Brodie

Galah, not sure I agree with you in regards to the current HRNZ Board having too much business success?

Reality is that if they don’t pull their heads in and act with financial acumen now, harness in NZ will be like the racing was like at Parklands Queensland on a Tuesday arvo when it closed down! We need people who have business success not just mates of mates!

Taupiri, let the restricted punters on for what these employees of the TAB are allowed! Anyone with any sense of fairness can see that this policy that allows OTG to wager as much as they want on any bet and with no restrictions, when they restrict non employess is blatantly misguided! Brodie is more than happy for them to punt away on the greyhound favourites but then everyone should be allowed the same luxury! Hope the boys keep the winning up but they need to talk to management about how unjust the current policy is! At the end of the day Andrew Vouros did say he wanted to increase turnover!

Totally Irrelevant, it is Out The Gate punting an unrestricted amount of money at full odds with no slashing of odds, for a group, not individuals! if it is 300 people punting at the same time then the odds would be slashed accordingly. It is about the liability to the TAB for each bet and it is just a continuation of how the TAB treats some very loyal punters poorly, whereas others get favouritism! This policy of treating punters differently has gone on for a long time but does not make it right, and if you knew the full story then you would understand more!

Great that they are winning betting on Greyhounds. what it does show though is the ethics of the TAB! Dont get me wrong I hope they continue to win for those that continue to chuck their hard earned into the pot each week! What is morally wrong is the way that their employees are allowed to wager any amount they want and have no limits as to how much they can win!!!! Whereas if you are not an employee of the TAB you are restricted to a net very little and also stopped from taking some of the options available to others! Will be very Interesting To see if the hypocrisy and favouritism to some is allowed to continue as any other punter in NZ would now be restricted to winning buggerall.

Gamma, exactly you are on the money. False economics from HRNZ , they are butchering the money from Entain andgiving false info to participants. Personally luv the low stake racing far better than the high stake races. Why is it that we can see the writing on the wall and yet HRNZ can not? Wonder if has anything to do with being paid big salaries?

There is absolute no way that stakes are going to be anywhere near as high as what they are currently, once the 5 years is up! The North Island stakes will be significantly less and costs wont be dropping. Not sure how much of the $900million has been used up already with stakes and promised bonuses, but someone with financial intelligence needs to be appointed pronto! Punters need to be encouraged rather than discouraged, despite what they are trying to tell us. Giving away bonus bets and bonus cash is manipulating turnover figures.

Was well over a lap that he sat parked for more like 1600metres. He clearly wanted to lead but lead not there for him, as favourite was in front. Kirk many years ago was a pretty good driver with UDR over .2000! Recent years he has not driven very well and UDR now not too flash. Has had some very good horses over the years but driving has gone backwards from what it was decades ago.

Galah, I think the bigger problem is that the stake money the horses will be racing for, is going to be significantly less than currently, in s couple of years. If Entain had not come along and put all this money in for 5 years, what would we be currently racing for dollar wise? No way will they be maintained at todays level in 2 years time unfortunately, unless Entain continues to chuck big amounts in, and we know that is not happening! HRNZ should be acting far more conservatively than they have been but then again I am not on the big bucks with HRNZ or TAB!

They clearly do not want place bettors whether it is tote or fixed! The pools on place tote is significantly lower than tote win pools now and it did not used to be this way! It has occurred since some moron thought they would get rid of showing any place odds both fixed and tote!! Total lunacy and just one of the many idiotic decisions that has been made by TAB to put the NZ punter off. The Brains Trust is missing on many occasions.

The Ones making the decisions arent really that business savvy! The tote turnover figures are grossly inflated due to all of this bonus bets and bonus cash otherwise the tote pools are shockingly lower than years ago. Of course there is more punters that bet final fields nowadays but these final field turnover numbers are significantly lower than they could be. The way the Bookies operate is very amateurish with restrictions, non allowance of punters on options and low amounts accepted on early wagering, as well as odds being slashed far too much. They do not want to increase turnover at all despite what they state or they would not be operating the way they do!!

The Guerin Report interviewing Andrew Vouros CEO of Entain Australasia was a very good idea, as we hear very little from Entain and the NZ TAB . Surely it should be a more regular thing? Michael Guerin did ask some questions that needed to be asked but Vouros was quite vague at times and was allowed to get away with it! Where were the questions regarding North Island harness racing battles and where he sees it ending up? Of course he was never going to say Entain was pulling the plug at the 5 year mark but anyone with business sense knows what the answer is. Brad Steele was interviewed by Greg O’Connor a few months ago and he was more than happy with the way things were going with harness racing! Needs to have the serious questions asked again as everyone I speak to, have no confidence at all in the HRNZ decision making nowadays! Time will tell!

Just watched “The Guerin Report”. the CEO of Entain here and Australia, Andrew Vouros was interviewed by Michael Guerin. Was a wee bit interesting and appeared to be some not so convincing answers given. Guerin asked Andrew Vouros whether at the end of the 5 years Entain would pull the plug on racing? To be fair he was hardly going to say yes we will be pulling the plug, but you can take it that they will certainly not be as generous as they currently are. He was pretty airy fairy with his answer and think we know what is going to happen? Mr Vouros also stated that they were in the business of selling more and more bets to increase turnover! Well I can tell you that that is an untruth and he knows it, but probably the same worldwide. They could be increasing turnover significantly however they are restricting turnover massively by several means, ridiculous restrictions on punters and stopping punters from being able to bet at all on some options!!!!! Interesting somehow that Mr Vouros knew what per centage of punters had their first ever bet on a horse race on the Melbourne Cup this year lol 😂 How????? They couldve been betting every year with cash at a TAB rather than TAB account. At the end of the day it is their business that NZ sold out to, and hopefully racing thrives due to their actions, but do we believe it is going to?

