Chief Stipe

That's Michael - I've corrected it but you knew what I meant.

When have I been wrong? Shall we run a @JJ Flash vs @Chief Stipe fact check? BTW we are hijacking @Karrotsisback aka @Karrots thread so perhaps you could start a new one? LOL......pray tell what WERE they BEFORE? A sausage roll consumer? Woops they still are that. No you are showing a complete lack of understanding of the core market which isn't surprising going on your sycophantic praise of TAB NZ. What the core market wants is readily available access to punting, a fair price for the product and information channels that keep them informed of their favoured sport. What do they get instead? Disenfranchisement. A hard to use online app, pay per view TV or a data hogging high definition video stream on a smart phone or a PC. Add to that a bunch of social media millennials get better prices and bailouts for their punting farces further poking a stick in the eye of the CORE business. FFS do you have a written comprehension problem? Hell you accuse me of misquoting you and then you come up with this one. The bank lent to them because the Government BAILED them out with taxpayers money (well technically they just printed some more) to pay off the screaming creditors!!! They didn't trade their way out of anything!!! That bailout occurred BEFORE Covid-19. As for the ASB giving them an extension - what else were they supposed to do? Write it off? The couldn't actually put a caveat over any assets because the TAB doesn't have any! They have already sold all the silver. You betcha and I'll keep on until I see real change occurring instead of nothing more than the same old same old by the same old same old. That said the last remaining remnants of passion for the industry I've been involved in for 45 years is but embers. Let's see how many likes this post gets shall we? Here's a challenge for you - I'll set up a Blog on BOAY and give you access to that to publish your views on where the industry is at and where it is going. I'll do the same which will be different to yours no doubt and we'll see who garners the most support.

You really don't get it do you @JJ Flash - it is responses like that that diminish your credibility even more not that there is much left. You are on a racing site - it is a given that we talk in terms of the racing YEAR i.e. from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022. Did you write Cindy's latest bit of spin? "we won't run out of vaccines we just need to reduce demand a bit". No I won't be "delighted" - I'll be even more pissed off because I was right in saying that TAB NZ's fundamentals haven't changed and the hoopla was all bullshit and jellybeans. I based that assessment on assessing the numbers they gave, extrapolating from the last full accounts that the industry stakeholders and analysing where the "extra" money was going to come from. I provided a cogent analysis of the rationale behind my conclusion. Unlike yourself who offered no analysis just a regurgitation of the marketing spin from your mates at TAB NZ. Now something else that was missing in the spin was an analysis of how much of the new found gains would actually go to those that have real skin in the game - owners and trainers. What are the business plans for NZTR, HRNZ and GRNZ? We know that NZTR have already upped their operational costs hiring a Chief Operating Officer (why not a General Manager?) to do god knows what. Plus a $2m new computer system - what value it will add to Trainers and Owners? What it will do is add at least $200,000 to ongoing opex costs. We'll need every cent of, what is currently only imaginary, $170m. A big chunk will go towards AWT maintenance costs. Meanwhile in real terms Thoroughbreds and Harness are racing for no more than what they raced for 15-20 years ago!!!

The costs of their operation is much higher than other stables driven by their diligence to detail. They also have a comparatively high staff to horse ratio and many of those staff are highly skilled. All reasons that lead to continued success. But I've been told that the training operation breaks even.

