Brodie

So letting only one punter on at the opening fixed price is a good business decision? Hardly encouraging wagering.

It wouldn’t change any assessment but it would show how much interest there is on the race and meeting!

I have no idea whatsoever why punters bother betting on the tote? Why are we not being shown exactly how much the Bookies have actually taken on fixed odds book? I personally do not give a toss about how much is in the tote pools! Does anyone actually need to see the tote only betting pools, give us both! If there is plenty of $ actually being offloaded into the Fixed Odds Books, then that should mean that the Bookies shouldnt be needing to placing restrictions on punters! When they slash the odds on a horse 3 times after a bet, all it is doing is stopping anyone else wagering on that horse, as the odds are then unders!

Punters may well look for value in the tote prices. However, if there is buggerall in the tote pools and someone has a semi decent wager it will kill the tote dividend! Have seen many times this last week of tote win and place pools of 3k each! Surely this is showing that the punters are just not bothering now? Races with this amount of tote wagering on win and place just has to be losing money without knowing how much is in The fixed odds book? I watch the Fixed Odds movements and there is not many punters offloading decent amounts or being allowed to offload big amounts. TAB needs to lift the shackles and encourage punters to have a go!!

There just has to be a reduction of money coming from Oz now! The tote pools are absolutely pathetic on most races now to what they used to be! The smaller the pool the less you are going to be able to retain the tote punters! I also do not believe that there are many big punters on harness still, going by the shift in fixed odds prices! This is a huge problem for the TAB as they need to retain and encourage big wagers! The TAB is far too risk averse to stem the decline going by their current policy!

Just watched the 1984 Derby won by Naval,Officer. The 5 outsiders were the only ones left in the race. The size of the crowd was amazing, grandstand and asphalt area was just chocker, so just shows how much the industry has declined unfortunately. That was back in 1984, and they left the race continue even though there were horses sprawled at the winning post and a loose horse in the field! If this happened again, there is no way on earth they would allow the race to have continued, it wouldve been pulled up! How things have changed!!

Looking at the tote pools today at a Premier meeting at Addington! not sure how much is being wagered on the Fixed Odds but the tote pools are patheticly low and will be a loss for the Club by the look of it? The meeting needs to revert back to a night meeting to increase turnover and patronage on course!!

I believe that they have not won many fans with some if their decisions! They needed to retain the existing client base and attract new punters! This is achieved by having existing clients bringing in new clients for them by keeping them happy, rather than isolating them! To treat some of their clients unfairly and not not equally with others, is one way of causing business to be lost! Reality is that the chickens are coming home to roost unfortunately. Their business model policy of relying on increasing yield rather than increasing turnover is flawed, but not everyone will agree with me!

Restricted earlier 😂

Not sure that they can screw restricted punters anymore than they currently are? The fact that they bring the Fixed Odds out earlier is a positive! The power plays and Top 4 need to be given Option no.s so that you can bet into them away from your account. tote turnovers are so poor now on many and not sure why people bother betting on the tote?

No, especially not the dogs! Ozzie obviously hasnt got the same requirement in their racing act that they can not race on Good Friday! Why are they racing during the day at Addington? Surely be more on course and better turnover at night?

Maybe time to look at whether it is still appropriate? I see they are playing women cricket in Wellington at the moment!

I have wondered in previous years why on Good Friday, Australia has race meetings, when NZ doesnt? There are 3 night meetings plus one day harness meeting on today, Good Friday! Now I am not necessarily suggesting that we need a harness meeting, just questioning why we dont? Most things are closed in NZ today so it would be good to have a local meeting but I doubt it will happen in the future! Just appears that maybe the Ozzies have more of a culture of making things happen than what NZ does? Not convinced that most nowadays think that Easter is anything other than a couple of days of Public Holidays !

The mass immigration is happening all around the world, and not just NZ! Immigration is fine if it is with the right qualified people that are going to financially contribute to NZ and not bring their cultural problems here!! Yes I will be called racist, but it is a fact that people with different religious beliefs are causing major problems! To be bringing in people who dont mix into society and end up driving Uber taxis or running Dairies is just problematical for NZ! It does need to stop! it puts an unnecessary strain on everything, housing, health system, schooling etc. when we have an already existing problem! Brodie on the money, and telling it the way it is, whether you want to believe it or not!

