the galah

i get why the auckland people continue to fight for whats best for auckland. thats the way it should be. But as to mr steele. This is what barry lichter reports he said at that meeting. what you have to do with mr steele is realise what he says and what he does are often 2 different things. so he said, he has no bias but his job was to ensure harness racing flourishes,particularly in the north island. he says nz needs 3 training centres,but his number 1 priority is the north island. so he recognises nz needs 3 training centres.(i believe they need 2,the other in canterbury.I have no idea where he thinks the other training centre should be). But effectively what mr steele has done, is support the direction of funds HRNZ could tap into,to auckland,thus undermining any plans for HRNZ to use funds to purchase land and put training centres in the other 2 parts of nz that he said needs it. so mr steeles actions show he does have a bias and his words are a contradiction. he says population base is why he thinks the north island can flourish. Auckland people have used that as a talking point to rally support to their cause,i have no problem with that. But i really believe only dumb people believe that,as its so blatantly obvious that auckland harness racing has in the last 3 decades shrunk big time while the population has expanded. like, if population was a favourable factor,then wheres the proof. If you use logical thinking,population growth in auckland is part of the problem.I could refer to several negative issues impacting auckland harness racing caused by population growth. Can anyone name one positive? i mean,mr steele should realise just because someone repeats something over and over doesn't it make it true. It may make more people think its true,but it still ain't true. why are they spending 20 million on a piece of ground they don't own. No doubt they will spend millions more in the future maintaining it. if they really do have access to 10's of millions of $ then they should be buying land,especially just out of christchurch . They need to have a plan where they set up 2 training centres which can be transformed into future racetracks in 10-15 years times,so that they cash up aleaxandra park and addington and move ,thus ensuring a future of the sport. What HRNZ have done is support a plan that virtually takes that off the table. I mean,its not only mr steele that has no vision,its the whole board at hrnz. the training centres should be set up in a way where parcels of land,of varying shapes and sizes, within that training centre are available for both leasing and leasing with a right of purchase on the understanding that if someone does purchase land within that area that the land purpose must be for harness racing and that, in the event of any future sale by a purchaser ,hrnz has the right to either buy back or can approve any future buyer. Thus maintaining the control of the purpose of the training centre.In effect using harness racing participants funds to make a training centre more affordable. this investing over 20 million on somethg you don't own is typical hrnz think. again it illustrates they only think 5 years ahead and really don't have the intelligence to ensure the sport of harness racing continues in a viable way. as to mr steele saying "we need to get the north island pumping". i wonder if he really believes tha can happen..Hey ,maybe he really does belive that. nah,i think he knows that won't happen. finally,I think of a trainer in auckland . they are now going to get all those new facilities,get to run in small fields with good stakes,the warmer weather and all the things tabman referred to. It got me thinking.If your a trainer in canterbury or southland ,who's currently getting up on these cold winter mornings and walks out into the paddocks gumboot high of mud,who trains their horses on frosty tracks,who has to maintain their own track and stables,who can see their owners no longer breeding so they will most likely have to send the wife out to work soon,and to be even handed,also send the mother in law out to work for that matter if shes living on the property. Then i think auckland might need to spend an extra 10 million on those new auckland facilities for the influx of trainers As why struggle when life could be so much easier in auckland. Heres a suggestion,that new auckland facilty seems to be an ideal place to put in an olympic size swimming pool where the trainers can lounge around in their swim wear ,watching one of the big screen tv's that the atc have bought for them.Given harness people seemingly are quite a randy lot from all the stories i've heard over the years,with the wife and mother in law away earning,they could have a young female(i had better not say stablehand as thats stereotyping), rub a bit of sunblock on their backs (and tummies for the randy ones).The only issue i can see is,they may doze off on the lazy friday afternoons and there may be a few late sctaching at the ribbon of light.

so mr rubber has ridden off on his white horse into the sunset. but not before he told his supporters(which exist primarily in auckland and nowhere else),that Hrnz can arrange for $20 million to go to the ATC from 6 funds,but hrnz are not providing any funding. oh,and we hope its 20 million,as we still are doing the paperwork for the funding applications. That of course is code for,instead of hrnz applying for the money and passing it on to the atc,lets just have it go directly to the atc,that way the idiots in the rest of nz will be fooled into thinking they're not propping up auckland. that man should run the country,hes that clever.Was he in sri lanka at one stage. nah,just kidding. oh and hes still saying aucklands population is a significant factor in how he views the importance of auckland. as i keep saying,name one positive thing to have happened for auckland ahrness racing from aucklands increasing population over the years. Just one positive trend which has impacted auckland racing in a good way. I keep asking that and no one ever answers it. obviously mr lichter ran out of ink to finish his story. you see,he didn't come to the part where neither the ATC or HRNZ have a plan to run meetings that generate break even results. You see,i would have thought they may have thought about that as any halfwit would realise its very important going forward. anyway,good luck to auckland and harness racing throughout nz . you'll need it. anyway,mr steele has ridden off into the sunset,hi ho moneybags and away.

