TAB For Ever

Not like you to sound so wishy washy Chief. Talking gossip or fake news etc.... I heard some of the 'aftermath' etc and was only connected enough to know of one big stable who actually rocked up to the 'big dance' with a few scratchy horses etc. I knew that before hand and of how keen they were to get a balloted horse to run and so it proved. And I actually posted on here about the possibility of the track being a little hard ! Actually attended the trials and workouts to see for my self. Fake stories emerged...apparently the top Racing website named one very unhappy trainer ,funny she lined up her horse the following week.And Chad's unsound horse mentioned too, he was soon at trials then back racing in Australia. ! And Velocious seems to love the place. Most trainers been lining up to get back there racing again. But the naysayers have latched on to it and not letting it go. Has any NZ track always provided 100% perfect footing...many never had any form of irrigation or if they did it lacked consistent coverage. Move on ....or better....build a bridge !

Good question Chief ! But true to my preachings...who cares ? I'm blown away by Entains entry into NZ racing ,the positive influence they are having etc etc As for the detail ,I have little time and energy for talking and worrying about things I am not responsible for and don't control. My personal racing interests are manageable ,affordable and enjoyable. Outfits / syndicates etc I belong to are OK managed and range from looking great for the future to very unstable. Overall I'm sweet ! You ?

Spare me Wingman.... Spread your wings and fly away...... Bullies and anonymous keyboard insults don't worry me ! Start by reading the Optimist's latest piece on his site. You like many folk spend too much time and energy talking ,thinking and worrying about things they not responsible for and don't control . Try concentrating on things you are responsible for a can do something about . The past has gone ,concentrate on the future. Karaka day was fantastic with Aussie based jockeys and horses including superstar James Mac....and it was a miracle that the work had been included under shocking conditions to get the facility reopen. But you trying to reopen something that couldve ,wouldve , shouldve. What you got planned for this week ?...I'm heading to a couple of meetings...some good racing looks likely.

Only been warrioring for a couple of months , so still learning to crawl. But I stand up to bullies Murray ,so try not to be one , don't play the man !

Even the Optimist getting excited ! A shot of new life into the TAB ! It a new beginning , a fresh start ! Come on naysayers , get punting to your hearts delight !

Or in your case Chief , you read part of it and made up your mind ! Have you found and read P51 yet ? Do try and read it completely....get up to speed . These awards ,are merely something to reward those that make an effort to assist Entain obtain at least some of their goals . Feel free to name your 3 x Finalists in each 'tier. Reefton and Foxton clearly ain't going to feature but Matamata could ! I'm starting to think that the naysayers and quicksand crowd who are against everything are not getting out and about and experiencing the good stuff that is happening in racing currently. Many posts start....I went to XYZ course decades ago and this happened , or I was there a while back. The past is gone, concentrate on the future !

Hahahha,.....bit like the Messara report , folk didnt even read it. The ATR is the merged outfit of Counties and Ellerslie and 2023 all races at Pukekohe. I guess they will still rate well as they a big part of the Partnership and score well in planning ,governance ,initiatives etc. But posters like bloke with Wairarapa and another pushing Rivertons qualities make some good points and these 3 and 4 meeting a year efforts may be enough to get the Cash iin 2023. But the whole thing like any awards.....very subjective even tho there is criteria to be graded by. ..NZ Halberg awards How do you rate Gold medals in a minor sport against a win in a sport most of the world plays or a prominent and popular team sport ? A club I was in once was being rated by the National body and they gave us a 'fail' for Outside Gardens. I rang them and told them[strongly] how much we spent on this and how we went for the Green Native Look and a few weeks later we won the National gardening Award and we hadn't done one thing to the garden. Not worth banging on about especially if you in racing for the Horses !!!! Re the Messara report....History now but he did note the overall 'poor' performance of most clubs financially and in the annual WOF ratings again some below average results.These awards will let clubs know that they have an important part to play in lifting the overall standards and spending a bit of money may be recognised .....A certificate and a bit of cash and maybe an extra date or two if thats what they after. Of course those with paid staff have some edge over volunteer run clubs but Awards allow for that. Entain trying to change attitudes...attitudes are contagious ...is yours worth catching ?

