Reefton

find the right person(s), base them in the Cook islands(so they are not running an illegal gaming operation in this country) and launch over the net. NZTR ought to support it but wouldn't of course. A total pipe dream because so many clubs would be too cautious to put their necks on the line and the long term nature of the lead in times would make it too hard to get off the ground

Yes but we all know in today's society there is this incredibly irritating fascination among those on the public payroll with shagging about with 'process'. Just BLOODY DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I contend that the clubs set up the original TAB anyway (I know when I was the Grey JC Secretary I saw the old 'subscription' document where Clubs agreed to put up a certain amount each to get the thing going(but of course that is long ago(when I saw it) and plenty of people dispute that the Clubs set it up))

'...Performance and Efficiency Audit by Grant Thornton.'? Have a read of Chris Lee's book about Alan Hubbard and South Canterbury Finance to judge Grant Thornton's own 'performance and efficiency'. All that will be is another exercise in Accountants (and I am one myself) clipping the ticket with a cost of half a million(at least) to the industry. And as far as RITA appointing anyone of any use they will use a recruitment agency and will have someone of similar capabilities to the incumbent foist on them under the guise of best practice. Government departments and publicly funded organisations are all like that - everyone is paranoid about making mistakes and being held accountable(so they hide behind 'best practice' - which really translates to wasting a fortune on overpaid and incompetent consultants). RITA will be no different BOAYers will probably not be following this but on the Coast we have a council the Westland District where the Mayor and a couple of Councillors have taken control and just get things done - last year the stopbank at Franz Josef collapsed - one of the Councillor's brother was there with a D10 bulldozer (and obviously the ability and skills to get the job done). Instead of getting engineers and lawyers and resource consent consultants(at a cost of millions no doubt and years of delay) they just told him to get it done. Saved the Town in March when the real big flood hit but the do gooders in Wellington are whimpering their guts out about them not following 'best practice'. The Clubs need to start their own gaming agency before it is too late. Seize control of their own destiny(and their own revenue streams)

that's fair comment. Some demented prick screaming their guts out doesn't add much to a raceday from my perspective. Its noisy enough as it is.

he will probably get a confidential settlement on top presuming he has been given the DCM as well. 'Oh well John your contract had two years to run - how about we pay you the lot out right now plus 25% for your hurt feelings? And give you a glowing reference as well'

Plenty of room at Reefton Pam though Hoki advise that they will still have room for horses there. Re the Kumara comments that just proves what I always say about tracks when they 'renovate' them. They root them every single time. Leave them the way God created them. lets not get too hung up about the Coast in this conversation though - there are a lot of other places just as hard done by as us and Stratford is a classic example

To the important people(ie me - oh and Bernard gets it too) We can't have you common mob being in the loop you know - next thing you will be rabble rousing

they do send out a weekly report of turnovers and starter numbers etc etc etc

Yes the trouble is they will get some employment consultancy firm in and inevitably they will get someone with half the alphabet after his name, a glowing showroom standard CV and not a clue in the whole wide universe about how the industry operates nor a sherrick of empathy for those who drive it. And quite possibly an Aussie or Pom to boot((not hat I have got anything in particular against Aussies or Poms but if they are that good what the eff are they wanting to come here for?) And when they(the Board ) are challenged about the misfit they have appointed they will dutifully advise 'we followed best process' You can absolutely see it happening

Actually might dust off my own CV(not that I've got one) I will need some character references though - can I put all your names down? Yeah right!

Doesn't really apply any more. Shared Secretary and I think they realise that they cannot survive on their own. Ten years ago they thought they could but a succession of boots up the arse(figuratively) with cancellations, almost going broke and struggling to get committee has sobered them up a bit. To be fair the CJC were quite an aloof bunch twenty years ago too but things change.

According to the NZTR and RITA circulars just received

no question about that Pam. But my concern was the bloody stakeholders who missed out on a raceday(many of them had travelled a long way). The next year when a lot of them decide not to come to the Coast I know which club would have missed out on the missing horses and it wouldn't be Kumara! The issue really is very few Kumara Committee people are real racing enthusiasts and they did not think about the people who had spent a lot of dosh to get nags to the circuit just, as you said , the piss up they missed out on.

Kumara ignored the offer of the facility! There was no issue with moving it - that i was aware of - just they didn't want to. But in the past we tried to move to Greymouth one year when the trotters hammered our track but the TAB refused to co-operate. Some BS story about driving hours. Wrong excuse when we had two truck drivers and a trucking company owner on our committee. They were driving straight past Omoto to get to the next venue Kumara. Starting gates movement is easy in our case. Jam them on a lowbed truck and bingo!

