Special Agent

Hastings.

All apprentices want to be like Opie Bosson. I haven't heard one say they'd like to style their riding on Chris for a while. Surely credit where it is due. Chris spent time in the racing wilderness and still holds the record, and whilst based in the south island too. Cameron George doesn't hold a spot on the Hall of Fame panel does he?

The only errors I can see have been written by the galah, and of course Basil's statistics are awry. Sorry galah your points make no sense and, as you say, you are guessing.

Oh goodness Robalan, Gammalite and Paleface Adios were some of the best ever yet the three using these nom de plumes are quite unreasonable on a forum where it appears there is still freedom of speech and where an opinion can be aired and shared. Usually when someone has a poor or no argument they revert to some form of verbal abuse. Maybe some of us on here are talking rubbish, suckers and conspiracy theorists ... or maybe we are just more intelligent. We are certainly more healthy than anyone who willingly took the jibby jab. In racing I would have to say the trainers and jockeys who could not operate as normal because they were unjabbed look the most healthy of the lot, like two year olds bouncing off the track. As for the few who did time for producing false passes, I wonder if they were the only ones.

It does appear to be a popularity contest and strange to me to induct jockeys who are still riding. I feel there will always be an excuse for not including Chris Johnson on a list of greatness even as New Zealand's winningest jockey. I also find the order in which inductees materialise strange. The two recently retired mares have just gone in at the same time as Beau Vite, the three trainers are from different eras and how do you compare the current jockey inductee with a champion of the past, one whom you'd wonder was not already there.

Sounds like a "no" Chief.

Are you surprised by that? I liken it to being well informed yet only watching mainstream media.

Possibly but, how would we know when no one has seen what is being agreed to? We should never expect anyone in charge at NZTR to be naive or stupid. They do seem to be ignorant to legislation and have no regard for it. Racing CANNOT touch the sports betting money. Even at club level they ignore the club's constitution. If this is a form of insubordination isn't that a sackable offence?

Message from Bruce Sharrock says a decision expected by end of May on Entain partnership.

The word is 3-5 years is when the effects will be most predominant. Funny how many people are now saying I wish I hadn't had the jab. Their health obviously was not a priority.

Any update on this situation?

Yes, I don't think it is rocket science no matter how these affairs are dressed up. I don't know about anyone else but, I feel physically sick about what is going on in racing. I can't explain any of it. We can't keep looking for people to blame. There are just so many incompetents stumbling into our industry. I think what these folk have on the rest of us is the ability to talk their way out of a paper bag.

So one job, no matter how well you do in it, just leads to another and another. Real job title should be spin doctor.

What a nonsense response. No appreciation that the horse racing is the show. It indicates too that he doesn't know of Zane Tate's appointment and his contract could hardly have been discussed at board level. Was June employed solely to look after the one event on one day? Replacing her was hardly newsworthy. Why couldn't someone in the office run a best dressed competition? With wages at $1.5 million not one extra cent should be spent. Keep up the good work Freda. I wonder if others will come back with a more intelligent response.

Is there anything legally that can be done respectively on this? Or is it just another "stiff shit" situation for racing that we just have to cop?

Lecturing on what?

I wish Gary all the best too. We will see more and more heart attacks, aneurysms and miscarriages. The latter has an increased by 500% in New Zealand. These are not coincidental occurrences.

When are we going to have people in charge with money making ideas, apart from realising real estate? What is really annoying is they weren't around when the original land was acquired for racing yet have control of club assets, when really as committee people they should just be custodians until the next generation comes along.

That is quite late notice for anyone intending to attend the trials. And here we go again with NZTR's own brand of transparency. What bloody issue? Come on, this is a joke!!

Don't be fooled with that problem gambling marlarkey. The figures quoted are always exaggerated and I'd say a good chunk of that 2.5% is spent on wages. Much like the 1% animal welfare taken out of all stakes doesn't go to the people who rehome the horses but, that is another story.

And here's another idea. How about only paying out based on performance? Get rid of salaries where you are paid even when you fail (Cup meeting case in point). The rest of the racing industry are pretty much contractors only getting paid when they do the work. If trainers, jockeys, trackwork riders don't turn up they don't get paid. If they only do an average job their winning percentages reflect that.

Yes, yes, yes. Why are they losing sight of what the core business is? I hope this fantasy is the last in a long line of Tim Mills inspired fuck ups. Anyone who is claiming this idea as their own has to go. This is bordering on misappropriation of funds, surely. Instead of ideas of grandeur forget keeping up with Melbourne Cup proportions. You silly people need to get back to basics, and quickly.

100% agree. Quite obviously people do not learn from past mistakes and misinformation. Is it because they are too lazy to read?

Some of the decent training facilities are privately owned. Clubs will tell you that you can't make money out of training, not sure if that includes Matamata and Cambridge though. Anything can make money if properly run. With these attitudes surely there should be ample funds to provide at least better race day surfaces. That 15% from wagering going to government which would enable funding to come back into racing is sounding attractive. Then punters could truly say they owned racing.

Woo hoo, what progress!! Who would have thought the racing industry was going to be such a benefactor to veterinary science? At least Cambridge still provide choice for the trainer. Baker and Te Akau have been mentioned as training icons here. How much do/did they utilise the AWT for training, trials and racing? If trainers at Riccarton and/or Awapuni had a choice for training how many would elect/select the synthetic?