Doomed

I don't think they really treat it as a business. They kept getting paid regardless of performance, although one day that will come to an end.

They have been relying on something like that for years. No windfalls so far. I have often said on here that I can't understand how we can manage the stakes we currently have based on turnovers. Others keep saying we need to increase stakes. Looks like I might have been right. Sounds like the only prospect for future stakes increases will be based on turnovers. As long as I have been involved in racing income has always been dependent on turnover. We seem to have forgotten that. I don't think abandoning the on course experience and discouraging clubs from any innovation will help turnovers in the long term.

Serious question. Why has the cost of the Integrity unit more than doubled in four years. Is it wages, are they doing more work? Surely the number of race-meetings has declined in that time so less meetings to attend, and racing is increasingly being centralised so no need to visit Wairoa, Waimate etc, and they hardly race on public holidays anymore. Surely everything should be leading to vastly reduced costs. Someone must know what is behind these bloated cost increases when the industry can't afford it.

So the only prospect for increased income in the next couple of years is from an increase in betting profit? And yet NZTR is prepared to use up their reserves for the next 8 months in the hope things come right. In any other industry the shareholders would be up in arms and the board would be called to account and asked what they are doing to get things back on track. I'm not sure that sitting on their hands would be considered a constructive strategy.

Thank you Joe. I will keep a couple of days clear in my calendar pre Xmas just in case they come calling. Reefton might be busy organising his race-meeting, and mowing the grass. Freda should be ok, she doesn't have much in the way of decent local racing until the end of January now.

And this is the pre xmas window that most other clubs would die for. Probably be interesting to compare today's Trentham crowd to the Geraldine trots last week.

Quite bizarre all round really. Did the TAB and NZTR not notice that fields have been rubbish for several months and as a consequence turnovers were plummeting. Surely they knew it was coming. NZTR must have only been told officially a couple of days ago as less than a week ago they added a new $30,000 race at the next Awapuni meeting. Surely they wouldn't have done that if they had known the predicament Racing was in. Why use reserves to maintain stakes levels for another 8 months?That can only mean they expect everything to come right after 8 months, or even before. It seems totally irresponsible if they don't know for certain that there is a financial windfall coming. Some people might not think so, but there is a lot of excess stakes money that could be pruned to save money. Most feature meetings the $40,000 open races could be cut to $35,000. Races like the Telegraph and Dyke at $350,000 and $450,000 could easily have $50,000 pruned off them and still attract the same field. In hindsight was it really a great idea to run the 2,000 Guineas for $550,000 and not $500,000? A couple of weeks ago at Awapuni the open $40,000 race race attracted such a poor field it ended up with a 74 top weight so than ran it as a 74, but still retained the $40,000. They have to bite the bullet and realise the situation racing is in. Write it into the conditions that if an open race attracts a shit field and runs as a 74 then it runs for a 74 stake. The $60,000 and $70,000 minimums on these iconic days might just have to be cut to $50,000. The fields will be the same. It may be that they have to advertise a lot of races at lower stakes, say $30,000 for open races, but if the race attracts a decent sized field, say 10 or more actual starters, and gets say at least a couple of horses over 85 then they boost the stake accordingly. You could hardly say the $50,000 minimums at Trentham today have attracted outstanding fields. One thing they can't do is lower the $14,000 minimum stakes. Although they have to find some way around the excess scratchings in such races in the NI. Four 2 dividend races at Rotorua this week and three at Taranaki on a seven race card. That is just not an efficient use of funds. Saying they aren't going to do anything, just use reserves, is real head in the sand stuff. Just like these desperate clubs that keep selling off land until they have none left. I have no idea how much reserves they have. Obviously they have been built up by spending nothing on tracks or facilities. If they have to use $8.5m to boost stakes for 8 months this year that means over $12m to maintain stakes for all of next season. They don't really give you the impression of competent management who have all this in hand. "Don't worry, we've got this. Cameron is going to spend the half time breaks in the warriors games working on saving NZ Racing. And if they miss the finals series he will have another couple of months to work on Racing."

So the $100,000 increase in stake didn't really achieve a lot then.

I thought this was quite interesting. I'm not sure if we have a similar policy in NZ, but we will probably need one soon. It is the policy of the American Graded Stakes Committee that a race that is scheduled for the turf course but is moved to the dirt track after the closing of nominations because the turf course is unsuitable for racing, is automatically downgraded one level for that running only. The American Graded Stakes Committee will, however, promptly review the running of any race that is automatically downgraded as a result of this policy and may reinstate its former status. The Commonwealth Turf Stakes: Per American Graded Stakes Committee policy, the Nov. 27 renewal of the Commonwealth Turf Stakes, which had been designated as a grade 3 race on grass before it was switched to the main track due to rainy weather, was automatically downgraded to listed status and was conducted as a listed stakes race. The American Graded Stakes Committee has reviewed the off-the-turf renewal and has determined that the original grade 3 status will not be reinstated for this renewal.

