Yankiwi

Per GRNZ (8/02/24): "The starting boxes were installed and commissioned by Steriline last Thursday, and these are now operational. Additionally, the drag lure and back-up motor was installed and commissioned last week by the manufacturer, and it is now operating. At this stage, it is now anticipated that the track surface will be ready for trials commencing on or shortly following 6 March" Not bad! They might even have guessed which month the go button would finally get pressed a year ago, unless of course this new timeline happens to be achieved before the end of March.

I'll honestly & happily answer your question John, with bonus coverage. I held back against the vax tide & was very hesitant. My wife worked in the Hospital, so she went & got the first two shots without questioning anything. I was still a hold out. Then late in the day on the vaxathon Saturday (or whatever they called it), I gave in and decided to get my first shot. Had my wife drive me to a drive-thru clinic & got the jab. Then she pulled the car forward to the waiting area, where you were supposed to wait for 15 or 20 minutes (can't remember the exact holding period). About 5 minutes into the hold period, I began feeling hot & feverish. Told my wife I was feeling hot, she said recline the seat and relax. I said na, I'll be alright. Next thing I remember there was an ambulance dude in my face, using "Charles", asking me if I was ok & how I was feeling. He met immediate resistance from me. Who the hell are you? How do you know my name? Why are you in my face trying to take me out of my car. Needless to say, I went out cold. Wife has since told me it was for about 5 minutes & filled me in on what happened during my memory lapse. As I came further back to the real world & stopped them from removing me from the car, I found I had an O2 meter thing on my finger and a blood pressure device on my arm. I calmed down a bit & asked what my O2 reading was, he said 98%. Good! I then asked what my blood pressure was, he said he hadn't taken it yet. I said go on then, but I want to know the result. He took my BP and it retuned slightly high. He had some concerns. I told him that is normal for me, as the first time during an exam it's always a bit high, then when retaken at the end of the exam when I'm more relaxed it's completely normal. They still tried to get me to go into their ambulance, I refused. I told them to take their instruments off me because we'll be leaving now. Said I'll be going home, get a cold glass of water, go out on to my deck and pet my dog while I have a cigarette. That was the end of the days event & that was also the last time I will be injected with anything I'm not informed about enough for my liking. Had a couple of 2-day head colds since then. Never had a swab up my nose for testing anything. Don't know if I've had Covid. Don't care if I've had it. Don't know if it even exists. As for my wife, I finally convinced her (my episode would have been a big help) not to be boosted and take the axing they were threatening from the hospital she had worked many years in. In the last year or so, some of her old bosses have approached her about returning. Saying that they are not in good shape & really need long experienced clued-up staff like herself. Her ex-bosses don't seem to like the answer she gives them.

The pre refurb 2nd quarter data for Wanganui was from 1 Nov 2020 to 31 Jan 2021. The post refurb 2nd quarter data for Wanganui was from 1 Nov 2023 to Jan 2024 The current 2nd quarter data for Auckland was from 1 Nov 2023 to 31 Jan 2024. You've predicted things will only get worse over the next 3 months or so. I agree with that prediction. It has history heavily skewing it in that direction. The 3-hock meeting I referred to in the thread Chief felt the need to lock was held in April 2014. The only noticeable difference about the track surface between then and now is now the track is watered by sprinklers, while back then was a water truck. Remember how it used to spill all the water on the track as it entered the track behind the 520m boxes? Anyways. Up next, when time allows, brief study #5 will compare 2nd quarter injury data from 2014 in Auckland with the same current 2nd quarter data. We'll be able to see just how much better the track is performing today than it was in the lead up to first dog Caesar Legend breaking his hock all those years ago. Since I'm continually accused as having a personal bias, I might as well develop one, since an accusation proves ones guilt in this day & age. Cancel culture. Don't believe what your eyes can see. A dangerous track is safe & effective. Even though you may know what's going to happen in the near future, after it's happened, it didn't happen. Hockvid-19 or Gracilisvid-19? Either way Pfizer is working hard in the background to keep the dogs safe.

