the galah

so your saying grass roots particpants can no longer compete anywhere,even though if you go back 20 years,grass roots people had no trouble competing for the previous 100 years or so. actually ,i would partly agree with that. i talk about mindset as being a significant factor in peoples participation. Well part of the reason grass track meetings still have good numbers,is because the small time trainers who go there don't fear having to run against horses who they think are both superior and on legal performance enhancers.You mention the likes of the dunns,hopes,williamsons being too good at the grass tracks. The trainers you mention who attend the grass track meetings are repected,both for their horses but also their attitude to fair play,

our definitions of success are different.. i'm looking at the slot races and saying,do they do anything to increase numbers being bred,number of participants,number of owners,punter participation,those type of things. I would say the answer is a definite no as all the things. the rate of decline for all those indicators is still picking up speed. If i was to look at the slot races and say,do they give the harness media something to focus on and does it get some positive publicity for a couple of days racing,then yes it does. But do not underestimate the message hrnz sent to the bottom end of participants in harness racing when hrnz chose to fund the slot races. HRNZ promised the slot races would not be funded by them. Why was that.Well i had thought it was pretty clear why. Because those on the bottom rungs would view it as yet another example of exactly who hrnz view as their priorities. I.e. the elite,the wealthy,the high achievers.. Just look at the statements hrnz made about why they funded them. As predicted when they first came about,you watch,this will become an examp[le of where hrnz priorities lay. I predicted it,because HRNZ are predictable. People need to understand the mindset of the people whose participation ijn the sport has been hanging by a thread. HRNZ cleary don't understand that mindset,or more obviously,don't actually care.They want those people to participate on hrnz's terms and people are reluctantly walking away. Its getting very dire for the industry.. Numbers being bred is a very dire situation.

dare i say it,thats was never the area which made harness racing in new zealand strong It is however,the type of thinking which we currently see at hrnz,and look at the results they are getting. HRNZ are failing.and harness racing in nz is in accelerated decline.. it should be a given, that the strength of any sport,is in the numbers at a base level. (participant numbers as well as followers of the sport numbers.) look at what sports like rugby do. Give them a choice of more grass roots participantion or a small number more at the elite level and they will categorically tell you the grass roots is of greater importance.thats what they have said. the strange thing is ,isn't the chair of the hrnz board also on the nz rugby board. Why doesn't someone ask him,why is the hrnz board perceived by so many as prioritising the elite and the wealthy in nz harness racing,yet your on a rugby board which is perceived as recognising the opposite end of the spectrum as of more importance. Personally i think the formula for what hrnz needed was staring everyone in the face, The focus and priorities should always have been on the retention of the people the industry already had. But they didn't . instead more have left than should have.An area especially significant,has been the decline in the base of small time breeders.

