westbrew

I am one of a very small group i suspect who has managed to navigate thru life without reference to what i call The Facebook.

Spot on Harness4All, I think it is all about leadership and having people who are able to listen to all sorts of different opinions and respect them. Unfortunately self interest is something that now prevails both of the equine codes and until someone with a Passion for the sport with little or no self interest comes along the boulder will keep rolling downhill faster and faster.

Disagree Chief, it highlights that they like writing letters, Charging those who cross the line highlights that certain behavior won't be tolerated. And now with NZ punters not able to bet offshore maybe the codes just want to try and keep all the sheep quiet so there is no dissent in the ranks.

The betting Exchange has always provided the ability for punters to take odds or set their own odds, as well as the ability to lay a horse. The latest move by the Racing Industry i believe will be its undoing. How on earth they think they can keep young people betting on Racing with one agency offering inferior odds to those available in the rest of the world, is just crazy. The 15 online casinos when they are licensed next year will be pissing themselves laughing. Image if Australia outlawed all Bookmakers except Tabcorp and to boot also allowed online casino gambling, the racing industry would fall off a cliff.

I agree Chief, there has to be a line. However that being said i am of the old school and we learnt very young, Sticks and stones will break bones but names will never hurt you. While there are many opinions i have come across in life that I disagree with, I will always defend peoples right to hold and voice those opinions as long as they are within the bounds of our countries Laws. The simple answer for our friends at NZTR/HRNZ and The Ministry of Racing (AKA as RIB) is to charge those who do not follow the code of conduct with offences under the rules of racing. But maybe the Ministry Of Racing now has more people sitting in offices writing such letters than they actually have working at the races. Last count from the RIU/JCA days of 4 Full time office staff and 1 part timer the Ministry is up to about 14 or 15 Full time office roles plus some outsourcing, so guess this is what the industry will get more of.

They are now the Racecourse Investigators, One in Cambridge, One in Christchurch and One in the Deep south i think, maybe one in the Auckland area as well, don't think they attend much in the way of race day or training facilities anymore, and i think they report to the RIB Legal Counsel who is office based in Wellington, so if you want to get a hold of one just drop a line to the new RIB office in Wellington or the Office in Auckland or the Office in Christchurch.

This is just more of Winston's bullshit, wake up and smell the roses next year the TAB/Entain will be competing against 15 Licensed online Casinos, these casinos will be advertising and providing incentives to sign up like there is no tomorrow, and what do this list of people know about competing in that landscape, absolutely nothing.

So to be clear Turnover for year to June25 is up 24.4m and Gross Betting Revenue is down 310K, as many posters on here have pointed out the correlation between T/O and revenue is no longer relevant, so all the bullshit that Entain/TAB talk about with regards to Turnover is just hot air, turnover numbers by themselves are not keeping any stakeholders informed in regards to the financial health of the Industry. Funded Prizemoney, Club and Industry Funding, and NZTR operating = 121.94m TAB income and TABCorp and Race fields income = 98.04M I guess there is all the Fee income as well to make up the difference, however the key metric must be the Domestic GBR which is 71.59m, so in 3 years when the payout is 50% not the current guaranteed number the industry is well and truly up the creek without a paddle. And all the money that the Big breeders are paying to NZ First in donations will be well and truly needed to get the Government to Fork over more Public money to support an industry that just keeps asking for handouts.

