Freda

That's the point though, if the legislation to support that stance ( and I can't see how that will happen, but still. .) is enacted, it will be legal to take the land and assets. Not moral or ethical, but legal.

Agree absolutely. That is, however, how the process will be justified.

And some here as well.

You'd probably be surprised to realise who and how many think that nicking land assets is the way to go....as well as swallowing the notion that small clubs are costing megadollars.

That is how I would interpret things. The mantra is that ' assets have been accrued as a direct result of industry funds ' ....but if a club is NOT licenced, and its land assets have been acquired through a direct gift, or leased from a community, I fail to see how NZRB/NZTR can dictate.

Nope.

I can see a lot of time spent in the Courts over this land grab...again, no one will win out of this scenario - IMO.

I'm surmising that Reefton is alluding to RITA with his reference to Sir P V..... but the land grab is specifically targeted to galloping clubs and therefore, I would have thought, been in the province of NZTR. Jackson and Saundry had track closures on their hit list long before the Messara report saw the light of day.

Is NZTR a statutory body then?

Interesting observations from Nomates....racing may indeed be in decline in the UK , but I bet the starting point for the slide was a bloody sight higher up...!

Yes, I thought you were meaning the new platform, not FOB in general. To be fair to B.d L, he was very very critical of the RB and J.A. and the cost blowouts. But he was/is so wrapped up in Winston and Messara that any alternative to THAT report never got any traction with him. My repeated assertions to him that NZTR also needed the big broom didn't get much attention from him in his writings, and, as has been demonstrated by others here with good racing knowledge, there is much that can/could have been done at code level that didn't cost much at all. Market forces will determine which tracks stay in use without arbitrary decisions by folk who have no feeling for local needs - and no financial nous either.

Agree..

Special, all right.

Yeah....I know most of us had little faith in Winston, but I - along with others - still dared to hope that something might be salvageable . I'm really surprised that someone J.M's supposed acumen and racing industry smarts would allow himself to be so badly advised.

I [ stupidly ] had the notion, at the beginning, that Racing NZ would take over the functions of NZTR...obviously that isn't the case. So we will be looking at yet another layer of 'management' with all the attendant costs - as I see it. Tell me I'm wrong.

Yes.

At present, we have RITA which has taken over the RB mantle - although the staff are still there in their numbers with a new CEO to be inaugurated in due course. Eventually it is planned to have RITA morph into Racing NZ and Wagering NZ. It has just occurred to me that instead of having the RB and the 3 codes, we will now have two leading bodies and the 3 codes. This will mean yet another CEO with his/her underlings, won't it ?

Not from me....my phone wont even acknowledge the race raceinfo tab, it just sits on ' meetings ' and refuses to bring up individual horses, pedigrees or race performances. I thought it was me but maybe not ?

Sad to see those great names confined to yesteryear..but how lucky were we to have been around to witness them. Not just confined to Wellington Cups either. I remember Trelay cantering home at Oamaru carrying 10 st. 11 - or 11 st, can't remember exactly...and that would have been off an 8st minimum probably.

Don't worry about small...if he improves along with his coat though, he has to be a bit special.

I'm still locked out. Rang a fair while ago, and asked the chap on the phone if he could 'unlock' for me, please. Ok, done, now follow the prompts and reset your password. Tried just yesterday after a long period of not bothering, followed all the prompts to ' reset password' and got an email with the new password. Used it and same response : ACCESS DENIED. Haven't got much money in, but would like it out and they can go to hell.

Unfortunately he isnt the only one who still has blinkers on.

Fraid so.

Well, I am an utter muppet when it comes to things technical... but even i worked out ( finally ) that it was a server issue, deleted my shortcut and re loaded the site from Google. Straight through after that.

It matters if the seventh horse is yours.