Wasnt that!

Got no idea how much is bet on Fixed Odds on harness nowadays? However the tote pools that show up on Trackside when the races close is absolutely pathetic to what they used to be! There is clearly not a lot of ew money being wagered by punters, bearing in mind a lot of the turnover in the tote pools will be reinvestments. Last week I saw win pools at Addington that were not much larger if at all, than Brodie would want to wager on Fixed himself! TAB needs to let go of the shackles and let the punters on to keep the industry going or it is history!

You would only need to start fining them and they would soon realise that it is not worth it to be less than average! What it would do is to make the harness industry have more level of professionalism and credibility If there were less drivers then the better drivers would pick up the drives that the poor drivers were currently getting! Would be a major win for the sport as it is frustrating to invest on a horse that continually has a poor driver up! I am sure in the major tracks in the United States, it is only the top drivers getting all the drives without the mug ones!

It isnt meant to be a name and shame post Newmarket!

There was an owner that had a few horses with Graham and Paul Court, that had the prefix Mongolian 2 or 3 seasons ago! They seemed to have disappeared? Short life of racing in NZ for that owner!

You would have to agree that young Junior driver Carter Dalgety must be our best Junior driver ever? He achieved it in only 550 drives, much quicker than Dexter Dunn and nearly 400 drives less than Sarah O’Reilly! Yes he has driven some very good horses, but surely the fact that he has achieved it so much quicker than anyone else is proof enough? Very professional and an asset to the industry. He for one, is not one that goes out on the track and waits for something to happen! He wants to put his horse in the race and that is all we can ask for. Well done Carter!

Galah, have read about this awful behaviour bt the Chinese snd Mongolians previously! I am sure you are probably correct about what is hsppening! what would the owners be getting for their mares, it cant be too much or the buyers would just need to buy hacks wouldn't they? Think people should be more concerned with this practice than the use of the whip on harness horse?

I believe that the 2 drivers in question just lack the ability to be a successful driver. You can see why the top drivers like Blair Orange, John and Dexter Dunn, Herlihy, Carter etc. just have more nous than the poor drivers. They have more up top and the desire to actually do well rather than just jumping in the cart and seeing what happens. It is very frustrating when you offload and you nave no control over what the driver does out on the track!!!! As I say there needs to be change so that the punters have some confidence or they will drop out. Absolutely pointless owning a horse and putting on drivers if they are going to sit at the back and run home! Put them in the race or let someone professional drive them!!!!

Before offloading on them, I knew they were both below average in driving ability! However in small fields it was hard to see either of them out of the first 3 placing unless they drove poorly! Yep they both drove poorly. Punters invest with the TAB on good faith and should be able to expect that drivers have a modicum of respect for this. the owners pay the large training bills and also should expect the driver to do best to win $ for them! It doesn’t actually do a lot for the harness racing industry when these poorer drivers are out on the track being so timid that they give their horse absolutely no chance of winning for the punter and owner. Start fining these ones who are just passengers in the cart and they will change their way of driving! Harming the industry

I am not going to name them, but if I was the owners of the 2 horses that I off loaded on, both drivers should not be on them again! That isnt going go happen with these horses, however I believe that both should be fined more-so than Colin de fillippi who has been fined many times for trying too hard to win. If they started handling out fines for these poor drives, it might damn well make them try harder! The TAB would be happy if Brodie stopped investing with them, but if these drivers are going to continue to drive poorly and not put their horse into the race till too late, then he may do!

Had a couple of goes on what I considered to be certainties to run in the money!!! Only problem is that they both were extremely poorly driven! Yes I know that you take your chances when you back anyone but the good drivers! However in small fields and stakes of $15k you would think the drivers would have enough intellect to put the horse in the race, and not flash home too late?? Yes talking through my wallet however it is pathetic that the Stipes will accept this as acceptable! You can see why some drivers get outside drives snd others dont!