the galah

If that bet they had in the last was as you have suggested,then yes they would have only lost $25,300. I've never taken a power play beforef, so looking at the ticket on their website had thought with don't stop dreaming being the first named on the ticket,it had to win and kango run in top 4,but looking at it again can see what you mean. But that changes nothing in my eyes. Entain still have refunded them over $25,000. They have never refunded me a cent before. My posts may have got the amount wrong,but $25,000 or $150,000 refunded,changes nothing for the way i see it. as far as boys get paid goes,good on them for doing what they do to promote the sport.And to their selectors,whoever they may be,i hope they do take entain to the cleaners each time. But when i say that, i know puntings not like that and that sometimes you have to cop losses, like the rest of us. But no,thats not always the case. BGP have been refunded large amounts on multiple occasions,and i,the average punter have never been refunded a cent. Its clear who entain value more,and its not the punter who turns up and invests at nearly every race meeting run.There is a clear double standard here.

Advertising budget? So they lost what,close to $150,000 going by their facebook page. So ,your suggesting entain thinks having the bgp involved is worth $150,000 in advertising. Even if they did think that,which i don't believe makes any sense,then it still ignores how they treat the average punter. I'm going to finish talking about this now,as i don't think i've felt so strongly about anything for a long time. Its how they make me feel about how they value their everyday customers,of which i have been one for decades, that makes me so annoyed. And no,i didn't have a bet tonight. its not about money. These days i find myself asking myself,why should i bother betting on the horses. Yes,i still enjoy gambling on the horses,but i don't feel i get a fair go as a customer anymore.

So you are saying entain had already decided they would give the bgp their money back before they even started losing. So it was just a charade,fake to create publicity.Maybe your right.So much forthe value entain place on trust You know today,i rung up entain,the 0800 102106 number. You see i read on their website that you get $50 in bonus bets if you open an account with them. Well i knew someone who had closed their account a few months ago and i saw that and suggested to them they should open another account and have a bet tonight,instead of betting with an overseas agency. That person said to me,ok,but first how about you check to see if they won't just say,hey,you had an account last year so you won't be entitled to the $50 bonus bets,and you will just have to reopen your old account, not a new one. i thought about it and thought,you know,this is entain so they could be right and they wouldn;'t want to give away $50 when they didn't have to,so i rung the helpline. And sure enough,was told it would take a while before you could reopen a new account,but they wopuld open the old account. And no,no bonus bets.. Apparently the person thought that even in 3-4 years that would still be the case. So the person i was talking to sai,told you,and didn't bother. Now compare that to how entain value that customer to how they value and treat bgp. Entain,tab,whoever,they couldn't care less about the average punter. They only want yourr mone if your jjust an average punter.

and to top it off,the boys get paid facebook page has been arrogant enough to take a swipe at all the mugs who bet with entain and who have never in their lives been given a 100% refund. "haters will say its fake,but they always complain" is what the bgp have said when announing a 100% refund. No bgp,i'm not a hater. Only an idiot would say what you have on your facebook page. bgp,you completely don't get it ,obviously.

You can't have read what i just posted,nowornever. According to boys get paid,entain just gave them 100% of their money back.

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the boys get paid are treated different from you and i newmarket and indeed any other punter in nz.. If you and i lost our money,Entain would rub their hands and couldn't care less. But if the boys get paid lose their money,theyget the extra special preferential treatment and they get given their money back. Yes,.thats what it said on their facebook page,100% money back after losing everything tonight. Seriously,thats another reason why i no longer bet with the nz tab/entain. The average punter who keeps the industry funded get treated with no value whatsoever,even though we have spenty a lifetime betting. Also,i thought that hrnz is always talking about yields and returns to the industry. Thats all a load of bullocks obviously. i say good luck to the bpys get paid,its not there fault that tonight entain underlined with endless!!! which customers they value and who they don't. I'm happy i no longer have an account with entain. If entain think they are creating good publicity with their refunds,they completely have missed how the punters who turn up and have a bet at every harness meeting run in nz feel about their double standards..

Was a good race to watch. The start was interesting and the aussies had each others tactics sussed from the start. All 4 aussie drivers ended up in the perfect positions and dominated the race tactically. Just believe just such a tough horse mentally controlled the speed and deserved the win. Of the new zealanders,midnight dash went ok and i thought muscle mountain,although only 7th was still good but it was obvious with a round to go he wasn't in the right position to expect to win against such good auusies. On to the pacers shortly.

Turned out to be a cunning plan that fell off the rails at the end. In the write up of last weeks win they stated he was intending to start this week at methven to meet the qualifying requirements to start in the $110,000 country cups final. yes he was nominated for Methven,but for whatever reason has now been withdrawn.So he ends up having started in 2 qualifying races,when he needed to have started in 3. Bit of a shame in one way,as he must have been hard to beat and would have started close to favorite..

