Special Agent

Unfortunately all this talk will do nothing to keep Tony's job. The decision has been made not to renew his contract like others before him. The TAB would not win any awards for Employer of the Year and it looks as though Entain may be tarred with the same brush. Something will turn up for Tony somewhere but that doesn't make how the situation was handled right. What a prick of a job when every decision is so public!! I bet it hurts like hell but one thing about Tony is he has broad shoulders. Good luck Tony.

Exactly. I'm not sure why the TAB person thinks crowd size is irrelevant. Probably thinks oncourse turnover is also.

As pointed out brilliantly by others the TAB Rep is talking tripe. In addition to what has already been commented on, if so many are excited by stakes increases why are the fields so light on? And if you are talking race quality I challenge you to find a more sad looking Queen Elizabeth than this year's version.

It is very poor form but, not unexpected from NZTR. There should be black armbands tomorrow at New Plymouth at the very least as a mark of respect from industry participants. Peter's racing interests began in Taranaki.

I wonder how many of racing's pro bono clients will be there to send Peter off tomorrow. No doubt he never contracted a fee before helping.

I like the way you think Dollars.

Never a truer phrase!!!!!

Is that supposed to be a sign of the times or progress? How many people are actually interested in fashion competitions at the races anyway? Seems outdated to me, a bit like weddings.

Holy moly Ravioli! Discussion around the dining table must be interesting in your house. Or maybe not. I get the feeling you are possibly left to rant and argue with yourself. Life is too short to pick a fight over nothing.

So is your beef the fact that I was praising Te Akau, my assumption of age or just because I gave a positive comment you didn't agree with?

So how old is Ben then?

History would tell us that there is no guarantee whether you are talking Awapuni or any other track. It's pretty convenient for present officials to blame those of the past. Otaki have done well out of the reshuffle gaining Boxing Day and Anzac Day. What this demonstrates to me is that racing can continue in some shape or form without two of the major players, Ellerslie and Awapuni. If those two valuable land banks were sold to fund the rest of the industry there would be a sizeable fund to renovate the remaining venues to a high standard, rather than sell the smaller tracks whereby the smaller pot of gold would not be eternal.

Everyone and every comment on this thrad are exactly correct. No wonder good hard working people in racing tire, lose interest and walk away, and that is just what the authorities want. They can't have volunteers showing the well salaried up. Chief may go on about putting things in writing. I have to agree. You need the old paper trail for any argument whether it be required legally or not. New Zealanders must be champions of the world when it comes to buck passing and looking after their own interests. Those old number 8 wire bods are creatures of the past, referred to as relics by the young of today. There doesn't seem much point to me in having a flash flow chart of lines of reporting if they are neatly filed in the too hard basket. I think I'll be a fly in the ointment until I die. If these people in charge are going to do idiotic things and act like halfwits I am going to continue to challenge, even when in the absolute minority. Just like in government, there will be no progression without debate. I was at a meeting the other day where only two asked questions of authority and the group was railroaded into another dumb decision. I await the moans from those also rans when the decisions and actions of the RIB bite their silence in the arse. The post of Curious showing the page from the DIA briefing paper intrigues me. Under Regimes, Property it states "Industry retains value of racing property". Haha bloody ha ... so why do clubs think they have to realise real estate? Surely the only thing clubs need to do to "retain value of racing property" is to sit tight as property values rise and rise!!

I'm not sure of Ben's age but, don't see any grey hairs so suspecting under 40. One thing Te Akau seem to pride themselves in is facilitating the involvement and progression of youth. They need to be commended on that front.

Northland is in the midst of an extremely wet 12 months or more so, the statistics on wet tracks there may be askew. Horse population is going to be dire. I'm not sure that innovations are factoring that in.

I always remember him walking inside on the carpet in his gumboots having taken veges out of the garden. I'm not so sure Mrs Keenan thought he was a very very fine man at the time. The enthusiasm for racing by these sorts of people is lost. I look at the calibre on committees today and in my opinion they lack intelligence, common sense and passion for racing, which is what clubs should all be about, NOT real estate and development. Shame on the lot of you!!

