Reefton

The whole thing is just beyond belief You have a business that is ailing so you cut off the exact things the customer wants. The radio station that provides info and background to the service you are trying to sell, the newspaper fields that provide those who are not glued to computers with the vital info and the personalities(like Mark Stafford and, reportedly, the likes of Dave MacDonald and Tony Lee) and TV coverage that add the colour and(hopefully)encourage the customers to spend money. And of course they close half the courses where people actually want to attend the races(and at those that do stay open they will alienate any newcomers by having no facility for manual betting at tote windows). It is a wonder Dean McKenzie and his mates haven't decided to stop playing the actual races themselves on the Telly to save money as well. I'm an Accountant (but admittedly no wizard with failing businesses nor a marketing expert) but this method of fixing the problem is one I have never ever ever seen before. I am sure there are business experts out there who can explain the rationale

Actually twigged what the variance is. The $422,500 stakes that don't go through the club's bank account(that is NZTR pay them direct) So the Club never gets them in and never pays them out. One wonders though what their turnover(on and off) was and what percentage of that turnover was paid out in stakes(ie what percentage was industry funded). Say they had a $1.2m turnover(they did not mention what the turnover was)the amount funded via the Industry would be 35%. Compare that to poor little Avondale that probably turns over $800k on a mid winter Wednesday and pays stakes of $90k - just over 11%. Anyone spot where (some of) the inequity in NZ racing is happening?

Interesting that Haven't digested it thoroughly(no real time) but on a quick look their P&L(Profit and Loss) and notes to the financial statements(page 8) say they got an industry profit distribution of $526,555 whereas their cashflow statement( page 6 - supposed to state the actual funds received in cash) say they received industry profit distributions of $104,055. The comparatives for the previous year show a similar variance. Nit picking and those who live in glass houses ought to be careful about throwing stones but if I were a member I would be querying that immediately. But regardless it shows that a quid can be made from operating a course as a training facility only. So a lot of Bernard's bleating about how expensive it is to operate training venues.....?

How do you know they did not "engage' and how do you know they did not have a 'group discussion'? To suggest they did not is probably guessing. If I were the AJC committee and had seen Ellerslie rip off their two main features and doing their level best to keep their foot right on Avondale's throat the last thing I would want to do is 'merge' with them. Because everyone (with any sense that is so there would be a couple of exceptions on here) knows that an ARC/AJC merger would in fact be an ARC takeover(just like the CJC/NCRC situation ended up int he CJC owning everything and the NCRC having nothing). The naivety of some posters on here as to the reality of NZ racing's administration and the way certain factions within the industry behave is astonishing.

I will bloody well bet those flash Ellerslie facilities you are talking about were paid for by the Amenities fund. They may have invested wisely in recent times but the industry paid for those 'shop front' buildings not the frigging ARC. Same applies to the WRC (both of them) CJC HBJC MRC ORC and for that matter the Greymouth Jockey Club. If you were the major club in the District Committee you got an open cheque book of industry funds to build your palaces. Most of those palaces of course have been neglected hence the whinging now when the financial tap has been turned off

Could well be right. I haven’t really thought of the stakes situation for next year but I imagine the RITA crew don’t give an f so long as their fat salaries get paid on Thursday.

Avondale are not being invited to merge with the ARC they are being told they(Avondale) are finished and that their assets are going to be taken. Had they voluntarily ceased racing on their course that is an entirely different issue. Worth remembering though the case of the North Canterbury Racing Club which allowed the CJC to take over its administration and race days and has ended up having the CJC owning its course in somewhat dodgy circumstances(as I understand)

Reread what I said. The Rugby or the Bowls Club people are not going to suddenly hate Bowls or Rugby or whatever any more than I am going to suddenly hate racing if they grab our assets. I might hate those who perpetrate that seizure of property but I am not going to turn on the salt of the earth people that racing is full of. And the quality and capabilities of those who seek to steal our wealth is being laid bare in the current situation NZ racing is finding itself in.

Agree entirely and I hear some major club CEO’s are filling their pants about where their funding is going to come from. Because they have always been able to suck on the NZTR/NZRB/RITA tit financially they have never had to worry about where their next lot of dosh is coming from. Haven’t prepared, haven’t put anything aside for a rainy day and now the grim reaper is on the horizon.