Romans will be Romans. Guess I have to find a new home for brief study #4. This place will do. What was the injury data for Wanganui before the major refurb leading up to the point GRNZ decided it was required? What was the injury data for Wanganui after the refurb. How does the pre refurb 2nd quarter data at Wanganui compare to the current 2nd quarter data from Auckland. This data is compiled from the Steward reports. 1) Wanganui's final 2nd Quarter 1 Nov 2020 to 31 Jan 2021 (20/21 season) prior to the refurb. Footnote: 1 Jan 2021 data is correct. It's a combination of the 1 Jan Stewards report & supplementary information published about the meeting in the 8 Jan Report. 2.) Wanganui's first 2nd Quarter 1 Nov 2023 to 31 Jan 2024 (23/24 season) after the refurb. Summary. The track became far less likely to injure a greyhound. If anything, the pre refurb data would be on the low side, as back then there was no requirement for a trainer to report any racing sustained injury after having left the track. 3) Compare Wanganui pre refurb data with Auckland current season data. Wanganui's realized injuries prior to the refurb. Auckland's realized injuries 23/24 season 2nd quarter data. Summary - Auckland's injury per capita was far higher than Wanganui's pre refurb in total injuries, Minor & Medium injuries while only slightly lower in Major injuries. The last 3 meeting held in Auckland have been atrocious injury wise. Crickets chirp. Sunday is 3 days away. Good luck to everyone and your dogs. They are going to every bit of luck they can get.

I've had my two cups of coffee this morning. Thanks for the vet check. Swab can be provided if necessary.

Now you're parroting what I said. How about some originality Chief? If not, at least decided who you want to parrot for.

One of my closest connections still has one of these, exactly like this one with a different name on the back, so 7 or 8 months out of the year, delivery at the dock is within the realm of possibility. However, he is a well-respected law-abiding businessman. So delivery of anything like what could have made our fearless ex-leaders "sweat mustache" play up & her actions seem to be very odd, would be out of the question.

Surprisingly enough, my connections have cars & are responsible enough in life to have petrol money to drive a couple of hours (maybe even more!) in them.

My reference was to where I had spent the first 2/3 of my life thus far and its proximity to Harvard. I have many connections within a couple hours drive from it. But I do not have any current connections to anyone at Harvard. The reason I mentioned Harvard was some of the words coming out of your mouth were sounding like parroting from a very recent ex-PM from NZ, who now is connected with Harvard. Out of kindness I offered my assistance, in case you were traveling with her as part of her entourage. You never know nowadays, in the age of the internet. In case she's doing the rounds & job hunting, Yale is about the same distance from Hinsdale. Brown University is just a tad further. (Used to catch some nice Bigeye, Yellowfin and Albacore tuna 20 or 30 miles off the Rhode Island coast). But if you want to catch the prized Giant Bluefin tuna (yes even bigger than those found off the NZ west coast), Harvard was the place to be. Bluefin tended to be North of Cape Cod, because the water remained a little cooler which they thrived in without much competition from their other smaller cousins who preferred a couple of ticks up on the thermometer. For me, if studying at an Ivy League school was my goal & I wanted to work at Hinsdale to fund it, Dartmouth College was by far the closest option, only about an hour drive each way. Once proud institutions, all slowly being swallowed by wokeness towards worthlessness.

Even more so, I wonder why officials don't listen to anyone that isn't singing their song. Here's a surveillance video of a GRNZ board meeting as the chairman calls it to order. 1353522872_dog_wearing_cone_of_shame_eats_with_other_dogs.webm

I thought you were working at Harvard now? A couple of hour drive from my hometown. If you need anything while there, I have connections, I might be able to help get it done.

Not as often as I forget to add the word (have) between the words and & a. (Have) was in my thoughts but didn't make it to the keyboard initially. By the time I had notice it, it was too late as the short time limit your forum allows for a member to edit a post had expired. I know you don't have that problem as the site administrator, as last time I called you out for saying something wrong twice, you went back after a few hours and corrected the second instance as I hadn't quoted it, like I had in the first instance. That's understandable as it is in your privileged power and I just let it slip. Until now. And I'm only bring it up now as you lied about saying something "correctly twice now", when actually you didn't. You went back and edited after I pointed it out. Have a evening Chief. (intentionally left out the word (nice) that time.

