the galah

the government passed legislation that created the legal process for the tab to enter into the agreement with entain. . The nz government never put any money in when the entain deal occured. the nz government provided a support package/bail out for the nz tab/racing industry board around 2020 to the tune of around $70m because the tab had been so poorly run.It was around covid time,but nothing to do with covid.That was a one off to keep the racing industry here afloat. nz government do not fund nz racing anually. never have. once harness have spent their share of the entain money,they have to rely on wagering to cover their stakes. as 've i mentioned previously,fortunately thats not just wagering on nz harness,if it was things would look very dire,but it still appears hrnz are happily spending,without understanding of exactly how much income they will be funded by entain. Entain don't even know,they're also guessing until they have had a year of the geo blocking. as to victoria. victorian harness overspent. So the victorian government came to an agreement where they said,we'll wipe your debt to us,but we're taking your asset worth over 100m, the spare land they around melton. tabcorp has a longer term guaranteed funding agreement with wictorian harness. Nz only has 2 more years guaranteed funding. i've worked for a giovernment department and understand what gamma was saying. They get funded x amount of money each year,then when they get near the end of that finacial year the departments look at what they were allocated and if they haven't spent it all theygo on a bit of a spending spree as that way they can say to the govt,this is waht we spent last year so you need to fund us at least the same this year.Thats totally irrelevant to nz racing as its not governmant funded

of course i'm referring to nz.

maybe this post illustrates why you don't understabnd what we are saying. because what you've just posted has no relevance as far as i understand things,because racing does not get any annual allocation of funds from the governent, that they have to spend within a certain time frame. Never has..

is that graph for all 3 racing codes combined? It would be interesting to see the individual graphs for each code.

if we thought hrnz could afford to sustain the level of stakes funding ,then you would only have discussion about where that funding is best directed. in other words we can debate whether hrnz directing funding to x or y is approprate,but at least its going to people within the industry,either way. however,most don't belive hrnz can sustain the level of stakes and are significantly overspending,therefore that will result in both the x and y sectors of the industry being impacted for the worse. gamma,when you comment on who should get funding,your commenting on the first part and of course that ultimately comes down to opinions and the difference in opinions is fair enough,but you never seem to place much focus on the second part of what 've said. the second part will always be the most significvant for everyone long term. because funding priorities can change if you have the money to fund them,but funding priorities won't exist if the funds are no longer there and things will revert back to bare minimum and survival mode.If that happens then there will be a far greater outcry against everyone involved in thecurrent decision making.

i bag hrnz's current financial management team. i was once in a co-op and it used to be well run.Then people in charge changed,others retired and things started going off the rails.So i spoke up at meetings and pointed out some obvious truths about finacial matters. e.g. i wanted them to put systems in place to ensure every $ was accounted for,in particular around honesty.. management said,what are you on about . I said,why can't you do the maths at meetings . in the end i got tired of it,,so just made sure the office credited my account with every last $ i was due. .Well ,guess what,turned out i was right and the company eventually admitted $100,000 of shareholders money went into the ether.i was the only one not effected .That is differetn to anything hrnz is doing,no dishonesty at hrnz i assume,,but the same in that sometimes things are pretty obvious. But people always choose to see only what benefits themselves short term and ignore the self harm they are doing by refusing to listen to common sense voices. What i learnt was,well all you can do is put your opinion forward ,but it doesn't change that people always prioritise self interest. its just the way the world works. harness racings no different. everyone is just trying to do whats best for themselves. But hrnz leadership should be there to do whats best for everyone,not whats best for their mates and the people or clubs who have the influence.

i don't mind a bit of sarcasm. . only thing is,you have said many times that you belive the first pararaph. you are consistent.Always,focusing on the desparate plight of harness racings rich and famous,worried about where they may get their next meal from if the north island stakes were to be cut, or hrnz was to say,no more 5 horse fields. You've got me feeling sorry for them as well. I will put in a kind word if is see them at the foodbank next week and will drop and email to brad steele and voice my support for more 3 horse fields and 50,000 series,whatever they call them. theres my bit of sarcasm. i'll be honest like you gamma. i don't give a second thought to just how tough it could be for harness racings rich and famous. Why. Because they are rich and famous. i care far more about the battlers and the small timers who have also spent their lifetimes dedicated to the same industry and haven't the wealth or had success to any great level,but kept plugging away because of their love for the sport and the horse. yeah,great stuff ATC. eroding their asset base by half a million a month for the last couple of years is something to really applaud. Well done ATC. Oh and well done cambridge.they know how to dig themselves into a huge financial hole as well. Well done to them. And well done hrnz. You know how to pick the best run clubs to throw the industries financial resources at. Come in atc and cambridge.

yes its alright. Its just not practical to ban betting here on aussie dogs. i wonder,will the nz greyhound trainers still be able to train up their dogs and sell them to australia in the future as potential racers/ i don't know why the states that still have greyhound racing just don't follow the recommendations of the nsw commission that came out last year. its the scale of greyhound racing that is both their strength and their weakness. the solutions didn't seem too hard to implement,its just people liked it the way it is and turn a blind eye to the dark side of the way it is. Then you get commission of inquiries and bans citing all the old issues and for some reason the industry claims to be blindsided. i've always thought thats strange.

