet option if you couldn't be bothered working it out! So you have two conspiracies going now - one they didn't have insurance and two the winner doesn't exist.

Conspiracist. @curious what would you have calculated the odds of picking the 12 in order? Given the two favoured horses were streets ahead of the rest. I wonder if any syndicates were formed that put their free entries together.

What would it have cost them? $1m? I doubt they'll get it again for a similar promotion on a 12 horse selected field.

What's your point? Get modern download the app to your smart phone. If you had you would have seen the pick 12 in order promotion. FFS it wasn't easy to pick the 12 in order however I can see the method one would use to get close. In that sort of field with lots of betting going on you'd expect the book to be fairly accurate. What form? Don't confuse incompetence or slack processes with fraud.

You're the one going on about it. He got a call to say he had won. So what?

Who cares? I thought you couldn't care less as you bought into all the hype!!! If you read the press release more carefully you would have read the winner was a sports better and went online to bet on the rugby and saw the promotion. If he was like the amateur I was sitting with when they signed up an account to have a go he would have done a random selection, rearranged the order relative to the betting odds (which were displayed on the form) and then hit submit. He got lucky on Hawaii Five Oh and Overpass. I convinced the friend I was with that Think About It wouldn't get beaten, IWIW was the KIWI horse and told her the third horse. She selected them in that order and then rearranged the other 9. We are not sure what her picks were in the end because the email with her list of picks came back empty in the email.

The majority of punters have a phone. When you sign up to a TAB account they ask for a phone number - if you are signing up from a mobile app I'm pretty sure it is a mandatory field to fill in. When you use a mobile app they can verify if the phone number you are using is linked to your account. It is a way to collect information for a number of legitimate purposes that you agree to when you sign up. I'm sure I wouldn't mind a call from them if I won $10m. I look forward to the day that I score a series of $500k multis over a three day period.

One method of Identification and a double check if you are signing up from a smart phone.

Actually the field ran pretty much in order of favouritism with only Hawaii Five Oh and Overpass running out of order.

Sure there were that many possible combinations but not all numbers were equal like in LOTTO. I'm sure you didn't put Think About It at number 12 in your selection. So you don't believe it happened? You didn't have to put your phone number in but you had to have a TAB account which has a phone number attached to it. Or was there another was of entering?

What do you propose to "level the playing field"? You could always sign up to a syndicate and all the fun of ownership for little expense.

Obviously it was "struck" although selected would be a more accurate description as it involves some skill. As for the insurance I don't know one way or another. The premium would have been very high. It would be interesting to know what Entain spent on marketing all up and what the return was on investment.

They would have lost a few million in revenue on Friday evening surely. Not to mention lost customers. What did they lose on the slot lease?