No longer freeze branding is creating an issue for ex harness horses in the USA, with more now being sold and ending up in auctions where they are more likely to be bought for slaughter or to end up in what they call kill pens. The problem is ex harness horses were previously being identified through their freeze brands and were easily identified and were being bought because of their temperaments and previous handling and were ideal for other uses post racing and also many were being bought by organisations who rehomed them. Problem is now,without the freeze brands,people can't tell anymore. Apparantly you can still get in the pens and if you can get the horses in the pens to stand still long enough for you to find the chip and hold the scanner against it for a few seconds ,then you can tell,but everyone is complaining that isn't really practical or entirely safe sometimes.Also there has been complaints of the scanner occasionally not always reading the chips and multiple scanners having to be used on rare occasions on a horse.. So it was recently proposed the USTA introduce a rule requiring both. Apparantly the extra cost is only $40-$50 per horse,but USTA has upset many by simply saying,no the extra cost is unnecessary and seem to have the approach that where they end up isn't really their problem. Also it seems that is also the attitude of most in harness racing in the USA. For example in 2021 10,000 horses were identified and only 2600 were given both a chip and a freeze brand. Of those 2600,most were owned by the amish. The amish object on religious grounds to micro chips in their cattle and horses as they believe the chips 15 and 16 diget numbers are the mark of the beast warned of in the bible's book of revelation. Also the likes of jeff gural also freeze brands as he believes in rescuing any that he has bred that end up in kill pens. It apparently can be a double edged sword with the amish,as they but a lot of ex harness racehorses,but move them on when thye are no longer useful. Its those Mexicans and Canadians who love to buy them and immediately transport them to their countries to be sl;aughtered and processed, or on sold to the likes of japan for human consumption. Canada not the best place for a ex racehorse given the number of ways they can expolit them for the $. Anyway,it does make you wonder ,wouldn't we be going to have the same sort of problem here and in australia as well given there is no longer freeze branding. Ok,not on the same scale, as they can't be exploited as much as in say canada or the usa,but some are sure to be overlooked going forward,whereas in the past people would have bought or rehomed them knowing their background as harness horses.

Yes,thats what hes done in his last 4 starts,so there was a pattern there. Easy to be clever afterwards ,but just saying. I never had a bet myself as i thought mounga would win but don't bet on races with him in after the coast as prefer something else to win myself.

Audacity is a talented horse,no question there,but he was never going to beat mounga today. Audacity has broken just after the start in his last 4 races,and inexperienced ,nervous starters like him who have horses on a handicap rushing up to them as they try and find their gait early,well it was always a safe bet he would gallop.And so he did. His only problem going forward is,like with any horse, chasing the field can be hard on both body and mind,so lets hope he can race in the right races to get his starting confidence back.

Good old Mounga. Wins the cheviot cup as predicted. Still needs one more start to qualify for the country cups final i see. Probably next week at methven i suppose,then into the final. I see those races over on the coast weren't part of the country cups series,so i guess that was another reason they wouldn't have been on his radar to win. They certainly peaking at the right time i suppose. Obviously the todd stable has had a cunning plan all along. Only hitch was how badly some punters perceived their tactics on the coast.

Thats not the case from my observations. If you had looked at them prior to the trackside changes,i'm almost certain there hasn't been much of a change from then to now. Win pools on the tote on nz harness generally average about double on the win pool to the place pools. I think the low pools are less around 50% and the higher win pools that get around $10,000 or more have over 60%,sometimes 70% of that in the place pools. It just makes sense for them to be like that anyway. Two reasons i can think of. The aussie place pools on harness are lucky to get to 30% of their win pools. It happens virtually every hanress race there. e.g. right at this moment a race from mildura is being run. On the nz tab the commingled win pool is $15751,place pool $4892. So the commingled money coming into our pools from aussie will always be more on the win than place. Secondly the bookies who off load their ff liabilities do so nearly always into the win pools,as that can mitigate their losses on a win pool but were they to do so on the place,given the pools are much smaller,its almost pointless for them to do so. Hey i understand why some are complaining about not seeing the place ff dividens,given they are used to it,but reality is i think people who bet on the place have to open their account to put a bet on anyway,then click on the odds when they select their bet,so they are going to be see the prices whenever they want anyway. I guess what some may be saying is they keep the device they bet on in another room and its not as convienient to go from room to room when assessing what to invest on. If they do have their device they use to bet with them in the same room as the tv,then why not just look at that.

Well,after last week i have to be fair and acknowledge what a clever and well executed drive by mr cox to win the group 2 with on alta meteor tonight. Sometimes even clever drives don't always get the luck they deserve,but tonight there was no stopping mr cox. On his day,mr cox can match it with the best. Well done that man.

