curious

I think you'll have to ask Hesi.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good quiz ATA.

I also don't think betting turnover equates to sales. Sales are the gross punter losses.

No. I am not confusing them. If my bread shop sells a loaf of bread for $2, then my gross income from that sale is $2 isn't it? If for my VIP customers I sell the loaf for $2 but give them a $1 rebate, then is my gross income $2 or $1? I would consider that the gross income of the TAB is the sum that they take in after the running of each event which for a standard race might be around 20% of betting turnover. The betting turnover maybe $2 billion but the gross income is $400,000 as Centaur says and I think it's verging on fraudulent to promote the TAB as a 2 billion dollar business.

Really? Sales is the same as gross income?

No idea why they haven't done that here and years ago. No brainer.

Dean has already announced this. While the full year results for RITA will be outlined at the AGM in November (and featured in the pending Statement of Intent), the unaudited net profit for the 2018/19 financial year at $137 million was significantly below last year’s result of $145.9 million and well below the budgeted $173.5 million. In spite of this, distributions to the Codes for both the 2018/19 and 2019/20 season have been held at the current level of $151.6 million.

Yes, they can probably do that if a club has a betting licence, but if a club's race dates are taken away, surely they can bugger off and do what they like within the limitations of their constitution which can be altered by members at any general meeting?

If that's the "mantra", I disagree with it, if you can disagree with a mantra. Any funds that have gone into clubs building assets were earned by the clubs as recompense for providing a venue and a product in the form of racedays FOR the industry. That's leaving aside the fact that some of the funds earned by some clubs went to subsidise the earnings of others. Such an argument frankly sucks and is untenable.

Isn't it kind of that bad and desperate already? Otherwise why would this even be on the agenda?

I thought the intent was that ALL club assets would somehow be vested in NZTR or Rita or some other body's hands?

If a club no longer has a licence, they will no longer be a member of NZTR, nor come under the legislative powers of the Act (as it stands) will they?

Can anyone really see the likes of the ARC let alone Reefton signing over there assets to NZTR without a fight?

Yep. https://app.businessregisters.govt.nz/sber-businesses/viewInstance/view.html?id=229a78e05307b6d8bf1b29667f00cb1765d96e860579051d&_timestamp=2447896640324261

Same. Will be all in trees in another 12 months. One small paddock left (just in case I change my mind!). Tie-ups converted to a workshop a couple of months ago. Incredibly sad. 40+ years with a thoroughbred in sight 24/7 and my retirement dream was 2 or 3 in work. Went out the window 5 years ago.

Maths test. Anyone work out how $17m p.a. can be guesstimated (note the spelling error too..is this bloke a journalist?) to total $130m over 10 years?

The introduction of FOB was a long time ago TC. 1996? from memory. That probably underlies some of the problems currently faced but it's an awfully long time ago to blame trainers then for not intervening effectively as an excuse for today's situation.

