Reefton

Listen Tosser. I could micro manage everything and sqwark at the slightest thing but do you think the SI Programming Committee or NZTR would take any notice? Not one tiny little bit! I am as surprised and unhappy as anyone that that race has been altered but that is typical of the sort of treatment small Clubs get. I don't even recall seeing the draft programme at all but if I had I would have picked that change up You are always on the sidelines sniping about what everyone else should do whether it be tracks or administration or protest or whatever. You want to line up on a Club Committee or Presidency of a small Club and find out how it feels to do a raceday preparation virtually on your own with the powers that be happy to boot you in the guts when it suits them. I have to temper that though by saying a lot of those guys individually know the game is rooted(and try to help when necessary) but they are bound by the corporate policy and have to toe the line,

yes the scungy insurance company changed it s mind at the last minute(yesterday morning) and refused the cover Just another little trial and tribulation that has occurred with this meeting(one of which is being down to 7 races due to the inability of NZTR to take a common sense attitude to date allocation and to jam three meetings into five days with a limited horse pool)

it still is an open handicap as far as I know. Certainly haven't been advised of any change to that. I take no notice of the programme because we get zero say in what is in there. As often happens if there is a cock up it is not ours

I wish you were too Pam but obviously nothing suitable for it. It didn't rain overnight so Greymouth were 'lucky' but that track will be very firm

No they don't and it is hard to believe they have not got it(we have and so does Kumara). We have been pouring water on ever since the trotting meeting because it is a bloody sight hotter in Reefton than here in Grey It is actually doing its best to rain out there now so who knows what tomorrow will bring. It is the Coast though and the rain soaks in quickly here For all that Taupo produced a firm 2 on race morning last week

When the harness finish with Timaru the Thoroughbreds will soon follow then the course will come under the Racing Act 'theft' provisions. I know it is leasehold but there will be a lot of worth to the Clubs(ie NZTR & HRNZ) in relinquishing the lease. The ownership trust(?????) will then be free to subdivide and sell a quite attractive piece of real estate.

Been there done that over and over. And the vast majority of times totally ignored

Waikouaiti got a sweetheart deal to give up their course and Jan 1st day and replace it with a feature Wingatui date(ditto Bank Peninsula and Marlborough at Riccarton) I don't really care about the deal but it should be Jan 1 at Wingatui not January 14th. It is merely shagging around other clubs like Kumara that do vastly superior turnovers but who NZTR seem happy to use as a punching bag. It is bullshit If we get half decent fields compare our oncourse to theirs(bearing in mind NZTR will piss as much money up against the wall on their one day as they will with our three)

don't get me started on that topic. Next year they have had to spread it out better. Greymouth Wed 3rd Kumara Sat 6th Reefton Tuesday 9th

So why at the best time of year for racing in this country would they have a day(tomorrow) with not one thoroughbred meeting scheduled? When virtually everyone is on holiday and hopefully has some cash left we have a blank day on the calendar. Defies belief

Not quite sure what exactly you mean but I do not like what you are implying. I don't do 'quiet fideles' nor any fiddles at all. What I might do is work within the Tax Act and generate a satisfactory outcome for a client. As I have said previously ethically I am not entitled to organise, allow or tolerate 'fiddles' regardless of the AMLCFT Act or not. As far as 'large organised criminals' well that is exactly the point I am making. It won't stop money laundering because it happens. Unless they have a hold on an Accountant or Lawyer however I do not think there would be too many keen to put their necks on the line anymore to help. For all that there are plenty of rorts going on via big business the world over that screw dosh out of the unsuspecting. A classic example being carbon credits - designed to generate huge incomes for European commodity traders.

She was a bit more than a law clerk. She worked for some pretty high profile firms after she got out of jail. She was no mug but obviously not able to work as a lawyer after conviction

my understanding(and is an understanding - I haven't talked to anyone directly involved) is the hospitalisation thing is a bit of an exaggeration. Apparently humans and horses were OK(But I bet they got a fright!)

Is that right? I very much doubt it -what they will have had is the ability to access anyone bank account not automatic details of bank transactons(and they always had ability to access transactions) You have to realise that would bombard them with millions of transactions daily and they would have no hope of seeing the wood from the trees. They whinge their guts out about being overrun with work now let alone having all that info to process

Would have thought that was enough to have a very pissed off client when they realised.

There is a warning about it in letters of engagement whereby the client is warned and acknowledges it can happen. I imagine as well that if the client refused to sign or accept it it is the end of the relationship. Can't say I have issued too many of those letters yet as I have only recently updated my letter but I reiterate if I am bound by the Act whether the client agrees or not I must report. We have been covered by it since 2018 I might add long before the TAB was.

Google Commonwealth Bank of Australia and reporting fines. It's true all right. And they will all be doing it because to not do so is a perilous risk As far as Mr Asia goes she (Karen Soich) got disbarred but was highly capable so still worked in legal circles but not as a lawyer herself. That was of course long before the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Act but she was so actively involved when would have had a raft of other charges anyway.

