TAB For Ever

Said previously , most folk spend too much time and energy,talking ,thinking and worrying about things they not responsible for. Concentrate on things you are responsible for and can do something about. Some will be earning a higher ROI. Isn't the owners return in Australia, the race land we salivate over , a little under 50% ?

No maths available at this time of night ....attitudes are more important than facts ,it how you accept the facts, its not what happens its how you take it ! But PERCEPTION is reality. Most folk who go into horses are buying a dream , and most go into it with eyes wide open. I the wrong person to research on this as I small time and the cost/losses are manageable......I've always told people not to go into horse ownership unless you could put $50 k in a paper bag and light fire to it and not care about it.Most importantly I avoid the quick sand crowd . But since Entain the positivity has risen considerably. Most stakes have risen and there are far more opportunities to win most of years training costs back with one win ie more races over $50k stakes. 12 months ago the supporting races on Group 1 were worth $50k , now $70, $80, $90k. All group races risen. Some harness stakes miserable with $10k and $12k races common. They still need to rise ...as do the minimum stakes which are still too low....Yes the big races are hard to win ,and overall there are no more races . PLUS training ,and all operating costs are rising . It was very grim and dire ,now there is the hype and the hope ! People are pouring into syndicates or going in to race a horse with mates....a lot of horses available for lease for racing. i believe people who used to take 10% minimum now prefer to take 2% in 5 x horses ,vastly improves the chance for a thrilling win and photo on wall .And these Social Racing syndicates or micro syndicates get many people involved .And the TAB syndicates have 12 x recent purchases to share the experience around. Syndicators have told me that their syndicates are filling faster than ever. The big/rich owners contribute enormously to the overall scene so you can't resent them getting winners. For everyone the Cost of the horse is long forgotten after the thrill of the win ! See you in the winners circle Chief. ps In last 5 yrs my interests have rarely if ever missed out on a run by being balloted.....either Island but I follow a 1 x win horse I bred down south and it often misses out. A lot of Northern horses getting sent South these days and some grades certainly stretched.

Some owners run their racing under a company...many don't. Those registered for GST would no doubt be under close scrutiny of IRD and profits would need to be factored in to their return if they trading. Not up to date these days but the claims/rebates on breeding stock etc not so generous as previous. To get those 'losses' recognised in past you still had to front up with the money to purchase the stock for breeding potential !

Inside.....black & yellow , John Sergent . McKenzie colours ? Lisa Cropp.....Sculptor ? But did PM have striped sleeves " Outside horse...Colours .Yellow sashes , striped sleeves Back on inside Paddy Busuttin ...Six O'Clock News ? N Harris before he took up irons ? Red Cap.....Marsh ? Jockeys swinging whips.....Leith Innes , HTinsley , Riddell , D Walsh. At least 20 yrs ago.....no names on silks ,feet firmly in stirrips. Loos like false rail out . Tough question & Spec savers needed.

No the stakes not only issue but at less than 25% return on investment owners were getting despondent. As some one implied it 'dead cat bounce' but it does give some life to peoples dreams...no owners ,no horses . At least give them a chance and maybe hop on and enjoy the ride...it could be your lucky day !

And overall better fields at Auckland this week with several Southerners chasing the better stakes this week and in coming weeks ahead. Many prefer to fly nowdays so it not cheap to transport ! And the two year olds getting into the Young Gun series !

The problems that plague the NZ industry have been around for decades and this current Administration is trying their best to give the Industry a chance at picking up from it's dire position. After decades of decline there is some hope , and Industry participants see new hope ,its a tall task. The Group 1 types are contributing big time. Breeding better horses that are attractive to overseas market , racing a ton of horses with money earned in outside businesses , syndicating horses to a lot of new owners [ Te Akau alone have bought 50 this year] and a lot of our top horseman are thriving overseas . Earning big money . The much maligned Messara report clearly pinpointed the dire position of our industry , the tracks and the Infrastructure. Please read it ! Not all gospel but it sent a clear message. If Entain fails to resuscitate betting on NZ Racing what happens then. ?.....there will be even more Overseas racing to bet on , many on here prefer Aussie now. There will be certainly more Sport to bet on plus the on-line gaming is growing rapidly and will continue to. So they may have more betting with way less overheads. They won't have to cart their gear up and down NZ and fly staff/accomodate them etc etc. Northern racing may splutter along as some trainers will survive preparing horses to race locally then go to Australia or be sold. The South may survive a while with sweepstake racing for every horse ,maybe sometimes racing for a bag of Kumaras.Maybe they will allow pony races to be TAB races. So little will change except there will be a lot of jobs lost . Racing will most certainly be a TV sport then , if it ain't already. If this post offends please send a real nasty reply with plenty of personal abuse ,I find it tells readers more about you than it does me.