when i watched dave fahey interviewed after his last nz cup win,he said it all really would mean nothing as the sport was going to disappear this year. it sort of reminds me how harness breeders have had their broodmare families for years yet no one wants to breed from them anymore due to the declining interest in harness racing.thats also very sad. fahey seemed quite upset,as i think hes entitled to be.I watched that and thought,how did the greyhound people not see it coming and why were they blaming winston peters when it was the greyhound industry which had evolved into something which had a dark side to it. the demise of the industry was always a given. I used to infer that when posting on the greyhound part of this webisite . greyhound racing had evolved to rewarding large scale mass production type farms and there were kennels who simply took advantage of that. The injury thing was significant,but thats not what tipped the industry over.. the signs were there when the cole kennel had their live baiting thing ,where they had so many employees not willing to tell the ruth and they attacked those that did. The mcinerney issues. have you ever read how many really bad incidents involved that kennel on the jca website.. It was all down to the scale of how they operated.how could anyone not see that was what contributed to the industries demise.These were the industries flagbearers,yet they were the industries own worst publicists. have people ever read the anaylisis of data the former nsw chief vet did when investigating injuries. He specifically identified a major spike in injuries when dogs were backed up within 2 or 3 days.. Yet,that had been the practice of the likes of the mcinerny kennel for years. That kennel must have known,but it was all about the money. As i said on the greyhound forum,people should read what that nsw vet said in his submission to the latest nsw commission. The latest nsw commssion findings highlighted many issues the greyhounds had over there and they all still applied to nz. i only have been to the greyhounds once in the last 3 years. I referred to it in a post at the time. Not 1 spectator ,no racebook and only 2 people in the bar under next to the bridcage at addington. 1 of those the photo man who trundled out every race to take a photo.Off in the distance the handlers would come out,then they would race in the distance. that off in the distance,detachment somehow summed up the industry to me at the time. It had no personal connection with anyone except themselves. I remember going to forbury about 10 years ago and going over near where the dogs came onto the track only to be told by a trainer words to the effect,piss off,this is the greyhounds area. I only was going to have a look at them come out onto the track. It struck me,that fella reflected the same type of attitude you would read about in the jca reports when the likes of the schofields or the coles were fueding with people. Or when you read the way they argued with each oither on socail media forums like the other channel.Their was this sense of hostility. it was all such a far cry from all the trips i would make to que2 to watch the dogs. those were the days. also,just last month the nsw government advised wentworth park was not getting their lease renewed and would be demolished and that the government would instead invest 10m supporting racing at their other tracks.they plan to build up to 4800 houses and 20 sports fields on that ground. thats being viewed as a major blow to the industryin nsw,although the current govenment has no plans close the sport down. So greyhound racing seem safe for quite a few years there.

it was a great movie. i see no reason whatsover to think betting on australian greyhound racing will stop here.That makes no financial sense.

it will shrink considerably in the north island. thats due to hrnz ,atc and cambridge not having any forward thinking and everyone up there just putting self interest over the overall industries interest. canterbury and southland are doing the same,just not to the same level. .In other words,let those currently involved who are mostly older, lead out their lives for the next few years confortatbly and give nothing more than lip service when expressing concern about those around in 10-15 years time. hey i get thats just a human thing,but there will come a time when people will look back and say,yeah,we should have done things differently. the industry is shrinking significantly in canterbury and southland. It already has and is continuing to. People just have to open their eyes and its obvious. The rate of its decline is quite amazing when you compare things to what they were,even as little as 20 years ago.

the courage reactor race that you mention wilson house came from the back to win. They only ran their last 400 in 30.1,because the horse in front was driven beyond its abilities so was always going to stop. short distance racing does provide a significant advantage to horses drawn in and who can race on the speed.Moreso than those run over 2400. more punters prefer long distance racing,but as you say,what the ounters want is not the priority.Hrnz have prioritised is getting horses to have more starts so as to keep field sizes up,.but the irony is hrnz is doing that while doing the opposite in the areas i mentioned earlier. at the end of the day,i think while the distance of races is of importance,its just another symptom of a declining industry which has many other issues it is not addressing which will impact it far more.

you can't compare gallops to harness. ask any punter and they will tell you they think the gallopers are always trying and the trots are often just there to follow them around. and everyone knows thats true anyway. Thats the way the harness rating systems work,especially over there.run them down the track with some quiet follow them around runs . Its not like people don't know that. personally i think addington 1980 races should be limited to 10 runners,not 14.

that wanting an optimum field size is just talk. you have to judge them by their actions,not the talk that comes out of hrnz. its very obvious that hrnz have strongly been pushing policies which have directly lead to so many small fileds. The 2 year old racing,the high class racing,the over saturation of racing at cambridge and auckland

then again the opposite also applies. if people say greyhound racing should continue here,then they should also be supporting greyhound racing and gambling on it, continuing in australia,not suggesting our government should ban betting on it. i'm sure the people who supported banning it here are consistent and want betting on it banned here and in australia as well.