Ok so here is the million dollar question, The rail for Friday’s meeting had been moved out six metres, a decision made based on advice from track specialists engaged during the 19-month renovation process and grow in process. Following a meeting yesterday between the Club, NZTR, Racing Integrity Board (RIB) representatives, and track specialists Liam O’Keeffe and Callum Brown, an immediate plan of action has been put in place to address the compaction issues. Are Liam O'Keeffe and Callum Brown the track specialists engaged for the renovation process??? If so they are the same ones who advised the track was good to go with the rail out 6m, and now they are providing another plan of action really???? We are grateful for the advice from the experts as we continue to refine the preparation processes for this new track surface, which differs considerably from the previous Awapuni track,” Taylor said. Come on so this is the first track of its type in NZ really???? they need to refine the preparation process for this new surface so what are the track experts, experts in if they are refining the process as they go really??? Read between the lines RACE revenue was way down with no racing on their track, ANZAC day is usually a reasonable day for them, so they thought they would kick off racing before the track had compacted properly, the trials held on April 8 with 13mm of rain caused significant damage to the renovated track leading to the decision to put the rail at 6 metres.” THE TRIALS CAUSED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO THE RENOVATED TRACK with 13mm of rain. I have been around the corporate world long enough to know this release is corporate spin of the worst kind, just own up RACE, NZTR and RIB you all decided to have a crack at racing before the track was fully ready.

Also on that, why is this Government hell bent on removing the Betting Exchange Bet Fair, via this monopoly legislation. So we have a right wing government who thinks competition is a bad thing???? Or is it just they like having their photos taken at the races with all the multi millionaires, but us poor old buggers who work 40 hours a week and just want to have a bet on a Saturday we are going to have to put up with shit service and shit prices.

And on what planet do we think giving TAB/Entain a total monopoly will improve anything.

The Big picture is that a number of years the "Industry" has been consolidating assets, with clubs merging and or closing and now NZTR coming for clubs which still have assets to provide relief for Clubs NZTR deem to be worthy. This tells me one thing the "Industry" is living beyond its means, they have been paying out dividends (stakes), without having worked out how much they require to maintain and refurbish their tracks. Thus the necessary work and money required to get their infrastructure back to decent standard is growing all the time. Once again i believe this is a critical failure of the NZTR Board and the members council. So how do you fix a problem that the Governance area of your "Industry" is effectively playing lip service to??? If you own a factory you work out what it costs to run and what it costs to upkeep and what it costs to replace in the long term and then you pay your dividends out with the money left over, these so called directors at NZTR do it the opposite way, they work out what dividend (stakes) they want to pay and then tell the clubs that's what's left for you to maintain the infrastructure for the "Industry". Thus we now have the situation where the funder of the infrastructure payments NZTR is blaming the clubs because they have not spent the money on upkeep that NZTR never gave them. And guess what NZTR answer is, shut down racing and or training in large geographical areas of NZ. So if we are having a witch hunt my vote is for NZTR Board and members council not the poor buggers at the coal face who have been totally underfunded for 20 plus years.

There is an old saying, If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. The right thing for these people to do is to resign and allow people who are part of the solution to replace them. I am sick of the press releases that come out time after time after time, track infrastructure is the biggest problem the industry faces and what is the NZTR Board response, hire a CEO from Sky City with no background or even professional knowledge of anything to do with Racing Infrastructure. I don't blame the new CEO he has only been here 5 mins but the Board and by extension the members council need to take a darn good look at themselves in the mirror.

So was the reason that NZTR gave them an award, so they could say how great they are and we don't need Levin because we have this wonderful club in Masterton, hence it adds to their narrative to shut Levin, this is typical corporate bullshit tricks that i am sure the New CEO is more than happy to employ.

If this is true that they are trying to sell Levin it is a disgrace. For sometime now i have been concerned that Winston Peters is a wolf in sheep's clothing, he plays up he is all for the little guy and he is racings best friend when in fact his party has been funded by certain very wealthy racing people who have no concern for the rank and file they are just rich breeders who wish to get richer by inflating stakes anyway they can including selling up community based race clubs so they can sell their yearlings for ever increasing profit. This Minister is a complete sham, closing Greyhounds, increasing Entains monopoly to include online, allowing NZTR to strip community clubs, letting the RIB costs get out of control ( I believe they have 3 large offices now ChCh, Wellington and Auckland, plus highly paid corporate roles being created left right and centre. All of these things are hurting the rank and file. Millions and Millions are being pissed away by mediocre management across the racing industry, they will continue to come for community assets as they are able to shit all over the little guy and continually paint it like its all the little guys fault.