Chief Stipe

You would assume that it would be a significant amount of on-course betting. But there is no longer a significant amount of on-course betting. As a metric on-course turnover is now superfluous and it is difficult to measure. More and more people are using their smart phone apps on-course. No less or more of a hunch than you however it is easy to compare oncourse turnover versus offcourse turnover and the difference in magnitude is heavily skewed towards offcourse. I remember as an owner in a large syndicate that in 52 races there was only one day (NZ Oaks) where nearly the entire syndicate turned up. The majority of the time there was only one owner present. Also owners who do like a punt listen to their trainer and even newbies over time get very knowledgeable about the competition. On more than one occasion the syndicate I was involved in took the TAB to the cleaners on Fixed Odds i.e. the TAB suffered a net loss in revenue. What you are suggesting is a loyalty type programme for owners who wager but your proposal although with good intentions has a number of flaws. For a start it would involve data sharing between the codes and the TAB regarding ownership and percentages. As we have seen with Harness recently those records are not very accurate. There would also be questions of data sharing and privacy. That aside what is the objective of your suggested loyalty programme? In my opinion there can be only one objective and that is to increase revenue and therefore ultimately increase stakes and therefore rewards to owners. Your proposal doesn't do that. Essentially what it does is reduce revenue by offering discounted bets. As others have pointed out it would be far better to competitively price the product. It would also help if the focus was on improving the quality of the product i.e. the tracks and the race fields. That would attract more wagering on our product and lead to more stakes to distribute.

Did you walk the main turf track as well?

I accept the first part of your statement. Afterall you are paying shyte load of money for your hobby. But how do you know about the latter? I would suggest that owners are not the source of the majority of horse wagering revenue. Far from it.

Rule Number(s): 869(2)Following the running of Race 8, The Breeders NZ Pacing Oaks, an Information was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr N Ydgren alleging a breach of Rule 869(2) by Open Driver, Ms S Ottley. The information alleged; ”S Ottley used her whip with more than a wrist flicking motion in the home straight”. ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Rule Number(s): 869(2)Following the running of Race 8, The Breeders NZ Pacing Oaks, an Information was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr N Ydgren alleging a breach of Rule 869(2) by Open Driver, Mr G O’Reilly. The information alleged; ”G O’Reilly (SWEET BELLE) used his whip with more than a wrist flicking motion in the ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Are North Island vets crap?

Actually I'm thinking that there are bigger problems than not changing in play odds for sports as in the newspaper report. I've seen some funny things recently. I saw a horse paying around $10 on the tote and $30's on Fixed odds. I liked it regardless of the price but definitely jumped on the $30's. The Fixed odds price went out more (after the tote closed!) as did the tote price which ended up at $16.

I haven't denied anything but I have pointed out the facts. Which is with all the millions spent on Inca and the millions spent on the RIU the number of "cheats" in the Harness industry numbers TWO. But you exaggerate the problems and do nothing to enhance the image of the industry. You obviously belong to the archaic belief system that harness racing (racing in general) has to be holier than thou and beyond all reproach more than any other sector of society. All that belief system does it set the industry up to fail for all the wrong reasons.

Probably wants you as an enemy.

Greysful Glamour and Nettoyer also went round today and are heading to the sale. I think there might have been others racing today too. Speaking of broodmares a winner today at Doomben - Nudge is out of Julinsky Princess.

Bloody big Kitty and more to come. Keeping her in racing trim helps her appearance for the sale as well. The cost of having her there and preparing her for the sale without racing would be much the same.

Give her a break! The winner had them ALL struggling a long way from home running a race record. 2:01 at Doomben is fair hiking.

I see Cullens UDR is still on the up. Big increases in the last 3 weeks. Looks like there might be an extra leg growing! $1.5m in stakes and the UDR is now 0.4305. Funny how statistics change (improve) during a season.