Turn the clock back a few years... GRNZ's methodology. (thought bubble) Wanganui is our most injury prone track. 305m races are twice as dangerous than 520m races. Here's what we'll do. We'll build a straight grass track in Wanganui. Once the new track is up & running the dogs will race sprint races on the new grass track & 520m races will be held on the old track, then we'll only need to do a bit of a patch up on the old track. The so-far proven & probable outcomes. The original track needed to be completely shut down for months & refurbished regardless. Controversially, Palmerston North needed to reinstate a once proven dangerous starting position (375m) because many of the CD dogs we not competitive without the Wanganui 305m tighter turn races available. The new straight track has missed milestone after milestone of being up & running. I've seen no positive comments. I've read several comments of serious concerns and a few of my own surrounding the new track (curved - too far for sprinters - lack of infrastructure for public viewing, filming video for trackside, how are stewards going to oversee the races, catering and so on). So instead of just shutting down the track for the same few months and fixing it, that they had to do anyway and resolved the one problem they had to start with, they turned it into 3 costly projects. Where are they now/soon? They have the original Wanganui track performing among the safest in the country. They have the 375m start back again in PN, which makes the new "safer 410m" starting position all but redundant. Sprinters still can't run 410m effectively. They'll (soon?) have a grass straight track, that sprinters again won't be able to compete on effectively. Maybe some of the CD's underperforming 520m dogs will opt to race on the straight track, if they get enough nominations, for the sprint money (a big maybe that only time will answer). That's how the GRNZ board performed before I found out I was a stakeholder. Unfortunately, they haven't reached out for my free of cost assistance as of yet.

I should have added~ Surely, they have already determined that. They have a long-proven track record, since at least the time I began to follow the dogs in NZ, that just about every decision they have made, have proven to be the wrong one. If they had an open mind and listened to someone like me in the first place, who has shared information which could be critical to both their overall business & animal welfare, they wouldn't have to put up with rambling on here about their poor performance & I could get back to sorting out some of the cheats which still remain in the sport. I could do a study such as which trainer's dogs are most likely to be charged with marring or aggression warnings/charges. It's been quite some time since those pictures of the bullring first surfaced. The underlying issue hasn't gone anywhere and it's still happening currently. Those two stats alone can be a key indicator to which kennels the caped crusaders should be looking very closely at. Sorry to the GRNZ servers, I know it's late in the day, but I can sense your CPU's heating up already.

Well for starters Chief, the GRNZ elite decided who their key shareholders were going to be. Therefore, making the decision for a critic such as myself to be equally included alongside of them shows their ability to look outside the square. Maybe they do really want greyhound racing to not only survive, but to actually thrive. At some point they must have realized that they were on wasn't going to succeed with the same old whispers echoing in their ears. I should have seen it coming. After they found it best to employ both a safety manager and a racing & infrastructure manager based in Australia, they warmed up to the idea that the romans racing greyhounds in the roman way could possibly be done better with experience coming from overseas. It's a shame they didn't ring or email earlier to inform me of my appointment. I could have got started so much sooner. You know, time is money. I suppose that breakdown in communication could have been expected to repeat, as the former Deputy Chairman of the board was ousted recently after being voted off the board entirely, a new Deputy Chairman had been moved up the ranks with an appointment & a brand new member brought to the board by popular vote, all while just deleting one name off their website, copying & pasting another name into the deputy role and adding a new name to the list, which took 12 full keystrokes (unless they first normalized his name to make their data more logical). All this must have happened while the crickets were chirping, as nothing was heard by anyone about any board movements. I'll look into that breakdown in communication after my board & employee interviews. You've got to plug the largest leaks in a sinking ship first if you're ever going to make it become buoyant again.

In the spirit of the thread, back briefly to who Yankiwi is. Yankiwi is a key stakeholder under the GRNZ umbrella. This is a privilege and an honour that I wasn't even aware of until this morning, when I decided to look over our GRNZ's Statement of intent for FY2024-FY2026. I so happy you've chosen to include me as one of the team! When can we get together and sort out the safety of our racing tracks and to begin the mothballing of the Wanganui straight track, before we spend all of or capital on the pipe dream mission set for failure? Also, with the team's permission, I'd like to have a private 10-minute meeting with each individual on the board of directors. Once those meetings to determine whether they are worth the time of day or not have been completed, I'd then like to change focus to each individual employed within headquarters in Petone and have a similar interview in a video call to those who reside overseas. I'm sure after I get all their individual answers to ~ You have two minutes to explain to me, "What you do for GRNZ?", I'll be able to shift the entire "needed" workload within headquarters to one third or less of the current staffing levels, after axing all the tasks people had made up for themselves trying to be relevant & busy. I look forward to saving the industry, as a team, with you.

