Tony

I would love to comment on this but due to recently starting a thread on Channel X I am afraid to. My posting on Channel X has upset the Foxton Racing Club President and his wife. On arriving at the Foxton Trials on June 28th I was handed a letter from the FRC President with an ultimatum. It stated that as a member of the Club and Track user my post was unacceptable. The letter was "a first and final warning that if any repeat happens you will be banned from all grounds administered by the Foxton Racing Club." Free speech is alive and well in Foxton and Nomates you should keep your identity hidden if you are a local.

Well Chief I would have thought to keep a balance of information on your site you would have posted both sides of a story by now. I notice that you have only posted the article written by a Journalist that is paid by Racing Victoria to write articles that support them. Because this is how he earns a living to feed his family we can be assured that he is totally unbiased. A very similar situation to the Journalists that write for Jacinda. https://www.racing.com/news/2022-04-08/news-stewards-finnegan-taken-aback-by-ban

The RIU (RIB)have been wrong before and splashed stories on the Media. I remember this one https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/whanganui-stud-farm-investigated-over-state-of-horses/ZPFCFFZ6ONFURQYLQPXOTZGGU4/ Makes for terrible reading. In September of 2017 eight mares were trucked to the Manawatu from this Stud to a lady who took on homeless horses. One of NZTR's poster boys paid out over 40K of our racing money in the name of "Animal Welfare" to seize these so called emaciated mares, foal down and fatten up these mares up while the SPCA and NZTR prepared a case to prosecute the horrible man. Unfortunately after 40K of expenses paid for by NZTR and Manawatu Vets saying "These mares are not that bad" by February 12th 2018 these mares with their foals at foot were returned to their original home and owner in Wanganui. As far as I know this man still operates in that area breeding horses but will always live under the slur of this article. I have never seen an apology from NZTR or a media article saying the horses were returned to their owner. Very sad affair on all fronts I have never meet this man or even spoken to him but I have had access to both sides of the story. I wouldn't condemn Paul Harris just yet

How can NZ racing get any traction when people like you Chief keep bagging the quality of the horses in a race like the Otaki Group 1. In the field of 7 you have 3 Group 1 winners, 3 Group 1 placed horses, some of these are Group 2 winners and the seventh horse is a Group 2 winner. If we had a positive outlook we would be celebrating these horses and this race. One very good mare is overshadowing the other runners. If a field like this was racing in Australia and Advantage was Winx you would be saying what an exciting spectacle this is going to be. People need to change their mindset. The only constant is change. Syndicates will take up a bigger and bigger part of racehorse ownership while horses owned by only one or two people will diminish. Trainers that take advantage of syndication will survive while those who don't want to syndicate will fall behind. There is a future for those who grasp the opportunities. Karaka this year was really positive. The sale of Yearlings and Racehorses overseas will continue to under pin the flow of money that circles around racing in NZ.

Bernard Saundry, James Dunne and co have been scrambling desperately looking for new sources of revenue. It was only a matter of time before they seen the money once reserved for the injured jockeys fund bolstering the coffers. No longer under Saundry and co do the fines go to the Injured Jockeys Fund. These fines now help prop up the Salaries of executives. Morally I would have thought it was a bit on the nose to take money from crippled jockeys but we live in a world of Desperado's running racing for their own good so expect more decisions like this to made. If the Injured Jockey's fund was still receiving the "Fines money" I sincerely doubt there would have been any change to this rule. As earlier mentioned NZTR have had plenty of opportunity to do something about the jockey shortage. They have been warned for years about it as it has unfolded. They have not wanted to know about it and have failed to acknowledge it existed.

From Mary Burgess's Memo "NZTR GM Welfare & Sustainability, Martin Burns, who drove the development of the New Zealand Welfare Standards over a two year period prior to their release last October," We have these people making all the rules for racing and in particular these welfare standards are going to have a serious impact on everybody involved in the industry. I'm all for good Welfare Standards but they have to be practical as well. I'm just asking what practical knowledge does Martin Burns have. In the past I don't think he has shown very much. Is he just another NZTR Staffer who has worked on the principle "fake it till you make it" Regards the broodmares. Some of you will remember in September 2017 a stud north of Wanganui had 8 broodmares removed by NZTR and the SPCA. A big to do was made over it with the intentions of convicting this bloke. When the horses got to Palmerston North one of the best Equine Vets in the CD was called to help with the evidence. Apparently the mares were light, they did have rain scold and some were showing their age. They were not emaciated and the astute vet said"every stud would have some mares like this at this time of the year (September) This Vet was then sacked and replaced by another that was expert in Cat and dog neutering and she thought the the mares were appalling. NZTR then employed her as their Consulting Vet. After 5 months and over 40K of NZTR and Racing's money the mares were returned to the owner as there was no case to answer. I think a practical person may have gone to the Saddlery Warehouse and brought 8 $100 covers. Brought 10 bales of Balage $1500 Total $2300 and monitored the stud. May be worked with the bloke rather than the Grandstanding that occurred. I don't know the bloke or support him but I do know that journalists don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Who is this Martin Burns chap with the title "NZTR GM Welfare & Sustainability" What are his qualifications for the job. What would the qualifications for a title like this involve. He obviously isn't a Vet or he would have known the mayhem that the introduction of his Rule concerning Altreno would cause. It only took a month for the realty of the situation to make a change back to basically what it was. Anybody who had been involved in breeding horses and been involved with cranky fillies or mares would have been aware that when you take them off Altreno they come in season. Obviously page 28 wasn't available to Martin Burns when he took part in the seizure of broodmares in September 2017. By February 2018 NZTR had spent over 40K of Racing's money fattening, paying for care, foaling down, Transport, etc only to ring Majestic's and ask Majestic's to return them to the owner. Nobody at NZTR was accountable for this expense. They are lucky it is not run under the same principles as a Private Enterprise.