Agree with every one of your statements. Entain entered into the contract with no interest with improving racing, the money they were to put into racing was just the bribe that made the TAB think they were the White Knights! They were after Sports Betting and online gambling and the racing was effectively the liability they were prepared to wear for a few years. Yes HRNZ decision making to make harness racing sustainable has been very poor and they have not had the successful business people that They needed. It is very hard to fathom why many of these decisions have been made but they just seem to pluck them out of the air and are not held to account. what I do know is that they are definitely shortening the life of harness racing being viable for many in the industry despite what they say about everything going well!

Gamma, I have no party affiliations as such, but would never ever vote for the lefty, socislists/ communists as that would be the ruination of NZ. Liebour, TPM and the Greens are delusional and could never make anything successful! Personally do not believe that those in charge have had much business success from their efforts, however more than happy to be proven wrong? Gamma, of course my turnover on harness racing is down, solely due to the efforts of the Bookmakers at the TAB! Not going to tell on BOAY but if you knew half of it you would be more understanding of Brodie’s point of view. At the end of the day if Entain is this great company that cares about racing in NZ and we have successful business people making the decisions for HRNZ then we have nothing to worry about! Gamma, what are your thoughts about the mass DCM’s that are coming from Entain with many more to come so they can cut costs? Would you be confident that they will be keen to prop up NZ racing when the 5 years is up?

Gamma, can not agree with you on several points you have made! Do not believe that NZ has great people running the racing in NZ! They may be nice people but many of them have not the business or financial success or sense that we require at the moment. Many of the decisions that have been made have in my humble opinion been very poor, and the industry is going to suffer big time in the next year or two. Several of the posters on BOAY do have the harness racing industry best interests at heart, whereas it appears the ones being paid are only there to collect salaries. Many examples of this that I have pointed out in the past, and there is quite a list which have been poor and detrimental to racing infustry. Australia is a much larger country obviously than NZ, and I do not believe we have anyone or business that will be able to sustain making large payments to make racing sustainable in the future. Havent heard anything from the committee that Winstone tried to form to brainstorm to help racing? Sorry Gamma, but like so many others in NZ, we have no confidence in the ones making the vital decisions currently. They actually need people who have run successful businesses in the past, as we just havent had that for a long time if at all? Mates getting the jobs without a proven track record just does not work nowadays, despite what they like to do. Brodie just telling it the way it appears!

I have read where Entain is cutting costs like laying off many staff in Australasia, Reality I dont believe has hit home at any stage with HRNZ that their woeful handling of the Entain cash splash is going to be a nail in the coffin of harness racing in many parts of NZ! Just do not get it that these people on big salaries at the TAB and HRNZ are just not intelligent enough to acknowledge that they have stuffed up! Anyway not happy that some of us are going to be proven right when Entain does pull the pin on all this funding as it will affect so many in the industry hugely. Not sure it is a particularly financially sound idea to be breeding standardbreds this year, as by the time they are old enough to race they will be racing for significantly lower stakes unfortunately. The Entain deal has been mishandled shockingly and we have been telling them this for a long time, but then we arent on the pay roll on big salaries and trying to make things look better than they actually are!

Ben has always been very good with the media from a young age. He is a very nice, hardworking and realistic bloke that is doing a great job training with his parents! Personally believe we need plenty more Ben Hope’s coming through into harness racing, otherwise we are in big trouble.

Would hardly think they would be more restricted than Brodie. Great that they won last night from betting big on the greyhounds, but they are coming to an end next year. No problem with them making money for punters that want to give them money, but TAB needs to treat all punters equally, but then we know that they dont.

Did they triple their money tonight? About time, I watched some of it but they were betting mainly on the dishlickers going on about Same Race Multis etc. etc! They are not good punters, but then again the TAB knkw that. The hypocrisy that the TAB dishes out in NZ is just repugnant! They go on about betting responsibly and yet the Out The Gate do nothing like that! These fellahs are allowed to bet whatever they like with the NZ TAB and they get every bet on, easy as! AND yet other punters are restricted to buggerall after being loyal to the TAB for decades. If it is good enough for these blokes on Thursday night to be able to offload several thousand on a bet, HOW ON EARTH IS IT OK FOR THE TAB TO STOP OTHER PUNTERS FROM PUTTING ON $100????????

Think Rangiora needs to water the track today? Dust everywhere!

Most races arent very good for punting on Friday nights, and yet the TAB still restrict some punters wagering?? Go figure!

Galah, wash your mouth out! Why would anyone want to be gambling on gallops? I have looked at all the harness fields this week, and can not see a single horse that is worth offloading on! Just no value and when you have 5 horses in many races paying less than $2 for top 3, then you are wasting your time. Just a poor state of affairs at the moment with where harness racing is and unfortunately I do not believe the ones making the decisions really understand ?

Sad news then. From all things I have been reading a very top bloke. Puts things into perspective Chief! A lot of bad health for so many unfortunately since you know what!

I note that Luke MacCarthy got suspended and fined $3,300 for using his whip with more than a flicking action on Kingsman in TuesdaysCup! The Ozzies are allowed to use the whip more and heavier in Ozzie than what our drivers here are! Kerryn Manning got done a few years ago on Arden Rooney when it also won! Luke wont worry about the fine too much but the suspension will piss him off abit you would think? The whip rule here is stupid and the soft cocks that brought it in need to change it back to what it was and worked decades ago! Colin de fillippi is not a big fan of it either!