curious

Here's a brief crack at that Hesi. Recommendations 1. Change the governance structure, so the NZRB becomes Wagering NZ with racing responsibilities devolving to the individual Codes. This will sharpen the commercial focus of TAB operations and improve the decision-making and accountability of the Codes. Something along these lines possibly a good idea. Worth more detailed development. 2. Establish Racing NZ as a consultative forum for the three Codes to agree on issues such as entering into commercial agreements with Wagering NZ, approving betting rules and budgets for the integrity bodies, equine health & research, etc. Same as 1. 3. Change the composition and qualifications for directors of regulatory bodies. Yes, definitely needs sorting. Again, the devil is in the detail. 4. Request that a Performance and Efficiency Audit of the NZRB be initiated under section 14 of the Racing Act 2003, with particular emphasis on the operating costs of the NZRB. Absolutely. Required under current legislation anyway and overdue. The right reviewer and terms of reference to address some of the matters in this report is critical. 5. Amend the Section 16 distribution formula of the Racing Act 2003 to a more equitable basis for fixed 10-year terms. Don’t think the report makes a sensible case for this. Should remain proportionally based on domestic revenue generated. 6. Initiate a special review of the structure and efficacy of the RIU and allied integrity bodies, to be conducted by an independent qualified person. Yep. Probably should be devolved back to the codes. Has been a disaster as currently structured. Critical ingredient for increasing wagering revenue that integrity system is much more robust and reliable and seen to be so by punters. 7. Begin negotiations for the outsourcing of the TAB’s commercial activities to an international wagering operator, to gain the significant advantages of scale. Worth considering but detailed business case needs to be made alongside alternatives. In particular, retaining the tote business and making it globally competitive and licensing fixed odds operators in NZ (with a restriction on tote derivative products) should be considered. 8. Seek approval for a suite of new wagering products to increase funding for the industry. OK. But not likely to improve revenue. Adds to costs and unlikely to increase overall punter spend. 9. Confirm the assignment of Intellectual Property (IP) by the Clubs to the Codes. Don’t see the point in this. Clubs may be better to retain and control this themselves. Needs work and a better case made. Can club and community assets be co-opted legislatively or lawfully? 10. Introduce Race Field and Point Of Consumption Tax legislation expeditiously. These two measures will bring New Zealand’s racing industry into line with its Australian counterparts and provide much needed additional revenue. Race fields, yes of course. But legislation not required for arrangements with corporate bookmakers to be put in place as already demonstrated. RB estimates wildly out of kilter with the reliable research. DIA estimates more robust. I’d say might get to $3-5m net across all codes. PoC tax, nope. See DIA estimates that administrative costs may exceed revenue. Providers already paying a consumption tax in the form of GST. If implemented any net revenue should go to taxpayer not racing anyway. 11. Repeal the existing betting levy of approximately $13 million per annum paid by the NZRB, given that the thoroughbred Code is a loss maker overall, with the net owners’ losses outweighing the NZRB’s net profit. Nice if you can get it. Note that some $50m of duty relief previously granted has been wasted on stakes and operating costs. Industry didn’t do what they said they would with that so why should the taxpayer gift more to a declining industry, or any industry for that matter. Also, an equity matter with casinos betting duty. Probably politically unpalatable. 12. Clarify legislation to vest Race Club property and assets to the Code regulatory bodies for the benefit of the industry as a whole. Big NO. Can’t legislate to colonise community and club assets. Needs to occur voluntarily at the discretion of club members where clubs will no longer have raceday licences. They should decide whether assets are put to other uses in the community. Any reinvestment in racing will also mostly have to be in the same region. 13. Reduce the number of thoroughbred race tracks from 48 to 28 tracks under a scheduled program. This does not require the closure of any Club Yep. No brainer but the redevelopment of remaining tracks needs to occur first in order to have an infrastructure in place that can cope with the racing required. 14. Upgrade the facilities and tracks of the remaining racecourses with funds generated from the sale of surplus property resulting from track closures to provide a streamlined, modern and competitive thoroughbred racing sector capable of marketing itself globally. Yep to the upgrades but the business case for that needs to be funded from current and future revenue and be sustainable. 15. Construct three synthetic all-weather tracks at Cambridge, Awapuni & Riccarton with assistance from the New Zealand Government’s Provincial Growth Fund. Support the development of the Waikato Greenfields Project. Yep in principle. Again, the initial cost and ongoing maintenance needs to be funded from current and future revenue increases. The business case is not made in the report. Needs more detailed work. That should include comparison of synthetics with Strathayr for these AWTs. 16. Introduce robust processes to establish traceability from birth and the re-homing of the entire thoroughbred herd, as the foundation stone of the industry’s ongoing animal welfare program. Fine. 17. Increase thoroughbred prizemoney gradually to over $100 million per annum through a simplified three-tier racing model, with payments extended to tenth place in all races. Great but it is not clear where the revenue or cost savings to do that will come from other than some from the restructuring perhaps. Recommended changes as above will not on their own make the NZ racing product competitive or attract more wagering spend. That also requires, among other things, aligning the prizemoney structure more closely to revenue generated and having a fair and competitive handicapping system for starters.

