Reefton

Yes we do but they need scrubbing first.

The three Coast Clubs share the number cloths(like the starting gates) - they were used yesterday at Omoto, will be at Reefton Thursday and Kumara Saturday then sit for a year until next time. When one club uses them the next Club picks them up and scrubs them for next time

Yes I agree Pam. A good start on his part I would say

Not likely. I've met a bunch of Irish left footers so even more ensconced with the Doolans.

As I said in another thread a little clarification courtesy of Darryl Park the newest NZTR member at Greymouth today. George is only an interim Chairman - they are electing a new Chair in March. So the absentee issue is temporary assuming he is not reappointed.

Thanks Nomates. I did have a very interesting (and forthright) discussion with Darryl Park the newest member of the NZTR Board. He had been at Kurow as well and intends to be back for the two upcoming Coast Meetings. If his actions are as sympathetic as his comments then we may have finally found an NZTR Board Member with a bit of common sense. Provided he is allowed to put his opinions of course and not cried down by idiot bureaucrats and other empire building members. He did clear up the Cameron George absentee issue by pointing out that the Chairman appointment is only an interim measure until March. So one would presume he will only be an absentee Board Member after that rather than an absentee Chairman.

After a big day at Omoto races Mr & Mrs Reefton get stuck into scrubbing filthy number cloths in preparation for the Reefton Meeting Thursday. I wonder how often Mrs ARC or Mrs CJC (or Mrs Messara for that matter) does this job One thing about it I have no danger of catching Covid - the hands are sparkling! What say all you galahs who reckon the small clubs and their committees have it easy?

Here's another example Cameron George accepts the post of NZTR Chairman then promptly buggers off to Aussie with his league team for the long term(months I would presume) At least he is a face we all know(as compared to the previous non entities) but it is pretty clear he is going to be an absentee Chairman. Is the industry going that well that there is no need to have the (presumably handsomely paid) Administrators watching out for it? Why would he have put himself up for and accepted the job when he knew he was not going to be here?

Look Tesio I have said it before - I am not particularly anti anyone in this game but I had to fight bloody hard to keep my Club's raceday and as part of that we had this constant suggestion that the likes of the ARC are carrying the NZ racing industry. They are not and they are not the b all and end all of NZ racing as some would have you believe. They use a disproportionate share of the cake and, despite the fawning admiration for the odd day they get a decent crowd the reality is it an exceptionally valuable asset of the industry that is returning a poor rate of return. I have been lucky enough(and it is luck) to have had a share in a G1 winner (at Ellerslie of all places) and several other G1 runners so I have enjoyed the fruits of these pinnacle days myself. It is a bit rich for me to rail too strongly against them. If I was the ARC chair I would be seriously considering a radical plan to relocate and use those billions of dollars of assets to really aid the Industry and secure its future. And then the ARC would deserve the admiration and gratitude that would come it's way. For all that I probably won't be watching too much if any of Ellerslie today simply because it does not interest me too much. I will look at Riverton because it is the likes of Pam, Pitty, Paul Harris and others that I know and like that I want follow (not that Pam has anything in down there I don't think). Bernard's go to statement when we was travelling around the country was 'the status quo is not an option'. Well as I have said before for the likes of the Reefton Jockey Club the status quo bloody well is an option. We are not sucking the industry dry - it is the big clubs and the big days(stakeswise) that are finding the status quo untenable (and there are a lot of other contributing factors as well I acknowledge). Let those big Clubs get off their arse, make some tough calls and sort their own salvation out. I am sick to death of the bleating, mainly from the Waikato factions, of people who do not want to help themselves. Happy New Year, have a good day and hope you back plenty of winners.

But nobody wants to go there? If it is so good why aren't they thronging in? You see you and the likes of Tesio and Thomass are unable to see that there is a 3 or 4 billion dollar investment(100% per cent paid for by the NZ racing jndustry I might add) that is sitting there and not performing (financially). There are none so blind as they who will not see. Kumara (I will remind everyone a town of 300 - yes that is 300 not 1.3 million) will get a crowd nearly as big as Ellerslie did on Boxing Day next Saturday. Think about it

sfa Thomass? Reminds me of what's between your ears. But if we are talking sfa then I would have to say that Boxing Day or any other day at Ellerslie is of sfa interest to the vast vast vast majority of Aucklanders. All the more reason to cash up the overrated dump and use the proceeds to really improve NZ racing.

There are obvious issues with CWJ but you could hardly argue with Lisa Allpress getting a gong. Sheer hard work, talent , personality and longevity - you cannot help but admire her. For all that surprising NGH has never got recognition but who knows - maybe he turned it down. It took a bloody long time for Brian Anderton to be recognised and nobody deserved recognition more than him (and it should have been a bloody knighthood!)

Yes and with the increased stakes comes an horrendous amount of cost. I had a share in one that went over there three times, raced in the highest class(3 G1's including one against Winx), won an Aussie G2 and got sweet f a paid out after costs. Good luck but it ain't all wine and roses over there.

