Slot race Cambridge.

[pete cook]

I'm becoming a bit bored with this, but just got back from walking the dog and would like to point out two things. First, the Industry was told, when Slot races were introduced, that the main advantage was that they would "cost the Industry nothing". Who, or what changed that? (and to be fair to Mr. Steele, it was before his time).

Second, in his speech at a "future is Now" presentation just after he started, Mr. Steele suggested that slots could be bought by groups of say, 30 young people, who could put in $10k each. At the time, I remember laughing out loud at the naivety of that idea. Sadly I have been proven right.

Oh, and just a last thought regarding having good horses. Using Mr. Boots as an example, how many horses has he bought that have been developed by excellent NZ trainers and gone on to be his stars? The problem is that your average owner has little alternative than to sell to rich owners like him.

[Gammalite]

9 minutes ago, pete cook said:

Using Mr. Boots as an example, how many horses has he bought that have been developed by excellent NZ trainers and gone on to be his stars? The problem is that your average owner has little alternative than to sell to rich owners like him.

yes the NZ stock is great.

The racing there is Not consistent . you need regular week to week racing like Mildura, Redcliffe, Hobart, Penrith and a heap of other locations just to Break even by winning 4 Races per year.

The West Australia famous HALL and BOND stables have been buying horses from Southland for years and years Peter. Probably 1000 horses by now. I'm theMightyQuinn probably the best.  they're still buying now. Pete McMullens owner bought top slot trotter GUS from down there at Nathan Williamsons in recent years too.

Boots raced Captains Mistress out of Nathans as well. Tonight she'll win the Chariots of Fire and be a star of all time. Unfortunately Nathan was going to win a Group 1 at Auckland with her but his sulky' fell apart 100m from the line. Probably the worst bit of BAD LUCK I've ever seen in the Sport. (Hope Nathan has mended from Injury) 

Village Kid and Lightning Blue went on to be Interdominion Grand Final Champions after being Sold to the Aussies for $40,000 each in the 1980's . I helped bring about 50 horses out of NZ with the South Auckland Standardbred agency and they nearly all went on to win in Australia. 

NONE of The NZ Owners Had to Sell . They just wanted to. They knew they couldn't compete up in the grades against Roy and Barry , Charlie Hunter ( who would export to USA)  and in the south DerekJones , Smolenski,  Butt family, Dunn and Dalgety , etc. they are world class and too good for them.

Hence most of the owner trainers are still hacking around out your Sunday meetings  on grass or whatever to this day. And always Looking for an Aussie Buyer. thankfully Shannon and Boots at the yearlings sales leave a few horses with NZ trainers these days . Very enterprising men . and ultra successful in life.  

 

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, pete cook said:

Oh, and just a last thought regarding having good horses. Using Mr. Boots as an example, how many horses has he bought that have been developed by excellent NZ trainers and gone on to be his stars? The problem is that your average owner has little alternative than to sell to rich owners like him.

But that's nothing new.  It has been happening for as long as I can remember.  We got good money selling horses to the USA in the 70's.  Then again I doubt any average owner would sell a really good horse if they knew it was good.

[Brodie]

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

They haven't squandered all of it.  They have improved their cash assets from $12m in 2021 to $32m in 2025.

Thats good that it isnt all gone!

Is there anywhere that shows us this increased cash position?

The increase is clearly from Entain and is the extra $20m you say they have, the money from Entain for the next couple of years that will be used for stakes over the next couple of years?

What is the true asset position of HRNZ do we know?

In the Entain Terms and Conditions was it written that HRNZ has to spend the full amount on stakes and bonuses in the 5 years?
Investing the funds from Entain wisely to give them a good return to be able to fund the stakes would have been a helluva better option!

 

[Chief Stipe]

16 minutes ago, Brodie said:

Thats good that it isnt all gone!

Is there anywhere that shows us this increased cash position?

The increase is clearly from Entain and is the extra $20m you say they have, the money from Entain for the next couple of years that will be used for stakes over the next couple of years?

What is the true asset position of HRNZ do we know?

In the Entain Terms and Conditions was it written that HRNZ has to spend the full amount on stakes and bonuses in the 5 years?
Investing the funds from Entain wisely to give them a good return to be able to fund the stakes would have been a helluva better option!

 

In the 2025 annual report.  The 2021 figure is in that years report.

2025_HRNZ_Annual_Report.pdf

[Chief Stipe]

18 minutes ago, Brodie said:

In the Entain Terms and Conditions was it written that HRNZ has to spend the full amount on stakes and bonuses in the 5 years?
Investing the funds from Entain wisely to give them a good return to be able to fund the stakes would have been a helluva better option!

My understanding is that the lump sum is handed to TABNZ.  They then determine the split between the three codes.  When delivered to the codes they can do whatever they want with it.  Both NZTR and HRNZ have been stashing some.  HRNZ has been put some into infrastructure e.g. resurfacing of 5 tracks.  NZTR are spending some of theirs on track infrastructure including tracks resurfacing although it costs more to fix a turf track than an all weather one.

[the galah]

3 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

They haven't squandered all of it.  They have improved their cash assets from $12m in 2021 to $32m in 2025.

that doesn't tell us anything about whether the way hrnz is currently  operating is financially sustainable.

it has no context.