isn't mr steele in auckland tonight trying to sell to aucklanders the best way to spend ten's of millions of hrnz funds on auckland. i mean,he would be loving it up there. the saviour has arrived. this could be his finest hour. he would ride in on his white horse called moneybags,have money bags stomp his feet a few times to get everyones attention. Then he would dismount,start unsaddling money bags by removing large sacks with writing on them like,forbury money,southland money,grass roots canterbury prizemoney.He would then pick them up,it would be a struggle as the bag with forbury money on it is rather heavy. then he would throw them on the table where mr mckinnon sits and mr mckinnon would flash a cheeky grin and stand up and address the crowd and say,i told you this restructuring was going to be a piece of cake. at that point brad,we know him well enough to call him by his first name,would spot tabman in the crowd. They would exchange a bit of banter,like your the man tabmanforever,no your the man brad,no your the man tabman,no your the man brad. after about 5 minutes of that only jamie,yes we know mr mckinnon well enough to be on first name tems as well,will be the only one awake and he will be observed doing starfish motions on the money,(and n,o no sexual pun intended there). so brad will call out to money bags and have him stomp his feet and all the members will awake and mutter yes,just as they are asked to vote, as if they have been dreaming a nightmare that all of a sudden awoken to a happy ending. then brad will whistle,money bags will come over,brad will jump on and let out a cry of,my work is done here, then a few hi ho money bags and away. he will gallop back out the door,do a couple of laps of the field while the blues traini and yell out to them,this is crusaders country now you bunch of losers, then gallop off into the distance. who was that masked man the blues players will say, wthwere will be whispers of ,was that rob penny. but then jamie will come out of the meeting room say and yell,not ron penny boys ,that was brad steele. remember this day,you will tell your granchildren about it.

Its interesting thar your % demograpics differ a bit from that of the average facebook user. You clearly have a significant, across the board, greater % of men,whereas they say on facebook its about a 53% women to 47 % men in nz.Apparently mums check facebook the most so that may skew the figures of the female users a wee bit. In the younger demographics in nz, they are seeing significant increases in the numbers of under 35 year olds using the likes of tik tok. Overall 37% of new zealanders use tik tok. But those younger users aren't your base anyway.But getting exposure on there is relevant going forward for hrnz. anyways,its also noticeable your overall %'s are more significant in the likes of the over 45 age group compared to facebook overall and i guess that would flow on into the over 55 age groups as well. And that makes sense given that is a base of nz harness followers. so given the % of over 55's using facebook in nz drops significantly, compared with other age groups. And given you've shown above your content is viewed in greater numbers by those in those older age groups. Then it just makes sense if you can get exposure to the older demographic through the HRNZ website then you would significantly grow your audience. the whole point of exposure on these things is positive ,relateable exposure. And thats what yours is. Its a no brainer that hrnz should be using your content to attract not only people interested in harness racing,but the casual observer . i guess thats why they don't do it. It makes too much sense.

Gammalite,Its like your thinking with your heart and not your head. And i read what tabman posts,i get the feeling he understands,but is happy ignoring financial realities. He would go well on the hrnz board. You talk about paying peanuts .. well we're saying HRNZ will end up paying the auckland participants peanuts in the fututre ,if they carry on living beyond their means, as they currently are. We are saying we don't want that to happen.I don't know why you ignore that,no matter how many times its said. We're saying its the current overspending that you and tabman forever support ,that will make it happen. So who is actually promoting whats best for auckland harness racing? And all the people you keep mentioning,i understand why you support them,but don't you think they want to have a legacy in a sport that is still relevant in years to come. The sport in auckland will die and with it their legacy. why would anyone support policies that would lead to that? And all the people you mention are rich compared with most in the harness racing industry,yet its the rich who you say should race for the bigger stakes. The generation will be far poorer,yet it is the poorer people who you seem to want to leave to race for peanuts. i understand why you think as you do,but we're saying at least consider the big picture.