Just discovered that's why I didn't get that mail directly. Arrived in my Junk Mail folder at 1.30 p.m. And there it shall rest.

I'd say there's a fair bit more than that seriously in question.

Yes, that's about as robust as the rest of their analysis and confirms how desperate and devoid of ideas they are.

Correct. Reserves are buggered. Initiatives have failed to cover the advanced sums. There are no promising initiatives in place at code or RB level. So, looks like they are down to beg, steal or borrow which is pretty much what the Messara report amounts to.

"Hung up on one matter"? Seriously, can they not read, analyse or understand? How desperate are they?

Haven't heard of a soul that doesn't support racefield's legislation but a game changer? They have to be joking. The DIA already knows that and has clearly stated it. Are they in a dreamworld? You'd buy the report's recommendation based on one good idea that will have minimal impact along with 10 shockers? Yeahh right.

I'm sure it's there somewhere but maybe in invisible ink ?

Anyone else get one of these? Subject: STAKEHOLDER MESSAGE: Messara Report - please show your support No Images? Click here Dear Stakeholders, The Messara Report is a very important once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure thoroughbred racing’s future. Changes to industry governance, potential outsourcing, and racefields legislation are game-changers offering real improvements in our financial returns. We are working through Mr Messara’s proposals about venue location and ownership to find a solution that is fair for all, but we cannot afford to get hung up on one matter when we need to show the Government we are a united industry. NZTR, together with our Recognised Industry Organisations, strongly support and endorse the need for a circuit breaker. This is our only chance for change. We must show the Government that it’s time for change, and we seek you support to make it happen. Click here to show your support for the Messara Report's goals & principles Minister's media release (13.09.2018) We also encourage you to put forward your own submissions. These can be emailed to racingreview@dia.govt.nz. Yours sincerely, Dr Alan Jackson Chairman New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Inc. Bernard Saundry Chief Executive New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Inc. New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Unsubscribe

I don't have the data that Mardi has, but I do have a few years of 21st century data and as far as I can see, generally speaking, horses at Riccarton on Saturday ran times consistent with their expected times on a Good 3 as I previously suggested. If you have contrary data Reefton, please post it.

According to a subsequent safety report the Pro-ride at Geelong only came into use in the 09-10 season. "Since the change to the Pro-Ride racing surface during the 2009-10 racing season, the risk of fatality at Geelong Synthetic has decreased by 57% and is now comparable to our turf tracks." So yes, they need full replacement every 7 or 8 years depending on useage. From memory, that is about thirty meetings a year there, so maybe 250 racemeetings. On the other hand, I'd say regular turf tracks have about a similar life without being at least ploughed up and resown. Strathayr tracks would double or triple that lifetime I'd say for about $2m extra initial installation cost.

