Are we living in la la land even trying?

[Reefton]

Anyone else hear that Moonee Valley Racing Club bloke say on Weigh In 'we turn over $45m on the Friday Night before the Cox Plate and $120m on Cox Plate day'?So even if they pay out $10m for the two days stakes it is only 6.666667% of the turnover.

We recently had the Livamol here for a $250k stake and the turnover on the race was $490000.  So the stake paid represented over 50% of the turnover.

Whatever David Ellis or Winston Peters or those Waikato trainers say it doesn't add up and it won't add up even if they do steal all those community assets to prop it up.

And then we have Winston meandering along not bothering to pick up the race fields penny lying on the pavement last year leaving the NZ industry in even deeper poop!

Are we just kidding ourselves?

[Chief Stipe]

There is another way to look at the figures.  If 17% is the takeout i.e. gross revenue then the Livamol contributed $83,000.  Over half of that is consumed by costs so we could say that the Livamol returned less that $42,000 in stakes or a net loss of -$208,000.

[Freda]

27 minutes ago, Reefton said:

Anyone else hear that Moonee Valley Racing Club bloke say on Weigh In 'we turn over $45m on the Friday Night before the Cox Plate and $120m on Cox Plate day'?So even if they pay out $10m for the two days stakes it is only 6.666667% of the turnover.

We recently had the Livamol here for a $250k stake and the turnover on the race was $490000.  So the stake paid represented over 50% of the turnover.

Whatever David Ellis or Winston Peters or those Waikato trainers say it doesn't add up and it won't add up even if they do steal all those community assets to prop it up.

And then we have Winston meandering along not bothering to pick up the race fields penny lying on the pavement last year leaving the NZ industry in even deeper poop!

Are we just kidding ourselves?

Ive tried to be positive but it is near impossible when you take into account the obduracy and lack of vision in the collective mindset.

The best opinions I have heard were uttered by Luke Radich.  What a shame he isn't driving the bus.  

[barryb]

The whole fabric of recreation in NZ is rapidly changing, its not just affecting racing. Beer drinking dying, Rugby's in a nose dive, Fishing at the beach. & so on.

NZers would rather go for coffee and have a wander around the shops rather than attend sports matches etc.

Staying at home they would rather have a wine & fiddle on social media.

Racing has so much money tied up in real estate & physical structures that it cannot adapt quickly even if it wanted, the NZ public has grown tired of a boring product & are now spoilt for choice for the recreational spend. Racings almost certainly beyond repairing, its social licence is waning, probably best to just enjoy the next 20yrs or less it has left to run.

 

Edited October 20, 2019 by barryb

[Reefton]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

There is another way to look a the figures.  If 17% is the takeout i.e. gross revenue then the Livamol contributed $83,000.  Over half of that is consumed by costs so we could say that the Livamol returned less that $42,000 in stakes or a net loss of -$208,000.

Exactly

 

33 minutes ago, barryb said:

The whole fabric of recreation in NZ is rapidly changing, its not just affecting racing. Beer drinking dying, Rugby's in a nose dive, Fishing at the beach. & so on.

NZers would rather go for coffee and have a wander around the shops rather than attend sports matches etc.

Staying at home they would rather have a wine & fiddle on social media.

Racing has so much money tied up in real estate & physical structures that it cannot adapt quickly even if it wanted, the NZ public has grown tired of a boring product & are now spoilt for choice for the recreational spend. Racings almost certainly beyond repairing, its social licence is waning, probably best to just enjoy the next 20yrs or less it has left to run.

 

Yes racing is now a global sport and it is from here to your TV set away.  Just like Rugby,  League, golf or whatever. The money on offer in Aussie racing is frightening and no wonder the NZ game is rooted(but equally we look at it and it is hard to accept that we cannot be as good - 30 years ago we weren't too far away but we're out of sight behind now).  And flash facilities certainly aren't going to cure it.  The industry spend hundreds of millions on facililites and we are in the same shit

[Chief Stipe]

We don't need to spend zillions on flash facilities.  We need to provide decent tracks, do away with tiered racing and try to retain our good horses.