are you saying HRNZ isn't responsible for the decision making that directs where the industry is heading. sorry,but i don't get that. Who is it you think is in charge. And are you saying HRNZ was somehow instrumental in getting entain to come along and privatise the nz tab. thats not what i thought happened. I thought entain saw an opprtunity to make big money out of the sports betting in nz and the governmant and the tab was able to negotiate the racing industry being a big benefactor of that deal. As i've quoted before,entains last annual report specifically referred to the sports betting as being the main reason they wanted the tab. Without the sports betting they wouldn't have ever have been interested in nz racing. I've pointed out above all the key indicators and your response is,well its not hrnz's fault.But Hrnz are the ones who always say " they will manage future growth(their words). Your saying hrnz has been so successful that all the aussies are coming over. as i've pointed out before,many times,where is the evidence they wouldn't still come if the level of satkes for the bigger races were lower.I have used the examplwe of lhe greatest field to run in australia last year was ibn the hunter cup which was run for a stake that was only $250,000. Remember the big float trip leap to fame toook,driving across australia. His owner said at the time it was because of the sugnificance of the history of the hunter cup,not the stake.Besides, haven't aussie horses always raced in the big nz races. Why are you saying hrnz is doing something new,when its always happened. if slot races were such a great thing for the overtall good of the industry,then why is the australian harness one such an abject failure. harnesslink had a story related to that on their website yesterday. A high profile australian breeder claiming mares being bred this year,in that state ,could be down as much as 25% . And that would make it a 50% decline since the introduction of the eureka,4 years ago. so if slot races were that good,then how do you account for the australian ones failure. the slot races in nz needed big injections of cash from hrnz to be run. So what does that tell you about them being a success story. Why can't people see,that the people the industry is losing,and they will be lost forever,are looking at where hrnz is prioritising,saying to themselves,hrnz is all about the big players and auckland,thats not me,i've stuck around hoping they may change,but they obviously aren't going to,so i'm out of here. unhinged does race them in both islands,but his focus seems to be on the south island. . thats up to him. maybe some of the syndcates owners are based in the north island. He just seems to be chasing the bigger stakes mostly anyway with the handful has has had up there. you know,you would have to ask this about that stable. Theres robert dunn,all in on the need to have truckloads of money prop up auckland,because he says, theres a demand from auckland people. Mr dunns been there several years now,yet the horses he races seem to all have canterbury connections. like,how long does it take for this upsurge in auckland owner participation ,that he says will happen becauseof the large popualtion,flow through and create a noticable ,observable trend in the numbers he lines up with auckland connections. to the casual observer it seems a very slow burner.Someone needs to tell him,if he wants people to believe what he has said and to take what he says seriously,then he needs to show hes a results man,not just piss in the wind talker.

are you saying hrnz is doing a good job chief? what about the field size for 2 year olds racing despite them pumping all that money into bonuses,the declining breeding numbers,the declining licence holder numbers,the declining average field size,the increased number of hot favorites you get in harness racing,the declining tote pools that result in discouraging punter participation,etc,etc. I all of the above ,hrnz said they were going to fix ,yet they get an f for fail on them all. then throw in the blatantly obvious illogical efforts involving throwing money at trying to revitalise auckland strategy, based on the flawed narrative that auckland has a large popualtion and economy. and you seem to have come up with the reasoning that because hrnz spent more than they earned in the past,that its now ok for hrnz to do so. you know some of us find that a rather unrealistic approach to the industries sustainablity.

i see the dapto(nsw) dogs are coming to an end within the next year after the agricultural and horticultural society who own the land and lease it out to the dapto greyhound club,have not renenwed the lease. it was always a track that i wanted to visit one day if i got to australia,as it seemed people got so close to the action,going by what you saw on tv. Obviously that ain't going to happen . i wonder whats in the drake report into nsw greyhounds. obviously there's going to be a lot of negatives come out in that report,but they seem to be keeping it all under wraps and haven't made it public.Anti greyhound groups already vocally calling for it to be mad public. Seems the industry there fortunately has governamnet support anyway.

anyone watching that must have thought it was a shocker. jay bee hill charging the tapes and starting about 10m in front of the others off the front line. So with the advantage of 10m and a fast moving start it ended about 25m in front after 50m. If your having a bet,watching another horse get such an unfair advantage seems quite unfair and silly. and they want people to bet on those races how the starter didn't see what happened or did see it and allowed it was rather ridiculous.

i suppose the question will be,not whether the tab will gain,but how much it will gain from having a monopoly on sports betting in nz. Its not something i really know enough about to take a guess myself. the monopoly has been going for about 6 weeks now so i suppose the tab would already have some idea,although it is still relatively early days.

I see no ones answered this so i will give it a go. someone could correct me if its not entirely accurate,as at today,but this is how i understand the money generated from sports betting is distributed . The new zealand sports organisations,each have a signed agreement with the tab,giving the tab approval to operate sports betting on their individual sports and they have an agreement in how they are reimbursed by the tab from money bet. At one point the national sporting bodies,as a colllective,were pushing the tab to give them...a minimum of 23% net betting revenue to each relevant national sporting body plus 3% of net betting revenue to the wider sport sector via nz sport. that was just a minimum with individual nz sports organisations able to negotiate greater % with the tab. so as far as the sport betting goes the money flowws like this,the tab would deduct all the costs of providing the product,the sporting organisations get their share,enain get their share and nz racing their share.With greyhounds no longer there from next year then th likes of gallops are harness will get what would have been their share as well. so the geo blocking should be a major plus for nz racing because of the sports betting income boost,even if it doesn't help the racing income side. of course,sometimes sports betting revenue net profit varies whatever the turnover. E.g entains usa sports betting partner had a bad year last year because of all the favorites winning in the gridiron. but exactly how much,only time will tell . thats my take on how it works anyway.