Bored,so i thought why not have a look at what phil holden has done previously,to get an idea of what hes like. So i have had a look at media interviews and press releases he has done from previous roles. One thing i will say,is he sure can waffle on. Hes obviously had some high power jobs as leaders of sporting organisations,but he reminds me of a politicain who will say all the right things without ever giving a clear answer,even to a yes and no type question. He loves words like journey,courageous. Places a lot of emphasis on ensuring he comes across as caring and sensitive and that organisations he leads prioritise emotional,spiritual and physical wellbeing and so on.. Certainly loves greeting in maori,although i have to admit again i didn't understand what he had said at the start of one interview,just that i guess it was a greeting of some sort at the start. In one interview he definitely thrashed the maori interviewer when it came to using the most maori words. So,the question is,will having someone who can waffle with the best of them, help the harness sport. If so,how? He reminds me of one of those government department bosses who is a nice guy and gets on with everyone,but do they actually improve anything. My guess is he will create the illusion of progress through words.But at the end of the day,harness racing needs a doer,not just a good talker.can he do both? i think the juries out on that question.

The chair of hrnz gave his march update on the hrnz website recently. Chair i guess means chairman,although phil holden probably prefers chairperson. He started his march update with kia ora.fair enough, I think we all know what that means. But he ended his update with a one liner "nga mihi mahana",then signed his name under that. So what did he say . I'm not sure, but his use of the maori language i guess is a clear sign of the imprtance he places on being poltically correct,inclusive and mutliculturally sensitive..why else use it? But who is it he is addressing. Because i'm pretty sure most of the people within harness racing have no idea what he said,nor care whether he can show off his maori language in harness racing. I would like to bet that less than 1% of people within harness racing could speak or write a sentence of more than 6 words in maori. And i'm also pretty sure that most who read that thought to themselves,does this man have any idea what people think when they read that. You know,on this site,not that long ago i started a topic which ,summarised said words to the effect. Next time your at the harness races,take a look around you and ask yourself ,who are the participants in nz harness racing. Is it diverse racially,ethnically. Its not because harness racing choses not to be diverse,as people in the sport happily welcome anyone who wants to participate. Its just the way it is. When was the last time you heard anyone,i mean anyone ever,say we need to increase the use of the maori language. You haven't,because no one within harness racing cares about that. So what is phil holden trying to prove or achieve by using words next to no one will understand.

I must be watching a different station than everyone else. I need glasses to read bit of a yarn when seated in front of the computer unless i increase the size of the letters,but without glasses,i can see the dividends as plain as on trackside from the far wall in my bedroom,with the tv in far corner. Perhaps everyone you've polled chief is long sighted. Tell them to lean back in the lazyboy instead of leaning forward. Remember,my wife likes it as well so thats 2 for the new graphics. She likes the colours of the graphics that much that she wants me to paint the kitchen those colours. I've told her,honey,we rent this house.

yes i get that.. But i was meaning,well even if they did that,given you suggested it was similar to something sky racing australia was doing,then doesn't it make sense that sky racing,would have done some research before they had introduced it and that sky racing would be aware of customer feedback. I still think a global giant like entain,who saw its revenue increase to 4.78 billion pounds last year,would have a research and marketing department for this type of thing.

yes good point ranga,that would be a factor,although looking at the patterns of money invested in tabcorp pools,the timeslots and sky racing exposure look to be the main factors.Thats just from my observations. I remember a couple of weeks ago the last race on the first day at manawatu,had the highest equal turnover.It was a 7 horse race with not much form and low graded horses.I don't know what the pool was on the nz tab but i don't think it would have been as high as tabcorp. The aussies seem to be happy to invest as long as theres 7 or 8 running in nz and its there on their tv screen. I suppose thats partly because they are used to those field sizes in aussie.

I just mentioned that because you mentioned it earlier Its funny you think the pictures are a lot hazier,as my wife and i have been saying they look much clearer.. Agree its good to debate these things as we watch enough of it to have informed opinions whatever they may be.

when entain delivered their financial results for their global business last month, in it the deputy ceo said about nz,"the platform migration from the old,sort of state run nz tab business onto the australian platform is due in the 2nd quarter. So thats a nice catalyst and a real focus." so that sounds like what you refer to may be coming soon? I think entain are making some really good changes myself,the only thing i find disappointing so far is the australian betting pools on nz harness are bigger with TABCORP. Its just a shame they can't commingle with them as well or do something about taking steps to do so.

Well i like them and my wife likes them Personally i think its a big improvement,but i realise its a personal thing. I think you will come to like it in time,maybe,although not the no place dividend bit.. the wife just flicked it on to have another look at what may be bothering people,and there was a split screen of two meetings due to a false start. A much better split screen than i've seen before. As to the research,i'm sure entain being such a huge global wagering giant would have done market research about this type of thing or seen the market research and viewer feedback from the entity providing the coverage. And you must give credit to entain for getting racing coverage on freeview.thats got to be a good thing. But were you complaining when they had the same two win dividends up before todays changes.And they have had the speed the greyhounds run at for a while now.Had you watched the dogs recently from dunedoo or goondiwindi ,you would have seen that.

so to me that means i'm right,not wrong like you say. Or are you saying the similar graphics used on the sky aussie racing channels were put in place with no market research? That wouldn't be the case surely.

Why?