Brodie

Agree to disagree Gamma! Lol They are only able to put up the current stake money due to Entain and that is going to stop! Personally do not think they have administered harness racing at all well, but at the end of the day hopefully you are right and more than happy to be proven wrong in 2 years. To my mind They should have slowly implemented stake rises this way all the money would not have been blown . Anyway good that we can have a healthy debate about things. What would be good is if Mathew Peden or Brad Steele who represent HRNZ would come on BOAY and reassure us all that things are going along nicely!

Cambridge cancellation due to shortage of numbers. Harness need to realise that until HRNZ realise that they need to be running harness racing as a business things are going to continue to falter! Brad Steele stating on Trackside a few weeks ago that things are going well just shows us all just how poorly they are performing. The only reason things have held up is due to the constant stream of money that was promised racing and this is going to end. Racing for $8k is probably what a lot of the meetings will be once Entain pot of gold comes to an end. reality is that HRNZ have acted very irresponsibly with the money they have been given

Serious punters dont bet into tote pools, fixed odds if they are still allowed to wager what they want? The TAB doesnt want all punters, only ones that are wagering every race and the ones that are going to lose mostly! Flawed business plan as it has a big flow on effect that is damaging the industry.

KFC not good for the cholesterol nowadays. Want to keep the body as a temple!

Desert Dancer was having its first start but in my opinion Midnight Diamond hadnt shown much in a very long time with Robbie Holmes! Whatever Ross Houghton has done has improved it a lot!

What is the betting turnover doing? Would surely be inflated by the turnover from Bonus Bets etc? The thing is that the NZ TAB could be increased substantially if they acted with ethics and allowed their loyal punters to wager with them reasonable amounts, rather than by limiting the amounts they are allowed to pathetic amounts. Their business plan is hugely flawed and it will backfire on them unfortunately!

The thing is Gamma, we are actually very concerned for harness racing in NZ and that is the sole reason for us commenting! Yes they are putting up good stake money due to Entain’s cash, but do not agree with you that they are doing a marvellous job! Programming of mile racing is not marvellous and running races with 4 horses for big money is also not in the best interests of harness racing future. Yes owners and trainers have been recipients of getting good stake money when there has only been a handful of starters but this is not great and will not be able to continue. We would be remiss if we did not comment about what we feel strongly about and if HRNZ are to continue to blatantly waste the $ then that is on them and the industry. It may well be that finally someone has got in their ear and are going to dramatically pull back on the wastage as now they are believing there could be a funding problem! No shit Sherlock! Who would’ve thought? The TAB have recently become even more risk averse than what they were before, if that is possible and I am sure there are going to be many changes in the next year or two! Dies Anyone know if the Committee that was announced has actually had a meeting as yet??

It is the way the condition's were changed on the quiet basically. The panel picked up many faults and hopefully the wrap over the knuckles will make them wake up to the fact that there is a lot of discontent with the way HRNZ are currently running things!

Betting plunge just about came off! Ross Houghton is a very underrated trainer! to be fair would you have to be questioning what the previous trainer was doing??

Robbie Holmes previously trained Midnight Diamond!

Still a bit puzzled? When was it discovered that there is now a funding shortage, just recently? If there is now some sort of funding shortage, why has this suddenly come about, there seemed to be so much money about, that they could give all sorts of bonuses and large stakes? If there has suddenly now been realised that there is a funding shortage, then are we now wondering whether they can actually afford to fund the extra $1,050,000 thats right $1.05 million, above the normal funding for 4 SLOT RACES next season??? With David Branch not being at Cambridge, does anyone know who is the person who is going to be selling the SLOTS for the 2 Cambridge races?

I see Dancingonmoonlight now own it, obviously bought for a broodmare? Clearly someone knows something about it and maybe it has grown a leg with the new trainer. Looked at all its trials and races over the past few months and hasnt shown much in those starts!

Of course anyone can back what they like, Spatchcock! So we have a change of trainer and training technique, but do you really believe that the way the horse was going in all of its last starts that it could win?

Not sure why there are shortfalls? Weren’t we told recently on Trackside that everything was going well with harness racing? Puzzling indeed?

Then again they may give the North more meetings? 5 horse fields racing for 20 or 30 grand with very limited wagering is how we get people back into racing in the North! The disappointing thing is that several of us that comment on BOAY actually do give a damn about racing and that is why we comment! Reality is that it totally appears that those that are actually being paid good salaries to make harness racing prosper, just arent prepared to post here why they are making these poor decisions.

They may well be flush with Entain cash at the moment but I can guarantee that anyone with any business acumen can clearly see the writing on the wall! They are clearly blowing the opportunity that the Entain money provided but there has been so many poor decisions being made unfortunately. Would any Bank have lent Harness Racing any money with their business plan to keep harness racing going? Not on your nally, and Entain are only in it to take the profits of the online gambling and Sports betting for a total of 25 years!

Has been going poorly for a long time! Hasnt shown much staying prowess and if it wins the way it has been going, you would be needing to ask some serious questions!

Great that they have good sized fields. Why don’t they run the trotters races over the mile as well? These programmers need their heads read, running these mile races, as they just are not worth betting into!!! why would any punter wager on Winton compared to Addington racing?

Midnight Diamond race 5 Addington Friday night - $17 into $5?.? Has someone put next to nothing on it to win to shorten it into massive unders? Does anyone know id any legitimate reason why someone would be punting this horse the way it has been performing? Yes Ross Houghton is now training it but can anyone see why it has plummeted into $5 over 2600metres as it has never shown much staying ability in its career when Robbie Holmes was training it! Must have been given something for it to be a massive market mover on what it has shown previously in its career to date!

Never get freebies snd do nit need them! However wouldnt mind being able to wager reasonable amounts with the TAB as I thought they were z gambling agency? They are just riding out the time and then the shite will hit the fan and they know this.

Mike Maynard was definitely more at fault than Blair Wilmot, as he allowed Mack Pack to continue to run in. Maynard certainly was the main reason Don Juan was held up for any sort of a run. You. Ould say that Blair shouldve come to the outside rather thsn through the middle, but personally think that the Joseph Gray horse wasnt going well enough at the time. People see things differently at times and this probably looks like one Gala, but good to express opinions.

This rule is just another example of crazy policies that HRNZ seem to bring in! Just ridiculous that a winner can start on the front against maidens where the other winners are off a back mark! Who agreed to this BS, just another reason to have no confidence in HRNZ and yet they have a Racing Integrity Board? Just like the stupid whip rule and enquiry rules, just no common sense with them and underlines the fact that things are not flash with decision making! Why should maidens who are trying to win their first race line up against an in form race winner off the same mark? Lunacy, and they wonder why harness is losing participants?

Taku is totally correct they altered the conditions of the race after Origin won on Friday night! Yes very poor and is a continuation of some of the shocking decisions being made! When Origin won, HRNZ had it up for a short time with Origin starting of 20 metres so I also didnt give it a great chance of winning. Appalling decision by HRNZ once again and have never ever seen this done before ever! Nothing surprises us anymore as there is preferential treatment for some and also victimisation towards others in racing in NZ! Look forward to getting the defense from HRNZ, but they will say nothing to see here?

So they are prepared to take $13k or $40k from some punters and yet other punters can not get $200 on?? Seriously flawed business practice that will backfire on them big time once the money dries up!

There are average drives in most races and we have to expect them in Amateur races. Took me a awhile, but now keep off them as very hard to predict how they are going to be run.