nomates

Motukarara , is it being closed to harness as well ? . If so madness . I'm not a harness man but every time i see the trots on there the fields are huge , and they get a great crowd . If not , why cant gallops keep their 1 meeting a year , always seems popular , with a decent crowd as well . How is moving this meeting helping the industry ?

And no questions asked ,,,,,,,,, or answered !!!

They have no " strategy " . At the end of each season they will look at their financial position and fit the next seasons racing around that . Ever decreasing circles . They have never given any clear indication or plan as to how they are going to increase revenue at the TAB . They have got a clear plan on how to decrease revenue , remove all possible information or ability for the average joe punter to pick winners on form .

So when a G1 race is due to be run but it absolutely pisses down and track is looking worse than H11 , will they transfer said G1 to the closest available A/W ? . Actually any black type race .

There is a large dollop of self interest at the heart of the debate . Haven't heard from anybody outside of the 3 tracks getting them speak out how great they will be for the industry . Certainly none of the many punters i know have expressed their delight and their intentions of increasing their betting as a consequence .

Which is exactly what RITA/TAB thinks we all are , we don't need any information to bet or to see or hear the race , just pick a number/s and wait for the result . Could just call it RACEO .

Nobody ever wants to answer the hard questions , especially around transparency and the financial viability . We are all just supposed to jump on board and ride the gravy train of success . Unfortunately history has shown us that the train more often than not end up a costly and expensive wreck .

There's no business experts left " out there " , they're all working at the TAB/RITA , that's why racing is going to smash it over the next season . You watch . But not too close , could make your eyes bleed .

Your are being an extreme optimist K , there is no hope of getting an answer . The man is just another vanilla money grabbing suit . He lacks as much respect , if not less than any of the past few CEO's , for many racing participants that are just asking for some simple clarification of the decisions RITA are making . I say he has less respect because he was lauded when brought in as a racing man who understood grass roots racing , understood the issues confronting racing , understood racing people who would work with the industry to bring solutions to those issues , but has shown to be no more than another " cliched " paper pusher .

The no whips issue is a tricky one . The jocks say there is a safety issue and i'm not about to argue with them , their riding them , i'll trust their judgement . I've known some horses to take the piss when a rider doesn't have a stick to give them a tap over the shoulder . I'm in favour of the restricted whip use , no striking behind the saddle and only used on the shoulder , jockeys can't let go of rein/reins to use , very much in CWJ mould . It's not the perfect solve as people will say , a lot of horses wont try , but my argument is that maybe they have become accustomed to waiting to get hit before trying , plenty switch off if hit . Maybe if they are never struck behind they will stay honest , longer . But they are bloody intelligent animals , so as i say not a perfect solve and it still wont appease the neysayers .

Everything they do has a scatter gun approach . Their sense of logic comes across as " say and do something , say and do anything and let's hope it comes off " .

This was their biggest and continuing mistake . How many people were introduced to racing , gambling , horses in general , by a parent or a grand parent taking them to the races or going into a TAB when they put their bets on , or asked to listen/watch that race for their elder because they were tied up and couldn't listen watch and got the bug . My old man was in picking comp at his work but never bet , worked nights and Saturdays were his sleep in so would ask me to listen to the first couple of races for him and tell him where his horses finished and write down divvies etc . Feckin hooked , hook , line and sinker . I was 13 , 59 now , horses been my life and i've had a ball . Not looking after an ageing population of punters has cost them the next 2 .

But we have head to head betting which requires them to ride them out , i hate it .

I know a lady in the Waikato that has rehomed my last 2 racehorses , absolutely fantastic to deal with , finds the right homes for each horse , doesn't just move them on to the first person that comes along . Anybody who might be interested in utilizing her services just PM me and i'll pass on her contact details .

Don't disagree with what you say HS , but , they may be a minority but they have a platform , they make the news , they get in the paper which is more than we can do most of the time and even then it's usually a negative , so they will keep garnering support and they wont stop . What we need to do as an industry is give them as little ammunition as possible Jumping may be their trump card but i am sure they have just as much dislike to see beaten and tired horses getting the crap beaten out of it over the last 200mtrs or 2yos get the bash at it's first start . I remember watching aghast as a 2yo got hit 12+ times from the 600 in a 2yo trial , apparently he was a bit of a bludger and needed a wake up call , not a one off i'm sure . We need to be proactive in all areas , not just get it right but be seen to get it right . Take the wind out of their sails . It's not going to stop them , they want it all gone , but make their arguments as weak as possible to use against us .

Will make no difference , they are on a righteous crusade . We have to be smarter , sort out the whips and don' give them rocks to throw back at us i.e. A/W's .

This is another reason why racing has to get it right this time , if they go ahead and build all 3 A/W's and we start getting regular career ending and life ending injuries then it will be all the ammunition needed to put the last nails in the coffin .

Certainly not sticking to most of them .

Have to say Huey it does look like they have just come from overseas and have no comprehension about racing in general but NZ racing i particular . If it was me i would say get the principle product right first , that is fix the racing product , tracks , handicapping , stakes , programming , ownership . Fix this first , get that right then start promoting it , get information out to the public , free to air TV , radio coverage , sort some sort of deal with news papers to start getting regular promotion of racing . Work on your betting platform but stop shitting on your clients , if the racing is right and the promotion is there the betting will come . It's not going to happen over night , but there needs to start being a plan to start moving forward . Then start understanding your position in world racing and start living within your means , stop thinking you are bigger than you are . At the moment they are just throwing shit around and hoping some if works .

And proves again that these decisions re closures has SFA to do with saving industry costs , this shows yet again how little respect they have for industry participants , that they are spinning bullshit to serve their agenda .

It was actually 32 meetings , but i keep saying , it was an aberration , we had a summer that never stopped raining so went into winter already at saturation point . A large portion of those abandonments were for course and facility flooding , i Remember Foxton was unuseable from Sat morn till Wed . That's when all the talk for A/W's started , a complete overreaction . How many abandonments the season before or the 2 seasons since . Very few i suspect .

If the Cambridge A/W cost circa $13mil and there is 6 meetings programmed for next season where is the rationale that they are financially cost effective , i.e. make enough turnover to return a profit that not only returns enough to the industry to cover their cost , and puts money in the coffers for stakes etc . They would need to be racing twice a week at least , but we already do that at other tracks .

Answering all the questions will fill your day if nothing else .

Hope your on it .

Well National is looking for a new leader , and definitely has all the right credentials to be politician .