anthony butt on nz harness racing

[the galah]

"to quote mr butt from the current harnesslink article.Harness racing in nz 

"its flying.The stakemoney here is unbelievabkle and what the babies can race for is probably as good as anywhere in the world.Sustainabilty is the key,but we need to have faith in the administrators.I can't believe it has so many knockers.Its not that i get on facebook that much,but it always has the same 2 or 3 people bagging the industry.They want to go to aussie and have a look at whats going on over there."

now i respect mr butt,he is a smart man,but are his comments accurate.

Like the number of horses being bred was the 2nd lowest ever last year,if the number of licence holders wasn't at an all time low last year,then it had to be very close to it,the auckland club is 77 million or some crazy figure in debt,cambridge is in a financial hole,group races for 2 year olds are being cancelled and so many 2 year old races have ridiculous low numbers that they sometiome only have a win tote pool. If the former ceo of hrnz was doing such a good job,then why are they saying he was asked to leave,the number of race meeting programmed fior the northern region over winter was halved as they don't have enough horses to run the meetings programmed,turnovers are not looking good,etc,etc,etc.He makes no mention of the massive cash injection of entain money nor how that guaranteed income from entain will only last a couple more years.

obviously to mr butt,despite all those things,he thinks the industry is flying. 

I have no idea who mr butt is bagging on facebook.

but clearly there are two different groups of thought as to how things are going.

mr butt is clearly saying things are great, so stop moaning. And  some are saying,things are not  being run as well as they should be,we need to tighten our belts and live within our means and that special interest groups are being given preferential treatment..

My question to mr butt would be,how is the second group bagging the industry if they believe what they say and all the indicators ,that i listed above,indicate what they say is accurate.

really,if i was to analyse mr butts comments,i  think they are those of someone who personally is more than happy with where things are at for himself. he obviously values his family time and hes working for a stable whose needs the administrators prioritse. The type of stable who,as mr butt notes, current hrnz policy allows their young horses to race for what he calls as good as money as anywhere in the world.

in other words,mr butts  at  a good place in his mind and he can't see why others shouldn't be as well.

well,of course,not everyone has the same reality or current mindset as  mr butt has currently.

anyway,good to see mr butt is in such a positive frame of mind,lifes always better when you can be like that.

the thing is,what we on forums like this do,is we look back on peoples /administrators past comments and we highlight whether those past comments were acucrate and whether the people who make them have a good track record to indicate whether we should look to them in the future for guidance.

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:18 AM by the galah

[Nowornever]

His comments are chalk and cheese compared to the opinions of several people in the industry that I have had conversations with. 

Are the stakes unbelievable apart from the slot races? 

 

[Brodie]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

"to quote mr butt from the current harnesslink article.Harness racing in nz 

"its flying.The stakemoney here is unbelievabkle and what the babies can race for is probably as good as anywhere in the world.Sustainabilty is the key,but we need to have faith in the administrators.I can't believe it has so many knockers.Its not that i get on facebook that much,but it always has the same 2 or 3 people bagging the industry.They want to go to aussie and have a look at whats going on over there."

now i respect mr butt,he is a smart man,but are his comments accurate.

Like the number of horses being bred was the 2nd lowest ever last year,if the number of licence holders wasn't at an all time low last year,then it had to be very close to it,the auckland club is 77 million or some crazy figure in debt,cambridge is in a financial hole,group races for 2 year olds are being cancelled and so many 2 year old races have ridiculous low numbers that they sometiome only have a win tote pool. If the former ceo of hrnz was doing such a good job,then why are they saying he was asked to leave,the number of race meeting programmed fior the northern region over winter was halved as they don't have enough horses to run the meetings programmed,turnovers are not looking good,etc,etc,etc.He makes no mention of the massive cash injection of entain money nor how that guaranteed income from entain will only last a couple more years.

obviously to mr butt,despite all those things,he thinks the industry is flying. 

I have no idea who mr butt is bagging on facebook.

but clearly there are two different groups of thought as to how things are going.

mr butt is clearly saying things are great, so stop moaning. And  some are saying,things are not  being run as well as they should be,we need to tighten our belts and live within our means and that special interest groups are being given preferential treatment..

My question to mr butt would be,how is the second group bagging the industry if they believe what they say and all the indicators ,that i listed above,indicate what they say is accurate.

really,if i was to analyse mr butts comments,i  think they are those of someone who personally is more than happy with where things are at for himself. he obviously values his family time and hes working for a stable whose needs the administrators prioritse. The type of stable who,as mr butt notes, current hrnz policy allows their young horses to race for what he calls as good as money as anywhere in the world.

in other words,mr butts  at  a good place in his mind and he can't see why others shouldn't be as well.

well,of course,not everyone has the same reality or current mindset as  mr butt has currently.

anyway,good to see mr butt is in such a positive frame of mind,lifes always better when you can be like that.

the thing is,what we on forums like this do,is we look back on peoples /administrators past comments and we highlight whether those past comments were acucrate and whether the people who make them have a good track record to indicate whether we should look to them in the future for guidance.

 

With no disrespect to one of the best un the business when he was in NZ before he left to live in Australia, he has clearly lost his marbles as he has aged?

There are many in the harness industry that are delusional if they think things are going ok in NZ!

Campbell did an interview with Anthony Butt just before he left Ozzie, and Campbell said to Anthony that things were flying in NZ ffs!

anyone with any business sense knows that the harness industry is in the total shite, but let them be positive and let them dream while they can, Brodie says!

Maybe he believes that Steve Stockman is going to be chucking a lazy $100 million into the coffers each and every year going forward?

[the galah]

Personally i think mr butts comments are helpful,because to me they explain so much..

You see..

Who do hrnz go to for feedback and advice on what their policies/priorities should be

They go to the likes of mr butt. So if mr butt and the other high profile  trainers/owners.breeders are telling them they are doing a good job and prioritising all the right people and paying out the stakes at levels on all the right races,e.g. 2 year old racing.

then thats how you get what we are getting.

Its what i've said has been happening for some tme,especially under steele and the likes of mr peden.

I'm not anti anyone,certainly not mr butt,just expalining why hrnz has been run as it has been in recent times.Its giving the high profile people what they want and the high profile people think its good for everyone because they,themselves are doing well. 

[Brodie]

We all live in hope that the new CEO of HRNZ has a strong financial background in running successful businesses!

It is going to be a very tall order for anyone to turn the business around due to how they have been operating for years now.

You just can not continue to run unprofitable parts of any business and then have your income halved in another couple of years, and expect to continue!