Less open, less transparent and even less trustworthy.

Nothing that is going on in any of the three codes has to be this hard, does it? I have been in racing forever and it seems to me that nowadays the more authorities get paid the less they do and the more unreasonable they become. I was brought up on hard work, respect for your elders and common sense. I am sure these morals and ethics must not have applied to all households as I see very few families go without and sure know how to hold their hands out. I don't take crap from anyone but, stop at being disrespectful like a lot I see around the town. As far as common sense is concerned I am lost for words on practically any subject or industry you could name. All greyhound trainers are trying to do the same thing; win races and provide an enjoyable entertaining product. Same for harness and thoroughbreds. Drivers and jockeys may be rivals on the track but are all doing the same thing and have a general respect for each other. I think I agree with most on these threads in that the authorities are placing emphasis and energies in the wrong places. To me they are hammering easy targets and turning a blind eye to others. As has been said a million times there must be consistency across the codes with administering the rules and applying the judicial process. Red tape is ruining what should be an enjoyable industry.

Doomed, what makes you think a race on a better track a few weeks out from the Grand National meeting would be a good idea? More stakes announced as you say. This contrasts what we have heard from NZTR since who knows when that throwing money at the problem is not right but, now someone else is footing that bill it's a great idea. As far as small fields with better stakes is concerned, wasn't the cry to be more like Australia? It looks like a good time to put that extra horse into work while you can. Take the money and run.

In this case Alysha also used the race card. It seems there are members of this code who would stoop to any depths, including sexism. Looking from the outside there appear some shambolic goings on. Consistency across the codes is shocking when you consider the same personnel (the RIB) are policing all three. Would what has been dished out in the form of penalties in this case deter any future action? I'm not so sure. Just like in a harness race when a driver uses the whip one too many times people in racing get a blood rush. It's just a matter of where the line is drawn at what is considered acceptable. I see there has been further tinkering with the inept whip rule in galloping (which I must point out was sanctioned by the NZ Jockeys' Assn) with the new version very confusing. This is another case where you did not need to be very intelligent to realise the ramifications of the rules introduced.

Nobody can deny these statistics surely. I think the RIB should drop all current jobs in all codes and focus on getting this under control. Greyhound racing has been thrust into the spotlight and the RIB must be seen to be rectifying what looks like an easily rectifiable situation. Yankiwi I thought you had retired from posting your statistics and evidence. Thank you for not doing so.

Because RITA deleted Radio Trackside one can only assume it was a drain on finances. Of all the changes implemented by RITA I think losing Radio Trackside was maybe the most detrimental to the entire racing industry. If the opportunity came up I think a dedicated racing (with a little bit of sport) radio should be investigated. It would take a revamp and different approach and would definitely need to be run by someone who can work to a limited budget. Better sponsorship, advertising and funding would need to be sought; the profits cannot be spent on overpriced hosts.

Sigh .... I can't help but think all of these ideas go around in circles. For as long as I can remember more races and more starters equalled more turnover. Then along came the likes of Bernard Saundry who went in the complete opposite direction and convinced (for want of a more derogatory word) some amongst us that the most profitable action was to have less race days and less races, and to close tracks because less of those too was going to make racing so much better. Then along comes Entain, considered the saviour of our racing, and they may be in the short term. What is their idea? Well bugger me it is to go back to pre-Saundry ideas ... more racing, more races, more runners equalling more turnover. What we are going to need will be more tracks, not less. Why would that be? Well wouldn't you think that tracks need regular reparation and rest to produce the best surfaces? And what about preparing the thoroughbred for race day? Don't you think there needs to be sufficient options for training, trialling and jumpouts? Forget about all weather tracks. They require more money for ongoing maintenance than the industry can muster, plus they are collectively going to break more horses down than the grass, sand and plough tracks that have been in operation for 100 years or more.

Sold NZ to whom?

Oh dear!!