Happy Sunrise

Media Release Peter Jensen, CEO of HRNZ met with Della Henderson, General Manager/CEO and Craig Paddon Board Chair of Forbury Park Trotting Club today to advise the following: RITA is expected to release its draft calendar of race meetings for the season commencing on the 01st of August 2020 tomorrow (Friday the 15th of May) at midday. No dates are scheduled in the draft calendar for Forbury Park Trotting Club Inc in the coming season. The calendar is subject to a submission process which closes on the 15th of June 2020. The decision has been made based on the location of the horse population and wagering performance. The Board and Management team of the Club are bitterly disappointed with both the decision and how it was made and communicated. It is the view of FPTC that this is a decision made by RITA on the fly, under self-induced pressure and without proper industry consultation and continues a history of ad hoc decision making that has plagued the racing industry as a whole for years. Although RITA has blamed Covid-19 for its most recent actions the reality is the industry has been in strife for years. FPTC has been actively engaged in the Racing Industry Review that is currently before a Parliamentary Select Committee and in our opinion, this was the correct and proper process to make final the final determination of Racing Venues around NZ, not the knee jerk reaction we have experienced this week. The Board and Management team of the Club await the release of the calendar, and will then enter a period of consideration and planning in regards to its response to the calendar and the future of the Club and Venue. The Boards thoughts are first with the staff of the Club, resident horse trainers, tenants, Club members and the wider racing community. The Board and Management team wish to thank the community both here in Otago and further afield for their ongoing support. Della Henderson, General Manager/CEO and Craig Paddon, Board Chair.

When it gets to the salaries of the big wigs lol RITA need to stand up and tell everyone what their master plan is so people can understand it. This leaking of information is appalling. It is disturbing RITA said they didn't know what the leftover 20 odd million from the bailout would be used for. Surely they must have priorities. So if raceform and newspaper form guides are gone what do they have as a replacement? A printable guide from their $60m website or a link on the TAB website to HRNZ options for printing fields? These things just can't disappear without alternatives or can they? It all seems to be removing everything so people have to use the TAB site. It will create the figures they can use to justify its cost.

Part of the master plan to save racing. I told you RITA were screwed. Just when you though it couldn’t get worse - fields in newspapers and last form guide to go By Barry Lichter • 14 May 2020 Racing’s shop window is set to close even further with no racing fields in newspapers and the likelihood of no racing form guide. The TAB is planning to stop investing in newspaper form and the weekly publication of RaceForm as part of its drastic cost-cutting. That will almost certainly mean punters will no longer be able to see what’s running at the track because newspaper editors won’t allocate space for fields without being paid. And, in a double whammy, punters used to studying the form could also be left high and dry as RaceForm was the sole racing publication left and incorporated the iconic Best Bets. Despite form being available online, many thousands of punters still prefer to access race fields in their newspapers. Friday newspaper coverage once peaked at 20 pages, which incorporated previews and fields for every domestic meeting and the major Australian ones. While coverage has been squeezed in recent years, it has still remained the No.1 source for many punters, especially older ones who have enjoyed it for decades. Before the COVID-19 lockdown when racing stopped, many TABs still posted newspaper fields and selections on their walls to entice punters to bet. The trusty Best Bets was once a betting staple.RaceForm had wide industry support RaceForm, a reincarnation of the defunct magazine The Informant, received widespread industry praise when it was launched last December. Racing Industry Transition Agency executive chair Dean McKenzie said at the time that after several months of working to support its development, he was excited to see it come to fruition. “Incorporating Best Bets in RaceForm aligns with RITA’s focus on driving revenue for racing and provides an opportunity to improve customer service by supplying more information for punters and ultimately delivering on our objective to promote racing.” In racing’s heyday no self-respecting punter would be seen without a Best Bets hanging out of their back pockets, and it was distributed to more than 3500 outlets including numerous dairies, service stations and book stores. Distribution problems led to a revamp and in latter years it grew to a glossy covered publication averaging 128 pages. RaceForm editor, respected journalist Dennis Ryan, said he was unable to comment as RaceForm Publications had received no communication from RITA on the magazine’s future. The magazine has not been published during lockdown but without support from RITA, and the impending redundancy of related staff, a betting man would quote long odds on it coming back when gallops and harness racing resumes at the end of the month. The proposals are due to be confirmed on May 25 with the TAB calling for feedback by Saturday, May 16.

Waimate, Timaru, Oamaru, and Blenheim to possibly join them.

Racing is on its last throw of the dice. If it doesn't come through this bailout there is no more to come. In that sense, I can understand why they are doing what they are doing. But boy, they better be right.

Wyndham is such a good betting track....

Which ones will go? I think I am right in recalling Winston said there would be at least one track in each region and HRNZ said successful financial meetings would stay.

