Special Agent

And let us be negative for a while ... or maybe it's practical.

And you would trust them with your life, wouldn't you!! Promises can be broken too.

This is scary. What stops it being the same old but, with more money? Let's also not forget Entain NZ has the same TAB personnel with a new title.

Only a Creative Accountant could answer that question? Nothing adds up to me with my non-accountant brain. These figures that seem to materialise out of nowhere don't seem to worry others though. They just seem to smile and dream of aiming their horses for the next $1million or $2million or $3million fantasy race.

Well done Yankiwi. If the announcement on remedial was missed it should be clear to all now. There is money available so there appears to be no excuse.

So many parts to this thread are tinged with sadness. I look at the lists of amazing horses altogether in one spot, in one race, and have to think we will never witness such class competing again. The list of $100K pacers is a beauty. So many having won 20, 30 and more is testament to breeding and training. Seeing Sapling's and Young Quinn's sire named brought back fond memories of Bob Mayne's champ in his older days. Young Charles was kept in a paddock in Buchanans Road not far from where Coupland's Bakery now stands and I vividly remember he had escaped and was quietly picking on the side of the road one day when I was passing. He was a quiet old boy and I remember taking him by the headcollar and putting him away, no damage done. I told Mr Mayne later and he made sure the gate was Young Charles proof from that day on. I read an article where Young Charles lived well into his 30's and Bob Mayne ensured he was buried with an appropriate headstone on his property. I wouldn't know if it was still that Buchanans Road property. If so, I hope his grave site didn't suffer the same fate as Colin Jillings' mare Perhaps at Takanini, or Cardigan Bay at Alexandra Park.

Cool story!! So many aspects of ground roots racing is not known, ignored and dispensed with by many in charge. They think the only way to train is locked up like battery hens in major city complexes. It's the at rural settings where the best yarns are found.

This bit concerns and intrigues me. It could mean anything. More bloody words that say nothing at all as Ronan Keating might put it. As NZTR has not had a reliable crystal ball for a while I shudder to think what ideas for improving the industry long term look like. I have to say I am getting bored with all the news flash announcements and have stopped reading them. We are working in the cold where a lot of our working hours are in the dark, we are trudging through mud up to our guts, our homes look like a Chinese laundry trying to dry out our PPE and then are subjected to this fluffy feel good crap about how the industry is going to be saved by suits in an office. Most of us have been involved in racing longer than those running it. We've seen a thing or two and have seen the experts come and go. To me it is same shit, different day. Call us all negative if you want. We would not be commenting if we didn't care.

So when do the personnel at Entain start to have any input into decisions that effect turnover, because ultimately it's the promise of increased turnover that brought Entain to our door/rescue? Is it going to be status quo for the two years of the staff safety net before any changes are apparent? To me it's a bit like living with bad governmental decisions. Two years is a long time if bad spending is the trend.

Good picking. I guess you won't be booking a couple of mares in any time soon though.

A conspiracy theorist would say it looks like a front for something else. I share your skepticism. Stake money won't be the problem soon. The real kicker is where the horses are going to come from to compete.

Good luck to Entain in turning these turnovers around. All bar Oamaru realised a drop in revenue from last season.

Neither did I. Maybe we read too much at whacky hours. Anyway, what happened to choosing the subjects you are interested in learning about?

Oooh and penalised they have been. Ridiculous. The person at NZTR should be looking for another job.

I think Ted said something along the lines of "Is that all they could write?" Needless to say, a little while later the obituary was embellished.

AWT enthusiasts are absolutely kidding themselves. Poor quality racing. The sooner they are ripped out the better. Why would an industry spend good money after bad, and sell up all the grass tracks to do it? Obviously those spending the money aren't treating it as their own.

How many times did we read articles explaining how surprised Wiremu and the Australian trainers were at having such a sizeable claim? The claim amount was issued and queried. Why should connections be penalised.

Such a ridiculous situation after the event. It's not as if the generosity of the claim was not pointed out prior to Wiremu race riding. Stake money by all would need to be paid back. What a mess that was totally avoidable. Incompetence personified.

Thinking is a dying art.

I think what you are both pointing out is that racing has changed which requires much thought to work out ways to progress the sport. I'm not sure harness has many thinkers at the helm.

I see there were only 8 submissions lodged with the Commerce Commission against the merger.

Especially with the number of races run. Please collaborate with Chief and put this bullshit to bed.

I don't know how many other ways it can be said but, there are still disbelievers.

To say in the Stipes' Report there is no evidence the horse was suffering an injury, what are they on? The horse ambulance was required. I know sometimes this action can be precautionary but, the vet believed the horse was injured. The vet is obviously competent or would not be employed. A fracture was discovered.

Didn't the vet report there was a fracture? Are the officials overriding a medical expert by saying that happened in the horse ambulance? The horse may have suffered an injury as early as the score up. If the horse was not injured during the running why was he loaded into the horse ambulance? There is not a lot of sense around this.