Chief Stipe

Doesn't racing have grades? Aren't they called rating bands? Or does Harness also have "tiered" racing?

Why not reduce the high end stakes and raise the lower ones. Then those with average horses can earn a bit more. Otherwise you are rewarding mediocrity by creating an uneven playing field. What's more the horses that win or place at your alternative meeting can't be graded.

Slash Group and Stakes races. Won't make a difference to who starts. Stop the tiered BS between so called Premier Days and Industry Days. Reduce the high end and raise the average across all rating 85 and below. Orchestrate a few more abandonments - that wouldn't require any managerial effort. On that point what would the deficit be if they had raced all the races that had been scheduled!

Just noticed that Racing now has a more prominent place on the front page of the TABNZ app.

Promotion of Racing was pushed off the TAB balance sheet and now is the sole responsibility of the respective code administrators and the clubs.

If that's the case then he isn't CEO material at all. The warning signs were there for all to see in the TAB monthly performance reports published online. Unless you were @JJ Flash or your last name was McKenzie.

To be fair because of how the ratings system works often 3yr old early season Group winners don't have high ratings. It is where they end up later that counts.

Some of us on BOAY have been pointing out the declining revenue for months as well as the funding hole for the RIB. The latter is about 9m+ missing from pokie funding. The TAB monthly performance report has been progressively getting later. We are still waiting to see the October 2022 results published. Initially the monthly results were published around the 20th of the month following. Last month it was the 31st. For the October report we are now past 3 December. There is some irony in the TAB's lauding of the advantaged few...... Boys Get Paid more than half a million by TAB NZ 14 November 2022 TAB NZ bookmakers are licking their wounds after the Boys Get Paid (BGP) national syndicate made a profit of more than $500,000 at New Zealand Cup Week. The syndicate, which was open for any TAB customer to join, started with a pool of almost $230,000 on Tuesday morning and BGP’s expert tipsters grew the pool to almost $740,000, meaning all 5000 participants more than tripled their money for every dollar they invested. The tipsters pulled off some monster bets, including $60,000 on He’s A Doozy at $5.50 to win the Coupland’s Bakeries Mile at Riccarton on Wednesday, returning $330,000. "When He’s A Doozy loomed up at the top of the straight, I switched the TV off - no one wants to watch $300,000 disappear in front of their eyes,” TAB NZ Chief Betting Officer Simon Thomas says. The syndicate chalked up a $250,000 return from a bet at the Addington harness meeting on Friday and a $128,000 win at the NZ Greyhound Cup meeting, where their $120,000 of bets helped push the turnover at the meeting on Thursday past the $1 million mark for the first time in New Zealand greyhound racing history. “The BGP tipsters had clearly done their homework, and our team was nervously waiting to see where they’d go next,” Simon Thomas says. Boys Get Paid founder Luke Kemeys is proud of the sense of community the syndicate’s wins created, as they watched the bets unfold. ‘’It was outstanding to have so many people tuning in from all over New Zealand watching the bets and screaming them home,” Luke Kemeys says. ‘’The community really got in behind this Cup Week punters club and it seems the entire industry did too’’. The TAB NZ bookmakers will now steel themselves for the next clash with the BGP masterminds. "We're racing fans too and, while it's not ideal losing half a million on the biggest week of the year, it's been a lot of fun and we've loved seeing what BGP are doing for NZ racing. We look forward to going again at the 2023 Karaka Million,” Simon Thomas says. Biggest winning bets: $60,000 on He’s A Doozy at $5.50 - returned $330,000 (thoroughbreds) $12,500 win/$27,500 place on Cyrus at $12/$3.50 - returned $246,250 (harness) $40,000 on Goldstar Carlito at $3.20 - returned $128,000 (greyhounds) $50,000 on Sky On Fire at $2.20 - returned $110,000 (thoroughbreds)

FFS Sanctions! What Sanctions do the NZTR management incur?

Where's @JJ Flash when you need some spin? What about the RIB funding shortfall?

You might have to start dusting the cobwebs off Foxton.

Rain tomorrow and 14 degrees. Mmmm I hope there aren't too many scratchings!

Exactly. Who cares if the Grandstands are run down. It isn't the point anymore! I know myself and owners like Curious would stand in the rain and hail to watch our horses get a run on a safe track when the horse was ready. FFS a hip flask would keep me warm!

I agree and what about the representation on the Programming Committee? Many of us pointed out months if not years ago what was going to happen yet key stakeholders have done nothing. Unfortunately self-interest and selling the hype to survive has meant neglect of the fundamentals by those that need good tracks to safely race their product on. Perhaps it is all part of the master plan - drive Clubs to their knees and sequester any capital NZTR can lay their hands on and build a couple of mega centres. Forget about utilising all those great turf tracks that were the cornerstone of the strength of our industry. I've always argued that there was a limit to how many tracks you could close down before the central big tracks failed especially if no remediation work was done. We could still utilise a lot of tracks facilitating the repair of the major ones.

Bit late now.

As in Custer's?

Fantastic fields for Friday 2 December 2022 at Riccarton - NOT! https://loveracing.nz/raceinfo/51340/meeting-overview.aspx

Yep and I bet the South's leading trainers pitch up with a full teams.

Absolute Bullshit. I'm not in denial. My focus is not on the individuals that may or may not be proven guilty by the process/system but on the process/system itself. Plus the incompetency of those running the process/system. INCA will go down as the event that bought Harness Racing to its knees in NZ. Not because it caught anyone, because it didn't, but for what it did to the culture and public perception of the sport. Basil - that is the source of the OTT reactions and you are in denial if you don't recognise that.

If it was allowed within the rules then I have no problem. My understanding is in NZ you don't need to be licensed to break in a Thoroughbred horse. So perhaps Weir could get a job here?

Completely wrong. I do accept people do wrong. I just don't do the over the top denigration and abuse that many of you aim at those that have done wrong. I don't have a problem with authority figures but I do have a problem with those that abuse their position of power. I put Neil Grimstone in that category.

FFS breaking in yearlings is hardly "training again"! What it highlights to me is how insular and bitchy the industry has become. Turning in on itself. Geez Ozzie Thoroughbred Racing is so much more fun, robust and refreshing.

But not all of them. Funny we used to trim manes because it was beneficial to the health of the horse. Easier to clean the neck after training or racing.