You a funny man Chief.... You know this but Foxton is not even a racing club with the ability or thumbs up to run racedays. It runs good trials so could rate highly there.. While Reefton only ran ONE race in 2023 ,and I gather hardly would have emerged from the aftermath of that as potential award winners. But hey ,you managing to bring some negativity to the fore ...encouraging a bit Fluff to fly ! These awards IMO are a good idea...and most businesses/clubs that are in a Co-op ,Franchise or under a Brand umbrella have Awards to recognise Excellence or Improvement and initiatives !

Agreed , ties up the money for too long. We want quick fire turnover ,plenty of churn. Not a marathon 3 - 4 hour slow burn. We want losers to go ahead to recoup losses and the winners to go for gold. Actually surprised there not more shorter races ,as a trial at least , in harness. Plus I guess those Pick 6 marathons are slow sellers. The good old days they could put up a guarantee of $100k or more in Pick 6.. Its retail so no point stocking shelves with slow movers ! Some folk will love em ,like people used to love on-course doubles ! Even recently you could fluke some outsize divis cos in small pool some combinations not covered much !

Yep but as partly answered above the best betting outcome for us at TAB is for Friday night to be in the main exclusive for Trots. Expect a slicker smother and more informative presentation. You may get a gig if apply ! Saturday is Gallops ,overall Trots does not do well against good gallops ! Then Sunday ,grass trots gets a good possie with low key Aussie racing in oppostion. There will be midweek NZ harness as well but Kiwis generally lack appetite for that. Things are and will be happening....things will be tweaked and tried ! Get amongst it ,get out and present your thoughts to the Entain bosses ,they want to progress and get the show back on the road. They very approachable ...leave the padded cell and keyboard . Develop the attitude of expecting positive results ,avoid being skeptical !

How do you know all this stuff ? What area are you in , do you attend races and see situation up close. i not having a go at Moukarara ,it was mentioned in previous post with comparison made between the two. It could be Gore ,Cromwell or whereever. When you first learned of the Wiggles ,Harness in NZ slowed down in May and halted completely in early June for a few weeks before slow start again mid August , as most tracks were grass. No ability to bet on Aussie Harness. Horse population grew and racing became 12 months ,and Forbury had night racing etc etc Times have changed and sadly Forbury faded ,too much apathy and getting pushed into terrible and often cold mid week dates . The TAB did best when Night trots got Friday to themselves , Gallops have Saturday and Sunday became a 'sports /racing/family' day etc .That the best situation from betting anle. I see Gore folk pushing their recent success with 3 x day meetings on grass compared to ATC and Addington. Not really apples with apples. Those main tracks run the night racing and Gore ,Mot, Methven ,Westprt have Sundays with little NZ thoroughbred opposition. And grass tracks run 3 t0 6 meetings a year...Addington and ATC combine for about 70 I guess. Easy to get sponsors and local support for 3 meetings harder for 30 to 40 !

Oh come on Chief , Iet me be your friend. A fellow South Islander ! I told you I was there noting down the judges time plus I created this thread as I felt such a good race day expeience deserved one. I barely miss both NZ Cup week an Christchurch , Karaka day , Auckland Cup week ...often flying to get there and staying in nice place. Like to see first hand how NZ Racing is travelling. And the odd Australian Group day too....both codes ,I bat for both teams ! Some wag on here suggested I know nothing and a tag team of bullies cheered him on , but I only report on my experiences and I do enjoy giving my opinions to the keyboard warriors and fellow fluff merchants on here. I'd also previously told you I'd spoken to Cameron George and thanked him for his efforts. I usually walk around the course to take in the sights ,and check the fillies , and on Saturday watched two races from Public stand which I think is good at Ellerslie. The new TAB bar is rather nice but NO I wasn't at the Entain table.....I did stand by for a while and hope that some crumbs of knowledge would blow my way. I did hear that Entain is working close with the codes on a lot of exciting initiatives ,many of which are in the Northern region .Sorry to the CD whingers ! And lastly I don't like bragging but I did get into the winners room for an OJ and sushi ! It been done up ! Enjoyed the day....and many stayed on till well after the last race....true race goers , no parasites there !