So who died and left you Chief ? Methinks you getting over intoxicated by your own exuberance. Interesting you telling people to piss off and get a life from site that welcomes participants different views. Seems you are one of the biggest posters on all available racing sites. Big man or small man with massive chip on shoulder ?

Gee thats very strong words nomates. Grubs,pricks,pariahs ,sycophants !Wow! I actually been in a few syndicates with Tman and he puts in the $$ often and gets little back. Went to the Melbourne Cup in the same tour with him one year and he seemed quite normal back then. Maybe he fallen on tough times. May have lost a few shirts as well as trousers. You sound like quite the expert on most racing matters yourself. Why is your moniker nomates ?

I try not to get too 'provocative' with the Coast Clubs cos I don't want to incite a riot on here. The Coast has a special circuit and Coasters generally fine people who enjoy racing.. Interesting tho that Kumara is the standout but Harness actually performs well overdue and there ain't a lot of horses trained there now . Apart from when the pigs attacked the track Kumara has proved very resilient ,possibly carries the other two along with it. Kumara has a good date , and prior to this year the TAB staff/workers used to travel in a bus from Christchurch to do 3 x meetings including Friday and Sunday at busy Nelson trots. more costs I suspect. Then Kumara ran into some trouble with Liquor licensing etc. Cos its only one day a year ,I'd rate it behind Wairarapa and Riverton but what would I know. Awards are very subjective and we all have our biases. Not so long ago I was on a panel judging Sports People of the Year award. To me it was really clear cut...Two sports people who were NZ champs in Sports with high participation ,one world wide one Commonwealth. My choices were slated in local paper who thought their Athletes nominated were far superior because they were part of a NZ team playing [not too successfully] at the Olympics.To them being at Olympics was number 1.I never got asked again !

I refer to Jockeys and Trainers Chief so no points to be scored on this topic ! Many of the horses I been involved in have had particular likes and dislikes so I can tell a few yarns about the topic. A few years back we had a good horse who liked it firm[ not shifty or wet] but the Premiership winning trainer from Waikato wanted it not too firm. When he heard I was flying up to watch horse race from South he asked me if I would drive out to Avondale and assess how the track was because the communication re irrigation wasn't crash hot and he needed to make a decision on start. I drove out the day before in afternoon and sure enough the track had been nicely irrigated. I walked part of the track...not the full monty like you might....informed the trainer and he started horse and it won nicely. That horse was a day to day proposition ,the trainer studied every track he trained on etc and ...if I may brag....it won a NZ Group 1 race ! So trainers are paid ,jockeys are paid ,employees are paid and after they began racing at Riccarton one day with cones across Track I believe the stipes too get out early on raceday .A lot of protocols now in place for raceday.I'd expect you know all that.

I appreciate your offer of advice and especially letting us know you attended Oaks day. Can you tell us how many jockeys you saw walking the track and what technique did they use. Did they check the whole width of the track or just the inside half ? Did they have a prodder or stick with them ? What time did they walk it ,was it during races etc. Or was it early with Stipe etc? And crucially how far did they walk.....the straight [400m] .Around to the 1400m , or right around the entire circumference.? This crucial to know. The Chief may be on to something and I may look at taking it up.

I assume the narrative has a typo.....these numbers for the one season 22/23 not 20/23 over covid etc. Interesting the % of the the NZTR total club meeting funding that each club puts into stakes . Kumara with its one iconic raceday on a Saturday in early January put 60% into of its funding into Stakes. Got $230k after betting commission etc .Stakes $140k Riverton had 4 days....New Years , Easter Saturday and Monday plus one day in May. They go hard in increasing stakes and received $$830k and paid out $701 Stakes { 83% } I note them and Wairio are offering travel subsidies for their May meeting. They earn money from Farming ,livestock etc. and work hard to justify their racedays Wairarapa pushes their Family picnic outing on their days which was 3 x last year .They also race on Public Holidays Jan 2 ,Waitangi Day and a Sunday in Canterbury Cup week. They got nearly $600k from NZTR paying out $387k in Stakes [ 63%] They also do Farming,livestock for extra income and do various other things for Income.Venue rental, Camping ground/accomm, music festival ,pony club eventsetc.They also host Masterton raceday.As a result they have more paid staff and much bigger Cash flow and own their course freehold. They also include Harness races on their January 2 day so do a lot to enhance their standing .

Sarcasm .....No , not me ! I prefer Forest Gump , as he said " The Trentham Track is like a box of chocolates ,you never know what you gonna get ". And one for the Chief " My mama always said You gotta put the past behind you before you can move on ". How was Trentham ?....back when it was the champagne turf in summer and shampoo turf in winter I had a lot of great days there....good to see Chad Ormsby win the big Group 1 race !

Move on Chief....very few walk the track ,trainers, jockeys and employees paid to... Very few saw any problem with Karaka night......crucially the world class jockeys and trainers OK to press on !

