Brodie

Du Val were always going to go bust! Directors had been bust before and the business model they operated under was extremely poor and you would have been financially illiterate to have invested with them!

Chief, what are the murmurings about restrictions? are they going to put more on or make them illegal to restrict?

Has this supposed Chinese buyer actually confirmed and paid a deposit? If he has then there will be a interest penalty for late settlement. However has a sizeable deposit been made or is it pie on the sky stuff hoping it is sold ? The Chinese are to be fair not always the easiest to deal with when it comes to property dealing.

Not sure what is going on? There are people in NZ that wouldn’t even know what harness racing is. You have to tell them that it is the horse racing with carts on the back otherwise they think it is gallops.

Gamma, so what is it that the HRNZ are doing to attract new owners! Nigel Armstrong is getting new owners into new syndicates who then watch the videos etc. and they talk and hopefully introduce new people to harness and hopefully get on course. The breeding incentives so far introduced by HRNZ have all been a total flop so far! They have totally wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars going into slot races that was not required when they need to support the lower racing. If the HRNZ employees were half as enthusiastic and passionate as Nigel Armstrong/Harness Racing Unhinged we would be so much better off. Where are the incentives to get people on course? I can tell you now harness enthusiasts love what Nigel is doing with the videos what is HRNZ doing?

The interesting thing to Brodie’s mind is that the one that seems to be the biggest promoter of harness racing in New Zealand Nigel Armstrong/ Harness Racing Unhinged is actually NOT EMPLOYED BY HRNZ!!! Nigel spends many many hours each week at race meetings and recording at Woodend Beach to try and keep people informed and promote harness. Personally believe that HRNZ are taking advantage of Nigel’s passion for the industry and should be doing more for him. His postings and people watching is growing weekly and not too sure what HRNZ are actually doing to promote and support him?

Gamma stop putting ideas into our trainers heads lol we can not afford to lose anymore trainers

Wish they would give Brodie some extra to punt with. To be fair the restrictions from Entain are now not as low as they were and for that I appreciate them at the moment. Lol If all poor punters were restricted then the racing industry would be finished.

Robbie Close, is he a very underrated driver? I have Always been a bit of a fan of Robbie Close as a driver! His UDR is not as high as many others in Canterbury, but personally feel that he gives most of his drives every opportunity. Tonight at Addington he performed very well, although he was driving for top stables. Robbie has a trainers license which is great and deserves to be given more opportunities to train, however not coming from a known harness racing family would make it more difficult. A nice bloke and always media friendly, so hopefully he remains in the harness industry for many years to come!

It is great that some people are speaking positively since Entain was basically given the rights to the NZTAB for 25 years! Who has heard of a business getting rights to an established business lease for 25 years?? The ones who are salaried paid employees have to speak positively sbout what Entsin are doing with harness or it would not be a great look. Reality is that there is a lot of propaganda being spoken that is just that. The proof will be in what actually happens. Will there be more horses, owners, trainers and punters from an increase in stake money? Brodie personally believes that the increased stake money is good, but not necessarily being distributed correctly. There are so many other issues that requires attention to be resolved and at the end of the day, Entain will want a positive result from the money put in! Haven’t got a lot of confidence however due to some of the very poorly thought out decisions being made, despite the media publicity!!

I can’t even get on anything! Currently overseas and so can not get TAB webbsite to punt, which seems crazy! Anyway havent even looked at the fields on HRNZ so bit of a break for Brodie.

Geez most people will think we are doom and gloomers in regards to the future of harness racing in NZ! I believe just realists, the way things are definitely going, so things need changing. We now know just how in the crap Harness Racing Victoria is financially insolvent! HRNZ and Entain seriously need to look at their current performance and what they are doing to it! There have been several really stupid decisions being made currently, they just dont seem to have anyone with business acumen?

Entain I very much doubt are going to be throwing money into racetracks or training centres! They are not that type of business, they are a gambling business solely. They promised to put a certain amount of money into racing stskes for 5 years and that is what they will do. After that it will sink or swim, they got what they wanted and pretty cheaply as well! How many tracks or training centres have they put in overseas???

