Brodie

Do quite nicely without needing to punt, Tonka, I can assure you. Certainly would not be at Valentines, and seems odd you know about a 5% discount on Pension Day? Small fields especially at Auckland, certainly have no one I know salivating?

Personally would not think that too many people are going to be breeding more horses due to bonuses! Yes it is obviously beneficial if a breeder can get a wee bit extra in $, but can not see it doing a lot to increase numbers unfortunately. Reality is that the other costs compared to what you can receive in stake returns just doesnt make it financially viable, so we are lucky that there remains sufficient numbers of people prepared to continue to breed. Hope that it continues to be the case.

Thought the same Gamma. How an Ozzie horse could be given the NZ horse of the year award, not a great look for NZ. Just Believe amazingly good horse but doesnt do much to promote us here. Would highly doubt the Ozzies giving NZ anything?

Think you have lost the plot Tonka? Firstly why would I be at a buffet in Hornby and secondly why would I dribble over a six horse field at Auckland? Certainly went thru to the keeper that one! Maybe you best sticking to your playing with toys?

Entain have shut down their Ladbrokes Racing Club that provided horses and greyhounds free of charge apparently to people that applied for ownership! It was apparently costing them too much to run with rising costs! If they can not afford to race horses and dogs with the expenses being too much compared to stake money received, then how do they expect to be attracting new owners in NZ? Entain appear to have had a couple of poor years worldwide and you would have to think that they are certainly very vulnerable to be bought out by a more successful gambling agency in the future? It would appear to be make hay while the sun shines?

I am nothing like Iraklis! If I was the white coaters would have picked me up before now!

That is very unfair, Tonka! Brodie was just defending himself against Paleface’ s statement?

Its a family show, dont get my stick out as much nowadays!

Lol Brodie not so old and would be carrying a whip!

They work hard over more distance on their home tracks. You would know better than I Gamma, but is a turn off these miles. Its all good though if the powers that be believe that these miles are good for the industry and is profitable. Maybe the less serious punters do not mind the sprints but I would be pretty sure the turnover suffers majorly from running them.

I was not aware of the rule that a horse 2 out has to concede to any horse that is 3 wide? If that is the case seems diabolically wrong in this case surely? So if that is the case why is it different when you can not push out from the fence or 2 wide line until after the 1000metre point?? Galah, you mist be right or why would Blair plead guilty, but it is very hard to believe it is the rule or it would be happening all the time you would think ?? Crazy!

Addington races most weeks so great that they do not race over the mile thank goodness for that. The harness industry really need to pull together and start programming races that encourages punters as they certainly need more. Yes stake money is better now than it was a couple of years ago and owners are going to get bonuses, not that I believe $4k is going to entice new owners in large numbers, but it is something. At the end of the day, if HRNZ and the Clubs think that programming these races are going to attract people to the races and wager, then that is their choice. Our horses are trained to be running these middle distances and if you asked the horses whether they preferred to sprint hard all the way over a mile or race at a good speed and sprint home over 2600m, I reckon they would go for the 2600m! Most punters would be the same, 2600m rather than the mile but I am not on the payroll

It is a bit confusing that Blair did admit the charge, but then who are we to question the leading driver in NZ? Looking st the replay it did appear as if Blair was one off and had every right to maintain his ground? Anyway gives Blair a bit of a break after a very busy driver patch! Think the ones that backed Light MeUp were hard done by ?

Fair enough, but do you actually wager on them? Black print is overrated nowadays as anything that wins can get black print on all weather tracks. All the punters and enthusiasts I speak to do not like this short trsck racing. The U.S. mile racing is just a yawn fest in my humble opinion.

Always on the money Tonka! It is not be that hard to have horses standing behind the tape as the trainers surely all spend plenty of time on this? The fact that certain starters do not give a stuff about standing starts paints a very poor picture of professionalism for the industry. All starts should be fair for all horses, but almost every standing start in Canterbury is just a raffle and unfair. Drivers know how lax the starter is and that they can get away with almost anything including full blown run up. HRNZ if they have any concern for the industry progressing should be coming down on the starter and not allowing AMATEUR HOUR STARTS! Are they standing starts or not?? If not then change the name to NON MOBILE START, ANYTHING IS ACCEPTABLE!

