Attention: GRNZ Racing Operations Manager

[Yankiwi]

Dear Michael Dore,

As a key stakeholder of GRNZ, back in October 2019 (when you were listed as the GRNZ "contact me" person over integrity issues) we had a brief email chain over the outcome of the decision revolving around a GRNZ registered trainer (Mr. Peter Ferguson) nominating and then scratching a greyhound that had already been sent to a rehoming agency quite some time before the dog was nominated to race. The RIU "deemed the perpetrator to have breached Rule 62.1 (i)"

(62.1 Any person (including an Official) commits an offence if he/she:

i) being the Owner, Trainer or Nominator of a Greyhound, or a Person having an interest in a Greyhound, Nominates or runs that Greyhound in a Race under a fraudulent, misleading or deceptive description;)

yet then they somehow opted not to charge using 62.2 (i) for nominating the dog in a fraudulent manner by means of a JCA hearing, instead opting to ignore the fraud offence and charge with 62.1 (cc) 

(cc) acts in contravention of or fails to comply with any provision of these Rules or any Rules made thereunder, or any policy, notice, direction, instruction, guideline, restriction, requirement or condition given, made or imposed under these Rules;

 

With that the penalty could then be imposed under the minor infringement table, and the eventual punishment would be a $300 fine for fraud.

Here's a link to the steward's report which reported the finding so you can refresh your memory if need be. https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/13738/stewards-report.aspx

Anyways, where our email chain seemingly paused, I had asked these two simple questions, which you have failed thus far to respond to.

 

 

In that email chain your tone seemed as though you were very put-off, defensive, dismissive and disrespectful.

I'd hate to think that as a key stakeholder, my concerns were not taken seriously or even worse, my email address was added to your blocked senders list. Because of those possibilities, I'm reaching out to you here, after giving you several years to respond by email, on this forum.

I'd still like to know what the answer were to those two questions from back then. Anything more current than the date I had I had asked the questions is not at all what I'm after. I'd like to know the answers as at 25/10/2019.

Can you please either respond to my email, or instead simply respond in this space if you're a member. I have noticed that fairly recently you had started a membership account on the Channel X forum, so I believe it's likely you have a BOAY membership as well. If you're not a member here that's fine, a reply email with the answers to my questions will be fine.

Thank you in advance.

Charles Bidwell.

GRNZ key stakeholder since 2014.
 

[Yankiwi]

Side note:

I still have the entire email chain & would be happy to provide a copy of it to any member of the current GRNZ board for investigation purposes if they'd like to pursue. They'll have my contact details their 2014 & 2015 files. They are the same now as they were then.

Sharing the chain with anyone else other than the board member or an RIB investigator, I feel I would be in breach of the disclaimer at the bottom of Mr. Dore replies, so therefore I am extremely hesitant to do so.

[Chief Stipe]

So Chazza you've given up on Dog welfare and race injuries?

[Yankiwi]

Still going strong and manually collecting much more data in a far further reaching dig into the Manukau track and its performance over the years.

When complete I'll post another, in your words, "pointless presentation", if I can find a thread that hasn't been locked. If unsuccessful, can I have your pre-approval to begin a new thread entitled "Pointless Presentations", if all the other threads in dog forum have been put into lock-down by the websites governing body?

[Chief Stipe]

Can you give us all a succinct paragraph explaining what this thread is about?

[Yankiwi]

How about a simple sentence?

I've utilized the BOAY forum to reach out to GRNZ's now Racing Operations Manager Mr. Michale Dore, asking him to answer a couple of questions I had asked him nearly 4 1/2 years ago, which have seemingly been ignored and have gone unanswered.

[Chief Stipe]

2 hours ago, Yankiwi said:

How about a simple sentence?

I've utilized the BOAY forum to reach out to GRNZ's now Racing Operations Manager Mr. Michale Dore, asking him to answer a couple of questions I had asked him nearly 4 1/2 years ago, which have seemingly been ignored and have gone unanswered.

Thanks.  What would any answers achieve?

[Yankiwi]

It's still been 4 1/2 years since first asking with no reply. I've tried to reach out to Mr. Dore on this forum now as well and have received no response.

That means I have to work with speculation.

 

Mr. P Freguson originally came to training greyhounds as a training partnership on or about 29/09/16.

 

He remained in this partnership until 30/07/2017 (about 10 months).

 

Then as of 03/08/17, (the beginning of the 2017/2018 racing season) he had branched off on his own as a sole trainer.