i agree that its silly to call the possibilty of big fines loose change. i also agree that its just common sense to recognise that it was a significant advaantage to have had someone like dean shannon,a harness supporter, in charge at entain. everyone knows that people,organisations,companies decsion making is influenced by the interests of the people making the decisions. However it was shown to be a double edged sword as entain also collaborated with HRNZ to come up with their stupid and easily predicted failed policy of 2 year old bonuses which failed to result in the promised larger field sizes and more breeding numbers. that was an example of mr shannon influencing something which he appeared to think would benefit the industry because he saw how it benefitted himself. That is the best way to look at that,otherwise one could become a bit cynical about mr shannons poor judgment on that issue. But when we look at the big picture,he was putting a lot of personal time and effort into helping harness racing and him being the top entain guy was a positive harness racing no longer has.

at the end of the day,do you think their stock price or the level of the fine they get in australia or what goes on overseas makes any difference to what happens in nz racing?

when they got fined 650 million pounds for the turkey bribery thing,it impacted them significantly. I don't profess to know the significance or care much , of their australian legal woes.But clearly the global entain leadership and the markets consider it signficant.. heres some quotes from a story i read on it previously earlier this year. "in addition to its legal troubles in the uk,entain is facing regulatory challenges in other parts of the world,most notably australia.Austrac has opened civil penalty proceedings against entain,accusing the company of serious non compliance with the countries anti money laundering laws. Austrac claims entain failed to implement adequate systems and controls to prevent money laundering activities within its operations. entatin has responded by saying it is working towards resolving the issue and is working towards a settlement in 2025. However this growing regulatory scrutiny in australia only adds to the companies growing list of legal challenges.Several senior executives in australia and new zealand have already stepped down in response to the proceedings,but the long term impact on entains operations in the region remains uncertain... entain is undoubtedly facing significant challenges as it tries to move past the shadow of the turkish bribery scandel)they were fined 650 million pounds in 2023).... despite the ongoing scrutiny,entains financial results for 2025 show signs of improvement,with losses narrowing and the company managing to stabalize its operations.entain is also focusing on extending its global presence."

your talking about a south island/canterbury trainer. He also has his father as training partner who is in all on the auckland thing. I think you would find 90% of the high profile canterbury trainers,which race at the meetings like methven,the likes of john dunn,michael house,mark jones,greg hope,ken barron etc..would like to see the grass roots get more support because they recognise that sectors importance. its the elites at hrnz who seek out opinions that align with their thinking of putting the money into sector that do not support grass roots or canterbury.

if we look at the 2024 year. the 2024 annual report said HRNZ had a reported surplus of 16.87 million compared to a a 1.98 deficit the previous year. But,and its a very major but,it said the underlying operating surplus, if you excluded the one off forbury money was, 4.49 million. and it states the positive performance was mainly attributed to hrnz's share of the additional 15 million from tab nz.That could be traced back to flowing from the entain deal.. then you factor in the guaranteed miminimum funding disappearing after 5 years which could leave another shortfall to add as a negative,. so if you take out the one off payments then what they are doing currently seems totally unsustainable they seem to be expecting another payment from the tab now they have the geo blocking in place,they will get an increase from the greyhounds not being around to receive income from turnover on overseas racing but then you have harness clubs who have greyhouned tracks losing significant income from rental. so,theres many variable factors at play,but given in the future they won't be able to rely on theone off payments which it would be assumed will end within the next year or two, which have made it possible to increase prizemoney,then you would assume they will have to cut stakes significantly and cut out the running of so many meetings with low number of starters. Whatever way you look at it,if they carry on as they are, incurring losses from race meetings ,then its inevitable the industry will falter financially in about 5 years. doesn't it seem as simple as that?...A bit of a no brainer. so,given HRNZ leadership seem intent on maintaining the policies which will create a financial day of reckoning,one would expect those responsible to jump ship about 18 months before it happens. My guess that will happen in 2-3 years.

