Chief Stipe

That's why our industry leaders should be hammering MPI real hard.

No the "Normal" is the NZ racing industry in all three codes converges on a week of great racing in Christchurch in the second week of November. Maybe they should shift the Melbourne Cup to the northern hemisphere after all they seem to dominate the field numbers. What's wrong with tradition? Isn't that what builds up interest, connections through time? I know someone who lives in Whangarei who has gone to Cup week in Christchurch for 38 years in a row. In fact I know a lot of people like that. Before the BGP came along I knew punters clubs in Wellington who put money away each week to have their annual trip to Cup week. Take away the class horses and what do you have for these followers? I haven't been to Cup week for quite some time. Circumstances haven't allowed it. BUT just like my interest in racing started in my home town (Hokitika) with the Westland Racing Club my enthusiasm for the game was enhanced by my many visits to Cup Week with the old man which continued when I went to University in Christchurch and when I lived there for 20 years. The Guineas, the New Zealand Galloping and Trotting Cups and the NZ Free For All, The Dominion are all engraved in my brain. Chip them away and I become disenfranchised - disillusioned. Why does it matter? If those races are shifted to Te Rapa will the public be able to attend? That isn't the point. The point is if our industry takes the easy options now where will it stop? When we have a rich man's exclusive club racing at a track in the Waikato vis a vis Hong Kong Jockey Club?

I'm serious I read it in their annual report. You don't want to know what they were being paid!!!!

All good ideas. We should also start locally. As you say everyone is driven by self-interest. For example with the CJC we need to start co-ordinating members from the ground up THEN those above will start feeling the pressure. They'll start assessing their future!

He had THREE cadets working for him at one stage!

Yeah well apart from the death of the Westland Racing Club and the threat of shifting the Guineas from Riccarton the thing that has tipped me over the edge was the announcement yesterday - "Going back to school isn't voluntary, those children that don't have care at home have to go to school." FFS!

But no more than any other year! WE need to manage this based on what was normal! I for one am not giving away easily what my forebears built and fought for. Quite frankly I'd rather take the risk in getting the virus. After all something is going to get me at some stage!

I disagree. With regard to the horse population argument we shouldn't confound the issue by including "Iconic" races with the bread and butter races - the latter being the majority of races. The reason why the "South Island hasn't supported these races with entrants" is because they haven't had the cattle. Then again you will find that on a horse population % basis that they are probably over represented. Look at Australia - trainers are still sending horses interstate to compete. We have the same land mass as the state of Victoria yet can't work out a protocol to send horses across the Strait.

I wouldn't focus too much on fixed costs. Variable costs are the key and cost to stakeholders that provide the product e.g. trainers and owners.

De Lore's analysis: https://www.racenews.bitofayarn.com/crazy-stuff-381250-per-week-paid-to-top-135-rita-employees-and-we-have-no-racing/ $381,250 per week paid to the top 135 RITA employees!

I don't think that is a good guide. There are too many variants that would skew the data. Surely the best criteria is cost - cost to the industry as a whole but in particular to those who put on the show i.e. dog trainers, handlers and owners. Which tracks have the least cost to those groups?

Whether Covid-19 "escaped" from a lab or not is irrelevant. What is more relevant is was it genetically engineered - there is near universal agreement that it wasn't engineered in a lab. It's origins are natural. It is possible that the parent of the virus was circulating in human population for quite some time. It had to mutate to become infectious to humans. It is possible that this mutation or similar ones occurred in geographically dispersed populations at the same time. There are over 40 species of Coronavirus circulating in the animal and/or human population. Anyone of which could mutate at any time to become infectious to humans. There are numerous other types of viruses that are circulating that make the leap from the animal to human populations every year. That phenomena is increasing as our population grows and we expand closer to the wild animal population. It was only a matter of time before we had a pandemic such as the one we are experiencing now. https://www.newscientist.com/term/coronavirus-come-lab/ ...downloaded the publicly available sequences of all isolates from NCBI. As of today, there are a handful from China and the US, supposedly sequenced by different facilities in the different countries. All 2019-nCoV sequences are in perfect agreement, save for a few point mutations. These could be sequencing errors or genetic drift. There are no large scale discrepancies. So if the sequences are doctored, both the US and Chinese governments would have to be in collusion, and kept any scientists with integrity of character away from the project. This seems in my mind unlikely. But it's probably a possibility that the truth seeker should remain aware of. If the pandemic spreads much further, DIY isolation and sequencing by individuals would become a realistic option. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_nCoV-2019_bioenginnered_a_weapon_gone_rogue