Box Seat this week had the second part of the interview with Dexter Dunn. Very interesting listening to his thoughts. He suggested that we might be overdoing the Standing Starts and should be more mobiles, which I agree with nowadays as the starts are just not good enough. There has been no improvement with them and just turns the punters off, not that it seems to concern HRNZ though as they allow the crap to continue. How come the Stipes dont mention the poor starts in their report, cos they are all mates! The second very interest thing Dexter said was that he thought people in the industry seemed to enjoy the short track racing??????? Personally think that serious punters hate the mile racing that the Clubs have brought in in recent years. He is used to the boring racing that he drives in, in the United States so will not be aware of what is going on here. Would be good to know whether this mile racing does actually attract punters to the races and is there more wagering on them? I would be extremely sure that it does not encourage wagering at all and is a turnoff for most serious punters and enthusiasts.

But seriously, they should have some credibility with comments being somewhat appropriate! if this is the best they can do then they would be far better off not saying anything as they are pathetically inaccurate. I appreciate that they are running s business and therefore trying to msje as much ss they can for shareholders and have made changes to things. Entain are a gambling agency that I personally believe have made several decisions that are detrimental to retaining and attracting punters on harness racing. Hopefully Brodie is wrong and what they are doing works for the good of the industry. Some things I like but others not so much but then again I dont own the business, so its Entains right for 25 years, if they havent sold it off, which I would be betting on.

Can someone please advise me why Racing and Sports who according to the TAB has been trusted for 20+ years is allowed to advertise such? Some of there info and all of their comments are just so pathetically inaccurate and hilarious that there is no way in the world anyone could actually be trusting what they produce. If Entain were serious about racing then they would be getting rid of this lot! Randel Huston P in race 5 tomorrow night and it is starting from the Unruly 1 ! Racing and Sports states” has drawn the rails” ???????? Every race has such poor comments and info that no you are not trusted at all, despite what you say!!!

I see HRNZ has updated its website today. seems to have more colour about it but not sure the fields etc. are easier to read, but just as many winners as before! What does seem a really good initiative they have included is Trackside 1 and Trackside 2, so you can watch the racing on that rather than having to go to the TAB website. well done to someone for bringing that in.

32 horses going around today, which is not flash! when the no s came out it mustve been touch snd go whether they ran the meeting and now with 32 horses over 5 races is going to be a waste of time for most. Yes owners get stake money easily but not a good sign for the future.

TAB, the stake money holding up is great obviously but it ks only for a limited time and the intelligent are aware of this. Great work by syndicators to get people in for small shares but that is probably the way it will stay, with most sticking to small shares and they have as much fun that way. Unfortunately the cost of ownership nowadays just does not make it economically viable to own a racehorse with the cost of living in NZ. We just have to realise that things will never be the way they were in harness racing heyday.

Seriously, Cambridge is running a meeting next Monday on Anniversary day for them! What is happening with racing in the North Island? This meeting is being run with only 5 RACES???? 2 races has 6 starters so turnover will be terribly low once again and these meetings in the north continue to lose money. Harness is in very serious trouble in the north and yet some some in the industry are saying things are positive??? Does anyone know what is happening with the sale of Franklin track as it has gone very quiet once again after the ATC came out very excited a couple of months ago? The interest will continue to climb!

The new TAB website being run from Australia is often hard to understand! Since the new website for the TAB was taken over by Entain, Sports and Racing have brought out some different features! Does anyone know how this Money Tracker thing actually works? You look at it and it will show that horses have more bets and more money wagered on them and yet the bookies price lengthens?? Then other horses prices get slashed and you look at the Money Tracker and according to them very few wagers compared to others and far less money and yet they slash the odds?? Seems a crazy situation and no explanation apart from them taking the proverbial and having us on??

Missed the decimal point. The thing is that even if you actually got on at those odds, they would cancel the bet. Been there done that!

Pointless them making comments on the horses as the info they put in the comment is already showing? They make a comment such as, has been going poor recently, win chance! 😂