Didn't see any races but the mdns ran 1.10 in the first and the R65 and open sprinters 1.09.5? Is that not consistent with a G3? Mardi may be able to assist with a relative performance indicator of the track condition that the times were consistent with? If you ever walked up the straight at Riccarton prior to the so called renovation, you could hardly miss the undulations that were there and DID need fixing. And yes, they removed mountains of topsoil in the process and laid a clay base. My memory's a bit hazy but I'm sure Freda can confirm or otherwise.

Good initiative. As already noted here, probably should send a few jockeys and track work riders to this. http://loveracing.nz/Events/Featured-Events/Ride-to-Time.aspx

Chautauqua leaves the barriers in Flemington jump out 21 September 2018 by ThoroughbredNEWS News Desk The Hawkes' trained sprinter Chautauqua has overcome the first hurdle on his way to being reinstated to race, leaving the gates with the field in a jump-out at Flemington. After Chautauqua successfully left the barriers, Tommy Berry, who flew from Sydney for the jump out, did not extend the champion sprinter over the 800m. Chautauqua still needs to pass two official barrier trials before being allowed to race again. Racing NSW stewards placed a ban Chautauqua after he failed to jump in six trials and was slowly away in a special race day trial at Rosehill on August 25th. Link - Racing NSW stewards' allow Chautauqua a further chance to jump from the barriers

Which is most of them. Thought about this. 5 or 6 years ago I had the energy to have some input which went unlistened to. Frankly, I think they should be left to the outcomes of there own devices at this stage which are pretty obvious but they still can't see. If they want to further fuck the industry and accelerate the decline as proposed, then I'm now inclined to leave them to it. I will consider responding to anything that suggests a benefit to racing at the expense of the taxpayer though. I am one of the latter.

Met service... https://screenshots.firefox.com/x8o4jxD0Mu9yCWTQ/www.metservice.com

Completely agree that the undulations needed sorting at the time and that they had a significant impact, particularly on some imperfect horses. I also agree that the simple solution would have been to grade it level and resow it, not remove all the topsoil and replace it mostly with clay which not only would not grow carrots but can't really grow grass with any decent secure root structure. They rooted an otherwise perfectly good track that could have been fully ploughed up, the straight graded level and resown. A huge waste of money and there's been no inclination to fix it.

Freda might confirm, but from memory, the main reason for the 'renovation' was to get rid of the undulations in the straight. The issue with the track at the junction, actually from about the 500, has been there ever since and is due to the shallow topsoil layer, especially in that part of the track, over the clay base that they decided to lay. We all saw it happening. A plough and discs indeed may not be flash enough but I think that with the mission to centralise and the movement to overuse crap tracks like Riccarton, means that they are not prepared to put them out of service for the required 12-24 months every 5-7 years in order to do the necessary restoration, which I agree with you Reefton could be done exactly as you suggest. Maybe not Riccarton because there's probably not enough topsoil to work with in places.

I think the problem is tracks like Riccarton that have not been relaid in a quarter of a century, and it was a crap job then, are severely compacted and overused. Wasn't like that in the Grey Way, Showgate days etc. So when very dry, they are too unforgiving and irrigation to avoid that is not the right solution.

You mean the no usage bit wally?

Yeahh had a look around Awapuni a couple of weeks ago. It's a total disaster. Turf half dead and a complete swamp as of then.

OK, I'll hopefully have a closer look tomorrow.

What does that mean? Well developed root structure? Drainage working? Or just pretty on top with no usage?

I'm just a golf course away from there tomorrow. Anyone had a look around lately? Might go for a wander?

Gallops - News Ellerslie track passes first test Sat, 15 Sep 2018 Richard Edmunds Six weeks out from its scheduled return to racing, the renovated Ellerslie track passed its first test yesterday morning. Four horses from Nigel Tiley’s stable galloped on the newly laid surface, going around in pairs with Sam Spratt and Rowena Smyth in the saddle. Ellerslie tweeted that Spratt described the track as “great”, and that the lateral drains laid every five metres around the track were not noticeable at any stage. “It was like carpet,” she said. Further testing will take place within the next two weeks. Racing is set to resume with the Soliloquy Stakes meeting on October 27.