Get on the phone. Organise the local trainers. If the majority of them said they would boycott the Cup meeting what would they do then? Lobby your local MP's. Fight them on the beaches, the hills, the fields, the stables, the tracks - never surrender! I think with a targeted Social Media campaign you would be surprised what support you would garner from across the country. Part of my racing heart died when the Westland Racing Club was shafted. Another part will die if the philistines and the faceless bureaucrats start pulling Cup week apart. DON'T get hooked into - "oh well there are bigger more important things to worry about at the moment." Fight close to home - put up resistance. Actively manage those things that you can - believe me you can do a lot more locally than you think you can. If you fight for things that are important to you you'll find they are important to others as well. If you don't then we will end up with some amorphous central government telling us what we can and can't do.

Well that can't continue can it. I mean how do you do those things when you have to maintain social distancing? Those north island stallions may have high virility but 2 metres? That's a bit of a stretch even for them.

I sense a hint of sarcasm in your posting. It isn't parochialism it is called niche marketing. How does the moving of the Guineas north help the industry? If you are not being sarcastic please explain.

A rough back of the envelope calculation has the top 130 staff at RITA taking about $15m out over 12 weeks AFTER assuming they took a 20% pay cut and subtracting their proportion of the subsidy. Of course the pie and sausage roll warmer being turned off has reduced overheads.

Well two of provincial racing's stalwarts don't give a stuff about the Guineas being ripped north. You two may as well hang your bridles on the wall.

The HKJC is more a rich old boys club than a socialist entity.

LOL you're kidding aren't you? Have you ever done business in China?

I think you are doing the wrong comparison. Start from the basic metrics and work upward. How many licensed participants do we have in each code? How many official trials and race meetings do we have each week? How many people do we need to service those meetings working on a 40 hour week? Don't worry about travel.

Na I disagree Freda you are buying into the marketing bullshit and spin we get delivered. Marketing is about connecting the dots and providing reference points. We can't afford to overlook any part of our population if we are trying to attract new participants to the industry. Many people have their first experience Cup week. Look back at the winners of the 2000 Guineas and what they went onto. The people who remember their day at the Guineas are largely not the people who remember their day at the Derby and vice versa. If you look closely at the demographics they haven't changed that much.

Not quite a fair comparison. Victoria has nearly 2 million more people. 70 thoroughbred tracks, 40 harness tracks and 14 greyhound tracks.

We are not Wailing! We are standing up for what we believe! Don't let them get away with it! Can you imagine what would happen in Melbourne if their Cup was transferred from Flemington to Rosehill? The magnitude of the comparison is the SAME! Put a stake in the ground and fight for it! Dream Freda that you finally have got that super 3 yr old!

For me - YES. No not to the piss heads, wannabes, and good looking women in fuck all (it's hard betting on these days....looking at the horses that is! That's a double double entendre!). BUT for the enthusiasts that travel from all over New Zealand - YES it will fuck it. If Reefton feels the same as me we'll go stuff it we've finally been totally gelded. DON'T bring Covid-19 into the argument because that will impact regardless of where the races are. Think about history and tradition. There are still heaps of people that see Cup Week as the peak of racing enjoyment in NZ. I would bet my last donut that I could take a group of young folk on a Cup week tour and they would be addicted to racing!