TAB For Ever

Sport in NZ does very well from TAB ...some minor NZ sports with little to no betting available on their NZ games ,now getting around $1 million into their coffers. Basketball and Tennis in NZ among the top 5 sports with Rugby ,League and Football. NZ sports got $26 million last year ! NZ Basketball did well......$4.4 million Ditto NZ Tennis...$1.858 mill NZ Sports get a % of Turnover on betting on their sport plus a % of Profit . Plus when Entain took over ,they got a 'nice' Bonus payout which was much higher than they could of dreamed of !

NOw now , I just reading off Entains monthly report on February 2025 month. And not a lot of 'big' Sport on so nothing unusual there. There was 29 days in February 2024 but shouldn't be too significant . A lot of TAB advertising so sport result shows it swimming well ! Maybe the extra account users [ from Entain report] much prefer Sport and being extra cautious with their spend on racing. IMO the sluggish economy ,uncertainty , job losses , school lunches fiasco , maybe parents had to spend to feed their kids.....and reading the doom and gloom on Racing Social media not encouraging people to do like Brodie.....and UNLOAD ! Still.....its a great time to be involved in Racing.....no time to be down in mouth about Betting Lull.......I can't fix that ! So swimming well...even in stormy sea today !

I'm not measuring...just reading numbers off Entain monthly summary. From memory [ about 2023 ] Sport was about 33% of total bet ,so one half of racing. So beating Racing in February month quite an achievement IMO . Maybe suggests with all the advertising , the public finds and understands sports much easier !

You a funny man Chief ....just giving my opinion on my experiences ,always been a battler .....and a little skin in the game, real skin too, Southern skin too ...and bat for both sides too ! Your harness section has very few contributors ,especially of the ilk that actually go to the races ! Mainly great experiences ......pessimism is for liteweights ! How much skin do you have to have in the game before you qualified to comment on here ?

Haha....my stocks are rising with bitofayarn...You want to hear from me ! No secret..... Its ........TAURANGA for 2024 Calendar year...CLUB OF YEAR ! 12 racedays ,2x trial days ands good job in Financial ,Racing ,Marketing , Compliance and Innovation !

Haha Doomed .....you changed your tune re Wingatui , you been right down on them for a while now !

Now ,Now.....just got out of practice. There was a while between drinks and someone slipped with the checklist !

My recently improved eyes confirmed this....and the sound of the gallops , the smell of the turf.....and things you pick up from being there. All technical stuff !

Exactly Gamma....fantastic to bring the best Aussies over to little ole NZ to race v our best. I'm tempted to travel to the night...last year it was great seeing the two 'teams' led down the straight before the test match ! Behind the National flags .....hair raising stuff ! At little ole Cambridge too ! Of course Entain /HRNZ are contributing .Where does Brodie 'always on the money' think the money came from to launch this new strategic plan to rebirth Harness in NZ. Answer ...the money came from Entain ,and 70% of the money has gone to grass roots racing with extra stakes for everyone...across the Board. Plus monies are held in reserves for the planned events/promotions etc hoping to stimulate things so if Brodie has a good idea then he should forward it to HRNZ for consideration. Cos the slot races ,plus those during Cup week are part of the plan , as is resuscitating the North Island hence Manawatu and Auckland events also feature in trying to excite people . Not easy but they trying ! Every club in NZ receives HRNZ /Entain money so a bit pointless in choosing one meeting to point out how betting doesnt cover stakes and meeting expenses..

Only average detective work Wingman......Oscars flatmate obviously thought about his 'all talk no do ' editorial policy and changed it from Fuckwit to Halfwit. He claims not to change posts ! As a fellow South Islander to the village idiot , I thought he may even have the same post code as me as there are caves in the hills down my way and I thought I'd maybe smoke the loser out. I guess us flatmates have every right to have an opinion on everything...I cant remember digressing off the subject of Racing much tho with my International experience I can yarn a bit about Rugby. But Chiefs MBA and my 3 x years in the 5th Form of Christ College does give us a pretty good combined CV. So wingman ..spread your tiny wings and fly away ! I still await an answer from Chief if it OK to use the word Fuck-wit .

In 2017 Sports betting was about 25 % of Total. Slowly but surely Sports has gained ground , but not Racing [ 3 x codes] In February Racing was flat with 2024 but Sports had nice increase and headed off Racing so + 50% of Total.

As in most things in life Galah the creme of the crop causes excitement , publicity , media attention and ultimately extra investment. NZ used to have the Golden Kiwi Lottery with one life changing prize and it often took weeks to sell each draw. I note Lotto started and has increased in sales 10 x fold with people investing much of their disposable income to chase a few big wins in Jackpots etc. The big races which capture the publics attention still attract big investment , which racing administrators hope will convert to more regular betting eg the once or twice a year punter will convert to twice a month or even twice a week. Race for a bag of kumaras , ownership and interest would die in NZ . Coz the TAB is forever folk will still bet on Aussie races and Sports. Sport is already overtaking Racing some months eg February 2025. Thousands of jobs will be lost , NZ breeders will cease etc etc ...its a slow burn but there are 'new' people entering the Sport. With the Asian invasion ,this obvious influx has often been slower to enter NZ racing than was hoped. Like many enthusiasts I continue to invest a few pennies in O/ship now that stakes have risen and there remains the chance of your horse contesting a big race. Dull that possibility and revert to plodders racing for kumaras and I like many wouldn't cross the street to waste time to watch even let alone bet ! As for Friday...I may attend....but it so tempting to sit at home in comfort at home , with plenty food and drink and enjoy the TV coverage...just like Rugby games now , TV coverage so much better and saves time and money. And I can note all the presenters errors , poor picks and not only curse at them at top of lungs but I can jump on Internet and vent my spleen. And pretend I'm a participant .....