Must have been a big race night, 8 catchers all in penguin costumes. Arrow is pointing to the brake-man.

Oh and Chief, you're a data man, you might find this interesting. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/avj.13064 Have a look at the Supporting Information... Naturally, the information must have been supplied by GRNZ, so it could have been normalized in interesting ways prior to handing it over.

I don't know exactly why. I can speculate that with a long arm like they had at Hinsdale, it would be lethal to the dogs on NZ tracks with their current configuration and being allowed to finish on lure. At Hinsdale, there was a "break-man" in the infield of the track (50's or 60's technology) whose main responsibility was to step up on a long plank (for leverage) which activated some sort of steel mechanism that the lure arm made contact with as it came into the catching area which forced the entire arm to be hinged back behind the running rail. Naturally, the first time it went past it wasn't depressed to keep the lure arm out there, then second time it approached it was activated to be kicked behind the rail. Of the 4 handlers that ran the track to do the catching, two stopped & waited on some steps at the winning post, while the other two continued on to the point of the first corner. After the dogs ran past them the first time, both groups of two go back up on to the track and ran to the catching area. (Two handlers in each circle drawn) The reason was that if a dog were to fall entering the corner (the most likely place) there would be two groups of two handlers between where the dog/dogs fell & the winning post, if the dog/dogs got back up & went in the wrong direction around the track. One time while I was working there, one dog did fall, got up and tried to go the wrong way, however I was not one of the handlers running the track for that race. They did manage to catch the dog, take it down over the banking on the outside of the track & allow the race finished as normal, without the confused 8th starter.

Ok, your other variable has been added. The difference if compared to the original results, zilch, other than maybe you'll be a bit happier, possibly? Yep, some trainers have more than others. They also have more dogs therefore more starts therefore more chances for one to be torn. Gracilis, to suit Chief's wishes. My turn to ask you a question. With~ 6 torn in Aug 2 in Sept 3 in Oct 6 in Nov 4 in Dec 9 in Jan 3 in Feb already Why are more getting torn in the warmer months with your cold muscle theory? Maybe before you answer, you'll want to normalize that data, as some of those months have 30 days while others have 31. Some may also have more Saturdays with no racing than others. Bear in mind, you will be responding to someone who once worked at a track with a normal temp range between 38c summer highs and -29c winter lows & had never heard of a "gracilis" muscle before rejuvenating my interests in Greyhound racing in NZ. (BTW +38c & -29c averages 4.5C) GRNZ's KPI targets have not been updated to include this variable yet. Maybe tomorrow?

Somebody's been reading my posts. Dogs that had a yellow highlight in my Gracilis study yesterday, which meant they hadn't yet returned to racing & hadn't been retired yet, have magically become retired today, ON A NATIONWIDE PUBLIC HOLIDAY. Funny that... GRNZ has nothing to hide, right?

GRNZ's 2023/2024 racing season. From the "Hock" study. From the "Gracilis" study. And from the overall, minor/medium and major data study, which is up to date & continuing. One thing quickly become very apparent that the Auckland track top the list in every category. Per capita this racing season, Auckland has been most likely to have a greyhound break a hock, have a gracilis torn, have an injury requiring a stand-down, have a minor/med injury and have a major injury. The newest GRNZ publicly released focuses I recall have been trying to work out the logistics on how to fix the Christchurch track surface (much needed), getting the Wanganui straight track up & running (an unneeded pipe dream poised for failure) and installing a new lure system at Palmerston North. The only tip of the hat thus far from GRNZ about the Auckland track has been to install (a needed) safety rail by late November last year, which they failed at because it is well more than two months overdue now. The board & headquarters both need a complete overhaul. Neither one of them is functioning in even close to an effective way. Because of it, the entire industry is suffering, and the dogs are suffering far more often than GRNZ's KPI target allows for. They bring words and spin to the table, but they don't bring positive results. Hopefully the newest appointment to the board will tip the scales in a more favourable direction. However, I believe that's doubtful, as the same chairman that has been & continues to lead the board in most, if not all the wrong ways.