i understand you have a large following on facebook . i have a basic understanding of how facebook works.I took a look at the data around facebook use in nz and it says as at last month 85% of people over 18 use facebook.. Just how regularly people use it,it doesn't say.So that doesn't help much.It said the figures were made up of more women than men.the 25-34 women demographic being the highest %. So how does that translate into relevancy for the data as to what we are talking about? for example i notice once you get to the 45 and over age group,especially 65 and over, the % using facebook drops away. And of course harness racing is a sport whose customer base is in the age group with the lesser % . Then theres people like me,who aren't on facebook .I only access your content by goggling it and these days you can only access the last 2 clips you have put up by doing that. If the owners association puts it on their website like you say,then they too will be limited by people,who your trying to attract,being unaware it exists. this not having easy access to exposure on the hrnz website is like someone trying to sell the product of the shop owners ,but the shop owner saying only do it out the back of the shop,when they could be pulling in so many more customers if they were allowed in the shop itself. also,hrnz seems to be throwing money here and there,why don't they put some into promoting the obvious. If its to be on the hrnz website it needs to be on the first part that comes up when you click on the hrnz website. Its content is unique and deserves that at least.No point putting it somewhere like the industry information part. somehow they need to get it where a special highlighted clip/segment of clips from each week is automatically sent to users who have clicked on the website previously.I don't know how any of that works though .But others do it. good luck with whatever you try anyway.

Actually i was reading the segment for the 2 new directors positions currently advertised at hrnz. What struck me,about the qualitiies they were looking for in someone to fill that position,was they could easily get people who have no idea wahtsover about the realiites of what makes harness racing tick. Its like they want people to manage the industry who know how to manage other indutries,yet if you follow harness racing you realise harness racing has its own unique issues and patterns. In other words,things that work in the private sector would be the opposite of what you would do in harness racing. i mean if they end up with directors who listen to mr steele or listen to some of the dumb arse comments you get on trackside,from people who ramble on about how strategically important auckland is primarily based on the fact it has a large population,then you will get dumb decisions being made be the new directors as well. Harness racing need people who can think for themselves, not be unduly influenced by the smooth talkers with self interests.

You seem to be saying because we think the small fields dominated by favorites are an unappealing betting product,then somehow that means we find the people and horses who provide that product unappealing. whcih of course is not what we are saying at all. In fact gammalite,what we are saying is we wish there were more of the people and the horses to make the betting product more appealing.. so how your characterising what w'ere saying, isn't a true reflection on what we are saying. your not alone in doing that of course. all auckland supporters do the same. They do it because they can't argue with the fact the betting product is generally quite unappealing,thats obvious. so they try and make it out to be a criticism of the people up there,when its very obviously not. Its actually unfair when people do that,but hey,its all they got to counter the argument. Actually,when you say we pick on auckland,actually i don't know about others ,but i've said several times soutthland is heading in the same direction. And we've all criticised 2 year old races at addington being unappealing.

i was reading the hrnz website news today. And it got me thinking about what i would like to see. well we all know i think the unhinged content should be on there.But that seems to be a no no for hrnz,for unknown reasons. But i was thinking the hrnz website should have something like what unhinged does and what they should do is take a couple of specific horses and just follow them through there life. They should provide 5 minute monthly updates on what is involved in those horses life. Right form a month prior to when they are foaled,right through to when they retire,how they are cared for by the stud,the breeder,why the stallion was chosen,why this why that as they progress through life,the cosr of this and that,the owners,who they are,why they race them,. It could end up a 10 year segment.The people who handle them when grazing and showcase not only winning efforts but workouts,trials races. Like shots of how the horses react to losing ,competing,etc,etc,mheir horse mates in the paddock,how they react to the weather,etc,etc.Even some loyal punters who bet on it ,win or lose,could get a mention harness racing need to be showing what makes harness racing tick,and its not all about winning. i bet it would slowly get get a huge following . maybe the unhuinged man is who they should commission to do that segment for HRNZ. but to me its something thats lacking when you look at the hrnz website.

3 more races at addington and addington have 4 winter rewards races that are a one off winter meeting. Addington don't run $35,000 races for mid grade horses like auckland do.

they changed that this week mikynz. so you drop a point if no extra srtake for 5th.