But your view is part of the problem - it is negative even though you try to paint it as a positive. Isn't the more important metric the one that shows that with the thousands of swabs taken each year there have been very very few positives returned? Has there been one this season? With the millions and millions of dollars of industry and taxpayer money spent on the INCA investigation there has been no evidence of widespread corruption or race fixing. Aren't we still waiting for a result? Essentially there is no evidence of widespread corruption. Yet we hang out to dry individuals who committed non harness racing crimes and who were dealt with through the court system. In effect we magnify any reputational damage done by association i.e. we negatively market the sport for no gain. No it shouldn't have been Karrot's answer because if focuses on the negative. The answer should have been that Harness Racing is as clean as any sport and after years of investigation no widespread cheating or corruption has been found. The focus shouldn't have been that the cheats are being caught but the fact that there are very very few. We seem to have this protestant self flagellating view of ourselves and that we need to apologise for what is a legitimate industry. This attitude is archaic and harks back to the days were concessions were made to appease the puritanical amongst society. It is a carry over from the Temperance movement. Racing has a negative image full stop and NOTHING has ever been done to alter that image or perception. Where is the positive marketing? We see it day in day out with Lotto but how is gambling on racehorses (supposedly a game of skill) any worse than paying large amounts to play a game of chance? What's more Racing constantly does dumb things that creates and focuses negativity. The administration of the sport seems to be a constant game of taking the foot out of the mouth and shooting it! For example the dumb unworkable whip rules. Or the harness horse rehoming programme. Why even attempt something that is impossible to achieve or even appease the do gooders? Can the industry rehome every horse forever? No it can't nor should it be expected to nor should it try to give the impression that it will. Is a horse any more a sentient being than a dairy cow? A dairy cow is kept in an unnatural condition of continuous lactation and when the volume of milk it produces declines is sent to the works. Is the dairy industry going to rehome millions of dairy cows each year to see out their lives on a nice green pasture with hard feeding during the winter? WHERE IS THE POSITIVE PROMOTION OF THE SPORT OF HARNESS RACING? Instead of ads promoting the propping up of the TAB why aren't we seeing the promotion of the positives of racing? What do we see instead? Silence when we get shafted by a biased journalist(s) and the production of a pathetic social media code of conduct to stop anyone having an opinion. What a brilliant focus of resources!!!

MVB has retired from Journalism. http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/125205470/columnist-dubbed-thinking-mans-redneck-bows-out-after-17-years?cid=app-android

The UDR for Cullen has gone up another couple of notches!

It's obvious that MVB and Sherwood are anti racing. The fact that they are being fed from within the industry pisses me off. Just as those that infer wrong doing but don't have the balls to post any substance.

Bullshit. It is obvious you have no interest in Harness Racing.

Your point?

Why do you keep banging on about it?

What year were they? I realise you still use that torch for Mark Purdon.

Exactly. In 2013 the Harness Trainer Nicky Chilcott got done for presenting a horse to race which returned a positive to Tramadol (a synthetic morphine). Both the industry vet (Grierson) and expert witness Professor Tobin from the USA said that the level was insufficient to affect performance. Tobin said the level in the blood was the equivalent of 1 second on 320 years! Testing science has improved markedly since then and very low levels of any substance can be detected. So the chances of environmental contamination has also increased. The RIU seem intent on registering scalps, disqualifying and fining Trainers rather than addressing this burgeoning problem. Isn't the key to set limits above a zero threshold based on the levels that would affect a 500kg animal? Obviously with a margin built in rather than just zero. Added to that is the tests often record the level of metabolites of a prohibited substance which gives a good indication of the quantity that must have been injested originally.

Go Karrots and Jonesy. Appreciate your positive outlook! As for the new rules - they aren't signed sealed and delivered yet!!! Hopefully the HTNZ Exec will grow some balls and see that they don't need draconian rules over and above the laws of the land. One of the great things about Sport is having an opinion and expressing it.

These "illicit substances" were what?