 

He had gone from a newbie in the training of greyhounds to holding a public training license in 10 months, with the support of another "new" trainers name in partnership on the same day of both of their inceptions.

 

Two years into his tenure as a public trainer, this happened on 17/10/19.

 (2) An investigation was opened and adjourned into the nomination and scratching of THRILLING BILLY (Race 10 #4)

https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/13729/stewards-report.aspx

 

One week after the investigation had been opened, this appeared in the next Cambridge Stewards report.

(4) SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT:- Waikato GRC – 17th October 2019 - Stewards have concluded their investigation in regard to the nomination and subsequent scratching of the greyhound THRILLING BILLY from Race 10 at the before mentioned meeting. After taking evidence from Waikato Club secretary Mr R Death, rehoming manager for May Hounds M Stebbing and Trainer Mr P Ferguson Stewards deemed Mr Ferguson to have breached GRNZ Rule 62.1(i) in that he nominated THRILLING BILLY in a fraudulent, misleading or deceptive description. After assessing all of the evidence and taking into account Mr Ferguson's admission of the breach along with his previously clear record, Stewards issued him with a charge under GRNZ Rule 62.1(cc) with a $300.00 fine being imposed.

https://www.grnz.co.nz/catch-the-action/13738/stewards-report.aspx

 

This is when I first reached out to Mr. Dore, as he was the "contact me" for integrity issues person on the GRNZ website.

I questioned Mr. Dore why the Stewards determined Mr Ferguson had breached rule 62.1(i) which said,

 

62.1 Any person (including an Official) commits an offence if he/she:

(i) being the Owner, Trainer or Nominator of a Greyhound, or a Person having an interest in a Greyhound, Nominates or runs that Greyhound in a Race under a fraudulent, misleading or deceptive description;

 

then they opted to charge him under the rule 62.1(cc) which said,

62.1 Any person (including an Official) commits an offence if he/she:

cc) acts in contravention of or fails to comply with any provision of these Rules or any Rules made thereunder, or any policy, notice, direction, instruction, guideline, restriction, requirement or condition given, made or imposed under these Rules;

 

I thought a charge for a fraudulent nomination should attract a much harsher penalty than a $300 fine.

To take it one set further, if a trainer commits fraud in nominating a dog for a race knowing it will not run as it's already in a rehoming agency, that would be race fixing, which I believe is a criminal offense under crown law.

It sure does increase the chances of his other entrants of winning or earing a dividend paying position in that race.

 

Committing fraud & fixing a race to tilt the odds in his favour ended up costing him less than half of what one of his other two entrants earned in the same race! Not much of a deterrent, is it?

 

Penalties are supposed to be imposed with the severity of the infraction as a contributing factor.

When it's evident in the Stewards report that the RIU was far too lenient with its penalty decisions, by not forwarding it to the JCA as a serious offence to decide, I contacted the integrity person who the GRNZ wanted me to contact, who I found was only defensive, dismissive and disrespectful.

So, after making that contact & banging my head against the wall, I shifted tact to another angle, which I'm sure would have been hanging somewhere in the background a probationary overview & conditions associated with the license.

Only crickets ever since.

Well Mr. Dore, you obviously said in during this interview you had plenty of time, so why haven't my two questions been answered?

 

 

Edited March 2 by Yankiwi

[Yankiwi]

The RIU sent the token penalty from the minor infringement table, which fraud is not.

I brought my concerns forward to the GRNZ "integrity" contact.

Instead of appealing the obvious improper decision by the RIU, GRNZ (Mr. Dore) chose to disregard & discredit me instead. I'd be willing to bet my concerns never made it past his email inbox. A man of integrity would look at those concerns impartially and even if he agreed with the RIU's sidestep, would have brought those same concerns to the CEO and/or the GRNZ board.

Old habits are hard to break in headquarters.

I've been told that when the Cole bullring images were delivered to GRNZ headquarters, they were more concerned with who took the images & who hired the camera man, than they were in what the content of those images portrayed. After GRNZ didn't action what those images depicted, they then were taken to the SPCA, which ended being a get out of jail free card being awarded.

IMHO - headquarters is the biggest problem GRNZ are facing. I'm not sure what they are capable of, but I do know of many things that they are incapable of.

Like shifting racing operations from Manukau to Cambridge, while they sort out the Manukau track.

Will be watching with interest tomorrow. We'll see if the new 2014 errr, Nov 2023 errr, January 2024 errr, safety rail has been installed. They've had a couple of weeks now since the last race meet.