Messara Confident

[Nice Option]

Taken from Voxy.co.nz 

Friday, 11 May, 2018 - 10:55

John Messara has been given the task of reviewing New Zealand’s racing industry and he is confident it has a bright future if his recommendations are implemented.

The Arrowfield Stud chairman and former Racing Australia and Racing New South Wales chairman has a close association with New Zealand and he felt obligated to assist when approached by New Zealand’s Racing Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

"I received a letter (from Peters) saying we’d love you to come and do a high-level review, on behalf of the Government, of the industry and tell us what you think ought to be done to turn it around," Messara said.

"It was an offer I couldn’t resist from the point of view that I felt confident that I knew some of the things that could be done anyway.

"They are part of the racing and breeding family, New Zealand. I have owned a stud farm there in the past, 20 years ago I had a holding in Ra Ora Stud. I have got a lot of friends there and a lot of my staff are Kiwis in Australia, so I thought I should do this for them."

He is currently in the initial stages of his review and is set to report back to Peters by the end of the season.

"I have started and I have got to report by July 31 to the Deputy Prime Minister," he said.

A major bone of contention in New Zealand racing is the level of prize money and Messara believes this issue can be turned around quickly.

"I think they can," he said. "Look out Australia, New Zealand is back on the march."

 

 

[Hedley]

Messara needs to take the axe to many of the city of suits that the body corporate as adorned itself in

[Chief Stipe]

Great to see you again Hedley.  Trust you are well.

[Rowley Mile]

35 minutes ago, Hedley said:

Messara needs to take the axe to many of the city of suits that the body corporate as adorned itself in

I reckon that's where the prize money increase might come from Hedley, a big broom, a fly swat to some and wammo, there's a few mil to start off with.

[hesi]

15 minutes ago, Rowley Mile said:

I reckon that's where the prize money increase might come from Hedley, a big broom, a fly swat to some and wammo, there's a few mil to start off with.

The suggestion was

Costs 205 mil

Money paid to codes 143 mil

Swap them around

That's more than a few mil

[mardigras]

2 hours ago, hesi said:

The suggestion was

Costs 205 mil

Money paid to codes 143 mil

Swap them around

That's more than a few mil

Yet still not enough to make the industry sustainable long term. To lift the net revenue after any culling exercise, the gross revenue will have to rise. On NZ racing it isn't.

[hesi]

27 minutes ago, mardigras said:

Yet still not enough to make the industry sustainable long term. To lift the net revenue after any culling exercise, the gross revenue will have to rise. On NZ racing it isn't.

If that is the case, then it shows just how far the industry has been mismanaged over the last 30 years, but most poignantly the lack of proactivity.

Like him or lump(I don't like him), but Peters is at least showing proactivity on a major scale, and begs the question why previous leaders of of NZRB/TR did not implore the minister to do something similar.  Politics I guess....or self preservation

[curious]

I struggle to see how anything like $60m in costs can be found unless they do something constructive like shutting down the FOB operation. And even if they could find that, if they distribute it to codes it will likely mostly be wasted on stakes. It needs to be used to maintain distributions until the pain incurred from properly and competitively restructuring the tote business is mitigated and revenue from NZ Racing recovers and starts to grow. I'd say that could take at least 2-3 years. Any additional distributions to the codes from a TR perspective needs to go to infrastructure, sorting the handicapping and integrity systems, etc. so as to provide a more attractive wagering product.

[hesi]

Going to be very interesting to see what Messara comes up with.

I'm not a cynic, so I believe Peters will take on board the report in it's entirety

[Huey]

15 minutes ago, curious said:

I struggle to see how anything like $60m in costs can be found unless they do something constructive like shutting down the FOB operation. And even if they could find that, if they distribute it to codes it will likely mostly be wasted on stakes. It needs to be used to maintain distributions until the pain incurred from properly and competitively restructuring the tote business is mitigated and revenue from NZ Racing recovers and starts to grow. I'd say that could take at least 2-3 years. Any additional distributions to the codes from a TR perspective needs to go to infrastructure, sorting the handicapping and integrity systems, etc. so as to provide a more attractive wagering product.