Geez my introduction to racing was at Hokitika.  A beer, a Percy Hurren pie, and watching the horses go round.  I look back and the facilities were crap but I had a lot more fun than I've had at Ellerslie.  Except when my horse won the last race there.

 

[Fred]

It is time to face cold hard facts -the earnings do not cover the stakes on offer so the only sensible option is to cut stakes so we live within our income. Directors of public companies operating in such a manner as racing does would face serious charges.

At least a reduction in stakes would help reduce the huge number o -f horses in training -most 'waiting to be sold'. There are around 2000 in Cambridge and Matamata alone. There could never be enough races to accommodate  just them. Hopefully Australian trainers [ and others] will take away the bulk of 2yos on offer next month -they could be rather cheap.

For those screaming for increased stakes ? increased stakes does not equate to increased earnings. Only a fool would race a horse expecting it to be a money making exercise, it's an expensive form of lotto. NZTR tell lies about the earnings of a horse by including in the total the amounts that they pay to the trainer and jockey ! -the term is 'gilding the lily'

[Reefton]

1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said:

We don't need to spend zillions on flash facilities.  We need to provide decent tracks, do away with tiered racing and try to retain our good horses.

Geez my introduction to racing was at Hokitika.  A beer, a Percy Hurren pie, and watching the horses go round.  I look back and the facilities were crap but I had a lot more fun than I've had at Ellerslie.  Except when my horse won the last race there.

 

Hurren's pies.  Now they were worth going to the races for! 

As far as Ellerslie and its superior facilities I went there as an owner one time - all they offered in the owners area was speights! No Stella no Corona no nothing.  Piss poor!

Give them an experience they want to come to the races for.  Look at Kumara - shit track,abysmal facilities  ( and I mean ABYSMAL) awful standard of racing and horsemanship and they bloody throng in! Birdsville is the Aussie equivalent. You can guarantee Kumara got saved because Witless likes to get on the piss there.

[Huey]

1 hour ago, Fred said:

It is time to face cold hard facts -the earnings do not cover the stakes on offer so the only sensible option is to cut stakes so we live within our income. Directors of public companies operating in such a manner as racing does would face serious charges.

At least a reduction in stakes would help reduce the huge number o -f horses in training -most 'waiting to be sold'. There are around 2000 in Cambridge and Matamata alone. There could never be enough races to accommodate  just them. Hopefully Australian trainers [ and others] will take away the bulk of 2yos on offer next month -they could be rather cheap.

For those screaming for increased stakes ? increased stakes does not equate to increased earnings. Only a fool would race a horse expecting it to be a money making exercise, it's an expensive form of lotto. NZTR tell lies about the earnings of a horse by including in the total the amounts that they pay to the trainer and jockey ! -the term is 'gilding the lily'

Yep it's been a Clayton's stakes system since the loss of free racing,  I don't understand why we don't stop kidding ourselves and revert to a stakes level/distribution whereby the owner does at least not have to fork out for noms and acceptances or pay down to 8th or 10th or whatever as it stands , you'd think this is at the very least the type of thinking NZTR could socialise. But perhaps it doesn't fall in line with sales prices or something?

[Shad]

4 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

We don't need to spend zillions on flash facilities.  We need to provide decent tracks, do away with tiered racing and try to retain our good horses.

Geez my introduction to racing was at Hokitika.  A beer, a Percy Hurren pie, and watching the horses go round.  I look back and the facilities were crap but I had a lot more fun than I've had at Ellerslie.  Except when my horse won the last race there.

 

Can't beat that coast racing, few that I can recall were black horse called ernest, gaucho ,colfix just to name a few around my time

[Reefton]

8 minutes ago, Shad said:

Can't beat that coast racing, few that I can recall were black horse called ernest, gaucho ,colfix just to name a few around my time

Its good fun but it is not that flash.  I could not have argued if they had said the while lot was closed down given the standard of racing involved but when they decide to keep one track because the Minister likes getting on the piss there then that is inconsistency and rather irritating.

Coast racing has probably had its day but it is not going any worse than any other region(probably better than most) so you could probably say the same thing for NZ racing in general