16th August Covid Scotland: Vaccinating children to protect adults 'won't work' By Helen McArdle @HMcardleHT Professor Eleanor Riley also said it was 'tricky' at this stage to know who, if anyone, really required booster vaccinations ROUTINE vaccination of healthy children and teenagers against Covid is of little benefit to them and would not protect adults from the virus, according to a top infectious disease expert. Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at Edinburgh University, said such a policy would only make sense if it completely stopped the spread of the virus - something that is no longer possible with the Delta variant. Speaking on the BBC Sunday Show, Prof Riley said: "It's quite clear now that the vaccines we have are very very good at preventing people ending up seriously ill in hospital with Covid, but they're not so good at preventing infection and transmission with the Delta variant of the virus. "And so even if we vaccinated everybody in the country, the virus would continue to circulate albeit at lower levels that otherwise, so we have to be very clear about what we are trying to do. "I think the argument that vaccinating children is to protect their teachers, their parents, their grandparents, I think we can probably put that to one side now because we know that even if the kids are vaccinated they are still potentially able to transmit the virus. "If we want to protect people we have to protect them by vaccinating them but not by relying on somebody else to be vaccinated, so the question then is who really needs a vaccine and for children under the age of 16 the evidence is that not many of them are going to benefit hugely from being vaccinated in terms of getting sick with Covid. Some will, but many won't." READ MORE: Why Delta variant has left herd immunity mathematically impossible Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines cut the risk of being hospitalised with Covid by more than 90%, but they are less effective at preventing symptomatic infections caused by the Delta variant than they were against the previously dominant Alpha (Kent) strain. In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, efficacy is around 83% against Delta compared to 92% for Alpha; for AstraZeneca it is estimated at 61% against Delta compared to 81% against Alpha. Prof Riley added that it was also not yet clear who should be given booster jags despite the rollout being expected to get underway in September. Although antibody levels in the blood fade months after vaccination, other elements of the immune system - such as T cells and memory cells - can still offer protection, and scientists do not know what threshold of antibody protection is needed to fight off the virus. READ MORE: When, and how, will it be safe to end physical distancing in the NHS? Prof Riley said: "If you started off with 100 times more antibodies than you needed then if your antibodies drop by 50 per cent that probably doesn't make any material difference to whether you're going to get infected, pass the infection on to somebody else, or get sick. "We don't yet know what that level of antibody is that people need to maintain in order to remain protected and prevent them transmitting. She added: "At some level we can take a completely pragmatic approach and say those people who are most at risk, who've always been most at risk, and who got their vaccines right at the beginning of the programme in December last year, will probably be at the top of the list for to get a booster. But we actually don't know if they need one or not. "It's a slightly tricky time because by the time we figure out the people who do need a booster we could be in a winter wave of Covid - probably not a very severe wave, but probably a little bit more virus than there is around at the moment." READ MORE: 'Tragic' that disinformation is putting people off vaccine, says GP It comes as the latest figures continue to show an increase in Covid cases in Scotland, with 9,329 infections confirmed over the past seven days - up by 12 per cent compared to the previous week. More than four million adults in Scotland have now had a first vaccine dose, taking coverage to 90.2%, with 77.4% of adults now fully vaccinated. The UK Government is under pressure to reveal what contingency plans are in place to deal with a future Covid variant that evades current vaccines, amid warnings from its scientific advisers that such an outcome could set the battle against the pandemic back a year or more. Recent papers produced by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have suggested that the evolution somewhere in the world of a variant that evades vaccines is a “realistic possibility”. Dr Marc Baguelin, from Imperial College’s Covid-19 response team and a member of the government’s SPI-M modelling group, told the Guardian: “It is unlikely that such a new virus evades entirely all immunity from past infection or vaccines. “Some immunity should remain at least for the most severe outcomes such as death or hospitalisation. We would most likely be able to update the current vaccines to include the emerging strain. “But doing so would take months and means that we might need to reimpose restrictions if there were a significant public health risk." NEWS 21st August If Covid cases are on the rise again and even fully vaccinated people can spread it - what's Plan B? By Helen McArdle @HMcardleHTHealth Correspondent If Covid cases are on the rise again and even fully vaccinated people can spread it - what's Plan B? IT is nearly two weeks since Scotland moved to Beyond Zero and infections are rising rapidly again. Continue reading NEWS 19th August Vaccinated Scots outnumber unvaccinated in latest hospital admissions as cases rise in older age groups By Helen McArdle @HMcardleHTHealth Correspondent Vaccinated Scots outnumber unvaccinated in latest hospital admissions as cases rise in older age groups UNVACCINATED people are currently three times more likely to be admitted to hospital in Scotland with Covid than people who have had both vaccine doses. Continue reading NEWS 25th August Why are Covid cases in Scotland rising so fast compared to England? By Sophie Parsons @sophiebparsonsSEO Writer Why are Covid cases in Scotland rising so fast compared to England? Here's why Covid cases are rising so fast in Scotland compared to England as according to chief medical officer Gregor Smith. Continue reading NEWS 21st August Covid: Fears as tens of thousands of pupils forced into isolation for two weeks By John-Paul Holden Covid: Fears as tens of thousands of pupils forced into isolation for two weeks Self-isolation forced tens of thousands of pupils to stay away from classrooms for at least two weeks over the last school year, sparking fresh fears that Scotland’s poverty-related attainment gap could grow. Continue reading