I have said it so many times - there is no need for NZTR or RITA or whatever other powers that be to tell us we have to close. The public(by not attending and/or betting on our meetings) and the owners and trainers(by not entering horses at our meetings) will tell us when our time has come. It's called economics - if there is no demand for our product(the 'product' being the running of a racemeeting) then we will wave the white flag. And God knows didn't I point out some examples of where clubs should accept that their public, owners and trainers etc are trying to tell them something in our venue review submission. While it has not happened regularly up to this point it is only a matter of time before meetings start getting cancelled due to lack of numbers. If we (RJC) are the unfortunate ones(and that is not beyond the bounds of possibility) I will not be persevering. The very very limited amount of enthusiasm for this game I retain will certainly not survive a raceday where we get only 60 nominations or a $20k oncourse turnover. Yet these wankers who sit in these positions of authority try to arbitrarily tell us who should and shouldn't stay. They are supposed to be shit hot business people but they lack basic understanding of the way economics works(lets not get on the topic of how they vastly oversubsidise stakes in certain sectors of this industry)

A tosser revelling in his misfortune is exactly what you are. He elected to plead guilty presumably (and I have no idea so am presuming) on the basis that it was the cheapest option (knowing what lawyers cost with no guarantee of success). He then runs into some plonker determined to enjoy his time in the limelight and the papers clearly report it verbatim. That does NOT mean McKee accepts what the prick says - a guilty plea means he accepts some culpability not that he agrees 100% with what some little Hitler has to say. This prick is suggesting he deliberately put this kid in extreme danger and only a simpleton IIke you would believe that. McKee like his Dad before him is a legend in NZ Racing and halfwits like you should be showing him some respect. He will be feeling like shit over the girl's position and this draconian fine and does not need idiots regurgitating the opinion of ill informed imbeciles (whether they think they are right or not or whether the idiot media report it or not). The way you carry on you would think he was a mass murderer.

McKee is not 'my' trainer nor is he a particular friend of mine(he does train a horse in which my wife holds a racing share and I have met him a couple of times but I certainly do not know him well). Pitty is 'my' trainer if indeed I have one at all. Because of the guilty plea(or even if he defended it and was found guilty) the prosecuting agency(in this case Work Safe) have their opportunity to put their case before sentencing. That does not mean that the defendant agrees with their summation of the facts but it is past the point where he can refute them (but like a lot of people who have obtained some authority via their occupation they love to show everyone how knowledgeable they are. Invariably I find these people - usually public servants - are of extremely limited capability themselves but are total experts in how everyone else should run their affairs) . So McKee is forced to stand there and listen to drivel from guys who would have no idea which end of the horse you shove the tucker into but by that time he has no right of reply and even if he did the judge probably would have even less knowledge of how a stable operates. And then on social media idiots like you dutifully report what the OSH man says as if it is gospel. You might not be using your own words to character assassinate him but by relaying the ill informed piffle of these guys you are doing just that. Clearly Stephen McKee would have put her on a horse he thought was 'ideal' - he no doubt has a lot of expensive horses in his yard of varying temperaments and stages of their careers. All of them have owners and no owner wants their horse wrecked by a rider out of their depth. Stephen McKee has achieved far more in NZ racing that you(or I for that matter) ever will and deserves sympathy for this situation not to have his good name dragged though the mud by tossers like you revelling in his misfortune. Like I say let these OSH plonkers explain how they (1) totally failed in their duty to ensure the Pike River workplace was safe and then (2) totally failed to do their homework in preparing the Whittall prosecution documentation which ultimately led to the defence lawyers destroying their case before it even got near court. There are 29 men and families affected by that debacle and they deserve an explanation.

My understanding is something like SLB said Thomass. You don't know the circumstances so I would strongly suggest you shut up. What Stephen McKee might or might not have done at the time or what decision he made in respect of the defence of the charge is his business. He pays the bills and he took the rap(and a bloody harsh one at that) and speculation or character assassination by you does not help. From what I have heard the girl insisted she could ride and when she got on the horse it turned out she was not as good as she made out. And again as SLB said how do you know they can ride until you put them on one and all the mechanical horse training in the world might not help when one takes control of its newly 'trained' rider. S McKee is, I am 110% sure, not in the habit of (knowingly) putting people on horses they cannot handle. This might have gone wrong with disastrous consequences for everyone concerned but he clearly did not do it on purpose or recklessly. Worksafe are typical government department pricks who are intent on crucifying the good name of one of NZ racing's icons. They showed how capable they are with their vigilant supervision of Pike River.

Well aware of all that. My original statement was fines weren't covered and they aren't. One wonders though why McKee's people would not have bargained on that to get reparation imposed rather than fines. Reparation would possibly be tax deductible as well(depending on how a judgment was worded) where fines certainly aren't. At the end of the day obviously the fines go to the government - reparation direct to the injured Whatever the circumstances this is frightening for the NZ racing industry

What I said was EXACTLY right. You cannot insure for the penalty but you can get cover for the defence costs.

You can't insure for penalties in OSH cases - the costs of defending the action sure(legal costs that is) but no insurance company will cover penalties. This is a truly frightening outcome for NZ Trainers - I imagine(don't know) Stephen McKee may be able to pay that fine but there would be very very few others I would think. And if he is capable of paying such a fine the question then arises why, if he is that well heeled, he would be wasting his time training racehorses given the risk involved AND the current state of NZ racing? If his heart is in the game(I am sure it is) why not downscale significantly and train a few for himself with handpicked staff? And it would be no protection to say the trackwork rider is a 'contractor' rather than an employee either. OSH will have their pound of flesh if something goes wrong one way or another.

You could add in learn to use correct english and proper grammar

bottom line from that analysis is that whether they are up in weight or down in weight they are still quite unlikely to win. Just another factor to consider I would say

Surely not!(And I know this is harness racing) Big Dave and his cronies assured us that stakes were to double in the new season.