Brodie

Turnover on local racing has to be down unless they are taking much larger on Fixed! The pools on NZ harness are now pathetically low and I would wager that not showing the place odds on Trackside is also affecting things! It does appear that Entain doesnt give a rats about increasing turnover on NZ racing! Would definitely be interesting to hear from the current employees of the TAB here in NZ and especially the Trackside Presenters? They wont be saying anything against Entains actions, otherwise they will get the DCM!

Blackie, as you will be well aware, the TAB is not my favourite corporate, far from it! They have treated Brodie and so many other punters very unfairly for a long time! However, unfortunately and I hope I am wrong, Entain are not the White Knight that some are hoping they are! Apart from them throwing money at the stakes for racing for a few years, a bribe is what that is, to be given the TAB for 25 years, was very a very poor business decision for NZ! In return the NZ TAB will operate out of Australia, most of the NZ staff will be dismissed and wagering will suffer. Is there anything that I see is going to be beneficial for harness racing in NZ after the 5 years of increased stakes coming from Entain? NO, but hopefully for everyone who has a stake in its sake, I am not on the money!

They wont get rid of all of them as they need presenters at the moment. With the work now being done by Racing and Spirts in Ozzie there mustve been plenty twiddling their thumbs! Would be interesting to know how many have already gone and how many they will retain? Would not think there be very many left at all in a year!

When Entain was delivered the NZ TAB for 25 years by McAnulty and Co. Entain guaranteed the NZ employment for a minimum of 2 years! I now know that this is not true, there are staff who are being paid to leave the NZ TAB already. Not sure of numbers but have been told it is quite a number. You might say that as long as they are getting redundancy then that is fine, however the positions are not being filled by anyone else, so clearly the service is going to suffer! Going go be very interesting to see how many staff are being employed at the end of the 2 years, as most of it will be run out of Ozzie! I would be suggesting very few as they will be cutting the costs to the bone. I would say the NZ Bookies have gone or are doing very little now. Being run by Entain is going to kill the racing industry in NZ, watch this space!

Yesterdays Sunday meeting at Addington was a great advertisement for the smaller trainers! Of the 10 races, you could say half of the races were won by trainers that generally would not be winning very frequently at a Friday night meeting! Was great to see this and some excellent interviews are shown on Harness Racing Unhinged, with some people ypu would not have seen interviewed before. Personally I prefer to watch racing of the lower classes and punting is also preferable than the tighter class races where often the fields are too small and not worth the effort. Harness Racing Unhinged, Nigel Armstrong’s continued efforts in promoting harness racing needs to be seriously applauded, as it must be very time consuming including the videoing out at Woodend Beach each week. In my opinion I believe there needs to be more of this type of marketing and out to further markets to get people oncourse to get people interested in harness racing. Without this harness racing will not have a future as the current participants move on!

Thing is Chief, I did get on and positive result. While there is a will, there is a way!

Must be costing them plenty with self service machines down! Suppose they think if we cont give them an opportunity to get on then we dont pay out?

Issues throughout NZ or just ChCh with the machines? Someone pulled out the plugs?

Gamma they did have counting the no. Of times a driver used the whip here! Any more than 10 over the last 400m if I remember correctly ffs. The current rule is badly thought out in regards to wrist movement! The Ozzies use the whip harder and more often than the Kiwis do. Hopefully the new Ozzie CEO overturns it to common sense.

Lol If you think I am special then that is high praise, Michael! I am pleased you are fine Mike, and doing well.

Michael, yes we all have problems to some degree, mine are TAB issues! I am pleased that you think that Brodie is special. i will take that a compliment! To be fair, I would be thinking that it is you that needs assistance? Anyway pointless debating with you most of the time as you are an antagonist but then you have a chip on your shoulders, we know that!

I rarely get out of the house????? You stalking me again TAB? I am not housebound as yet, too much living to do!

Not worth debating with you Michael! You are correct Michael, that there are various classes of everything! There are varying degrees of dishonesty as well Michael!

What do you mean almost worse? Personally think there are no advantages to what we had before! Some will think it has some betterments but I can not name a single thing that I find more beneficial! I believe the turnover is probably suffering as the tote pools are diabolical and will be interesting to actually see the betting turnovers?

Think the far bigger improvement due to change of driver is George Elliot! Wonder if Trevor has realised why the horse is winning now?

Since the Ozzies took over the TAB operation of the TAB web site, for some unknown reason it keeps logging me out? Never happened previously! Is this happening to everyone else???

Is anyone actually enjoying the mile racing tonight? Sure fire way to ensure punters dont offload, is to keep programming these mile races at Alexandra Park, Yawn! Several of the winners tonight comments from the TAB website are great 😂. whoever or whatever that are making the comments are just so NIL!! You would have to think that there is no way on earth that Auckland racing is going to be able to survive, they are such a drain on the coffers as the tote betting is disastrous!

The thing is Gamma that both were suspended solely for wanting to win a race for their connections!! Munro earns no money for winning and yet wants to do best for the owners and gets suspended for using the whip more than the blatantly stupid rule allows! Hopefully the Ozzie has some common sense and overturns the crazy current rule as it is diabolically poorly thought out!

Michael, with respect you are a plonker!! Neill Munro is more a professional driver than Steve Trotter. A Graduation Driver is not a professional driver at all, and the difference in suspensions imposed on both of them is BS! Dont reply because you will dig a bigger hole. Inane maybe, but at least I am honest, Michael!

Ranga, do you believe that many of the current Stipes appear to be runners??

Michael, you are talking crap. Neill Munro is currently an Amateur Driver but previously he had a professional license! Steve Trotter is not a professional driver now or NEVER HAS BEEN!!!!! He has only ever been GRADUATION DRIVER AND NEVER A PROFESSIONAL DRIVER!!!!!!! To be fair Neil Munro is a helluva better driver than Steve Trotter with respect to Steve who rarely jumps in the cart nowadays, so you are incorrect once again, Michael!

S Trotter is hardly a professional driver Michael! He is only driving the one horse at the moment and doesnt pick up outside drives! Just a blatantly crazy whip rule brought in through panic and nothing else. Being punished for wanting to win is crazy ! This new CEO from Ozzie hopefully will change the rule as the Ozzies are known for not being shy in using the whip!

To be fair though, and Brodie hasnt said this, Stipes clearly dont have to pass an IQ test or any fitness test!!!! the Harness Drivers Association must be pretty weak, as I can not see why on earth they accept this BS from the Stipes? They should show unified strength and confront HRNZ and sort it out with them! Hopefully the Ozzie new CEO, doesnt put up with the poor decision making that is occurring far too many times by the current Sipes!

Consistently in consistent from the Stipes! What is OBSCENE, and anyone with any semblance of intelligence, can work out the the whip rule is just blatantly stupid, and needs changing ASAP to what it was a decade ago, and worked just fine! Hopefully the Ozzie CEO has the balls and intelligence to change it, cos it is not doing harness racing any favours! We know the person who was the one that started the change in rules, not going to name him, but most know how dumb it is!

Bonnie Bagrie comment for its race today! “Impossible to entertain” lol This is the BS that we are getting now from Racing and Sport trusted for 20+ years! They really are hopeless and comments are just so poor! Anyone who follows form will know that Bonnie Bagrie had a very good chance today!