nomates

Bert Swney recently passed away after many years of declining health . Bert stood stallions in Matamata , possibly best known was Drums of Time . In later years moved to Levin where along with his wife Dorothy trained the odd horse . Bert was always happy to have a chat and always had an opinion about the state of racing . A genuine man who liked a punt . R.I.P. Bert .

If that is a correct number then it is an even dumber decision than ever , 15mil for 12 meetings a season . Be cheaper to take the loses from the abandoned days , the few there are each season .

I agree , so what do we do , continue on this downward spiral , find the money to fix the tracks . Will any of these future proof racing , no .

As Freda said and i have been banging on about since this topic arose , Aus and GB have a large enough horse population that allows for enough horses to cross over to A/W's to make sustainable numbers for regular race meetings , we don't . I'm sure everybody will give it a crack , but as soon as they find out their horses don't go on it they will be out . Then there are the substantial number of winter horses we have that simply aren't fast enough to be competitive on them , they need heavy/bog tracks to be competitive . Then god forbid but we start getting serious injuries , and they have a history of them , or worse still deaths . The owners/trainers that start losing horses to injuries on death will stop risking other animals , and we don't have enough horses to step up and fill these gaps . Like Avondale with night racing , where a large proportion of horses didn't take to night racing , the field sizes and quality start to suffer till the racing becomes irrelevant , then what , Oh that's right will still be good for training and trialing apparently . Solved . Fix the tracks we have , especially the main centers , for regular racing , before we gamble on more A/W's . Or sell and move to more longer term , high spec facilities to future proof racing .

Matamata and New Plymouth both put in such training tracks at their own cost i think . But neither have solved their grass tracks being bogs when wet .

If one afternoon spent in the company of a top trainer who advocates for them is enough for you to be on board , fine , but myself , one of the naysayers , would rather see a much more in depth feasibility study done . My biggest issue around them , aside from the fact that other jurisdictions are pulling them up , is that they are not going to solve the underlying issue we have with the existing tracks , why don't we just fix those first . It's a much simpler solution ,but then it wont give trainers the excellent winter training and trialing tracks that so far has been the first thing trainers at all tracks have mentioned first when talking about them . OH yea and the for the racing as well . No self interest there .

I get your point but in my experience i don't believe the use of drugs is endemic in NZ gallops . Obviously what i am suggesting above would mean all the other under performing sectors of NZ racing would have to get arses dragged up to a to a higher performing level . Whether or not my suggestion is a goer or would ever come to fruition is not my point , what we need is to start formulating a plan/plans to take us into the next 10-50 years . Things will never start to improve until we start laying out something to guide us forward and provide direction and focus . Planning does not seem to be part of our leaderships vocabulary , they are a very reactionary team . Continuing to follow the same old well worn path is only achieving an ever decreasing pie to slice up . I thought Covid gave us the opportunity to start making some significant changes to the way we do things , but alas no , we put out pretty much the same calendar with the same high end stakes , when as far as we can work out we are not even sure we can afford it . Nothing appears to be a lot different , so why would the result . I live in hope , but that is dwindling , fast .

Yea 2 for their massive horse population , very poor vision IMO . Says it all when our administration thinks we need 3 .

Self interest is what stops people participating and asking the hard questions , especially those in a position in the industry to ask the hard questions and be respected for having asked them , they don't want to rock the boat and risk , how ever minimal , the position they may have achieved . You only have to look at the number of high profile trainers over the last year who have made comment regarding stakes in the industry , they have all basically come out with the same homogenized comment , that stakes aren't good enough and things must improve , which in itself is something , i suppose , but then no one has said anymore or got more demanding of answers . It's as if at least they have been seen to be saying their bit , no more tho . Maybe when it really starts to bite their arse they may get more strident . The governing body is very pleased , they know they are getting off lightly .

Racing has been plagued by self interest for long as racing has been going , a hard disease to beat .

It shows that the leadership is lacking the vision and the courage to realize that they are making the same mistake , but saying that , the senior participants in the industry , who could help force change , don't see it either or they also lack the courage to speak up .

No there is two of us . It will come down to whether we ever get leadership strong enough to promote something like this and an industry with real will for dramatic change . I personally don't believe anything significant will ever get done , too many people happy to live within the world that is . They believe they are going to unlock it by selling Winton and Waipuk and others like it . We will be considered heretics for even suggesting the selling off of the crown jewels .

