Reefton

6 hours ago, Freda said:

For the record - B.d L. is NOT a proponent of tracks closing - although it may seem so,  given his support for Winston/Messara.

The bottom line is , if something doesn't happen,  we're all down the gurgler.

NZRB reform/removal is the most important part of that strategy,  and has a fair bit to do with the Informant's demise,  given earlier attempts to muzzle the content.

After reading a couple of paragraphs of his first two stories after Messara's report came out I abandoned buying or reading the Informant in protest.  There was far  too much 'We have to implement this 100% and right now ' about it for me.  Hence my comment in my Presidents speech in January about 'idiot journalists'.  Costello, McCarthy and co were all in favour of shutting courses 20 years ago and I considered this mob to be the same this time around.  From where I sit these guys were either (1)not prepared to ask the really tough questions about the waste in the industry with the big clubs or (2) too thick to see it.  

Maybe his subsequent columns have moderated but in those initial few days when we were reeling from the tripe contained in that report he and his ilk did not help.

31 minutes ago, Freda said:

Industry comment/critique as written by contributor B.d L. has not endeared the publication to the NZRB.

Industry comment written by B d L has not endeared the publication to many small club committee men either.  Those are the type of people who buy a racing paper not David Ellis' arch typical 'retired schoolteacher who has had shares in three horses and all have been G1 champions' that he is always talking about on his website.

Still sad however