TAB For Ever

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 .

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 !