Thats the law and we have no choice. There is a special outfit in the Police( the FIS or something) it gets reported to and the banks have to do it to and I will wager so does the TAB. The equivalent law in Aussie saw the ASB parent co the Commonwealth Bank of Australia fined $775million(yes million!) for not reporting something like 200,000 transactions. The remarkable thing was the market expected them to be fined $2 billion! Accordingly the share price promptly jumped. There are ways Accountants can get out of the requirements of the Act and I am currently trying to extract myself from the liability. Not that any of my clients have anything to hide and not that I am entitled (ethically) to tolerate illegal behaviour but that effing law is draconian. And no insofar as I am aware nobody has challenged it and I doubt there would be a hope if you did. What I do know though is that the have been both Accountants and Lawyers in NZ who have ended up becoming a guest of Her Majesty for ignoring their responsibilities under the Act.

Don't know about that. $10K is the banks threshold. Different industries or organisations have different levels. I can sympathise with what you guys are saying but the issue is the government. And it was the John Key government who set this up. The ironic thing is like most government decrees it will not achieve its aim. It will not stop money laundering because the crims are far too smart(anymore than all the Health & Safety rules in the world will stop accidents) The only really effective way will be to get rid of cash but they will find away around that as well. All it actually does is make things a pain in the arse for the likes of you guys going about your lawful business. As an Accountant under this wanker of a law it I see a 'suspicious' transaction I am required to report it to the cops and am not permitted to tell the client I have done it. Whatever happened to confidentiality?

I suppose Clubs and track staff get blase. And by the time everyone pokes their oar in about what should be done with tracks they probably get crankier still. Neither do a lot of racegoers. When they have occasionally cancelled Kumara due to safety concerns the moaning from the public! My comment is always I wouldn't want one of them(Jockeys) to break a fingernail let alone something more serious.

Of course that is assuming the NZTR advice is actually good advice in the circumstances I suspect there has been a lot of advice(and probably a lot of industry money) handed out to clubs for track renovation that has proven to be deficient over the years. And to be fair on this very very tragic day for NZ Racing the really bad incidents that have happened here have not been attributable to track issues. Rangiora was probably the last one where it is generally accepted that it was a track problem. Very very sad. Makes me as a Club President shudder and very much reflect on my responsibilities. At least the last two years I have breathed a massive sigh of relief at the end when everyone has come through unscathed

To be fair whilst we listen to NZTR we have not always followed their guidance to the letter of the law but we have kept in touch with them (Gary Foskett in particular) about what we are doing and have always been Ok. Of course it is easy when you have one day a year but you also have to say it is not often the Waverley's or Reefton's of this world that have track troubles. Dummy Myers told me the bloke from Waverley would be one of NZ's best trackmen(and he would know) I know I have said this before but about ten or so years ago the trotters hammered our course on a wet day. We had two options - roll it or transfer. We rolled it with a twelve tonne road roller. There might have been bare patches come raceday but they were flat bare patches. It was parked off the track when Foskett arrived - he looked at it, knew what we had been up to, and shook his head. But he knew Peter O'Malley knew what he was doing so he was comfortable. I rail against irrigation too close to raceday but last year we were virtually right up to race morning given we had seven days between the two meetings of 30 plus degrees. Plus it had been verti drained the day after the trots. You do what you have to do and race morning it was a dead 4 but a good 3 by race time. A bit ironic but Gary Foskett is coming down tomorrow to help us install our new rail. We never had a complaint about him - good to work with and never threw the toys out of the cot. Our track is fantastic but the trotters will pound the life out of it.

Quite right. And Marlborough is another feature day that did not exist and has been given to the CJC. We turned over well over $1m last year which would have more than paid for ourselves and with the horses here they could easily have added another day but there is a bit of a snitcher going on with the Westland Racing Club and hence the refusal. Even if they didn't give us the fourth day they could have gone Waikouiaiti on Jan 3rd(Public Holiday) then Grey Sunday 7th us Wednesday 10th and Kumara Saturday 13th but no - too much logic there. The other thing is our gates cartage and also TAB costs. Our gates are stored at Reefton so as it stands we have to cart them to Greymouth then back to Reefton then back to Kumara and back home to Reefton. Do you think I could point out the efficiency of having Reefton either first or last to save cartage? And the Reefton Trots the week before means the TAB have set up all their cabling, Tv's etc etc etc. If we were first of course they can leave it all in place but again cost is no problem to these people. After all the game is absolutely awash with money just now isn't it? Quite frustrating because as a business person(and an Accountant in my case) you look and strive for efficiency. Then you deal with a quasi government department not spending its own money and nobody cares. And Reefton first or last would save some of the Canterbury guys who stay a night's accommodation because they can arrive race morning(an hour and a quarter less travel) and fuel for that extra one hundred miles. Plus the Northerners heading to or from would benefit as well. But hey who gives a shit about saving the owners money?