The difference is they closed VOLUNTARILY(or through lack of interest or lack of financial viability . That is different from having closure forced upon them

Dear oh dear I didn’t mean the rugby club’s assets where going to Bowls NZ or Plunket or something I meant that in the hypothetical situation NZ Rugby got legislation to allow it to seize the club assets(which is exactly what NZ Racing is getting). I tried to get those politicians in the select committee to relate to that scenario in my submission but I suspect they were too thick to understand. And you can’t know too much about Rugby if you think NZ Rugby could shut down a club and automatically expect all its supporters to go support the next door club. It is a lot more tribal than racing. Look at it from Avondale’s perspective. Ellerslie gets all the good dates and even gets their Avondale Cup and Avondale Guineas. Avondale gets the shit midweek dates and the winter meetings(when the shithole Ellerslie track cant handle it). And now to add insult to injury Avondale see their property going to be sold up to prop up the likes of the ARC - I have no argument with Ms Skinner’s sentiments. And as far as Auckland needing two racing Clubs for about four months in the winter without Avondale it has no racing clubs at all given Ellerslie runs very rarely if ever in that time.

It’s a bit like this TG(and I know because I have the same sentiments - over my dead body are those buldging arseholes at NZTR or Rita getting the proceeds of my club’s property). I don’t know if you are a Member of the local Rugby Club or the Bowls Club or even say the Plunket Branch? If you are you might be one who marks out the fields or washes the Jerseys, maybe runs the bar after the game or the days bowls or sits on a raffle table to raise funds for the maintenance of facilities and furtherance of the Clubs aims? None of which you would get paid for of course. Now lets say the National parent body is running short on dosh(maybe to play their All Blacks perhaps). So they say well the Galah’s rugby Club owes it’s existence to the game of Rugby and we need the money so we are going to seize the Clubs assets so we can pay Sam Cane’s wages. (Plunket actually did it a few years back). I imagine you might be a bit pissed off would you not? Now that wouldn’t mean you hate the game of rugby but it might well see you fight ever so strongly to keep your Clubs assets ON THE BASIS that it was your work that got and maintained those assets not the NZRFU? Hopefully that gives some insights into the sentiments behind Ms Skinners statements. These wankers who say they can’t understand why these Clubs are not ‘taking one for the team’ are not the ones who have put their heart and soul into the assets these plonkers seek to steal. Just because they have mismanaged all the funds they have ever had they now arbitrarily decide to grab the proceeds of these volunteers hard work. The Studs in NZ owe their existence to the racing industry - imagine how Chittick or Schick or the Chittys would feel if the Industry had the right to and exercised that right to grab their goods?

in one sentence the problem is explained

Standard dumb prick behaviour. Right things need a shakeup. We need to get rid of some staff. Lets pick the personalities that people actually realte to, want to hear from and those on the shop front of exposure to the fans(ie the Tony Lee's, the Dave MacDonalds and the presenters(who despite what a lot of people say are doing their best)). Ditto the Radio Trackside where people on the move keep up with their racing and where talkback and phone in's actually give the punters the fill in if they don't want to listen to the second leg from Kazakstan. Don't worry about the deadwood around the pie warmer we need them. Same applied when it came to the courses - pick the ones where people have traditionally wanted to actually attend and shut them down. The very last thing we want is the people exposed to the personalities they like and the places they like to go to the races. Then there is the stakeholders(the trainers and owners who provide the product) - screw the crap out of them while the fat cats in Head Office live off the fat of the land. McKenzie has proven just as useless as everyone he succeeded in the CEO role. About time the bugle man got practicing the last post isn't it?

There was a prominent ex administrator who called them the Bleeders. I suspect we might be talking about the same person Pam. And that is the reason for my statement on another thread(and I hate to say this) - the sooner the international stakes committee sees the reality of NZ racing and removes the group status the better to render those pricks toothless. Mind you international racing itself could be in for an awful big shakeup after this so who knows? The international prizemoney escalation has been out of all proportion and there could be a few global players getting a booted arse financially in the near future.

I wasn't getting at the superannuitants Curious but pleased to hear the money is being well spent! Besides which your winter warming allowance has doubled in this Covid crisis as well. Santa Claus Adhern is looking after you extra well!