When you say infrastructure , what do you specifically mean? A new all weather track , upgrading existing venues ? 

[curious]

Peters can drive legislation and appoint board members, but regardless of what the report says, he can't make the NZRB do anything that the report suggests. So, yes, he can take it on board but if it requires action from the NZRB, they will need to be convinced.

[curious]

Just now, Huey said:

When you say infrastructure , what do you specifically mean? A new all weather track , upgrading existing venues ? 

I'm particularly referring to track surfaces there that make racing fair and attractive for wagering and reliable for punters. Long overdue relaying of existing tracks with upgraded drainage and 21st century irrrigation systems could be part of that, as could all weathers.

[Rowley Mile]

Cry me down, but the board has to be dismissed, if this was Coles Myer or Wefarmers here in Oz it would have happened long ago, the board is dysfunctional, there is little or no transparency, no accountability, and NZ other than DPK. or perhaps Russia is the only place on the planet where this is tolerated. NZ rewards mediocrity and NZRB has proved by the demise of racing in NZ that it can't do the job.

 

[barryb]

2 hours ago, curious said:

I struggle to see how anything like $60m in costs can be found unless they do something constructive like shutting down the FOB operation. And even if they could find that, if they distribute it to codes it will likely mostly be wasted on stakes. It needs to be used to maintain distributions until the pain incurred from properly and competitively restructuring the tote business is mitigated and revenue from NZ Racing recovers and starts to grow. I'd say that could take at least 2-3 years. Any additional distributions to the codes from a TR perspective needs to go to infrastructure, sorting the handicapping and integrity systems, etc. so as to provide a more attractive wagering product.

When you say wasted on stakes Curious that to me is the talk of someone who doesn’t own horses. I had only a couple of years ago major ownership in 5 horses, I am now down to 2 & will be down to zero soon enough unless stakes take a major move upwards.

You can spend all the money you want on improving tracks as there won’t be any f—king thing to race on them.

Surfaces and infrastructure need serious work yes but there is no way that can take place and leave stakes where they are currently. You buy a horse off Gavel on Monday night and try and find 5-7 people to take a share in it, people are not stupid and know it’s most likely money down a hole at current stake levels even if it wins a race in the first 12 months.

Stakes just cannot be ignored.

[Rowley Mile]

2 hours ago, Rowley Mile said:

Cry me down, but the board has to be dismissed, if this was Coles Myer or Wefarmers here in Oz it would have happened long ago, the board is dysfunctional, there is little or no transparency, no accountability, and NZ other than DPK. or perhaps Russia is the only place on the planet where this is tolerated. NZ rewards mediocrity and NZRB has proved by the demise of racing in NZ that it can't do the job.

 

Hedley and Ashoka, great to have you here guys, this site will be the market leader in record time with the likes of you two on board.

[curious]

Aside from the fact that I've bred, owned and raced horses for 40 years barryb, though down to zero in NZ as of 3 or 4 years ago, I think you are entirely missing the point here. The only way to have sustainable and much higher stakes levels, is to generate sustainable and much greater revenue. To do that requires investment of existing revenue. If all existing revenue goes to stakes, then that will never happen and you will have continually declining amounts available for stakes. Much higher stakes levels are the main objective here, but the desire for instant gratification in that regard has destroyed any chance of achieving that.

[curious]

2 hours ago, Rowley Mile said:

Cry me down, but the board has to be dismissed, if this was Coles Myer or Wefarmers here in Oz it would have happened long ago, the board is dysfunctional, there is little or no transparency, no accountability, and NZ other than DPK. or perhaps Russia is the only place on the planet where this is tolerated. NZ rewards mediocrity and NZRB has proved by the demise of racing in NZ that it can't do the job.

 

Maybe, but I don't think there is any provision in the current Act that gives anyone the power to do that.

[barryb]

Curious I am certainly not advocating it all goes to stakes, what you are suggesting though is that fixing tracks and infrastructure now and stakes later, how much later?

3, 5, 10 yrs what? 

The biggest player in this industry getting screwed is the poor owner, they are departing in droves, they cannot be ignored. A whole raft of things need money quite urgently we agree there, but asking the guy getting shafted the most to suck it up for a few more years is only going to hasten the decline.

