nomates

Why on earth would they have a meeting without a full analysis of the preferred track option along with a full costing breakdown and on going maintenance costs . What was there to discuss , perhaps you could enlighten us stirrers . You are fairly obviously on board with the concept , you have made that clear , so i assume you don't give a shit about the figures or costs , initially or ongoing . As long as it works for you . Of course why would you , it's only the big boys opinions that matter .

Doesn't matter tho , if i'm right , it was a one off , if your right then even more misguided to be jumping on the lost revenue / we need A/W tracks bandwagon . Over reaction either way .

Not far off but that was across all codes , galloping lost the majority of meetings tho . That's when the likes of Pike and other big names came out in the media saying we needed to do something to ensure we had racing . like i said tho , hadn't lost any where near that many meetings prior or since , it suited the agenda and Peters seen a vote getter .

They can afford to pay their own way , but why would they when they can get the taxpayer to stump up . It's the way of the world now .

The TA has performed so poorly for so long that their membership numbers had plunged to the stage that about 3 seasons ago joining the TA was mandatory to getting your trainers licence , an extra $240 on top of the licence . So yea beholding to NZTR for sure , effing disgraceful situation , but it sums up how NZ racing is becoming more and more about , you do what we want and you can jump in the bed with us .

The whole A/W issue arose off the back of one exceptionally bad season , 42 meetings lost , that was 3/4 seasons ago . Hadn't been a season similar before or since , but it suits the agenda . Some of the rains we had that year would have stopped A/W track racing , but it suits the agenda . Still haven't been able to find an answer or get a reply to the question , " how much exactly did the racing industry lose in revenue due to this loss of meetings " . Surely they know the cost to racing to understand whether the investment in A/W's is a prudent financial investment , Surely .

Their president is all for them , he trains at Cambridge , he has already stated that it will be great to have the A/W for training and trialing thru the winter and of course getting his group horses ready for spring and Australia . He doesn't have to pay the track fees , the owner will cop that . All up side for him as a trainer . Plus the TA holds as much power now as a paper bag holding water .

Have they got other choices , do they get charged for pacework ? These are the questions that trainers and owners are entitled to now . I know that it costs to gallop on the main track at Cambridge , but they have other options , are they going to have them at Riccarton ?

Wow so no choice , will that cost trainers horses if track fees skyrocket or will owners just suck it up . The road just seems to be getting narrower and narrower .

Well if even if initial cost of annual maintenance is correct at 50k per annum , they need to find another 50k a year to cover for the 5 year upgrade , so that's now 100k they have to find over and above their present track costs , a lot of money in a struggling industry . So are track fees going to double or owners only charged if their horse uses the A/W , lots of unanswered questions . These are questions that they should have answers to but as usual they are all flying by the seat of their pants . This is the kind of shit that has got the industry into the position it currently finds itself . Where are all the big names asking prudent financial questions ? Thinking how great it will be next winter .

This has all been pushed thru so quickly that there is no way NZTR or the clubs involved have done a full and proper feasibility study or costings into the full ongoing maintenance and replenishment requirements for the A/W's . If they had you can be sure they would have thrown them out there to uphold their argument for them . This is before we even talk about whether they can bring about the increases in revenue that not only support their installation but increase revenue to start improving returns to participants . If as Mr Pitman states that they are only looking at 12 meetings a year at Riccarton to take the pressure of the grass track then they are nothing more than white elephants and taxpayers have every right to ask some serious questions about value for money . So far there is nothing more than opinion suggesting that these tracks are the salve to start healing racings ills . They have not provided any projections around how they expect these tracks to improve revenue , season on season , which suggests they are just hoping they do the trick . Another hit and hope .

What pressure , it's not from weekly meetings or even fortnightly meetings . They race more regularly on Randwick and Rosehill FFS . Why doesn't the club just use the millions they are going to pour into the A/W into fixing the track they have , bring it up to top quality standard that can cope with regular racing . Or does that not give you and the other big names the training tracks you want . Everything you say the A/W's will give you can be achieved by bringing the existing track and training facilities up to international standard . Everybody is too starry eyed and busy navel gazing about what they can get out of these A/W's . These tracks are just going to fast track the demise of the periphery participants and clubs .

Got too heavy for riding that's when he came back to the CD and got involved with CR , started training whilst still involved with him at the farm , mostly doing CR's horses to start with then started to get more outside horses . A disagreement a couple of years ago led to them going their separate ways . Now trains out of the old Zimmerman yard .

He was with K Zimmerman and J Sargent when he was apprenticed , both stables had their horses looking the part .

Wants to get plenty of cash behind him so he can do it properly , i think he initially was looking at Cambridge , but again needed the cash for a property . Got the talent for sure , educates the young ones really well and horses always look good .

I've said it before , i wouldn't let them run a dairy . The PDF money was just Peters trying to buy the racing votes , but it wont work this time .

Some run by Russian Camelot at Flemington , today's the first day i've felt excited by the racing , spring is here .

I just watched Rachel Frost pick up a real nice win at Flemington with Travimyfriend , and the chosen one was impressive fresh up as well , he looks a serious prospect for the cups on that , obviously has improved on last season .

The lack of detail that BS provides in the above interview which followed on from the roadshow suggests that they haven't done a proper feasibility study or costings on building and maintaining the A/W's . Which if true is just staggering , surely if they had done costings etc then they would be only too happy to provide them , it's not like it's sensitive information . The whole situation smacks of amateur hour .

Impressive , got into some trouble at the 600 when overlord went rough but boy has some pickup when in the clear .

The big trainers who are based where the A/W's are going in aren't in the least bit worried , more races on their doorstep , less travel , why should they , even if Riccarton and the others only have the 12 meetings a season , it's all about them having a great training track 365 days a year . Get in , perfect , that's all they are interested in . They have all gone on record as saying they will be great to have for the training and trialing alone , racing on them is a bonus . Even if they work out from the point of being utilized regularly , they will not increase revenue enough to justify the initial spend but more so , and the bit that i think will be the harder part , covering maintenance costs .

Someone will know , but the issue is when your CEO doesn't know , and on top of that he is doing a roadshow to help promote them , doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that they really know what they are doing . Another possibility is that he does know but the figures are too scary and could scupper the project , build them and then worry about finding the monies to maintain them .

I would suggest that perhaps they don't have the horse numbers that want to run on the sand , or simply the on going maintenance costs didn't justify keeping Geelong going . I'm sure RV have done their figures and have a plan , something that our management seem incapable of producing . When you can't give costings on a project you are simply doing it on a wing and a prayer . It's easy to do it that way when you can easily just walk away with no comeback . BS doesn't even talk a good game , just another shyster sucking the industry dry .

The scary thing is they are so confident that the A/W's is a major game changer . What do they do if they are not .

Why bother fronting up to a meeting when you can't answer the questions , why doe's he not know the annual maintenance costs , that is almost more important than the initial setup costs FFS . Then doesn't know how or where race dates will be structured , it's called an effing plan , have a plan in place and budgets in place so you can answer the questions and give industry participants some confidence going forward . Would love to hear from someone that attended the meeting .