Had little interest in Foxton cos it ain't been an official 'racetrack' since 2012 ! It's a trials track and training track for a decreasing number of horses and trainers...hoping to be a top Camping ground/Caravan park as well. Kinda disappointing for one of NZ's very first racing Clubs with some famous names thru the place...Paddy Busittin and David Howarth two of my favourite trainers and Chris waller there in early days. But you and your enthusiastic friends on here seem to be joined at the lip....a team of bullies...I suspect you and some others live in the area or are associated with club...I'd bet on it. The bitterness is oh so obvious but the hard working club of volunteers with a very good track surface only have themselves to blame......For many years they had 7 or 8 race meetings a year including summer dates but simply sat back in a daze and pretty much let them slip. To 4 x poor dates with poor turnover. Then , in a repeat of a prior history , some local lunatic lights fire to the grandstand and horse boxes....not once but 5 x times ! Foxton supporters obviously are repeat offenders.......and they suffered some flooding too which put them more in a daze. Once the lunatic was contained they procrastinated and this inaction saw them fail to tidy up the mess they were in. With so many CD tracks/clubs you would think they could get back in business but with many areas in NZ neighbouring clubs don't work together / rather CAN"T work together .RACE was established so some have tried. So the track not mothballed by NZTR or ignored by Messara. ......it wasn't even on the chart of racetracks ! Procrastination and spending too much time talking ,thinking and worrying about things they not responsible for or don't control. Sad ,because it obviously a pretty good surface !

Michael House the master at making the most of these opportunities. He turns up with the horses ,so those structuring the races often need to tweak the conditions to fit em all in....very clever of him when there are small fields and club needs all the horses it can get. It seems weird that a horse can win the main race of day then 2 x days later race lesser horses. Bet on Red !

Can't imagine Motukarara holding Group races or installing lights and going up against Addington on a Friday night. And Entain certainly keen on trying to engage more punters and young people and new owners so with the Northern region having the biggest population they will be trying to weave some magic into the place. It won't be for lack of trying , but they will try so at least a bit of hope for the North !

Well Brodie you will just have to take my word for it ...of course 30 odd years ago a sharp Southland qualifier would be asking $100k and things moved on from then. Once Bitten was a one win Sir Lincoln 3 yr old filly who got good money after a maiden win and Street Hawk by Bettors had 2 from 6 when sold .The Williamson boys sold some pearlers , I'd say it really not uncommon . But not my slow horses .....not into selling battlers but had a few offers of 3 yr old maidens early in careers but in syndicates it had to get OK. Aussies love our horses .

Agreed guys , very hard to get more horses quickly and ready to run in North. A few of the regular starters eg Simply Sam and a couple of stablemates have been sold of late. Happening every week. The smaller guys who race regularly like Dr Luk Chin are worth weight in gold. Hard to win at Auckland so less are trying to, plus more Northen horses going to places like Manawatu to try and grab a win. Its not an easy problem to solve because cost of training higher in North. Realisation of that became apparent about 10 years ago thats why the cursed Building Development happened in order to have higher stakes and build a nest egg to sustain them. That dream gone. The smaller guy can't attract owners to invest in horses. As soon as a horse shows ability , the offers flood in ...too high to turn down eg $140k for maiden winner or $300-$400k if a 3 yr old wins a couple. But even poorer horses being sold...Nz owner can take a price to stop the bleeding ,knowing the horse will probably cost $30-$45k and earn $10-$15k annually.

Chief ,I surprised you asking me questions now ,generally you stick it to me. Cost Accountant , Christ College Old Boy , Fluff merchant. You hurt my feelings. To be honest I have driven past Foxton course a lot and looked at it from fence....so can't talk from direct experience. Just spent 10 minutes looking into it and notice it hasn't been raced on for some years .I looked at a few Annual reports and see it run mainly by volunteers , uses trials as main income earner these days etc etc , and had a good number of members ,trainer etc working some 100 horses. Hard to find a mention of it with Messara other than it Opaki and Levin recommended as training only. Foxton on lease land I believe. Randomly chose year 2011 to delve further....I remember it had some dodgy Fires...like 5 in 2 x weeks. That season it had 4 x meetings so its reputation probably at level reflected in Betting numbers. The August meeting[ Heavy10], September [Soft 9] October [H10] and June 2012 [Heavy 10 @ Waverly]. You need to fill in the gaps ! I can't quite see how it mentioned with the way forward in NZ racing. But if it for real , a save Foxton group should get together and put a case for it ......many CD tracks seem dodgy. I'll watch with interest but not tonight as after Cricket today I off to therapy followed by an AA meeting.