Its like you saying someone has $100,000 more in the back than 4 years ago,so gee, they must be doing a good job.

But i then say to you,well they inherited $200,000,3 years ago. Then you would change your tune and say,they are going through their money.

of course hrnz have received all the entain money and the $13m from forbury since 2021.. so we need proper context.

[the galah]

43 minutes ago, the galah said:

that doesn't tell us anything about whether the way hrnz is currently  operating is financially sustainable.

it has no context.

Its like you saying someone has $100,000 more in the back than 4 years ago,so gee, they must be doing a good job.

But i then say to you,well they inherited $200,000,3 years ago. Then you would change your tune and say,they are going through their money.

of course hrnz have received all the entain money and the $13m from forbury since 2021.. so we need proper context.

so i have just had a brief look at the annual report you posted which does provide context for the change from 2024 to 2025.

so in 2024 they had $35m ,then a year later(2025) they have dropped $3m to $32m

.

Then we factor in that hrnz won't be getting that guaranteed mimimun from entain in a year or two,that they are currently receiving,

then we factor in that mr steele wants to spend millions on a new auckland training centre,then we factor in the forbury mony is supposed to be tied up for specific use as per the agreement with forbury.

I haven't read the report thoroughly,but to me after a qucik look, the signs are there to indicate that what brodie and i and others are saying is the true picture,when you look behind all the hrnz spin.

the reason they would have used the 2021 comparison was simply spin.So why did they feel the need to spin it.

Edited 1 hour ago by the galah

[Brodie]

28 minutes ago, the galah said:

so i have just had a brief look at the annual report you posted which does provide context for the change from 2024 to 2025.

so in 2024 they had $35m ,then a year later(2025) they have dropped $3m to $32m

.

Then we factor in that hrnz won't be getting that guaranteed mimimun from entain in a year or two,that they are currently receiving,

then we factor in that mr steele wants to spend millions on a new auckland training centre,then we factor in the forbury mony is supposed to be tied up for specific use as per the agreement with forbury.

I haven't read the report thoroughly,but to me after a qucik look, the signs are there to indicate that what brodie and i and others are saying is the true picture,when you look behind all the hrnz spin.

the reason they would have used the 2021 comparison was simply spin.So why did they feel the need to spin it.

Looking at it and I only skimmed through it and looked at the bigger numbers rather than the general things!

Much appreciate Chief giving us all the report to analyse.

On the face of it, there has probably been some stabilisation but does not give too much confidence in the overall picture when there has been 13million from Forbury Park sale and the mega millions already received from TAB/Entain in the last couple of years!

One question that should seriously be asked is of the sale price of Forbury Park for over 13 million, why was there a cost to sell of 10% of the sale price??????? WTF did someone get financially rewarded massively??? They need to explain as it seems s very very fishy does it not? 
32million is not a large amount to have bearing in mind Auckland owes in excess of $80million and growing by 500k per month and Cambridge is BROKE and will not be able to trade out either of them!

There is also promises that HRNZ have made in the future that has to be accounted for and the Entain funding to HRNZ is going to be significantly reduced in coming years?

At the end of the day hopefully HRNZ are in good hands and they do best for the industry to survive and thrive,  but are there many out there that believe they are

Edited 1 hour ago by Brodie

[the galah]

28 minutes ago, Brodie said:

Looking at it and I only skimmed through it and looked at the bigger numbers rather than the general things!

Much appreciate Chief giving us all the report to analyse.

On the face of it, there has probably been some stabilisation but does not give too much confidence in the overall picture when there has been 13million from Forbury Park sale and the mega millions already received from TAB/Entain in the last couple of years!

One question that should seriously be asked is of the sale price of Forbury Park for over 13 million, why was there a cost to sell of 10% of the sale price??????? WTF did someone get financially rewarded massively??? They need to explain as it seems s very very fishy does it not? 
32million is not a large amount to have bearing in mind Auckland owes in excess of $80million and growing by 500k per month and Cambridge is BROKE and will not be able to trade out either of them!

There is also promises that HRNZ have made in the future that has to be accounted for and the Entain funding to HRNZ is going to be significantly reduced in coming years?

At the end of the day hopefully HRNZ are in good hands and they do best for the industry to survive and thrive,  but are there many out there that believe they are

ii wouldn't call it stabalisation.

if you take off what they said they were proposing  to spend on the new auckland training track,then take off the forbury money,which has its conditions attached then take off another drop of $3 million for next year,what have you got. An industry in financial trouble is what you would have.

current leadership seem to be betting on the returns to harness racing from the geo blocking ,especially from sport,and the demise of the greyhound indutry,being enough to keep the ship afloat .

they are going to look really ,really dumb if their bet doesn't pay off.

hey,just how their bet fares,no one on either side of the argument can be sure.I think its going to be  a losing bet,but the level of damage,just serious,not terminal.

personally i think the bet they're making is going to turn out its not going to turn out really,really badtbe as bad as some think,just its still going to be bad

the point  is,why even make the bet in the first place.,why not just operate within your means until you know all the facts.

 

Edited 34 minutes ago by the galah