Yankiwi

It worked. Chief has always seemed to be a big proponent of doctoring the number to suit the agenda, just like GRNZ has had a long tendency of doing. Ironic really, I could care less what rank I have on BOAY. However, the bait made it easy to show how Chief reacts when he has the actual data put before him & he doesn't like it. Thanks for partaking in my exercise, Pal. 🍻

Must have been before my time. Never heard of him. Wayback machine allowed me to get back to 2010 & find Kennerley. My memory only goes back as far as Leach. In my early days, I thought that was his surname, not his intentions. I was quite naive about the industry back then, but luckily for me, I was a fast learner. Purchased my first race dog on 13/01/2014 & gifted away the final one I had owned to a trainer (to get completely out & relinquish my GRNZ license) on 15/7/2015. 18 months was all it took for me to run for the hills.

Cheers Chief. After all these years of the banter, like you telling me I don't know what I'm doing, I better have proof of what I say, even though your numbers are basically in line with GRNZ they are still bullshit. Boy I could go on & on. Anyways, I do appreciate the fact that you've set up your forum to award the people that help drive it to what it has become. Grand Master is quite a title. It probably goes back to the forefathers of chess. A title for the top of the elite competitors & also the most likely participants to declare checkmate at the end of a game. I've always known you have goodwill within you, just like I do, and I'm very humbled by your recognition of this. Thank you, Pal, ever so much!

2010 to 2024 15 years - 6 different GM's About 2.5 years per term average. Edward Rennel Glenda Hughes Mauro Barsi Phil Holden Jim Leach Jeremy Kennerley Have I missed any?

If greyhound racing in NZ does ultimately get shut down, we'll quickly find out whether it was shut down because of welfare concerns or other nefarious reasons. Injury rates in NZ are lower than those in Australia. For me, GRNZ is the problem with poor governance & the RIU/JCA now RIB for poor/selective/lenient enforcement of the rules. They've been doing that for years with no indication of changing it. None of them can see themselves as being any part of the problem. The greyhounds are racing infested with crooked "official" fleas. The greyhounds will be sacrificed to protect the crooked fleas.

Is this why the reporting method to the minister was change for injuries? Was it because Homebush Max became an inside preferred dog? "What's On" copped it quite bad on that day because the dog with blinkers pushed off the rail under pressure. On 20 Sept, it received a 14-day non-major stand-down yet required x-rays, which luckily later confirmed no fracture detected. Even though no mandatory return to racing trial was required due to the injury being sustained, the dog was required to complete a solo weight trial on 10 Oct, 21 days after the injury, in preparation to resume. Then 8 days later, the dog returned to race on 18 Oct this happen? Bad racing luck, eh? 20 Sept to 18 Oct was just an unfortunate 4 weeks in the life of a greyhound? Now I can better understand why the smoke screen might have reappeared in the reporting, with GRNZ's supposed injury transparency.

Note to everyone. This is how Yankiwi's data compared with GRNZ data reported to the minister for 2024/2025 1st quarter. This is @Chief Stipe idea of misinformation & bullshit. For the first time GRNZ reported injuries as "Post-race Veterinary Examinations" to the minister, so they could try to hide away 3 additional major injuries in the footnotes.

Quarter 1. Major injuries - 24/25 on 23/24 season comparison. Red numbers reflect the percentage increase (bad). Black numbers reflect the percentage decrease (good). Cambridge consistence rates. Other tracks - far more major injuries & they were far more severe than the previous year.

Rendle was the wrong choice.

Exactly. 2 or 3 years ago they hired the "sub-par" Track & Infrastructure Manager based in Australia that had a history of failures over there. Serious injury rates have been on the rise ever since then. Just recently, the Southland track, under his watch, went from the safest tract to the least safe track overnight, after they added new sand to the track that hadn't been screened properly & was full of rocks & stones. Major injuries skyrocketed immediately, the track had to be shut down for a complete rework of the surface & yet the same T&I Manager is still on the books. I guess GRNZ is still hoping that he'll improve his results going forward. The industry needs to lead with strength, not weakness.

