curious

https://loveracing.nz/OnHorseFiles/NRB Meeting News/2026.27 Final Racing Calendar - TAB NZ.pdf 2026.27 Final Racing Calendar - TAB NZ.pdf

I think it's fair to say that uncertainty is rife from the ground up.

One of NZ's larger trainers told me the same thing a couple of weeks ago and in an email today I was told of a group of owners giving up a handy horse because of the long gap between suitable races.

I don't see whether the track manager is living on course, paying rent or as part of his remuneration package really matters. There is a recently refurbished house on course that has a value however it is used. Hasn't this discussion got some distance away from the head post proposing a 3 tier track system?

Not a full time one if you've only got one track to maintain for 12 days a year. Probably casual staff could handle it under the control of one of the committee. The centre could all be resown for a hay crop too so no maintenance there, less machinery maintenance with no ploughs and sands to maintain. Tie-ups need washing ten times a year. Ezypzy.

Hard to be precise from the accounts but about half that at least, I would say.

It seems to me that you have it backwards. The solution surely is to increase wagering revenue and/or reduce stakes.

Running trial meetings

I'm not saying they should. The alternative is to raise track fees accordingly which would no doubt lose more owners and horses and NZTR is supposed to be trying to increase starter numbers accordingly to increase wagering revenue.. Foxton for example, would be a more viable business without offering training facilities.

Other than the same incentive that all other training facilities in NZ receive based on number of starters trained there, they don't do they?

Why? Shouldn't asset maintenance be funded from the core business revenue which in racing's case is wagering earnings? It wouldn't be usual for a business to start a second business to fund their core business and keep it operating would it?

So, given that King's Birthday is usually the rough marker to bring horses back into work for spring racing, what do owners and trainers do? Has to be tempting to leave them in the paddock with the prospect of lower stakes and uncertain programming, perhaps permanently if the announcements when they do comeare not that favorable.

I'd say most who know me well including my colleagues would say exactly the opposite.

No. I've tried to explain before that ?s mean questions, not answers.

Why? Would it be more ethical if you posted under your real identity or anyone else for that matter??