nomates

Because of covid 19 the VRC is transferring the Melbourne cup to England as that is where the majority of runners are now coming from .

Many , many people are dry in the mouth from asking these questions . Of the many veiled answers that are given this particular question for whatever reason never seems to gets a clear and adequate reply .

That's a disgraceful number of employees . NZ racing in all forms is not big enough to need this number of administration personnel .

92 feckin employees , this in itself gives a window into how top heavy NZ racing is and how much money is thrown down the drain . Heart breaking for industry participants to see this .

As when racing went to pay TV we lost a huge number of punters , just as we did when the TAB upped the minimum spend on bets then got rid of phone operators all together . Now the last avenue for a lot of people to follow their $$$ has gone as well . The feckin dickheads have just never got it . Never have never will . I just despair at how clueless they are . This is to save money but i'm still waiting to hear about the substantial savings they are making by standing down staff at head office and how much they are saving for racing .

More punters gone with the radio gone . All the pensioners or lower wage earners that can't afford sky , for most the radio was their only avenue to hearing their money run . Another nail .

This is a continuation of the dismantling of NZ racing . Brick by brick they are slowly tearing it down . Who's going to step up and stop them ? .

I guess we'll never know but i for one have not seen nor heard anything from any of the above names that has given me any confidence that what they have suggested would have made a difference without compromising the health and wellbeing of many people , but happy agree to disagree . Politicians aren't worth getting in a stitch about .

I get what your saying about the economic situation but if your really suggesting that Bridges and his sidekick Collins were going to do this situation any better your kidding . I am not saying this because of any party allegiance , but i am grateful it's Adern and not Bridges at the helm during the Covid issue . Under Bridges 'thousands and thousands ' may not have lost their jobs but their lives instead , as Bridges focused on the economy at the expense of the health of the working class . Haven't really heard him say what he would have done different , maybe because he doesn't have any clues . Sounds earily like another industry being discussed on here . Would be interesting to hear what you think he might have done better that saved lives as well as kept the economy stable . Not looking for an argument i would be genuinely interested to hear other solutions . In all the discussions i've had with people here and in Britain , and they are suffering greatly in both departments , nobody has been able to pinpoint anything substantial that could be done differently , everybody has agreed it was one at the expense of the other . Just came down to your priorities . I know where mine lie .

I have been involved in the NZ racing and breeding in a hands on capacity for nearly 40 years . Been employed on studs , stables , trained for myself and bred some horses . Seen some great racing and got to handle some great racehorses and stallions and broodmares . But myself and others i know who are held in much higher esteem than myself in the game see no sliver of light , gallops has been driven to the precipice with no real indication those steering have any clues quite how to stop the rot . While 'some' income may have been generated it was never going to be sufficient to start righting racing , it probably wasn't even enough to hold our present position, when you consider debt incurred just to hold our current position . Especially when absolutely 'NOTHING' was being done to reduce overheads . Now that Covid is here the one saving grace could have been Rita/NZTR slashing running costs at head office level but the silence has been absolutely deafening . This is complete disgrace , Saundry has shown himself to be as useless as any of his predecessors , this man has been in the position for 2 years but in that time failed to impliment 1 , feckin 1, initiative that has improved or bettered NZ gallops . They were all relying on the Messara report to save the day , which IMO is never the saviour they they think it is going to be , that remains to be seen and believe it or not i hope i'm wrong about that . Blaming any politician or party for accelerating our demise during this Covid issue is a bit rough , no fan of any politicians but we have created our own shitfest . The damage was done before this current situation . I and many others have been calling for slashing of overheads at all head offices involved in racing for years now but they all seem devoid of hearing . Why is that the big question that never seems to get answered . John Allan thought he was successful when he put a ceiling on costs . Woohoo . Perhaps with no choice now is the right time to clear the decks and rebuild from bottom with industry participants having more say in what shape and direction their industry takes . There will be plenty of self interested people out there who wont want any part of that , they are the ones riding the gravy train and happy to ride it till the end . I personally believe that until there is a complete overhaul of administration of NZ racing nothing changes . Just opinion . I applaud all the industry participants who will be there ready to go when racing gets going again because they know it's going to be rough but they're still fronting up , i wish them all good luck .

Never going to happen , they've never got a handle on issues facing the industry pre Covid so no hope now .