‘Dobbie’, a harness racing icon, finds finishing line on the morning of his 90th birthday • Lincoln Farms www.lincolnfarms.co.nz Ian Dobson, one of harness racing’s most successful owners of all time, died this morning in Christchurch on his 90th birthday. Dobson, whose name is synonymous with the champion pacer Christan Cullen, started winning races in 1986 but, incredibly, was only now enjoying the best run of his life. In a February interview before cleaning up at the annual harness racing awards, Dobson said “the horses keep me going. I’m having a bit of fun and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good run.” Dobson was a notable absentee at Addington last Friday when his three superstars Akuta, Don’t Stop Dreaming and Muscle Mountain went within a whisker of repeating their unmatched treble of last December when, in a golden 90 minites, they bagged three Group I races, the $250,000 New Zealand Derby, the $100,000 Ace Of Spades and the $86,500 Trotting Free-for-all. Ian Dobson, with partner Janice, gives the thumbs up after another great night at Addington.Long time close friend Noel Kennard said “Dobbie” always tried to be on course but in the last month his health had gradually slipped. “I went in to the rest home with his son Stuart to watch the races with him but for the first time he wasn’t with it at all. “Up ’til about a month ago he could walk unaided and his memory was brilliant. If we talked horses or money he knew exactly what you were saying.” Dobson’s passing brings to a close one of the most spectacular ownership chapters in harness racing - he won 387 races with 73 individual winners, including 31 at the very highest Group I level. But while his newest trotting sensation Muscle Mountain has been the most prolific, with 29 wins, Dobson still rates Christian Cullen as his number one champion. “Christian Cullen was best horse,” Dobson said in February. “I still own him - he’s alive and well at the age of 28, at the best old people’s home in New Zealand, Dancingonmoonlight Farm.” Christian Cullen beats Iraklis to win the 1998 New Zealand Trotting Cup.Dobson had been racing horses with some success for 10 years - his first winner was Lord Christopher at Hutt Park on September 2, 1986 - before “Cullen” came along, winning his first race on November 22, 1996 at Addington. By the time Cullen retired in February, 2000, he had captured everyone’s hearts with his arrogant pacing style, winning some of the most coveted prizes in harness racing, including the New Zealand Cup, Auckland Cup and Miracle Mile. When he left trainer Brian O’Meara’s stable he became the country’s champion sire, giving Dobson more prizes than he could fit in his trophy cabinets. Kennard recalls how Dobson prized the collection so much, he even contradicted the red sticker ban on his Redcliffs home to rescue the collection after the earthquake demolished his house in 2011. Scratch golfer But among the racing trophies were also plenty of golfing memorabilia as Dobson for many years was a scratch golfer, Kennard said. “After one tournament he won he was flown to Germany to pick up his prize, a Mercedes car. “Golf meant a lot to him. He played and beat Michael Campbell at Kauri Cliffs one year.” Dobson went on to breed and race a horse with Campbell who, named Cambo, won first-up at Timaru in September, 2007. “He also caddied for Gary Player and I remember Dobbie telling me the story about how Player asked him for a club and Dobbie said, no, that’s the wrong one, trust me, I know. He was proven right.” Dobson, a good all round sportsman, proved a generous benefactor for golf, paying for an extension to the Christchurch Golf Club and funding initiatives to help juniors progress up the ranks. Dobson didn’t always have money. He came from very humble beginnings, growing up in the Depression, biking to work where he earned 10 bob a week as a plumber. Dobson lived on 10% of his income, saving the rest, and eventually set up his own business, before moving into buying real estate. “On the one hand he was very scrupulous and on the other incredibly generous with his passions.” A winning team … Ian Dobson with, from left, his daughter Lynne, partner Janice, and Muscle Mountain’s trainers, Nina and Greg Hope.Kennard admired Dobson for his unrelenting calmness in racing, which routinely threw up setbacks. “When his horses lost, not once did I ever hear him criticise the driver. And when Muscle Mountain got taken out at the start (badly checked) at Addington recently he copped it on the chin, saying it was just one of those things.” Dobson took the same c’est la vie approach early on to Muscle Mountain whom he bred and put through the ring as a yearling. “I think he was offered only $60,000 and he said he wasn’t prepared to let him go for that. If the horse was no good and he ended up losing, sobeit.” Muscle Mountain was clearly the best of the 10 trotters Dobson raced, giving him his first Group I win as a breeder when he took the NZ Trotting Championship in April, 2021. Dobson raced 10 trotters who collectively won 64 races but most of his success came with pacers. His first Group I win as an owner came in 2009 with Joyfuljoy and, while he enjoyed scores of winners in the intervening years, he had to wait until April, 2021 for the next one. Dobson is survived by his partner Janice, son Stuart, daughter Lynne, four grand children and seven great grand children. Lynne Dobson said today she will remember her dad as a great father and family man. ‘We didn’t have a lot of money in those days - there were no huge family holidays - but we’d go away a lot to the West Coast and the country race meetings. “He was quite hard on me but very fair and brought us up to show respect. I remember him saying: ‘what you do in life is look after your family and work hard’, which I’ve taken on board.”

The 469 million combinations were based on numbers 1 to 12 having an equal chance. As you know from your in-depth punting analysis the odds could have been significantly reduced. Think About It! So commercial suicide for Entain - a multi-billion dollar company yet not commercial suicide for an insurance company? The latter would have laid off against other brokers....possibly and following good socialist practices which you would approve of everyone who has insurance would pay!

You had to have a TAB account to enter. I helped sign someone up - quite an effort even on a smart phone.

Your source?