I haven't corrected (manipulated) anything Chief. There is an easy answer however. The first dump of data (which is where this journey began for me) had the beginning point of 1 Jan 2024. After that I decided to work backwards to the beginning of GRNZ's racing season (Aug 1 to July31) as that is what they would eventually report on & I wanted to be able to compare apples with apples. After adding those 5 months of previous results it magically seemed to better represent the configuration outcome. Obviously, we come from very different worlds. The likes of GRNZ would far prefer someone like you tracking the injury data than someone like me. You're from the world of retrieving data, normalizing it (manipulating it) into something different than what actually is. In my word I don't need to manipulate the data. I analyze & share it for what it actually happened in the real world. During Sunday's meet in Auckland 89 dogs went around the track. 6 dogs received an injury stand-down during the meet. The stand-down periods (in days) were 60, 5, 42, 42, 7, 10. That means there were (3) "1 to 10 day" injuries, (2) "22 to 42 day" injuries and (1) "43 to 90 day" injuries. Therefore, 83 dogs raced and did not receive an injury (basic math skills required to work this fact out). https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/15782/result-detail.aspx During Monday's meet in Christchurch. 116 dogs went around the track. 5 dogs received an injury stand-down during the meet. The stand-down periods (in days) were 5, 14, 14, 60, 7. That means there were (2) "1 to 10 day" injuries, (2) "11 to 21 day" injuries and (1) "43 to 90 day" injury. Therefore 111 dogs raced and did not receive an injury. https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/15783/stewards-report.aspx So, no Chief, this data has not been normalized nor will it be. Without manipulating (normalizing) it, the data is as normal as it can be. Sorry if this doesn't suit your binary world very well. Signed: 0010011011011000010110101011110110

With GRNZ's KPI target of 2.4% or less of all starters to be injured, if Auckland was actually achieving the target, they'd only have 55 injuries or less thus far in the season, not the 125 that have been realized. With 125 so far, if they continue to let them go around for the remaining 6 months of the season at the same pace, and somehow they managed to do so with ZERO injuries, they still wouldn't achieve the 2.4% targeted percentage. Well done GRNZ. Well done AGRC. There could be some hope. It can be fixed. Years ago, Wanganui was in the same death spiral. GRNZ finally shut it down for a few months, completely reworked the track, and now Wanganui is among the best performers with injury numbers. That said, less than half the number of dogs are going around it week in & week out then prior to the refurb. With only 1 race meet a week in Auckland, you wouldn't end up with the luxury of half the traffic. Is GRNZ trying to end racing in the north? Probably not, as they just completed a costly upgrade at Cambridge. However, that new lure system isn't welded to the rail so I don't imagine it would be very hard to uplift it and shift it further south.

You haven't read thru all of 6+ months of greyhound racing stewards reports from this racing season once completely & then portions of those reports twice more (once for all race meets with 43+ day injuries "hocks" and once for all race meets with 22 to 42 day injuries "gracilis". Both correct statements. If you require normalization, have at it. Retrieve the data & put my work to shame. Here's how to get it. Start in Aug 2023 here, right click & open in new tab both the REPORT & RESULTS links (right click stops the need for "reloading the page" if you use the same tab & then back click out of it). Also then in the newly opened results tab, it's easiest if you left click the "print/view all races" (it opens in a new tab all by itself) as this is the quickest way to determine how many runners had a start during the race meet. Just because 12 races X 8 starting boxes = 96, not all of those boxes have a dog in them when the lids fly open. Basic math knowledge is a benefit with this process. By the way, I'm not utilizing a database, I am using an Excel spreadsheet. Storing the data isn't an issue for me. "When you normalize a data set, you are reorganizing it to remove any unstructured or redundant data to enable a superior, more logical means of storing that data. The main goal of data normalization is to achieve a standardized data format across your entire system." The empty cells & zero entries are quite easy for me to ignore. My individual worksheets are used solely for greyhound data I'm researching at the time and they do not share data between worksheets. Therefore Chief & my hard drive (because I fill it up quicker than need be) don't like my method. Chief has the option to view the results I've produce or not. I do kind of feel bad for my hard drive though, as I have sole control of the power button.