[curious]

Completely agree that owners can not be ignored but they have been for a long time because there have been no effective strategies implemented to build revenue to improve things like stakes and facilities in any sustainable way.

It's more than stakes and infrastructure that need to be fixed here though and the critical issue is to build a racing and wagering product that is attractive to punters and grows sustainable wagering revenue.

To do that requires investment and the only available source for that is existing revenue. It also requires owners to provide the product and they will continue to rapidly disappear as you and I have if the stakes to cost ratio continues to shrink. So, I agree there needs to be some sort of balance between the two.

To answer your question, I think if the right strategies and structure were put in place, with stakes sustained and perhaps slightly increasing for the next 2-3 years, then things could begin to snowball from there.

What I am more certain of is that if we continue to expend almost all available revenue on stakes, we'll get the same result we've had for at least the last decade. You know the old story  - keep doing what's already not working etc....

We are now borrowing perhaps $15-20m a year from reserves to fund current stakes. When the reserves are gone in a couple more years, what then? What if the government decides to pull pokie proceeds from racing, or decides that a greater share of revenue from overseas and sports events should go to sports and/or the taxpayer?

Goes back to what I said, if you want improved stakes then racing needs to generate revenue from racing to provide and sustain those.

[Huey]

35 minutes ago, barryb said:

Curious I am certainly not advocating it all goes to stakes, what you are suggesting though is that fixing tracks and infrastructure now and stakes later, how much later?

3, 5, 10 yrs what? 

The biggest player in this industry getting screwed is the poor owner, they are departing in droves, they cannot be ignored. A whole raft of things need money quite urgently we agree there, but asking the guy getting shafted the most to suck it up for a few more years is only going to hasten the decline.

You are most definitely correct , the ownership model is absolutely screwed and totally unsustainable. Tomorrow we have 3 races on a Saturday for $10k in stakes whats that about? Isn't that supposed to be what the Industry day events are for and our rural tracks are used for? Not our showcase race day on Saturday.

I do see however the need for infrastructure change at some level , however my concern is that the infrastructure $ goes in the same direction it's always gone the main venues that have imo let racing down badly and probably will get the opportunity to do so again.

I sound like a broken record saying this , but there is constant out cries from those that purport to be in the know that we have too many tracks, I believe we don't utilise the existing number of  tracks we have enough.

The optimising the calendar project is a great example this has been used as a means of reducing costs from the NZRB standpoint that I think in the future will end up costing the industry from a revenue viewpoint because its not focused on the product in a long term manner and will thus have a detrimental impact on the delivery and production of the product in the future i.e. it ignores the base of the product and where it comes from. 

[mardigras]

2 hours ago, barryb said:

When you say wasted on stakes Curious that to me is the talk of someone who doesn’t own horses. I had only a couple of years ago major ownership in 5 horses, I am now down to 2 & will be down to zero soon enough unless stakes take a major move upwards.

You can spend all the money you want on improving tracks as there won’t be any f—king thing to race on them.

Surfaces and infrastructure need serious work yes but there is no way that can take place and leave stakes where they are currently. You buy a horse off Gavel on Monday night and try and find 5-7 people to take a share in it, people are not stupid and know it’s most likely money down a hole at current stake levels even if it wins a race in the first 12 months.

Stakes just cannot be ignored.

I disagree 100%. Stakes are meaningless in the current scenario. Horse owners and trainers have put up with them at substandard levels for years already.

To amend your statement, you can spend all the money you like on stakes as there won't be any punter left to bet on them. Horses and horse owners will remain (as they have done) with out any increase in stakes. Punter won't and aren't, without something worth betting on. Horses are still there, they are still racing. Are the punters. NO.

 

 

[mardigras]

1 hour ago, barryb said:

Curious I am certainly not advocating it all goes to stakes, what you are suggesting though is that fixing tracks and infrastructure now and stakes later, how much later?

3, 5, 10 yrs what? 

The biggest player in this industry getting screwed is the poor owner, they are departing in droves, they cannot be ignored. A whole raft of things need money quite urgently we agree there, but asking the guy getting shafted the most to suck it up for a few more years is only going to hasten the decline.