I don't have the figures and sums available to me. What I have seen is the demise of Thoroughbred breeding in the CD. It has basically wound up. Broodmares and Stallions have moved North. Racing is following the same pattern. There continues to be a drift North of horses and Trainers. There has been no encouragement for Trainers to stay around the CD. There has been no encouragement for owners to keep their horses in the CD. Now if the facilities continue to improve in the Waikato, like the addition of a Synthetic Track and their horse number keep increasing then they will be able to run more race meetings. The CD will get even less Race Meetings than they are getting at the moment. The CD will get more Mid Week 10K days as a percentage of Race days. That's less Stake money coming back to CD owners. The decline will spiral even faster. At least the investment in a Synthetic Track in the CD will guaranteed Race meetings for the horses Trained locally. Most of the grass tracks will remain but in their some what dilapidated state. What will the buildings on these Tracks look like in 10 to 15 years with very little maintenance? Most of these tracks will be an even more sorry sight than they are now and then try to encourage people to attend or have their horses trained there. Something radical must happen.

I don't think $1M would go far. As much as I love the Foxton Track we have to face reality. There have been no race meetings put off in the CD since January that I can think of yet two Trial Meetings at Foxton have had to be put off due to Track conditions. Dispite the driest Autumn / Winter and 5 weeks of closure for Covid the Foxton Track has struggled with being water logged and very restricted training tracks. When I asked the Track Manager and a very Senior Track Committee man why there were such problems the answer some what surprised me. "It's because the Track is affected by the high tide from the sea" If this is the case then drainage could be difficult and maybe your $1M could be better spent at Woodville or Waverley. Or maybe we could just accept Winstone's $10M, find the extra money and get on with the Synthetic Track at Awapuni. For those who say "what about the horses that only like deep heavy Tracks" I say it might be time to give up on these Dinosaurs. Who bets on the races these horses race in. Every bred must move forward. It's called evolution. Trainers I have spoken to in Victoria seem to like the Pakenham and Ballarat Synthetic Tracks for Winter and Lower grade racing. Remember that about 80% of the horses racing are either Maiden or Rating 65. Trainers will fill the fields on these tracks just like they are filling the fields at the moment. Racing won't survive another 10 years in the CD if a Synthetic Track is not put in at Awapuni. With no racing we won't need Foxton or any other tracks. Foxton will be taken over by the Equestrian people like it has this weekend. Hundreds of fancy trucks and floats.

I and many others share your pain, I would like to know if you are getting terse emails regarding your account, what are they sending out to those who owe the $1.7m outstanding? Visits from the mafia perhaps. I don't know what you are on about Freda. I have a letter from NZTR stating there are no incompetent staff there. I'm not surprised that you get terse emails even when you don't owe them money. The big players that owe the 1.7 million won't be getting emails. They will receive a nice letter asking them to pay. What will happen is the same as has happened in the past. If you can Lawyer up your debt of 10's of thousands of dollars, possibly 6 figures will be written off and when racing starts again they will just carry on as usual due to their sense of entitlement. Remember this debt is for nomination, acceptance, scratching fees etc. The majority of us like Freda have had to pay our share. The T in NZTR does not stand for Transparency.

There is a list on the NZTR site, but a pathetic list. The list on the NZTR site does not list the big noters that owe 10's of thousands of dollars. I heard Bernard Saundry on his Facebook Thursday broadcast deny that there was 1.7 million outstanding. He was probably correct as this was a November amount. There has been another 5 months of racing since then so Bernard is probably correct. The amount is possibly much higher. The figures I was quoted and I have no reason to not believe them were 1.7 million of which $750,000 was owed by Trainers. NZTR do not want to upset these big players. As one told NZTR a few years ago "you can't do with out me" so they wrote his debt off.

Chief Stipe has only put up the Wage Subsidy amounts. Remember none of these employees will be on the $585. Racing will still be paying probably double these amounts to top up the salaries to at least 80% although I think with the generosity of Rita and co they would be paying 100%. It is unimaginable to think how much money is being sucked out at this time.

I hear the RIU are going for a world first with a bi carb Positive down south. The Trainer asked to have the B Sample tested. "We have tested it twice so you don't need to test a B Sample" I've never heard of a disqualification in any sport where the accused could couldn't test the B sample or there was no B Sample. It would be a great way to get somebody out of a sport if you didn't like them.

I heard Peter Earley talking to Mike Godber today on the radio and they were discussing a positive to TCO2 down south. The Owner or Trainer had asked for the B Sample to be tested. Godber says that no B Sample is required to be available to the owner or Trainer because the RIU test it twice. This doesn't seem right. Any sport, even Pony Clubs that test for drugs must have a B Sample available to the other party. The rules state "no B Sample, No disqualification". That's why on some high profile cases the B Sample gets lost. In Australia they take 6 vials of blood for the TCO2 tests. 4 for the Integrity people and 2 for a B Sample if required. Surely our testing requirements must be the same as other countries under the International Racing Federation and their rules.