the latest comment that makes no sense to me again comes from mr peden,who in the short hrnz press release about the cambridge meeting that was cancelled said "we are looking at putting some of the stakes cambridge lost this week back into the region,just how it looks is to be determined" Now what is the logic behind such a comment. Does he not realise there was a race meeting 2 hours up the road that the horses from cambridge could have started in. Or why couldn't they have just said ,hey lets transfer those 4 races they could have held at cambridge,to be run at auckland.even use the same nominations to select the fields,run them for the same stake or whatever. Why is mr peden saying things that encourages people to say,hey if we don't go to auckland then we will get a bigger stake down the track. does mr peden not realise that the shortage of horses was caused by,you guessed iit ,a shortage of horses. Wheres his consistency. hes never said before that when there were programmed races at cambridge that weren't run he thought they should do the same.. i.e. when they only run 6 races,if his thinking is consistent,why hasn't he said the stake from the races programmed and not run on those nights, will go into the region. Why did they just add 4 new meetings to next years calendar in the auckland region.Can't they work out they don't have enough horses in that region to justify that. Also,where is the proof that running races like the southern surge or the golden gait or whatever,with the increased stakes,generates more overall starters throughout the year. If you look at auckland.all i see was people aimed at the bigger stakes,but did they actually race more over the season or will they do so in the future. If hes a so called data man,can he show us the data which says its more beneficial to put the money into high stake races on certain nights than it is to apply the increased stakes in lesser amounts across the board of all racing. these are the people at hrnz who came up with the 2 year old bonuses,which have done nothing to increase th number of starters in 2 year old races. These are the same people who said having a million dollar nz cup was needed. Where is the evidence having big stakes for those races did anything to get the connections of the horses at that level to start more in other open class races throughout the season. Also what strikes me about the auckland trainers is,put simply,they are far more wealthy on average than anywhere else in nz. Yet they are the ones HRNZ think need the support more. How does that make sense. oh well,in my opinion,its all just groundhog day.

i was just reading a study in sweden about whip use and whether it makes horses go any faster. they measured the horses speed 25 times every second in some swedish harness trotting races over the last 400m. Basically their findings could be summarised as whip use could make the horses run a bit faster,but that whip use in the last 100m actually makes the horses run slightly slower.. To use their words,the study found whip use seemingly pointless in making horses run faster overall. the study suggested that the whip use in the last 100m of a race making them run slower,was because of negative reinforcement. In other words they theorised the average horse has had the whip applied previously,that its slowed down previously as its got tired,so now whenever the whip is applied that is how it will respond each time. thats why they concluded the speed the horses ran over the last 50m of a race was generally slower than the previous 50m. it also noted more experienced drivers did not use the whip as much, because the drivers had come to the realsiation similar to what the study had concluded. actually i once bought a book by a fellow trevor payne,he called it fair means or foul,which referred to his time in england when a new zealander invested a lot of time and money in trying to establish harness racing in england.I lent that book to some about 20 years ago and he up and died and the family couldn't find it when i went to get it back.Anyway he said he always knew if he was going to win or not,because if the fella beside him went for the whip before he did he knew it would stop before his horse did,as thats just what he had seen countless times. Pretty much the same thing as the study concluded.It was an interesting enough read. he said in it about how they didn't use to have photo finished when he was there for a start and if he was in a close finsih he would always come back quickly and raise the whip and come in first ,before the judge gave his call and that he won a lot of races that he didn't think he had been first past the post.