Page 51.... Messara states......Not ONE track has a high quality racing surface Page 51 ..... But reading that in isolation does not give the overall vibe of the Report. I would guess most dismissed many parts of the report , and once they found a minor error ,or found out he didn't visit every single venue they thought that enough to dismiss most of the proven facts. Like , No club in NZ makes money.....this skim reading by fluff merchants with a biased mind influences the negaholics ! I dresay he made the odd error with some of the sizzle , but the sausage was on the mark !

I used to have a WATCH like that ! I had 4 under 34 secs.......but well spotted . The times on the website are also different to what the judge announced on course cos I wrote them down He said Velocious ran 33.61 not 34.07 He said El Vencedor ran 33.65 not 34.16 Provence time went the other way. But well spotted Chief.....you more than a grumpy old banger-on ! But then , since when have times been of such consequence ?

Good idea to keep the tracks contours.....iconic ,unique special and it gonna be great.....but keep banging on about it and please keep putting up your handful of sand picture up ! That was great ! What decent tracks have been moth-balled ? Plleeeeeze not Avondale ! Messara report noted there was not one decent track surface in NZ......... No savings of $4 mill ...$13m over budget. . Build a bridge ....Ellerslie gonna be great !

Any thing worth doing is worth doing poorly at first ! New ideas and changes in technique and attitude come come hard to many . That course will go from strength to strength. In the meantime ,a few on here want to be be very negative re new track. What they achieved ,in the time given and the weather , at that location was outstanding. Get the next 100 million $ into the purpose built Waikato greenfields development and racing will be flying. Or do you have a better idea ?

Little comment to date , maybe this suggests things went pretty well . I certainly enjoyed the day at the Races and I sat among many folk who also had a great day out in comfortable surroundings , some at Ellerslie for pretty much the first time being 'new' owners or there as friends of Owners. Of course many there had experienced a very slow trip up from the South with the motorway holdups....not ideal , amazing so many keen to get to Ellerslie. Ellerslie an outstanding venue but the quicker we can get a new track built in the Waikato the better......get racings money out of Avondale and start building NOW ! Any excess ,get a decent facility with a good track in the CD too. Foxton seems to have the best surface so get that cracking too ! Racing at Ellerslie was good....the switched on jockeys got the jump on the others , riding for position early in race and pretty much dictating pace with last 600's under 34 secs in main. El Vencedor stole the Group 1 in a slow 2 min 6 sec but Legarto clipping heels and stumbling may have upset her rhythm. Didn't discount her $500 k bonus for consistency in few Group 1's , surely a boost to attract potential owners. The final race was well won by a very good horse in Major Major...this horse changed hands for $1......ONE dollar ! A 6yr old Pins gelding with a troubled history having his 10th start and 3rd win. Many new owners and from small stable. Small stables had a good day ,tho Cambridge stables to fore. Punters brought home some good Bets , but two winners paid over $20 bucks. Something for everyone . The place looked a picture ,Sponsors well catered for in what was a nice comfortable crowd which I estimated to be over 6,000 TBC. Great to have the 3 x Majestic clerk of courses on white horses ...one of them [ Ross] I believe started job 1965 Cup day ! Social Racing syndicate had 2 x horses in for a First and 3rd. Velocious capped a brilliant juvenile season and not finished yet ! The Club contributed over $400 k toward the big stakes on offer ,tho some of that Nom fees. Overall an excellent days racing !

Ellerslie's racebook on Saturday had a page with all previous winners of Auckland Cup . The list began in 1972 with South Island mare Sailing Home. The previous year Southern bred Artifice ridden by EJ Didham[Otago] had won. Can't Southerners run 3200m now ? Or do they just don't try..that for other folk . In 1965 a horse called Lucky Son had won the Cup....At end of 3yr old season his Otago owner/trainer sent him North to be trained by top jockey WD Skelton [Levin] Bustling Bill at that stage trained just the one horse , Lucky Son. His Owner Jim Brown was a brother of Joe Brown who had O/T the Wellington Cup winner and 3rd in Melbourne Cup Reformed ,a few years earlier. Joe ran the Dunedin Town Hall Dance , Miss NZ and managed musicians like John Hore, Eddie Low , Howard Morrison etc. Jim's son Syd , preferred Harness having some top liners like Fieldmaster and Foreal. Syd's horse won the first race at Auckland on Friday night with a horse called Skipper.

Of course...well known in Basketball circles or are you talking about the Minister/Mentor / Celebrant ! I familiar with two Tony B's.