Fair comment re the quality of the racing but lets look at the off course and the return on industry funds expended. I haven't bothered (and can't be bothered) adding up the stakes paid but I imagine that Ellerslie paid out $700k in stakes versus Westport's maybe $130k. Westport turned over $1.7m off course so if the quality was proportionately attractive Ellerslie ought to have turned over $9m or thereabouts. I doubt that is the case. The bottom line is that the industry is still living beyond its means and, in stakes terms at least, there is a huge imbalance between the payout and the return on these 'big' days. Just because David Ellis,Peter Vela and the NZ Breeding industry want big stakes to line their pockets(Good luck to them they have invested a lot) does not mean the industry can afford it and as far as days like Boxing Day at Auckland being the 'shopfront' of NZ racing well you could justify that if they had 140000 on course not 14000.

Anyone know what the Ellerslie Oncourse was on Boxing Day? Because I just read in the local rag that Westport did $220k which for a town of 4000 equates to $55 for every man woman and child. If Ellerslie wants to justify it's favoured treatment surely it must have turned over $71m or so oncourse? I have just got Cameron and Bernard's new year message and while it may be unpalatable here is mine to them. Stop subsidising and giving all the sweet treatment to the lame ducks of the industry, the incompetent, the over staffed and under performing. Let them stand on their own two feet and justify their existence instead of robbing the rest of the industry. Sell up the overrated dump(now you have the power under the new Act) and invest the funds where it will return to the industry vastly more than the useless ARC with all its wanky wannabe behaviour is capable of. Ditto most of the other Metropolitan Clubs including Te Rapa, Awapuni, Trentham and Riccarton. Show some real leadership and make some hard hard calls.

Not sure there are too many non taxable sales to Asia are there - if there are they will be by private individuals who cannot get a deduction for the expenses of the horses they race breed or buy. Trainers, studs and professional horse traders would have to pay tax on sale prices. And I think the favourable tax treatment is no more favourable here than in Aussie or more particularly in Ireland - my understanding is that stud fees in Ireland are non taxable. Imagine owning Galileo, Fastnet Rock, Camelot and all the rest and not paying a cent in tax on their earnings! If our tax rules were as favourable as Aussie's I am sure Coolmore and Darley would have set up their Australasian Breeding farms here instead. For all that I sympathise on the general gist of what you are saying.

Hope you are wrong but strongly suspect you might be right Huey. Our club for one has been told it is finito in two or three years and really I want out now so am not too worried. However ........ I've been buggering about in this game for probably 45 years and from day one everyone has reckoned it is buggered. And guess what? It is still here and still surviving (if not well). So lets be positive and hope against hope that we can carry on. I know I am as negative as anyone here when I want to be but if we all have our bottom lip dragging on the ground it doesn't create a great impression. There is still the Reefton Jockey Club raceday January 7th to look forward too after all!

I know Matt Cross is doing ours (well that is what we have been advised). Get the best man for the best days! Not that I am knocking Craig Rail - we had him last year and (like them all) he was excellent.

Well ours are done by the stipes on race morning(earlier in the week we do them ourselves) so I presume Riccarton's are the same. The issue the other day was the clear bias to the middle of the track. Maybe future Riccarton readings for each 'lane' of the track should be published as obviously the inside to mid readings last Friday must have been far inferior to those on the mid to outside of the track at least down the straight. Anyway it pissed down in Christchurch last Monday(I was there) then they irrigated bloody twice before Friday - exactly how much water do you want on the dump. Regardless of that I did manage to own a couple of hairs on the tail of Pitty's only winner of the day so I was happy(with that at least) even if he was not. I'm off to scrub the bird shit off the Reefton grandstand seats tomorrow if anyone wants to join me? Don't all speak up at once now!

I have to say he(Bernard) was under a fairly heavy bombardment from yours truly at the time. Suspect his silence was in the hope that I would talk myself out and he might get a word in edgeways. Plus of course when you make arbitrary decisions without research you are likely to be shown up. As it was he (and the NZ First guy Patterson(??)) a couple of weeks later could really only repeat 'the status quo is not an option' tripe to justify thier positions. At least Bernard fronted - there are a frigging lot in the hierarchy of this game who ran for cover and that includes Mackenzie who had been held out as the great white hope

To be fair they have run 1020 at Reefton on a D4 in 57(or 1400 in sub 1.23) so not much difference I'd have thought. Though as I have often said I am dubious about the measurements - and just as often they have told me they have been measured correctly and repeatedly. How does one measure the distances on a racecourse?

We will irrigate before raceday make no error but it will be done carefully, consistently and evenly. Hopefully the trotting meeting eight days before enjoys good weather and then the irrigation will be all go. NZTR requires a dead 4 track on race morning and as I said in our submission on the venues our average race morning reading for the ten years 2010 to 2019 was 4.2. NZTR wanted us to shift to Grey with a 6.8 race morning average. Bernard had no response when I asked why they wanted us to go from a virtually guaranteed great track to a virtually guaranteed shit hole. It's summer FFS - people want a summer track.

Yes I guess there were a couple of scratchings but it is not like they were favourites. Did they simply set the prices too high?

He didn't say that to me but it has had a leg issue so one surmises

That race six at Riccarton today - every single horse has been backed into a lower fixed odds price since opening. Surely something would have lengthened?