Brodie

Advertising for a new CEO at the moment for harness Nz! Whoever it becomes has surely got their work cut out? Double award winner, Nigel Armstrong/harness unhinged is doing the most active promotion for harness racing in Nz, and he is UNPAID??????????

Why do they continue to hsve Auckland compete with Addington on the same night? There is only so many $ to be spent on the one night! most punters are going to be investing on Addington rather than the Auckland oroduct that isnt that inspiring!

Are they actually paying $140k for a maiden winner? $300k for a 3 year old winner of a couple? Sounds a bit high TAB? If thats the case no wonder owners selling

The sad thing for the industry though , is the fact that there is no minor trainer with a horse lining up! It is the trainers who will be charging the most and shows that the smaller guys just can not compete, and one of the reasons there is a lack of owners and horses in the North! Total turnoff for the punter, gamma.

9 races programmed, but they are just awful to be betting into. The Garrards heat for colts and geldings 3 hear olds, has 7 starters. Only 3 trainers 2 from The Allstars, 2 from Barry Purdon, 2 from Telfers barn and Nathan Williamson has his good 3 year, Dreams Are Free lining up! Just not enough owners, trainers and horses around in Auckland to make racing financially viable!

Personally Cup Day is a nightmare to be betting at Walt! Far easier to be having a crack on meetings well before there! Rougher the fields the better but Auckland not worth the effort nowadays!

I do to HJ! My side of what I heard must differ from yours!

We are clearly getting different sides to the background HJ?

No we dont need violence in society, totally agree! i dont know what the circumstances were, but I wouldnt be thinking that someone would hold someone while someone dished out punches for no reason whatsoever??

To be fair we do not know both sides of the story! Maybe just maybe, there was a reason for the hiding, just asking?

From the grapevine, Mango has been stitched up, and those involved know that!!!!

Not the same without the Spitfire. There will be others replacing him I suppose?

Yes some of the top trainers are taking horses over, but in the main it is there c team!

The HRNZ will not want negative news on BOAY or “The Darkside” site, however this is a forum to express opinions and truth and is only to try and hopefully keep harness racing in operation! I can almost guarantee that the industry will not exist in any great form in 10 years if things continue on its current path! Wont give where I read it, however the North Island this current season is losing big money for the industry and there is no sign of improvement in the near future at best! When Auckland has under 60 noms for a meeting this week it ks going to be just another continuation of losses, as punters are turned off by this. We need owners to be paying training bills for horses to race, and unfortunately with respect there are more owners leaving the industry as many are getting long in the tooth. Apart from new syndicate members who are buying small % there are next to no new owners coming through. is it going to improve with the cost of living nowadays and the lack of discretionary spending, and the training costs? Victoria Harness is in deep shite and they have been getting big assistance from their government which is looking like ending in the future! Entain have come in and are propping the industry up currently, however there is a pretty good likelihood that they will get the stitch with harness racing unless things change. Can I see major stake reductions occurring in the future? I can almost guarantee it and then where do things stand? Feel free to rubbish what Brodie has stated but it is done with the best intentions to try and get the PAID EMPLOYEES to get things back on track! Brodie would love to see the once great industry thrive once again!!!!

Lol. Far riskier and plenty of racing in Canterbury though. If your horse is not competitive in Canterbury then yes you might well go, but it is not a cheap exercise!

Dont think you can compare Auckland and Cambridge combined with that of the horses racing on the Coast! West Coast will average 13.6 horses if it is a 10 race card and Auckland would only average 5.5 horses for a 10 race card, so totally different!!! ! A lot of Canterbury trainers wont go to the Coast this time of year due to the concentrating on the Canterbury racing and the prospect of a wet track on either day, plus the big cost of going over!

Think the powers that be, really need to come up with a far fairer handicapping system, than the current one!! Just looking at the fields for Oamaru on Wednesday. The first race a 35 to 38 classification has 11 starters lining up at this stage. There are 7 one winners, 3 that have won two races from many starts! The remaining one, has drawn no. 1 and has won 17 races, that is right, 17 and is graded the same as the one and two race winners?????? you could say that that is just the system and good luck to the owners! Yes it is the current system being used at the moment, but seriously just seems like a very crazy system!!!

Think the powers that be, really need to come up with a far fairer handicapping system, than the current one!! Just looking at the fields for Oamaru on Wednesday. The first race a 35 to 38 classification has 11 starters lining up at this stage. There are 7 one winners, 3 that have won two races from many starts! The remaining one, has drawn no. 1 and has won 17 races, that is right, 17 and is graded the same as the one and two race winners?????? you could say that that is just the system and good luck to the owners! Yes it is the current system being used at the moment, but seriously just seems like a very crazy system!!!

Lol Michael is not Michael Guerin!

I see that the horseman that was the victim on the West Coast, is back driving on Thursday night at Addington! Always 2 sides to every story as they say!

Ranga, always be in my prime, thats why I am badly restricted! Aniseed balls were good.👍

To be fair $1k is not a huge amount of money in this day and age! it is all relative I suppose as to your financial position, but the restrictions on punters by the TAB in NZ are ludicrously low! The AML limit that the TAB are adopting is also in breach of the current AML Act from last year!!!!! The point remains that many punters are being unfairly victimised!!! If you are good at something then why should you be penalised?? Haven’t got a problem with them having some restrictions perhaps, but the levels they adopt are ridiculously low! I am sure that if I started to show that I was losing they would quickly drop my restrictions!

Gamma, does the TAB actually care about punters that are problem gamblers despite the advertising? All that Brodie thinks is reasonable is they respect the AML act limit that is in law rather than the $1k limit! Also punters should all be treated equally or at least have reasonable punting limits! Are losing punters really on restricted limits as well? Highly doubt it?

Yes it is a gimmick, and it will bring a bit of publicity for harness racing and it does need it! It is free to anyone with no purchase costs or training costs, so it isnt actually going to be bringing in any legitimate new owners who are going to be paying training bills!! I agree with Newmarket, the purchase cost is huge for a yearling harness horse and could be several years before it actually races! to attract interest and get people punting on the syndicate horses, they couldve had a lot more interest and fun with purchasing several race horses for immediate racing! Anyway, not my money and at least Entain are chucking money around to hopefully engender interest in the industry! Suggestion to get the turnover up and going would be for the TAB to come out and say that they are breaking the AML law, and actually apply the correct limit in terms of the ACT! Punters are not being allowed to wager when and what they want due to the TAB continuing to want total control of the punters! Maybe Entain will actually read the AML ACT and actually operate by the correct limit in terms of the ACT???

Still young, havent aged in the last 20 years! Yes I remember Torsim and Tornesse. How Torle could win races defies logic they way it raced.