I think its very unrealsitic to think the sport will survive without betting. I know your ever the optimist,but thats a strange one gammalite.. As to the betting product ,its all about the quality of it whether it generates betting. And i don't mean the quality of the horses/drivers trainers. its not over complicated. Actually very simple. Punters bet more on the races that they find appealing and auckland turnovers are poor because obviously,they aren't an appealing betting product. You've referenced the victorian model. Gee,if ever you wanted a blueprint of what hrnz is doing,being done in the past,just look at victoria. past unrealistic spending by adminstrators who seemed quite dumb and incompetent. They lkept putting money into stakes when generating losses (sound familiar)and ,gee,guess what,they've had to slash stakes significantly. i really do think hrnz must have enough money in the bank to keep going paying the stakes they currently are,for the next 3-4 years as i feel the likes of mr steele will only jump ship before the shit hits the fan.And it will for sure,but mr steele won;'t be anywhere to be seen anymore. No one will get a bet on that happening as the tab would have it priced at 1.01 to happen.Actually how about they do that. come on entain,if you have any faith,put out a market on when mr steeles will go. Then we will see whether you believe what you say.Just joking,don't want to be censured.

No not mean gammalite,just worried that by running so many meeting at a loss,that it will eat away at the reserves hrnz have to sustain the industry in the future. Really someone has to be thinking of the people who will be trying tio make a living in the industry in 5-10 years time.Lining the pockets of the current auckland participants is i think selfish thinking.I don't get why some people can't appreciate that. anyways,back to the topic ,In my opinion,the answer is somewhere in the middle of the opinions expressed in this thread. As i have said before,run the meetings,but reduce the stakes if the number of starters is smaller. That way people can keep earning a living and that way the cash reserves hrnz have don't get eaten away too quickly. but doing as they currently are doing,simply is unsustainable. why do auckland have all those $35,000 races for mid grade horses regularly and addington only get $25,000 races less regularly. Why are auckland people more deserving than canterbury people.. then you have the 2 non win races with the really small fields as always. HRNZ pay out over $20,000 in stakes and bonuses to the connections of the winners of those 2 races,meaning they are tyhe 2 highest paid of the winners of all the reaces run on friday,no matter what the class. again why the preferential treatment Personally i think the new handicapping system seems to be going ok. I noticed they ran a couple of races where they allowed 1 win horses who hadn't recently earned much to run against the non win horses. I particularly like that as they need to do that if they are to maximise the racing potential of all the horse population. The 1 win horses who had won the weaked,lesser stake races need to have a future and should be slowly allowed to transition back to the level of non win grade they can be competitive without being dominant. Theres something about mr steele's regular comments, which fail to inspire much confidence in what hes doing, for me. i wonder what will happen with auckland. aren't they deciding that tomorrow. will hrnz leave the whole of nz hraness regions with an anchor called the ATC,that will eventually drag them to a standstill.

funny thing is i think that actually was a good start. Birdy was moving forward a wee bit like you sa,y but they were in a reasonably fair line.. from my observations,there was a deliberate attempt a couple of months ago to have them standing and giving them all a fair start and it seemed to be getting to a point where it was working. But just recently they have gone back to giving slightly moving starts and you are again seeing the people drawn in the middle,who are on the last horse to turn in from the the pre race circle,being disadvanteged.They often still aren't getting fair starts . and why is that,well its because some of the drivers are more worried about being told off for getting a running start than they are about getting their horse in an advantageous spot before they say go. You see,the last horse to turn in from the pre race circle has to be the last horse moving forward. I.e.,because its the last horse to turn in. so you see the clever ,very confident drivers keep walking up to take up their position when the started is saying stand and you see the less clever,not as confident drivers stop and stand when the started says stand,even if they haven't ahd a chance to get into their position. If you watch it,you can tell who they are as it happens often enough to see a pattern. but as i said,the race you've highlighted was as good a start as you would get for non win trotters.

now that interdominion final was a real horse race. I think you pulled off the trail a fair way from home from memory.you were swatting flies with the whip non stop from that point.2 great horses and the people involved really different characters. Trainers/drivers these days don't seem quite as colourful,if thats the right word. as to leap to fame,he wouldn't have been able to come off if the horse ourside him was slightly ahead of him.and given leap to fames average gate speed on the night it looked tom me an opportunity lost. leap to fame and dixon has got those aussie drivers beaten in their heads before they even start.Nz drivers can be negative sometimes ,but if you had some nz drivers in those races you would have seen better tactical driving. Where was b orange when we needed him.