I've heard a little something is in the works too.

Exactly right. How could having a 3rd rate Track & Infrastructure Manager and a Welfare Manager both located in Australia go wrong? Greg Kerr left GRNZ as welfare manager, then went overseas & took up a position as General Manager of GRV. I've been told that once he got in over there, he cleaned house & got rid of all the deadweight. Nothing has improved since Rennell has become CEO, so why not send him packing & bring Kerr back (if he's willing) and let him get stuck in to cleaning out the dead weight in headquarters? What he might be able to get done is unknown given the short amount of time left, but at least it will be something different than GRNZ repeating the same sort of thing over & over. We've done so much & it's not fair that you can't see all that we've done... No one has pity for you GRNZ. You've done it to yourself. Major change is needed & it's needed quick. Don't miss your last chance opportunity.

GRNZ needs to change, seriously. They think they've changed & they have somewhat, but this week has shown what they were doing doesn't work. Here's a couple of recent examples for your viewing pleasure. First - Do not ever say shit like this out loud. GRNZ therefore rejects the SPCA’s offer to assist the industry to rehome our greyhounds in the event of industry closure. Second - Do not change the method that you report to the minister, trying to lessen the blow from bad injury rate data. July 2024 (season end) report - no footnotes trying to hide real injury data. Then in the Oct quarterly report, suddenly try to hide 3 additional Major 2+ injuries hidden any in the foot notes. 1st quarter data was horrific with or without those 3 dogs. Trying to tuck them away served no good purpose & only raises suspicion, which GRNZ has a long history of doing. Turning back the clock to doing it the old way has done no favours & likely aided the Govt in coming to the decision that blindsided you. Get that thru your thick heads!

If GRNZ wants any chance on saving the industry, they'd better front foot on everything they've failed on in the last several years with urgency. They have improved overall on the welfare front somewhat, but most of those improvements were either the easy ones to improve or the those which were "guaranteed to be successful" merely by spending money on it. Fixing up a broken dog by paying a vet to do it is an easy fix, to say less dogs are being put down. That's not putting welfare at the forefront of everything you do. It's spending money to say you're doing better.

What's been done by participants has been done. Turning a blind eye to it and/or minimizing a penalty handed down when guilt is proven on the serious infractions is the biggest issue. Once I had finally realized that my attention went fully towards GRNZ/RIU/RIB. They didn't want to clean it up, so now they get to wind it down. That simple.

Many of the "grassroots people" have been forced out long before what's happened now. After I had relinquished my GRNZ license, I acted as a mouthpiece for many of them to get their opinions out, mostly on the red forum. They told me what was going on from their viewpoint & I put it to print. I gave them my word I would never reveal where the information had come to me from & stuck by that promise 100%. I've used the term "It's not what's been done, but who has done it" a few times and believe wholeheartedly that is true. Completely hypothetically, if the bullring photos had someone like Shirley Ross, Brian Goldsack or Malcolm Grant clearly evident in the images, the RIU would have been all over them at lightning speed. But in reality, Brendon Cole was evident & the GRNZ board and the RIU never even investigated it. They buried their heads in the sand, let the SPCA do their 2+ year investigation (with the need to prove the animals were alive when put on the lure arm under crown law and prove it beyond reasonable doubt). That failed (and everyone knew it would), the statute of limitations under the GRNZ rules lapsed & magically no crime/rule breach was committed. We even got weekly updates all along the way of the charade with Godber calling in to Peter Earley's weekly show on the radio, to continually repeat the RIU can't do a side-by-side investigation. Of course, that was all crap too, no-where was that written.

Yep, so they tried to stop that "feed-back" too. https://www.grnz.co.nz/Files/Forms updated October 2021/Greyhound Racing Assn Social Media Policy Licensed Persons (Updated).pdf

@BitofaLegend get's it.