I agree , whilst we're at it , it is time Trentham went the same way and no reason Ellerslie can't join them . We need to look to the future , and i mean 10/20 years from now . The above tracks are all tracks i love to bet at , and grew up at Trentham , love the place , but it's best days are gone , we have to plan for the future . Bar the odd big day none of these tracks attract regular big crowds , the days when they did have gone , they were in the city because everyone went to the races , but these days city slickers have deserted racing , far too many other things to do now . So if we are planning for the future then we need tracks that serve purpose , that have top quality surfaces that handle all weather conditions with top class facilities that make people want to go more , that are located where the horse populations are close at hand and that give easy access to both transport and punters . Currently nearly all of our main tracks are hemmed into their cities , and no longer relevant to their populations , yet 2 of the A/W's are being shoehorned into 2 of these tracks . Is this really looking to the future ? Because of their locations they would finance , relevant and made for purpose tracks for all 3 locations . And in doing so future proof racing . At present all we are doing is shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic with no real sense of a plan , more of a hit and hope . It's time for some real leadership aligned with a vision for the future that gives people a sense of purpose to remain a part of the industry along with giving interested people some confidence that getting involved in racing that can be done positively . There will people who will be staunchly against the above and that's fine , but don't just poo poo it , give solutions . Change and major change has to happen , that means plans being put in place , plans made with consultation of industry participants , plans that are going to help racing get back on a stable footing and give a sense that things are going to improve .

I would suggest that it's time for the racing industry to grow some balls , i think some serious self interest around the country has people blinkered to other possibilities , and stopped some serious questions being asked . I believe if they get this wrong then racing is done , there will be racing but it will be a shadow of the industry not as we knew it , but as we know it . We seemed to have jumped into this very quickly and with not a great deal of research into the pro's and con's , or a significant study of other options . The money for these tracks was chucked at us very quickly , as a vote getter , and accepted just as fast . My biggest concern is certain clubs taking on massive debt to take these tracks on when i know 1 of them at least is already in a deep hole , why would you keep digging when there is no guarantee of the returns matching the outlay .

So if it was going to cost the same with some realignment or maybe 2/3mil more then surely you go down that path , it seems they are very blinkered on the A/W's . A strathayr gives punters confidence in the surface , it gives trainers the same . I'm not saying it's a certainty but i know which surface gives racing confidence going forward and gives us a chance to start growing our product . But i am 100% sure every body would be on board with this surface against the split we currently have .

QUESTION ? Does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to rip up the track at RIccarton and put down a strathayr surface . Roughly . Just out of sheer curiosity , would it cost substantially more to put this in place instead of a separate A/W track ? I am confident which of the 2 is a sure winner .

Yet they have kept stakes levels for the Hastings series and other high prestige races , if there is a shortage then surely these should have been trimmed , so i'm going on the assumption that there is plenty of cash , otherwise there has to major repercussions .

Everyone at head office and TAB are having all their teeth removed and putting them under their pillows , we just have to hope they all return all the money they get off the tooth fairy or there could be a shortfall .

They were always intended to be a short term solve to get racing underway after covid , because they weren't sure exactly sure how many horses were going to be up and running when racing resumed . The fact that they put out the above notice shows they know there are concerns amongst owners and trainers , but they are dismissing them by trying to show that their way works . As ever disrespectful to participants .

It's all well and good putting up 3 winners as the poster boys for lower rating horses winning these open races , but what about the hundreds that have run in them since racing re started that haven't . Every dog has his day , not always . As HUEY intimates , the heavy tracks are a great leveller .

If they let participants know what the real position was and started treating them with some respect they might find people were a bit more forgiving in their criticism . Unless we start getting some strategic plans in place to get racing back on a solid footing then we are going to keep meandering along on a month by month basis and nothing ever gets improved . They need to outline a plan for the next 12 months , 24 months , 5 years then 10/20 years , set some goals , get participants involved in the decision making . No one is expecting an overnight solution , but we need to know the extent of the problem so we can understand it and start to help solving it . Racing needs to be completely rebuilt , what worked 10/20/30/ years ago isn't now or going forward , gallops needs to be completely stripped down and re constructed so that it works both as a sport and an industry for many years to come . I don't know much about the other codes but i'm sure they are in the same boat from reading what others have to say about them . I have no faith that those presently employed to manage any part of the racing and gambling structure are the people to do that , so that is the first building block that requires to be rebuilt . Sure we need people with business acumen but first and foremost we need people with a real passion for racing overseeing any and all decisions made within all the separate organisations under this umbrella . There are plenty of successful people who are both passionate about horse racing and have he business acumen to help us rebuild . Some one like Kevin Hickman comes to mind but there are plenty of others . There are also plenty of other people within racing who have a great knowledge of racing alone that should also be part of this process . This either works for all of us or fails for all of us , there is no middle ground , even the big guys will struggle if racing diminishes too much more or collapses altogether .

You could be twins then .

Doing the usual runner Greg when it gets too tough .

Your years of business experience is telling you that they are on track , well it is telling me that you definitely should not be applying for the CEO job , the last thing the industry needs is another know it all suit continuing to drag it slowly thru the shitfest that they have created to a slow meandering death . As for whacky ideas , we need racing knowledge and racing passion which the chief has in abundance , so would be well suited to the position , he's forgotten more about racing than you would know , you need to stick to the harness sites , where at least they appear to think you know something .

Times have moved on , funny i still see newspapers , lots of magazines and they can be read online as well , there are still heaps of music radio stations and they can also be heard by app . No times haven't moved on , they are moving on but all walks off life can be catered for , we do not all live in the rarefied atmosphere that you do .