Something has to be done as there us no way nowadays that young ones can purchase their own training property, handing down to family would be the only way! The thing is that as we all know, there has to be new owners and trainers coming thru for the industry to continue. You only need to watch Westview’s interviews to see that most of the winning owners are older, unless it is a syndicate. As Galah has already stated there are next to no new trainers going out on their own, as so hard to attract paying owners.

“The Reidman” is meant to be heading South!

Auckland harness is clearly just a shadow of its former glory days and can not see how it can possibly survive! The fact that stake money is still good up there and yet reducing numbers of owners, trainers, horses and punters, just shows what a flawed business plan Entain is adopting! Reality is that they dont really care if it sinks or swims, they have got what they were after, the control of all sports wagering for 25 years. The amount they guaranteed to put into racing is chicken feed to them and they will not be putting more in when the five years us up. It was a dumb idea to allow Entain in by McAnulty and co. Despite the media BS from them.

Have just been reading on Harnesslink, that Harness Victoria are basically insolvent and totally in the shite financially! They have been making massive losses over the past few years and losing in excess of $20m last year and are up the creek for in excess of $60million. Think they have been given plenty of $ from the government in recent years as well, so a lot of mismanagement going on over there as well! Reality is that it is not easy to turn a profit from racing now with the stakes and costs, and punter turnover isnt growing enough to support this!

The jury is well and truly out on the new CEO Brad Steele! Personally haven’t seen much from him that gives much confidence in him. They seem to think that by bringing out an Ozzie to interview trainers and tell us just how great Entain is by throwing money at the harness industry is the answer! Well I can tell you that it will take far more than that for things to improve and where is the Entain CEO Dean Shannon? Havent heard from him for months! At the end of the day Entain are calling all the shots and the shots will slowly kill the industry the way they are going. The North Island harness is in the throes of being wiped out by putting meetings on a Tuesday. News flash, most punters won’t be betting on a Tuesday with 4 horse fields. Thursdays would’ve been far better and Friday and Saturday nights for Canterbury. Hope I am wrong but I firmly believe that Entain have one intention in mind all along and that was the sports betting! If it wasn’t they seriously are a very poor business model.

Yes good for the owner as he will always get money in a 4 horse field. The thing is Gamma, it is going to just turn the Punter off as not worth the effort when every horse that places is less than $2 top 3! This arrangement of racing on a Tuesday night is really not going to work, and it never was going to! The betting figures are going to continue to be disastrous week in and week out unfortunately. Can not fathom a lot of Entain decisions they have made if they were serious about increasing turnover?

I am sure Brad Steele the new CEO is still encouraged by the size no. of the fields at Cambridge this week! Fields with great numbers of 4, 5 and 6 starters is really going to get the turnover going? Can they really be serious and afford to run these meetings for very big financial losses week in and week out? Things are not looking like Entain were hoping!

Who on earth is this Peter Profit? Seriously needs to be taken down a peg or two for writing slanderous BS! You only need to look at the conditioning on any Dunn horse out on the track and they look magnificent anytime of year! Peter Profit give yourself an uppercut, you are an absolute Dickhead if you think the horses are treated poorly. pull your head in and you only need to watch Harness Racing Unhinged weekly videos to see how the Dunn stable horses are treated!

Personally like the format as we are used to it for so long. Aa for the Tab site coming in from Sport and Racing trusted for 20plus years, that is just an absolute waste of time with its inaccuracies and comments that are just laughable.

No I dont touch gallops or dogs, form too hard to follow! Used to go to Riccarton many a long year ago but before fixed odds was introduced in NZ. Saturday nights would be far more popular to attract new people on course, however they arent willing to apart from Easter!

Not crying at all Gamma, just telling it the way it is! The thing is by putting on Cambridge on a Tuesday is lunacy and not in the best interests at all for Cambridge, the harness industry or the Punters! Why not put it on a Thursday as well as some Friday nights? Tuesday was never going to work and the betting figures show how unpopular it is going to be! The new CEO is encouraged??

Brilliant and very encouraging Cambridge. Seven races and so 21 fixed odds placing odds. Only 2 gorses paid over $2.00 and they were only just over $2. 19 of the 21 fixed odds place odds paid under $2!!!!! What a dismal failure for Cambridge and harness racing.