@the galah gets it. @bamboozla gets it. When GRNZ claimed to have welfare at the heart of every decision they make, that welfare underpins everything they do, that welfare is the heart & soul of the industry over & over in every statement & report, then that's the way they should have treated it. Instead, they publicly say something like this when their feelings get hurt~ "GRNZ therefore rejects the SPCA’s offer to assist the industry to rehome our greyhounds in the event of industry closure. Notwithstanding the fact that GRNZ believes that grounds for industry closure do not exist, GRNZ would not be comfortable aligning with the SPCA in the rehoming space, as their values around rehoming do not align with ours." How is a statement such as that promoting greyhound welfare? Average Ma & Pa have no idea what GAP is or what they do. Who will Ma & Pa side with if this debate come up? When they publicly said PN 375m starting distance was permanently replaced by the safer 410m distance, they were out of their mind when they reinstated it. Why didn't they make it a brand new 365m distance instead? Then they'd at least have a plausible answer in defense when questioned by the media about it. The 375m data was etched in stone tablets & had already openly admitted it was unsafe. I realize how the above two GRNZ examples sound arrogant.

I'm still happy to help them where I can. They've got my email & phone number.

Don't forget about this. 20 May 2024. GRNZ therefore rejects the SPCA’s offer to assist the industry to rehome our greyhounds in the event of industry closure. Notwithstanding the fact that GRNZ believes that grounds for industry closure do not exist, GRNZ would not be comfortable aligning with the SPCA in the rehoming space, as their values around rehoming do not align with ours. GRNZ finds their “commitment to assisting the industry'' in this area ironic, given the SPCA is reputed to euthanise healthy animals which they are unable to rehome. The extent of this is unknown, as unlike its Australian counterpart (RSPCA) and many local authorities, the SPCA does not transparently report such statistical information (https://rspca.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/public/Uploads/annual-statistics/RSPCA-Australia-Annual-Statistics-2022-2023.pdf). Accordingly, GRNZ considers the SPCA’s offer of assistance to be purely political and disingenuous. We challenge the SPCA to make its euthanasia statistics publicly available - like the greyhound racing industry does. https://www.grnz.co.nz/News/3200/GRNZ-Media-Release-Greyhound-Racing-is-important-to-New-Zealand-and-deserves-support

I can help you here. First the beneficiaries. Predominantly, it's been the small trainers starting most of the dogs at the track. I don't have stats on it, but far bigger portions of the field are small trainer staters than other CD tracks. It's been anything but a rinse & repeat of the circle track domination by the Coles. As for injury rates. Current racing season (1 Aug - today included). All major injuries (22+ day stand down & death) are well below GRNZ's KPI target. Major 2+ injuries (43+ day stand down & death) are above GRNZ's KPI target. For this season, the straight track is ~ 2nd safest track of the 7 for All major injuries per starter. 3rd safest track of the 7 for Major 2+ injuries per starter.

This means 4000 starters, not 4000 individual dogs. Last racing season, Coles had 4348 starts out of 198 dogs.

Yes, you are right. There have been a few cases where harsh judgements have been handed down not because of what had been done, but who was been charged. Then on the other hand, there have been (potential) cases where it's not what has been done, but who has done it, just like the bullring. Have you seen the most recent decision? https://racingintegrityboard.org.nz/decisions/non-raceday-inquiry-written-decision-dated-6-december-2024-lisa-cole/ Read between the lines in that masterclass of minimization & you'll see an ugly picture.

The day the decision was released, Major 2+ injuries were running at double the GRNZ KPI target for the 2024-2025 season. Current data, excluding any racing from today. Typically, the beginning of any given racing season returns fewer major injuries, with the rate increasing thru summer into autumn, then begin to drop back again as cooler, wetter weather takes over. This season was a very bad start.