actually mr steele, in an interview about 4 months ago said ,when asked what the % of money bet on the tote and on fixed odds was at that point,said about 60% ff and 40% tote. Maybe he included all the tote pools in that,he didn't say..Not sure how accurate he was,but you would hope its a bit more than that going through the ff as the tote pools are very small. the pools since the gallops meetings started on sundays haven't been great and the gallops going to a sunday meeting seems to have been a dumb move by them,which hasn't helped them or the trots either. like the gallops had a $100,000 race with a full field and plenty of form today and their win pool was only $7682 and $3716 place pool.. The non win pace at addington which started just before that had a win pool of $7503 and place of $3787.. Mind you,that one they had a wee delay pre start and as i've pointd out many times,any delay,even of a minute or 2 always boosts tote pools.

well he drove it well today,made the right moves but it lacked much zip. . its not as good as the winner anyway,so was really only running for 2nd,but given the run it got it should have run 2nd ,not 4th.. you gave to take your chances when you can win as you never know what may happen next week.if they stick to the amateurs and he drives,it may still get a win soon with a good draw,although may need to produce its better form to do that.

yes. in that same press release it says they have scrubbed 9 of the 15 ,and names them. But they also said in the same press release they have 6 new meetings and then named more than 6. isn't that an indication the numbers people aren't good with numbers. they are either poor with numbers or poor with the wording they use to describe their numbers. In this case it comes acrros that they can't add even small numbers(again)..

can anyone follow the press release on the hrnz website. it says "for harness it features 6 additional race dates compared to the 2024/25 season.They are addington(2),auckland (4),including 1 at ruakaka,methven,banks peninsula and oamaru(2)." i mean,whatever way you read that press statement,it doesn't add up to 6. Thats not the first time they have realeased statements that made little sense around figures.

The big players ,put simply,are more professional in how they lobby,influence and have greater access to industry leadership. They know how to play the game and are good at achieving results that look after their self interests.. So tabman,you have to recognise that is at play instead of just ignoring it. the likes of House and Jones float between the big race days and small racedays. If you want people who are aware of what the people are thinking at the likes of the grass track meetings that generate the profit making income for the sport,then house and jones would be the most obvious examples of who you would turn to. what does the likes of greg hope say. He would also have his finger on the pulse. lets aso be honest,no one can deny the reduction in small time breeders and the reduction in small time licence holders that has occured in recent years. Its not just a last 12 months thing, The reason those people have exited from the sport is mostly a combination of dissolusionmen seeing others being prioritised at their expense,being no longer affordable due to the cost of living of everyday existence and the lack of suitable facilities to use. so the collective voices of the small time players have become smaller and fragmented. In all the years i've followed harness racing ,in my opinion, the current leadership is the most out of touch with the grass roots players within the canterbury region who are exiting the industry.. why they are prioritising other regions and neglecting canterbury,when canterbury runs the most meetings that can generate profits, is of great bewilderment to me. i think its going to end up a very bad self inflicted wound going forward.

. it did cause a lot of ill feeling and friction and will cost hrnz a substanial amount of money,so i really don't think it could be called a clever move gammalite.But while it was a serious topic for those involved ,it wasn't for me and i find it interesting that you took what i said so seriously.

you say i mock,chief calls it fake news. obviously i have a different sense of humour. I know if someone was poking a bit of funonvolving me, i certainly wouldn't be offended. In fact i have always been able to laugh at myself,so top speak. But hey,we are all different i suppose.I have no problem with what i posted even if you or others do. as to you thinking it was a good move to expand the field with changed conditions. well the report said hrnz could,but didn't think they should have. now HRNZ will pay out around an extra $30,000. but hey,maybe they have plenty in the kitty to throw away.