It has certainly gone well so far. To give them some credit, they have mastered the closing down of courses bit, it's just the other side of the equation that hasn't quite worked out.

Part of the master plan is to deprive industry participants of any information that could be used to make, or justify, decisions. Surely they know how much it costs to run each type of race meeting and what level of turnover is needed to show a profit or break even? But none of this information is made available. It may well be that some of these small meetings are a drain on the industry and should be cut: we just don't know. I assume that a meeting like Cromwell last Friday would have been quite profitable, whereas some feature meetings at metropolitan tracks probably run at a loss. But we have no way of knowing this as industry participants are treated like children with no right to be kept informed.

I thought he was the biggest advocate for the AWT.

I'm shocked to hear corruption and Queensland mentioned in the same sentence.

It would be a brave man who would want to take over from him these days. Perhaps they realise no one would want the job now, so better stick to the devil you know.

I can't argue with any of that. Very well put. I don't know any of the people on the board so I have no idea whether they are incompetent or just out of their depth, or perhaps something else. Many years ago it used to be a prestigious thing to be on the CJC board and they didn't really have to do anything. These days they have a big job to do and perhaps they just aren't up to it. They aren't alone of course, many years ago Auckland and Wellington also used to have terrible boards.

Unfortunately, it is almost too late for any of that. NZTR's basic approach is divide and conquer, which to give them credit they are doing quite well. Eventually they will have picked off all the low hanging fruit and the likes of the CJC will say "well, that went well", only for NZTR to say "not so fast, you're next." All of the major racing jurisdictions have a strong, dominant and inspirational major club which the smaller clubs support and benefit from: look at any state in Australia. The problem in the SI is that the CJC could never be called inspirational. Their mantra has always been to shaft the smaller clubs rather than encourage them.

I see Aljay is targeting the Greymouth Cup. You have to love that cunning plan. All along, the NZ Cup was just the warm up for the major summer target.

I have just been wondering whether the race pattern and allocation of precious stake money in the CD, and NZ in general really, might be faulty. Can the CD sustain 3 feature meetings in 8 days, especially with an industry meeting the day before as well? Awapuni last weekend two $30,000 races with 6 starters, a $40,000 race with 5 starters, another $40,000 race with 8 starters that was supposed to be open class, but became a rating 74 because nothing higher rated was interested. Ironically an open class stayer raced for $14,000 the day before. Today at Otaki a $40,000 race with 6 starters, a $30,000 race with 6 as well. A $65,000 race with 8 going around and an $80,000 race with just 7. A bit early to assess Wanganui as there will be more scratchings, but already a $30,000 race with only 7 acceptors. Meanwhile in Canterbury horses have to travel over five hours just to get a start for any sort of money at all. And 3yos in the South have no opportunities at all, whereas in the NI they have a race at every meeting, even if only 6 of them turn up. I certainly don't have the skills and experience, let alone the pay-packet, of the experts at NZTR, but I do wonder whether either today's Otaki meeting or Saturday's meeting should have been just an industry meeting. The money saved could have been used to boost the stakes on Timaru Cup Day or perhaps to hold a meeting at Timaru next week in place of the AWT meeting at Riccarton, which will surely have to be abandoned if trainers aren't interested. Just on that subject, I wonder if NZTR has contingency plans in place if trainers don't want to race on the AWT? Surely they have sounded out Timaru or Ashburton to see if they are keen, just in case trainers say they won't race on the AWT but would race on a grass track in the district.

Very sad to hear. I never met him but always enjoyed his contributions on here.

Ironically, the PGF should probably have been used to fund an AWT at a provincial track if it was that essential and let Riccarton concentrate on its existing tracks. No Aussie major track has slotted in an AWT, they always go to the provincials.

Very true Chief. Perhaps much fairer to compare Riccarton to Flemington, Caulfield, Rosehill, Randwick, Morphettville etc.

Amazing stuff. Other than the fact it is quite poorly written, it is also quite aggressive. Sets a bit of a precedent though. Sounds like heads will roll at all levels, including NZTR, if there are any future cock-ups.

I went to Cup Week for about 20 years non stop and it was all about the racing in those days, and the same people used to return every year. Now they just want the one offs for a piss up, but there is nothing sustainable about that. I have been to NZ Cup day and Wgtn cup day about 3 times each in the last 7 or 8 years and it is so boring. I just happen to have been in Auck about 3 times on their cup day over recent years and it has never even occurred to me to head along. 30 years ago I would have been so excited to go to Auck cup day.

Sounds like a tea totaller function John. No sav?

I largely noted premium cheeses, brie etc, which really are about a third of the cost of NZ, bigger blocks were significantly cheaper than in NZ but I forget exactly what price. You don't see NZ cheese here so I have no idea where it goes. It does show what competition and a bigger market can do.