Pardon what? Is calling someone on here a Fuck-wit OK ? What about the C word ?

Why not....great that the track looking and performing so well ! And the awards for the categories that Clubs need to be performing well in/focusing on if they going to futureproof their existences. Like most businesses and sports ,racing has a number of annual awards to recognise excellent so it good Clubs be included too ! And good on ATR they appear to be striving for continual improvement. Today there was food /drink provided in the saddling/stabling area for the stable staff .....and there were at least 2 x workers washing and mopping all the Publlc stand seating . And I believe a larger big screen about to be set up on race day. Nice to see !

Start with no childish name calling......really ?

Interesting thoughts Chief ! I often don't feel your love.......with my robust intelligent posts ! Got harassed by the 'tight five ' from my first post ! Then recently the village idiot called me a fuck -wit which you seem to endorse . Q...Have you ever polled your posters ,sought feedback ?

Well the Ellerslie track looked magnificent for todays trials ! The grass now looking lush and a bit of give in it as well I noted ! Getting better by the week too ! And I see Ellerslie { ATR } was awarded the Award for top Metro club in NZ . Well done ATR.

Hopefully all involved will chip in and put on some good jumps races. ie the trainers have the horses , they have the jockeys ready to ride and the courses/jumps are of good standard. KMyers recently had over 20 at the recent beach races , so he will be ready , hopefully others show their commitment as well.

IMO supporting and promoting "Cup Class" horses is an important an exciting aspect of Harness.. The biggest excitement IMO is the attraction of the top Australian Horses......results in a competitive trans-Tasman battle. We used to have the Interdoms but for various reasons these fell out of favour and they got watered down...not only was series too taxing on horses other high stake races started swamping the calendar. Betting and interest increases significantly in these big races and keeps the sport/industry in the media . The slot races are very new to Harness ,the high-profile will only be matched by the NZ Cup. A key to the Slot races is that most of the big stake is funded by the participants . Personally I'd drive up to 4 hours[did in 2024] for the 'event'......NZ v Australia. I wouldn't cross the road for a card of maiden horses many driven by part-timers ! Harness generally has a bad rap among non-racing folk , but big stakes may catch their attention as apotential owner in racing or breeding stock.And racing needs more outside investment to prosper. As for the Cambridge track...it adequate and has hosted a few Jewels days successfully.

Can't turn back time , but can do the next best thing , move to Dunedin. Bring back Carisbrook , the steam engines and watch the games as they crawl past from the Scotsman's Grandstand . And Forbury Park too....and the Best Cafe and Tip Top dairy. And mayors that like racing !

In Entains time the NZ Herald coverage has improved a lot.....big days feature prominently and every Friday covers main meetings .....add on Entain fullpage ads plus Te Akau ads selling shares to champions and its hard not to know there is still Horse Racing in NZ. But today , looking for a review of last nights Trots , one finds the racing article features a preview of big winter Jumps races from Hawkes Bay and Ruakaka. Obviously someone filled the gap with a piece from June/July 2024. The cricket piece goes back 7 decades to when NZ scored 26 -all out v England at Eden Park...March 28 1955. Gave people plenty of time to trudge down to a TAB and take a 50 cent double , on a handwritten yellow slip and hope that the Doubles collect was enough to put a deposit on a house. It sometimes did . And todays $5.20 Herald cost 3 cents !

Yes , Wellington has some good sportspeoples but overall they don't win much and crowd numbers for Rugby in Caketin and the Phoenix is not too flash ! The Hurricanes crowd tonight was miserable. This weeks news that many areas there have seen house prices drop by up to 25% since 2021. Thousands of public servants have lost their jobs recently and small businesses failing by the day ! At least you got an interesting mayor ! And School lunches !!! Say no more ....parents can't feed their kids. Overall , it doesn't look pretty ...the best thing to come out of Wellington is the road to Auckland ! And the best racing are the picnic days at Tauherenikau ! The Champagne turf now the Shampoo turf.....sad really !

Sydney faces a lot of the same issues that New Zealand faces. Sport/Racing is now at best televised entertainment...much better view , cheaper and less time consuming. There are much more 'big days' so now no call to action ....another big day around the corner ! And racing is so bloody boring ...2 mins or less every 40 minutes .....horses running around a track, not the thrills/spills of car racing. Last nights Penrith v Rabbits had a poor crowd at game.....who cares ? So what . I went to a sports AGM , didn't even make a quorum .....who cares ! So what. And the reputation of Horse racing ain't gonna improve ...even in Australia. Many folk still like a bet .......Sports is not only catching up on Racing ,its surging ahead . Lotto for the big win ! But a great time to be involved in racing .......my horses have a better chance of breaking even and I can bet on any thing at anytime !

No , they didnt delete everything...fields still there in Other meeting News. Right hand column under Taupo 25th march. Heats 22 to 26 were 1100m heats for 2 year olds....open your mind champ , you can't always be right !

Counting a problem aye Chief ! Help is available......closer to 120 x 2 yr olds entered there today.