More evidence to help you assess the question in the header. Open letter to Minister Winston Peters The Optimist www.theoptimistco.nz the optimistnz@gmail.com Rt Hon Winston Peters Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Racing Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control Minister of State-Owned Enterprises 3rd October 2019 Dear Winston Re: Your letter 2019/20 Ministerial Expectations of the Racing Industry Transition Agency I decided to write to you personally in response to the publication of your Letter of Expectation to RITA Chair Dean McKenzie which inexplicably appeared on the RITA website last week for reasons unknown despite the fact the letter was two months old. Yes, it was receipt stamped 25 July, but no date appears on the actual letter – very strange!. Being a suspicious type which was conditioned into me through reading so many NZRB Annual Reports, I decided to ask you personally if you could clear this mystery up, and in the interests of transparency for the racing industry, I further decided to make it an open letter. So, did you tell RITA to post that letter on their website? I’m presuming the answer will be yes because RITA would not have suddenly posted it two months after the event of their own volition, given that the contents of the letter was in-reality putting the RITA board on notice; giving them a bit of a euphemistic smack around the ear to incite some action – that’s the way I read it – how could it be anything else? A couple of readers of my blog independently of each other, both involved full-time in the industry, claimed you were throwing the RITA board under a Wellington bus (one that was running late) and wiping your hands of the industry, and saying ‘I’ve done all I can and you’ve let me down.’ But I reject that accusation. I didn’t see it that way at all. On the blog I posted two weeks ago, I highlighted four or five promises listed in the NZ First pre-election racing manifesto that had not come to fruition. Not for a moment would I presume or suggest the release of your letter had anything to do with that, but I find it interesting, and I’m sure that most stakeholders in the racing industry also find it so, that you thought RITA needed a stern reminder of the reasons for their existence. And the reason for RITA’s existence, which formerly was MAC, is clearly stated in the MAC Terms of Reference released in January and confirmed in the MAC Interim Report which your office released in April. And that is to operationalise the Messara Report which at this point in time, in this writer’s view, is clearly not happening. Why it’s not happening is very much a mystery, but in the end it probably comes back to leadership; it comes back to decision making or the complete inability to make a decision. It comes back to getting the job done, transparency, and accountability which RITA said they would have but haven’t delivered. We still have none of those attributes, so the question is, Winston, do we have another ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing?’ In a TV interview last Sunday, RITA CEO Dean McKenzie made it very clear that RITA has no appetite for a partnership outsourcing of the TAB. When questioned about the future of the FOB he said, “The betting platform is there, so the industry has invested a significant amount of money in it – the decision has been made – so we have all got to get on and make the best we can of it .” Without outsourcing, Winston, this industry has a very bleak future and not to outsource flies in the face of the priority recommendation of the Messara Report and would deny racing its most significant revenue income stream for increased stakes money. What we currently have is the same NZRB/RITA leadership team lead by CEO John Allen who apparently hasn’t gone on gardening leave after all, and RITA which is a board that’s met four times and therefore not involved in the day to day running of the industry. And who can RITA be listening to and gleaning advice from on the direction they take going forward – certainly not the codes. No, they can only be collaborating with the same executives who all remain employed – the same team that has cost racing $200 million in the past five years. In your letter to McKenzie you say, “The Government remains committed to resolving key long-term challenges facing the country including sustainable economic development, increased exports, decent jobs paying higher wages, a healthy environment and a fair society and good government.” That may be so – your commitment, that is. But the next bit you wrote is entirely wrong. You say: “The racing industry is well positioned to contribute to addressing these challenges.” The racing industry is not well-positioned at all. Just the opposite, in fact; it’s bleeding, badly hurt and dying a slow death. Everyone knows, Winston, that you are busy with Foreign Affairs, and all that other stuff, and have only two hours per week to devote to racing – and fair enough. But in the last month I have been visiting racing people in the Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Otago, Southland, and Canterbury, and I can tell you that many are distressed or penurious or as some Aussies might say – flyblown! One breeder in Southland said, “unless we get some good news from Winston in the next few weeks, my eight mares will not be bred this breeding season.” Also in Southland, a prominent trainer categorically stated he would retire if stakes did not increase in the near future. Your letter also makes some excellent points to RITA including what Cabinet agreed to on April 15: “agreed to the overall intent of the Messara Report as providing the best approach to delivering a New Zealand Racing Industry that is financially sustainable, internationally recognised and competitive.” The letter also goes on to say: It is expected that RITA will: Change leadership • lead a programme of change to return the industry to a well-managed and sustainable growth path • deliver on the Government’s intentions by taking decisions in the commercial interests of the industry – considering the long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable industry, where participants are valued and able to prosper and the industry contributes to its full potential for the benefit of the NZ economy. • make best use of the $3.5m Crown contribution to the cost of industry change – ensuring that this funding ‘buys change’ rather than underwrite business as usual activities. The $3.5 million mentioned above was part of the last budget, and it clearly states it’s for the cost of industry change. So, why isn’t it being used? What is RITA waiting for? RITA was MAC and between the two they have had nine months to plan and execute substantial changes – the industry doesn’t buy into the excuse currently used about RITA’s ‘newness.’ Winston, the RITA comment on cost reduction: “We expect the costs to be less,” which was conveyed last Sunday on Weight-In, is the same vernacular we heard from NZRB. What are the real cost reductions? When can we expect to see a budget for the current season? We are now into the third month of the season and no Statement of Intent. The commitment made by RITA in the Interim Report was to be inclusive and transparent with the participants of racing – it hasn’t happened. Last week I made an error when I stated NZRB/RITA were $25 million in debt to the bank, but since then, digging around I’ve discovered the figure is $10 million higher at $35 million. Chairperson McKenzie said that RITA was not borrowing any more money from the bank, but what he didn’t say was the nothing was paid off the debt when due at the end of July. If RITA has rolled over the debt into the new season isn’t that effectively reborrowing it. I also slipped up by saying the Paddy Power commitment was for ten years, and Openbet was for five years. On checking up, I found it was the other way around, but it doesn’t alter the commitment to pay $17 million annually which is guestimated to total $130 million over the ten years. Overall, your Letter of Expectation was confirmation of what should be happening, but nothing tangible has so far come out of it for the stakeholders – and you sent it well over two months ago. As one observer remarked privately during the week: “We have seen a lot of hui but not much do-ey.” More importantly, the finances don’t stack up – anyone who reads January’s Half-Year Report from the NZRB, studies the TAB figures, and has access to a calculator will soon be able to work out we are diving head-first into a large bin of wet horse manure. In the meantime, before that occurs, on behalf of the industry we all hope you are now fully recovered from your old rugby injury procedure? Please note that on your list of Ministries at the top of this letter I have elevated Racing into first place from fourth above Foreign Affairs – more in hope more than in expectation. Yours sincerely The Optimist

True. And another board, another CEO on megabucks. All managing what is most likely to be a diminishing revenue stream. That's maybe what Messara meant by "economies of scale"?

Wasn't racing great when we had proper handicaps?

The P&E audit is 5 yearly. I understood eljay to be asking about annual audits.

No annual audit of anything else I'm aware of.

Presumably the annual accounts?

An auditor?

Oh dear. Where has he been? I'm beginning to see why the likes of the Informant have gone overboard if they were employing the likes of BdL to write editorial content. Pretty sure I read that letter two months ago when it was first posted on the DIA site. Now he writes about it as though it's news. Post says 25 July. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Racing-review Hopeless.