land grab and spend

[Wingman]

Recently watched Guerin Report after my travelling guests retired and the beauty of My Sky is one can rewind after hearing/seeing something that grabs your attention. Guerin gave an admirable up date on where champion day notables are heading then introduced the new NZTR CEO Matt Ballesty. THIS REALLY GOT MY ATTENTION.

After the usual corporate spiel he said "There are some really big infrastructure issues, especially in the Central Districts. There is some big real estate plays that need to happen and they are in train hopefully in weeks or months".  (I am not bullshitting you, those were his words)  

His next words are. "And we can start to understand what we can do with the funding"  

By his own admission he has been working on the job for a month prior to the official start and that suggests he is working towards a preset agenda.

I had hoped for better, idealistic me, we are heading as an industry that is going to be top North Island heavy, lacking in diversity but will appeal to shallow as a puddle Pollyanna TAB 4 eva types who will not be around next decade; i.e croaked, and the young generation next decade will be saying "how boring.". 

Before you start firing rounds at me, look at the home of thoroughbred racing, England and note how they, generation after generation continue to race at the same tracks. They have massive problems with poorly considered affordability checks, driving wealthy owners and punters towards different gambling arenas or black markets yet selling their race courses is never an option. 

 

[Freda]

I think there have been some tracks that have had their use discontinued but there doesn't seem to be the unholy glee to strip everything away.

They understand tradition.

A very experienced former racing executive said to me once, mess with tradition at your peril.

And across the ditch,  which given our social, political and ethnic similarities is the logical place to look,  they seem to cherish and support their provincial and country meetings.