Chief Stipe

Don't you have a horse? So are you one of the 5 stables or are you a yard?

Yes they will try to do that. But with a community like BOAY and the expertise that we have we will make it clear that they are talking bull shit. That is we can keep them honest. At the end of the day what would you rather have 135 people on $100k plus per year for a total of $18m or spend $9m for broadcasting?

They don't need to do that. Broadcasting race meetings is not that expensive. You'll find that provincial meetings still fund the big race meetings at the Centres.

RITA and NZTR need to flatten stakes. The high end like salaries need to take a cut. They've done it in OZ. So take the cream off the top of the high end races and distribute to the masses. Increase the maiden stakes. Lets face it we are back to ground zero.

Most of the deaths in the USA have been in New York City which has the most densest population in the USA. Italy is similar but also in the north they have the oldest population coupled with the most air pollution. What is showing up in the stats is those that have the most deaths have a very aged population living in a densely populated area with lots of air pollution. We don't have any of those. For example Dublin has 5 times the population density of Auckland and has the corresponding death rate. Lock down hasn't been a game. However has it been the best option? Is it optimal to have 50% of our hospitals empty? My sister is a senior nurse and she has nothing to do. She has not patients to care for.

Geez that's probably where Reefton learnt to swim!

You are obviously and educated woman Freda. It's bullshit that's what it is!

What I can't understand about the why they are installing the technology that they are is it is designed to capture and broadcast HD formats. Most of the population don't have the technology, bandwidth or eyesight to see HD 4k broadcasting. Hence TVNZ and SKY don't broadcast it. As a racing enthusiast I'm not interested in seeing the nails in the hooves of my bet nor the brand name of the blinkers that are being used. I just want to see my horse during the race and who crosses the line first. What's more I'm not interested in viewing the race on my smart phone in HD if it means I have huge buffering problems and I only see the race every 200m.

Shoot that would be anyone who posts on BOAY!

I had just had a squiz AGAIN at the last RITA annual report. Broadcasting expenses were $9m out of $143m total. Why is Broadcasting touted as a reason for NOT having races at clubs other than those that have high cost SDI dedicated fibre circuits? Bear in mind that $9m is less $1m of revenue. Trackside is no longer free to air.

I've been in a bit of a discussion with BOAY'er Bill about why the venues that are opening for racing NEED to have fibre optic connected. I think this is what you would call a "non-tariff trade barrier". That is it is a decree from the central organisation to stop provincial tracks from racing which doesn't have any valid reason for it. So I've moved the posts relevant to this topic to its own separate topic. I think it is important as it shows where the industry money has been wasted and has actually reduced the market by excluding punters from seeing racing.

They seem to be better than ours.

OK BOAY'ers what's on RITA's Board Meeting Agenda next week? Post five items for a prize. Redundancies; Executive and Board member pay cut; Release of the half yearly financial report; ANZ line of credit; Liquidation appointees - Korda Mentha?; ........

Yes but I don't think that is because he has an issue with Sky but because he wants to do something different. The issue he will find of course is earning income for the information he provides.

You are assuming that NZTR and RITA with their 600 employees with state of the art IT and data networking were actually working. Many of us were recalibrating our business during the lockdown. Planning and looking for opportunities post lock down. Afterall there will be $80 billion of cash slurping around the system. I've been amazed at how agile OZ racing has been. I guess that supports the concept of competition right through the supply chain. The best thing Government could do is deal to the monopoly that RITA has in the NZ market. Under free market conditions I'd be happy for Hokitika or Reefton racing clubs to fold.

We will be. I'd be looking for cheap shares for those tourist companies that have good reserves. Get in now!

So you agree we should be back racing?

My opinion is based on my analysis of the data and a few years of working for the MOH. Sadly I thought you might have been useful in the MOH as I thought you understood how to quantify risk. But I guess not.

Pam fast working under Covid-19

Why is it too soon to tell? There is data out there from December 2019. What we do know is that 50% of our hospital beds are empty! What we do know is that pre-Covid-19 a large proportion of the un-occupied beds were booked for a variety of reasons that deferment will lessen the quality of life and may end in death. I would have managed each region on a regional basis not a decree for the whole nation. Why should essential workers such as surgeons, doctors and nurses be sitting at home in lockdown while the police are out stopping people from being on the beach? I would have triaged surgery on the list (there is a huge backlog) and made sure that it kept happening based on my hospitals capacity. With most surgeries nowadays you are out of hospital and home very quickly. If critical Covid-19 cases incoming started increasing then I'd review my capacity. Our thinking is being coloured by the USA mess. New York City has one of the highest population densities in the world. They have 70,000 homeless people and 4,000 people who live on the street each night. Primary care in the USA has been stuffed for decades. Fortunately we have a great primary care system - which we closed down for Covid-19!!!!

Getting back to racing. Was the loss of jobs in racing inevitable? Note: no jobs lost yet at NZTR, RITA or HRNZ.

On what data do you base that "opinion"?

No not scientists - but career bureaucrats. A bit like the 3,000 MPI employees who somehow know how to ride a horse. Did you know that during 4 weeks of the lockdown 13 people died from Covid-19. All of them were in the departure lounge pre-Covid-19. 2,688 died in NZ NOT including Covid-19. Do you know the difference between now and before Covid-19? Well for 2,688 families (those who couldn't afford storage) they couldn't attend the funerals.

All good Mardigras - I hope you did that without the taxpayer pitching in to fund your fixed costs. However the decisions made by the Government have made more people more sick they just don't have Covid-19.

It's a bit like your bakery Mardigras. You sunk all the capital costs into it, you are still paying your staff but you decide to reduce production to 50% when demand is more than you can produce. Isn't that dumb?