Special Agent

It sure doesn't take a big bet for the alarm bells to go off, and a cut in price. I agree with you Brodie, we should all be treated the same.

I may be wrong but I thought they had 13 bets for 2 collects. We've seen things come and go over the years. This looks like just another gimmick to me. I used to love just watching the top horses compete, now they mostly go off shore. I don't think giving one group of punters what they want, a Grand Tour, and any other marketing plan with money thrown at it is the answer.

What are the thoughts on these TAB favours to one group? Does it justify an artificial turnover? Were the turnovers per race that great for the "best race meeting in NZ"?

Where do all these ground breaking ideas come from? And the free rein that must obviously apply? Won't there be that old chestnut "it makes commercial sense just to rent rather than own"? Because the Racing Conference had their own offices in town which when they became valuable were sold and basically pissed up the wall by much more intelligent and business savy overpaid gits. Could this qualify as white collar crime? I reckon some learned person with time on their hands should look into the actions of NZTR and all clubs to see if any should be carted off in handcuffs. Too many are blase when handling others' money, especially not for profit racing clubs.

When the rest of the world is "global" so to speak racing in NZ up and physically moves to a small place near the top of the country. As NZTR is merely administration why do they need to be "where the action" is? It makes no sense why the clerks and data entry operators need to smell the horse dung while they work. If the Grand Tour is anything to go by they have this deluded idea of what is cool and hip to young and old, mostly young, but they are well short of the mark. NZTR are so good at telling clubs they need to save money for the industry then spend up on rubbish ideas like there is no tomorrow.

I think every day I wake up is a brilliant one. It's easy to moan about poor quality horses, trainers, jockeys, racing etc but, sometimes when you are battling to get one good enough to progress from trials to race day it's a top day to win at any meeting. No matter what race meeting you are at there is still a field to get past and to win anywhere is success. It doesn't matter if you paid top price at the sales or have someone else's cast off, the process is the same requiring some degree of skill. We should all be a bit less critical and a bit more grateful, I think anyway.

Obviously you have forgotten the slips and abandonments in CD. Trickiness has nothing to do with science. Tricky = human error.

Watering of the track leading into Saturday will be interesting. It's a matter of when the rain will hit Wellington, before or after the meeting. Getting this equation right may be tricky.

That's just the start of it. Most clubs will not be able to afford the upkeep and the complete replacement in so many years.

Haven't been to Ashburton or Timaru lately but, can't remember that being a problem at either venue. Otaki and Tauherenikau on the other hand ...

All these state of the art training facilities yet I heard Mike Breslin say he took horses to Foxton for a "grass gallop". So not only the Awapuni race day course proper munted, nowhere to train a galloper to gallop on grass, which is sort of necessary with the AWT not in raceday operation yet.

I think Reefton said Wednesday night's Grey Star said something like off course turnovers for Marton and Kumara were both around $2.4K and Kumara oncourse was about $236K and Marton $35K.

The more races, the higher the turnover. Is this a ploy to put the screws on unfavourable clubs? I think so. Every club should be given a chance at the oncourse turnover revenue. If your club has innovative ideas to get patrons to the track they should be commended.

There is quite iften a twilight meeting at New Plymouth followed by an Awapuni meeting the next day. Awapuni trained runners get home from the twilight meeting at midnight. Those trained further afield obviously get to bed a lot later. Paying staff in these situations, plus allowable turnarounds, makes life difficult.

When there is talk of splitting races it usually says the decision will be made by NZTR in conjunction with the club. I don't ever recall it saying that the TAB would have any input. If these discrepancies are truly only happening in the South Island for goodness sake get some solid north island support and fix it. There are obvious north island trainers and owners who predominantly support racing in the south. Join forces with those people and ram raid the current non listeners. Stop moaning and do something about it. Remember those who are not listening are being paid indirectly by you. Their income needs cutting off for non performance

Q.1. What do people who get noticed do to get noticed? Q.2. How do you ensure you are listened to? Answers need to not be getting naked and torture.

So, that would mean about 8,000 paying guests at Tauherenikau not that long ago. Judging the Marton meeting on turnover as others on here have done, highlights the inadequate performances to get people oncourse who place bets. That means normal race going public, not the privileged boys get paid and other passing gimmicks. If geographically challenged Kumara, once bagged Cromwell, and Levin on a scabby Friday can outpunt Marton's patrons, racing in the nation's capital, you have to wonder what those at club level and NZTR are being paid to do. Members of the Marton club must surely be rueing the day they joined RACE with their membership numbering around 50 now. Look at the other club membership figures in that conglomerate and realise why merging NZ racing clubs however you dress it up is a piss poor idea. The crux of racing in New Zealand lies at grass root level. As we enter a government induced recession, going by historical evidence watch how popular racing will become, and it's nothing to do with marketing even though there will be much back slapping at NZTR. Anyone running a Lotto shop will tell you how business is currently booming. Pretty obvious that putting the screws on country clubs and bringing in the new licensing system is no way to move successfully forward. Please NZTR, have a rethink before it is too late.

You would have thought so. A racing club needs something NZTR don't take a piece of. When Jenny Fenwick was Secretary at Tauherenikau the gate takings were an important part of the income/business. Gate takings were around $80K per their major meeting. That's not something you would give away.

Agree. Just like your local club.

There were no grounds to put the meeting off and not many would continue if every jockey error of judgment was reason to pull pin.

A rider or trainer should be regularly reviewing their performances. Do you think officialdom ever does the same?

So am I right in saying the Stipe in charge at Omoto okayed the meeting to continue after a fall, then the Stipe in charge at Reefton put a stop to racing after a minor loss of footing with no interference by the eventual winner with a plate off?

I thought the same about the whipping. It is actually a disgrace to see what has evolved from then up until recently. I wouldn't dare offer an opinion on what the causes of this are but, not that hard for anyone to deduce.

His listed weight on NZTR website is 57.5kg. At Kumara the only horse he was able to ride was in the Nuggets with a carded weight of 61kg which means it carried 62kg with the 1kg allotted for the vest.

So brilliant. Great balanced riders. Proven stayers. Track as it comes.