The owner is getting shafted because the punter has no interest. You want to address the owner being shafted before addressing the punter being shafted. Yet the punter provides the revenue capacity for the owner. Brilliant. 

[barryb]

4 hours ago, mardigras said:

The owner is getting shafted because the punter has no interest. You want to address the owner being shafted before addressing the punter being shafted. Yet the punter provides the revenue capacity for the owner. Brilliant. 

They are not mutually exclusive, most on course today are owners, many of the biggest punters are owners.

i have owned 20 in the last 10 yrs and during that time have done the vast majority of my betting (which is well in excess of $1m a year) on NZ racing but with Australian operators. Why? Because the NZ Tab was not and is still not customer focused despite what John Allen says.

The heart of why racing is in decline is not tracks/infrastructure/stakes , it’s  societal change & the tab have failed to re invent itself to progress with the changing fabric.

Ask yourself why bgp is so popular, they have made the same average struggling product exciting under a different approach, which is something the TAB & NZ Racing have failed at.

Re invent the ownership model, make it fair,exciting,entertaining and many ills will disappear.

I recall 2 yrs ago being at an after race presentation at New Plymouth  and having only a boiled egg to eat, really? WTF.

i was at Te Rapa punting comp last Sat and there would have been 150 in the room spending mega $,  now despite there being 3-4 board members and Ken Rutherford there not a 1 of them was doing the rounds at tables smooching  etc. What business do they think they are in? Race Tracks, Racing Horses, or people? It’s basic 101 marketing completely ignored. They will claim they love racing, horses, & love Te Rapa and they do, but as Molloy says they are pale stale males who represent racing in the past.

 

[mardigras]

3 hours ago, barryb said:

They are not mutually exclusive, most on course today are owners, many of the biggest punters are owners.

i have owned 20 in the last 10 yrs and during that time have done the vast majority of my betting (which is well in excess of $1m a year) on NZ racing but with Australian operators. Why? Because the NZ Tab was not and is still not customer focused despite what John Allen says.

The heart of why racing is in decline is not tracks/infrastructure/stakes , it’s  societal change & the tab have failed to re invent itself to progress with the changing fabric.

Ask yourself why bgp is so popular, they have made the same average struggling product exciting under a different approach, which is something the TAB & NZ Racing have failed at.

Re invent the ownership model, make it fair,exciting,entertaining and many ills will disappear.

I recall 2 yrs ago being at an after race presentation at New Plymouth  and having only a boiled egg to eat, really? WTF.

i was at Te Rapa punting comp last Sat and there would have been 150 in the room spending mega $,  now despite there being 3-4 board members and Ken Rutherford there not a 1 of them was doing the rounds at tables smooching  etc. What business do they think they are in? Race Tracks, Racing Horses, or people? It’s basic 101 marketing completely ignored. They will claim they love racing, horses, & love Te Rapa and they do, but as Molloy says they are pale stale males who represent racing in the past.

 

All very well and good. I agree that the reason why racing is in decline in NZ is not stakes. But it is definitely tracks in my view. The argument you make doesn't stack up given how things are in Australia. The only real difference between here and there is the tracks which gives punters confidence and the resulting revenue which gives owners a degree of opportunity. And of course a model where they reward the owners based on the interest their horses generate financially. Something NZ doesn't do.

And of course there are issues with how owners are treated, but when it comes to where industry earned money is spent, spending it on stakes will not resolve that. Punters don't bet on a race because of the stake.

[barryb]

How are thing in Australia?

Racing is on a steep decline there also, just has further to fall.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/racing/hits-just-keep-on-coming-for-a-racing-industry-in-decline-20150717-gif2hw.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/superracing/vic-racing/blinkers-off-spring-carnival-crowds-on-the-decline-in-worrying-trend/news-story/e762cb9e7f10a1cee565a8e60209a0d1

http://www.thoroughbredvillage.com.au/?p=2262

https://horsebetting.com.au/is-the-racing-industry-self-sustainable-in-australia/44464/

https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/arts-recreation-services/horse-dog-racing.html

If you cant be bothered reading any of the others, read the last one to get some perspective.