It is also possible(in fact I am certain) Pam that Saundry does not want to step on McKenzie's/RITA's toes. In the same way I am 110% sure Mills and Co know that this push to grab small clubs assets is likely to be the death knell(if Covid hasn't taken that role on now) there is no way they are going to pipe up and defend the Country Clubs. To do so would be suicide from their own Club's point of view(despite my attacking them(the big Clubs) about it in the past). Even I have been told that info I have received(certainly not terribly interesting and now public but embargoed at the time) is not to be shared on social media. Bernard and Co will be well aware of the saying about not biting the hand that feeds you

Only thing worries me with that is the industry (which has already grown) of 'experts' to want to help you revive your business and grow your business to renewed viability. Jacinda and co need to watch very very carefully who is getting themselves some government funding to set up as business coaches/saviours.

And dear oh dear they have dished money out without one tiny bit of assessment of whether the recipients actually need it. Even a piddly Accounting firm like mine has plenty of millionaires with their snouts in the trough(and with my full encouragement I might add). And they include the $10k loan thing in the Tax Amendment Act last Friday by mistake??????. Some of these pricks need a job running RITA/NZRB. Plus the extra $25 a week for beneficiaries(I emphasize I do not want to beneficiary bash here but how much of that will be going on smokes and the pokies(or online gambling during the lockdown)). WE CANT BLOODY AFFORD IT!!!!!!!!

Suspect the Racing Industry is pissing in the wind thinking it will get money or even tax relief in this environment. Jacinda and co have vastly more important priorities than further propping up an industry they have already given plenty. The public reaction to giving more to the perceived fat cats in the racing industry would be outrage. Especially given Trainers and other racing businesses have had access ro the same help other businesses have. It is not, despite what the current lolly scramble might suggest, a bottomless cheque book

Not sure Melody Belle ever raced down here did she and TAS only once (and that because it was a big stake and he got in light (comparatively)). Bottom line from Ellis's point of view why travel them when you can bring the races to the horses?

Probably costs Te Akau the guts of $100k to have all those horses in the south for a couple of months. While they would charge the owners it is an expense they could well do to avoid. And just because they are relocated North doesn’t mean their dominance is likely to be any less. Then this coming spring with the likelihood of having horses in Melbourne they must have staff concerns as well.

My information earlier in the week was that the CJC was accepting and supportive of the switch on the basis that it was a strictly one off AND that they had a trademark on the New Zealand One Thousand and New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas names(to be fair I am dubious about whether you could trademark a ‘New Zealand’ name but the legal eagles on here will know). If there were trainers who’s opinions were listened too far more likely it was Te Akau surely? And the breeders of course. Rumour has it Te Akau runs Riccarton in the spring anyway(when it comes to irrigation and the like) so this is only an extension of that. It pains me to say these things but in my view (1) the sooner the international stakes race committee takes away NZ’s group races the better for the overall NZ industry. Take away the Breeder control and domination of the game and more particularly the administration and (2) the CJC stood by and was totally silent while the small southern Clubs were being threatened with losing their assets. No doubt they were secretly rubbing their hands together thinking of the all weather track they were going to blow that money on. Well now the boot is on the other foot and it is them being kicked in the guts so how does it feel? Taking a logical progression on from this given the two group ones are set for the two days of the Cup meeting where will Trackside’s focus for those days be? Certainly not on a G3 day in the South Island and following on from that how long will the $40k premier day stakes be available to the CJC for that carnival? It is a slippery slidey slope I’m afraid and utterly predictable. I don’t doubt Tim Mills is on the phone to Petone every day and probably thought all is good and secure with his and the CJC’s place in NZ racing. Well now he has learned that those pricks are not to be trusted. Those of us from small clubs have been aware of that for a long time. Anyway if they want to make those two events the true cross-country contests they should be run at Wellington in January. Run a three year old series in the spring in both the North and South(using the Great Northern and Waikato guineas as pinnacles and maybe the Dunedin Guineas(on Melbourne Cup day) and Grigg Stakes - on the last day of the Cup meeting - as southern equivalents) then have the best come together in January. That would give the Southerners a lot better chance of being competitive. In the last three years Pitty hasn’t even run his best Three year old prospects in those two Riccarton races(Savvy Coup and Saavy Lad) so the cream of the southern crop is hardly being lined up as it stands. That might mean putting the 2000 on the second Saturday in January to accomodate the Karaka Million but it will also give a path to the Derby, Aussie in the late summer/Autumn or time to spell for a Brisbane tilt. Then again logic is not a strong point in NZ racing administration so we won’t hold our breath.

I imagine it has been a long time for one Judy Sarah Lawson yes. And her family as well.

I know one who refuses to trial there. And since Jude is a mate of mine(and, I am sure, yours too) I can understand people being less than keen