the independent review makes interesting reading. so,i thought i might put out my own findings ,based on their findings. It all started on a sunny waikato morning at the waikato stables of galloping and trotting trainer graeme rogerson. there rogie and his foreman, well the foreman seems to remain unidentified in the official report,but lets just say we will make up an alias,say j/s,not knowing what his name is. So there they were ,spotted leaning on a fence,sunlight glistening on their freshly polished foreheads.. then they got to talking. Rogie.. "i see that young guns trotting final will have a small field"...is our horse yeah nah going to qualify" j/s.. "yeah nah..doesn't qualify rogie.. yeah nah the horse doesnt qualify or yeah nah ,doesn't qualify." j/s..exactly rogie...no i meant is yeah nah going to qualify next week at the trials J?S ..what you want yeah nah to qualify rogie...didn't i just say that J/S yeah nah... rogie.. are you getting lippy with me son J/s...what Rogie...just get yeah nah qualified J/S o.k. boss muttering under his breath why would anyone call a horse yeah nah. and thats how it all started,just a simple misunderstanging over what the initial pause in the conversation about a horse with what turned out to be an appropriate name. Will we never know whether rogie was referring to a qualifying trial to be run the next week,like it apparently was entered for,or was it the young guns final. Well we will have to wait ill his memoirs are written. But we know the foreman took it to mean the young guns final. so j/s contacted the northern handicapper(N/H),who then called the national hrnz handicapper(hrnz /h) so this is possibly how the conversation went between the 2 handicappers n/h..i got a call from j/s and hes saying his boss wants his 2 year old yeah nah to qualify for the young guns hrnz/h.. but he doesn't n/h..but can you change it so he can hrnz/h.. well if i did that all hell would break loose,there would be calls for my head,claims of unfairness and corruption,it would set a terrible precedent....um...let me think about it....um hang on i will toss a coin heads we do,tails we do, n/h...did you say heads we do,tails we do, hrnz handicapper,yeah 50% chance. thats what i always do in these confusing type of situations. hrnz /h heads o.k. i will arrange it,but lets just keep it on the q/t as we don't want people knowing n/h..mums the word so they publish the changed conditions but tell no one Yet way down south,on a day when the horses can't be worked because of what they call just a light shower in invercargill.i.e. 24 hours of heavy rain,inside is a trainer called n/w and n/w is on the hrnz website and low and behold,he stumbles upon the new race conditions...n/w to his wife..look i can run our trotter in that big race at auckland worth $50,000../n/w wife,.what,how can they change that n/w well it is hrnz...wife..well,that explains that,but whats to stop them changing it back,...n/w rings the owner n/w..we off to auckland...owner..great..we could do with another holiday. i've only had 2 in the last 3 months,see you in auckland. little did they know that they had stumbled upon a wasps nest of controversy,as down in little old temuka a former member of a ranfurly shield winning team,a bear of a man,had been awoken from his hibernation in a cave out the back of the temuka hotel, after receiving a call from his trainer...the conversation ,i would guess,went something like this. m/jj...ross....r/m....hhhrrrr m/j ross,you would never guess what HRNZ have done r/m...hhrrr this better be good as i was in the deep sleep part of my hibernation m/j theyve changed the conditions of the race wev'e set your horse for to allow others who shouldn't be allowed to start in the auckland race,i mean wtf,how can they do that....r/m...wtf did you just say, m/j...i mean wtf r/m...wtf,those dirty f north islanders,they did the same when we played wellington. Grant battys not the handicapper is he,because if he is i'm going to f.. m/j ..,no its the christchurch handicapper who ok'd it,i mean wtf well i will have to end the story there as its getting a bit long for me,but the above sounds about what most likely happened to me

i realise that. But the point being made was house and jones horses did not meet the criteira for the series of being based with a southland trainer since 1 july. that house has previously shown horses he has sent to southland as being located at t dewes training establishment,which is not what is occuring now that the southern surge has come around. so it appears that both house and jones have changed the way its recorded ,to meet the criteria to be eligible for the southern surge. also you seem to be saying mark jones also has lways had a registered training base in invercargill.Did mark jones know that? So why aren't the likes of the telfers shown as traing from winton when they go south. After all,they have a lot more horses race in southland than mark jones does. so are we to see house having registered training establishments at palmerston north? I am saying,all this came about because the southern people,according to what it had on a hrnz story,unfairly excluded trainers who regularly supported their meetings in the first place.