I bet he has too...I've run around a few and walked TO quite a few but I usually pay people to walk the track. Other than a few trainers,jockeys and paid employees never known many to see this as part of their 'job' description .

Indeed Gamma....most of my historical yarns were judged as boring ! I'd hope the Chief attends a few...and I'd hope the handful of sand with a little peat mixed in was stolen from where he said it was. The Boss needs to stay current !

Good memories Murray....but don't blow a valve ! Don't try and hurt my feelings , you may effect my mental well being....its not like the good old days you refer to. Back then most of the many clubs were insolvent and struggling hence no money available for upgrades and infrastructure. It was a mess...many big rich owners had many horses ,and them and rich lawyers ran the Clubs too as volunteers. Racing was not in great shape , but had a big following cos part of Kiwi life and little else to do on weekends and holidays. Farmers and people with land ran and owned a few mares etc. Dead Cat Bounce indeed.....but the chance of a new start has been offered. Cos NZ Racing was bankrupt a few years back. Messara merely confirmed it cos NZ folk wouldn't understand ! WPeters and Entain given us a chance. Get with the times ! But I'll enjoy your memories ,keep em coming Champ !

Tell us more Chief ......I really laugh when insults thrown at those....the breeders ,new owners, new participants etc who attend racing are labelled 'parasites'. And a lot are regular attendees too. And Entain doing the big push to try and get young folk with a bit of spending money back to racing so expect more of this ! Meanwhile the old school racing types bang on their keyboards with snide remarks toward the 'future' of the sport/industry they make out they love. I doubt few attend nowdays , but relive their glory days when little else to do and NZ closed for weekend . So tell us more !

Very nice win by Dreams Are Free ,first up at Park righthanded. A few new young owners involved too. Main owner Mr Fahy breeds horses with Raka in their name , but bought this one at sale , not expensive either. Especially as half to Don't Stop Dreaming...the mother Start Dreaming was Group 1 placed in GN Oaks and Jewels. Great purchase , well trained ! Possibly at auction ,was one of horses mixed up when wrong horse put thru ring and horses re auction. But that would be another Yarn !

Gamma, Thanks for info......I like ex-Kiwi Nichols Cage in first at Menangle on Saturday. Unsure about his opponents but he was an useful type with upside !

Gamma , you talk a lot of sense ! The downward plunge in Pick 6's popularity and pools has been very bad for my finances. in the early days it kept my betting spend/collect in fairly good shape. Since the decline I have become a regular loser...this I know for sure ! But the TAB just found it not worth keeping when most punter prefer other options. Multis betting has gone crazy and there have been many big collects far in excess of anything Pick 6 produced. Multis the way to go...make your own pick 6 !Or 5 ! You talk sense Gamma !

Hi Gamma, Do we need to do any picks for this weekend ?

Exactly Chief , you a very clever man ! My last win was during covid so 😀locked up behind fence. 😀

I'll leave the last word to you Chief , and these Shakespeare quotes too much. The issue re tracks in NZ has been around for well over 60 years. We have always had TOO many tracks and they have rarely had the attention or money spent on them that they should have .....mud up to knees and nearly 2 mins for a mile was often Winter racing at our big meetings at Trentham ,remember Kumai OR rock hard summer tracks which either hurt horses or became skating rinks where the jockeys held on for dear life on turns. Only postponements were if a horse fell ,and even that was not certain. I once took a valuable horse with owner to the races and came home with just the bridle....it hurt ! I have articles from when Dave O'Sullivan and Jim Gibbs close to retirement.....both said NZ Racing had two issues . Stakes and the state of Tracks. I notice it a main objective of NZTR to fix tracks in their strategic plan and they have been trying to do that and spending money to do so...NZ's climate doesn't make it easy , but generally folk play the blame game as to why success not faster and more forthcoming. Messara said it on page 51...NOT a single good surface in Nz , and recommended immediate actions WPeters got sick of hearing the excuses so donated 3 x synthetic tracks which the participants weren't ready for ,they preferred to keep moaning and blameing others. Funny ,back in a day when I was doing some Admin work for a major NZ Club/track ,I was kinda surprised that the person in charge of track was the biggest trainer in the region. I think they had one employee doing all Maintenance on the entire facility. Basically the Clubs had little Cash nor were they trying to build a nest egg . The Clubs weren't looking after their infrastructure nor their future...all hand to mouth ! Generally the folk who should have been doing stuff in the Clubs were doing other stuff ,now they on the keyboards running their mouths . So dunno who is fiddling ,and unsure if Rome even burning, it sure wasn't when I visited there . In fact it one of the most visited cities in world. Anyway I about to leave for ride to Harness...some good horses running tonight. Oscar B ,Muscle Mountain at Addington and 3 yr old fillies Group 2 in Auckland. Entain about to hot up Friday night racing .Should be good .