Te Akau break even - just. Any profit comes from Stakes winnings and the selling of their top fillies or the very rare sale and syndication of a top colt.

So you've corrected their misconceptions? Or do you feed them?

Have you thought about applying for an admin position in NZ racing? You seem to have all the current selection criteria!! Another question - if the $40k maiden had been $20k instead would the field of maidens being any weaker? Would it change the punting proposition? Would it be more likely to pay its way?

Or another angle - what is the difference in class between the R65 1400m today at Matamata and the equivalent race at Whanganui on Saturday? The race at Matamata was $12k and Whanganui is $30k.

WOW! So why the hell is NZ running a special conditions maiden at Hastings on the first day of their spring carnival at $40k?

So what does that make Cranbourne tomorrow with a minimum stake of $38,000? Or Albury on Friday with a minimum of $26,100?

What "TIGHT BUDGET"? According to @JJ Flash and TAB NZ the industry is rolling in it. $170m coming this year. That said what IS THE BUDGET for HRNZ? Where is the business plan?

What about the other four meetings?

Well we are a week and a half away from the $220k Grp one at Hastings. So there must be revenue coming from somewhere. $600k up for grabs on that day including a $40k maiden.

Ok well I must have put too much reverse swing on that ball as it has gone through to the keeper just missing off. In sarcasm font I was making an oblique comment that the average stake across OZ today was equivalent to NZ Premier days.

Are the OZ meetings "Premier Meetings"?

NZ Matamata - 11 Races - 11:27am start - $132,000 Stakes Ashburton - 11 Races - 11:43am start - $132,000 Stakes Total Stakes NZ: $264,000 average $12,000 OZ Kensington - 7 Races - 3:25pm start - $380,100 Stakes average $54,300 Sandown Lakeside - 8 Races - 3:00pm start - $434,400 average $54,300 Doomben - 8 Races - 2:33pm start - $308,400 average $38,550 Gawler - 7 Races - 3:50pm start - $165,900 average $23,700 Belmont - 8 Races - 5:14pm start - $222,800 average $27,850 Total Stakes OZ: $1,511,600 average $39,780

The point I was making is that the balance of control/power over Trackside/Code Marketing is now in the hands of the code administrators. Correct me if I'm wrong on that point. But if I'm correct then HRNZ are in the drivers seat.

You keep writing as if the issue is with TAB NZ. Don't the answers lie with HRNZ given code marketing and Trackside funding has been shifted to the codes? Perhaps you should email Woodham and get his comments. I don't believe that HRNZ are being entirely straight up about this issue.

Another version.

Just checked the online booking process for a Covid-19 vaccine. There are NO checks and balances to stop a 12 to 16 year old child from making their own booking WITHOUT parental consent.

I get your point. A horse can't be fast worked in Level 4 I.e. north of Pokeno but can be transported south without its trainer to race under Level 3.

This is in my opinion a crap decision. It further removes racing from the community and stakeholders. A good commentator can't work effectively by looking through the camera lens controlled by someone on course. If they keep going down this path why not just do away with any live stakeholders or competitors and make it all computer generated virtual and random.....like pokies? The only cost that saved by having commentators sitting in a centralised studio is travel costs.

$10k out of how much they haven't paid out in the stakes for the last two weeks?!

@Gammalite can you please private message me with picks BEFORE you post them? Gives me a chance to get on at the best odds BEFORE those that follow your picks slam the TAB!!!!