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting further and further away , and some people said this man would sort it , he understands racing . Just another suit .

Payroll has to be reduced by far more than 20% in the present circumstances , many in the industry have taken significantly larger hits , come on BS show people in the industry your feeling their pain .

Seemed to me he jot this job when everyone was crying about us needing an all weather track and he had been instrumental in the Cranbourne one . Might have more on his CV but hasn't shown much so far . I reckon i or any number of the posters on this site could have achieved more for gallops than he has , i would have done it for 25% of his salary too . Which is currently twice what he's worth at present IMO .

Maybe if we could put " report by John Messara " the knuckle heads at NZTR would pay some attention to it . Saunders hasn't had to think for himself up until now so he's got no idea what to do now . Hasn't come up with 1 initiative to progress NZ racing in his time in charge , can't expect much now that this has landed on his plate . This guy is worse than Purcell i reckon , never thought that could happen . There are doer's and can't doer's in this world , i know which one we've got .

A lot of dramatic rhetoric being used , and i'm not underestimating the serious of the situation but some of it seems scare mongering .

Far too much commonsense being used by Mr Freedman . We are in the same position but at a different level , none the less we should also spread our money around better . More of a return at the lower level will keep and attract more people in the game rather than drift away dispirited . Will it happen ???

This is simple mathmatics , but won't happen . The gravy train will keep running .

No doubt they do spend their $$$$ on these things , but does this help the industry or 1 club , a club that continually under performs on return for industry investment as do most of the big clubs . But i know , we'll sell the little clubs who apparently are sucking the industry dry but regularly out perform the larger ones , so clubs like the ARC can to continue to come up with such novel ideas that that are the going to right the sinking ship . A bit like the where "fashions in the fields" prizes at the big meetings used to regularly be bigger than the majority of stakes on a race race . Used to do my head in , someone dressing up was up for 50k in prizes and my horse was up for a share of a 25k stake , priorities . The people in charge have the wrong priorities .

This epitomizes everything that is wrong with racing . I wonder how many of the selfie takers had a bet . Probably didn't help turnover to any great extent . A complete snapshot of where we are as a sport . But our demise is being hoisted on the back of the smaller "hugely" under performing clubs that are a major drain on the financial resources of NZTR . Perhaps if we charge the posers to take a snap we can turn around our fortunes .

The game is run by "POSERS" who are only interested in attracting "POSERS" !! Ellerslie was all but deserted , can't even get a decent crowd on a day like this . God knows what it was like at Trentham . They can sell half the tracks in this country it wont help , the problem is the continual stream of no hopers running the industry , I honestly can't see any way back .

I do agree regarding Lane going too early , i was thinking watching it "he's exposing him too soon ". His last 150mtrs was poor , not sure if tired from the previous run or more along the lines of what Clayton said regarding the horse not being used to horses coming up along side and not being used to it and wasn't really sure how to react , certainly appeared to be having a good look . No matter where they decide to go , IMO i'd put the blinkers on and ride him stone cold and saved for one crack . Blinkers wont make him go any faster than he can but that's not their purpose , they can't make a horse go faster than their engine allows , they will focus him and hopefully get him to run to his full potential . Whether that is good enough at this level time will tell .

They haven't got an answer or a solution to any of it , if they had their ego's would have had them out there promoting it . Our leadership is as headless and clueless as any in our recent past . I would like someone to tell me one thing of any real relevance that Bernard Saundry has achieved during his tenure , and i mean something of real significance and has made a real difference for NZ thorobred racing . Waiting with baited breath .

This reminds me of nothing more than a company restructure , where they say they are restructuring and want to go thru a consultation process with staff and then once they have yawned their way thru listening to the plebs have their say , they go right ahead with what they intended to do right from the start . I have been through this process and my wife is presently going through it at the moment . Merely going through the motions , i will be stunned if they take on board anything from anybody below their lofty heights . Even if , and it's a big if in my book , they do get any cash out of sales of courses it will just be more money for them to piss up against the wall . So far the only idea they have got is synthetic tracks and getting money out of overseas bookies . What next guys . What else have you got to turn NZ racing around if /when these aren't the godsend you went all in for . NADA . The silence is deafening .

Hope so , great watch . Cheers .