Hell no. I am not a total idiot.

After yesterday's speech I will indeed sleep easy. I am very confident after I had a vision come to me of the future today. I just have one nagging doubt that I have heard both phrases before, but I can't place it... not to worry.

Very pleasing to see some of you get a mention by Winston Peters at the Beehive yesterday. Well done. Peters said they'd "had enough of old men leaning against the rails, scratching their derrieres and blaming everybody else" in the racing industry.

This was in the ODT a week ago. They seemingly were not in any loop about being dumped. Forbury Park Trotting Club is not sitting on its hands The club has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and has lost all its winter racing dates as meetings are moved away. However, club chief executive Della Henderson and board chairman Craig Paddon had updated club supporters this week. Henderson said the club had focused its energies on improving financial performance and developing Forbury Park to be fit for racing. It had four fulltime staff who had all been put on reduced hours. The club relied heavily on racing and losing it would leave a large hole in its income. Henderson said the loss of racing would result in a 51% reduction in income for the current season. The season finishes on July 31 and the new calendar has not yet been released, but a draft schedule is expected at the middle of this month. It is hoped Forbury Park Trotting Club can make its way back on to the calendar. The board had put in place a plan to enable the club to function on a scaled-back basis for the next six months. The club had lights, the fibre technology to cater for broadcasting and was willing to adapt in the future, Henderson said. Trainers have returned to the track to work their horses.

They could have always reduced the length of race meetings to 2 1/2 hours like the Fast 10 concept at Addington in December instead of the monotonous 5 or 6 hours to reduce the costs of employing people on race day. I am sure some of those people would appreciate some income as would the patrons who don't have a smart phone. This scorched earth policy shows RITA are still mired in shit in my view.

Got to pay for it somehow.

Fewer will bother going to the course now as this will be a turn off for some. How many of the oldies who are the regular attendees have enough data to use on their phones. How many will be able to keep their phone charged a whole race meeting with the app open? What about Motukarara with its reception? It has no hope. There doesn't seem to be happy transition between all these cuts. It is just bang here we go. They are turning racing into a made for TV product with the aim of having no costs at all it seems. Forget betting, I wish I knew what their end goal was for the actual racing product.

and only 10 in it!

116 entered and 16 races. A good number 2 weeks out from the resumption. There should be close to a full card on the 29th.

He didn't need to run it past Comrade Ardern for the bailout. Anything under $100 million doesn't need approval so he just popped down to the socialist money printing commune (SMPC) just behind the Warehouse in Porirua and picked it up yesterday morning before the announcement. I hear he picked up 80 million but gave a bit out on the way back to locals as it is election year. ?

They sure did.

Ones like these Rusty, 12 May 2020 RITA welcomes the Government’s announcement today, and particularly, the tireless advocacy of the Racing Minister, Rt. Hon Winston Peters during this time. Covid19 has presented the racing industry with one of its greatest challenges in its 150 year lifetime. Without today’s announcement, the industry faced the serious prospect of confining all those years of New Zealand culture to the history books. With TAB customer numbers down 35 percent, monthly revenue down almost 50 percent from pre-Covid forecasts and continued uncertainty for a full resumption of racing and sport, the support provides a much needed lifeline to ensure the TAB can come out of this and continue to generate critical revenue for racing and sport in NZ. Most of the country only sees the glitz and glamour of racing - the reality is that this industry contributes $1.6 billion to New Zealand’s GDP and supports 14,000 grassroots jobs behind the scenes, with many based in our regional economies. The money to sustain this comes from the TAB and animal owners. Ultimately, all industry participants are dependent on the confidence of animal owners to continue investing. Today’s announcement will be received by the sector as a welcome boost of encouragement, and with positive ramifications for all those drawing their livelihoods from racing. However today’s announcement doesn’t change the fact that Covid19 has highlighted some serious underlying structural issues within the industry. In line with the direction of the Government’s reform programme, more tough decisions will be required going forward, and the industry must continue reforming now more than ever in order to be sustainable. RITA will be continuing to consult with staff on critical proposals aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the organisation and developing it into becoming a more commercially focused, leaner and more efficient business, so it can continue to fund racing and the wider NZ sporting community

That is true.

Their back is safe but what about the $17 million millstone around their neck? Must hurt.

And at least now they have the money to invest $20 million into getting the website up to scratch ?

I thought when the issue came up again in the Q&A and he gave a mischievous smile before answering I thought he knew he was treading on contentious ground. But Chief says it is nothing new so obviously is nothing.

The Q and A on racing didn't last long. He is far more comfortable talking his own opinion. Maybe, we are lucky to have someone with influence but if he is so desperate to get off the stage then he should have stuck to racing only questions.