that's a worry all right but these days they flit from Christchurch on race morning(three and a half hours max - half an hour less from Rangiora way) so there will hopefully be a pool of horses that come to us but not the others And of course the KT Myers types know what is required and are as likely as not to run twice if not three times. It is a fingers crossed scenario for me really but it seems to work out. But my levels of disillusionment are so cronically bad that if the stakeholders tell me we are not wanted I will go gracefully. It is Wellington arbitrarily telling me we are not wanted that irritates the shit out of me As I said before I did though explain to them how to reschedule the whole lot to make the spacing better for us but they were not interested in listening. 'we can't work out the schedule' they said. 'You dumb pricks I've just done that for you!' I did tell them I would redraft the entire South Island Calendar for the season(At a price of course) but I think they might not have liked to be shown up by common sense in action. The issue is Waikouaiti getting a January feature Saturday promised to them. Why they couldn't have a feature New Years day Meeting I have no idea but it jams an extra Saturday meeting into the South Island January. Riverton on Jan1 with an industry day is hardly riveting. Last year in that week the three Coast Clubs had three of the top four on course turnovers in NZ(Kumara's the highest by a mile of course). Even Ellerslie on a Sunday couldn't compete. Extract from our dates submission(have to admit we were chasing an extra day but hey at that time of year we are doing NZ's best on course turnovers so why shouldn't we get an extra day?) 'CIRCUIT SCHEDULING This past circuit's spacing of three meetings in six days also adversely affected runner numbers and no doubt contributed to the aforementioned non attendance of several long term Coast Racing supporter Trainers. The 2022/23 calendar proposal seeks to shorten that further to five days. The days when horses could be expected to race three times in five days are unfortunately long gone and we seek a more realistic spread of racedays. The Waikouaiti meeting was granted feature status last year and placed in the 'vacant' January weekend spot created by the loss of the Central Otago and (one) West Coast dates. Next year that Waikouaiti meeting is scheduled for the second Saturday January 14th. Traditionally Kumara has always raced on the second Saturday in January with the rest of the West Coast circuit pivoting around it depending on the date the second Saturday fell on. The suggestion here is that Waikouaiti be reallocated the Tuesday January 3rd(two days after Riverton on the first) then Reefton on the Thursday January 5th(as it is now) Greymouth on Sunday January 8th and again(or Reefton) on Wednesday January 11th(the aforementioned requested extra day) then Kumara on Saturday 14th. That means a nice spread of two clear days between each of the four West Coast meetings. What's more it alleviates a potential issue with racebooks where form from the last meeting is often omitted because of short timeframes between meetings(which is an unprofessional look for the industry when provided to regular racegoers). The question might well be asked why the West Coast circuit, probably the best sequence of meetings in the South Island in terms of return on NZTR investment in stakes and grants, continues to be pushed around dates wise to fit(in this case) a date(Waikouaiti) that never traditionally existed? Kumara in particular is a(probably the) truly iconic racemeeting in this country and everybody knows it is the second Saturday in January. Hotels in the District will be booked out already for that weekend in 2023 and that alone will reflect extremely poorly upon NZ Racing when people realise that that date has been changed for no logical or justifiable reason. And reflecting poorly on NZ Racing will do nothing to achieve the objects of NZTR mentioned on the first page of this submission nor encourage the community engagement specified in the December 18th circular also mentioned in the introduction. The only significant dates issue we see from that is to cut Saturday January 6th back to one thoroughbred meeting(Marton) BUT the ARC could be approached to transfer it's feature(and high stakes) day at Pukekohe back from the Sunday January 7th to Saturday January 6th(thereby leaving the Sunday with only one(not two) thoroughbred meetings). Alternately Greymouth could run on the Saturday if the ARC did not like that scenario. Note that the third is still a holiday date for Waikouaiti with New Year's day falling on the Sunday making Tuesday a holiday date(so they do not lose anything in terms of attractiveness for crowds). The other benefit is that it creates a better spread of feature days in the South whereby as it stands in the ten weeks post NZ Cup day there are only three South Island feature meetings with every one at least five hours from the major training centre of Riccarton. Then follows a sequence of seven feature meetings in eight weeks - better class horses go from no opportunities to an abundance and lower quality horses the reverse. Shifting Waikouaiti will at least partially address that issue. An additional advantage would be to make a more logical travel progression of Riverton(Jan 1) two hours to Waikouaiti/Dunedin(Jan 3) then seven hours to the West Coast(Jan 5) versus Riverton then a nine hour trip to the West Coast. The allocation of the Wednesday January 11th to the West Coast would clash the meeting with Matamata on the same day but given the relative success(turnover wise) of scheduling two meetings on Wednesday January 5th this year that ought not to be a problem. If however the Greymouth Club is allocated the Saturday January 7th rather than the Sunday January 8th that fourth day could be placed on Tuesday January 10th and retain at least in part the three day sequencing. As covered elsewhere the placement of Kumara on the Saturday January 7th 2023 puts the Kumara club in an impossible situation in terms of organising its meeting(from the public perspective) with only three working days beforehand. Whatever happens the sequence of three meetings over five days is simply unworkable in regards obtaining fields that justify the industry investment in the days. Whereas the last two years have proved that to schedule a fourth West Coast day is a logical and likely positive addition to the NZ Racing Calendar'.

If it is any consolation I happened to have a gallop(well sort of a walk/waddle) around Reefton on Saturday and the track is in splendid nick So you don't have to worry about the really important meetings