Jump to content
Bit Of A Yarn

Resumption of Racing – Stakes Levels through to the end of the 2019-20 Season


Recommended Posts

https://www.hrnz.co.nz/news/industry-update/

Industry Update | Resumption of Racing

30 April 2020

Resumption of Racing – Stakes Levels through to the end of the 2019-20 Season 

After receiving advice from RITA on funding levels, HRNZ has been able to confirm a stakes structure for the race meetings from May 29 through to the end of the season on July 31. This funding is ringfenced to fund stakes, and is not part of any bulk funding allocation, either to HRNZ or to clubs. HRNZ understands that there has been some frustration for owners and trainers awaiting an update on stakes levels and we are pleased to now be in a position to provide some certainty.

  • The minimum stake at all meetings will be $7,000.
  • NZMTC Friday meetings and all ATC meetings - Maidens and R50 and faster horses will race for a minimum of $8,500. There will be two races at $12,000 at these meetings.
  • All clubs are facing financial hurdles, with income from their commercial ventures under pressure and unlikely to improve significantly for some time. After a period of supporting higher stakes levels, the ATC has confirmed that it is not in a position to top-up stakes at present, however they have signalled a clear desire to do so as their income streams improve.

The stake levels in this transitional period reflects the significant challenges that all racing codes and RITA face due to the way wagering has been curtailed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to compare the stakes to the same period last year, when our industry meetings are generally running at lower stakes levels, with no Premier or Feature racing (outside the Harness Jewels).

HRNZ has had no indication from RITA on proposed funding levels for the 2020-21 season and the stakes levels for this period should in no way be taken as an indication on what next season’s stakes may look like.

All meetings through to the end of the season will be largely run on an open nominations basis, with fields selected to maximise wagering outcomes. It is important to note that the RITA funding is contingent on harness racing running the total scheduled number of races. The aim is to maintain field sizes at pre COVID-19 levels. The information provided by trainers suggests there will be a sizeable pool of fit horses available at the resumption of racing, which may create opportunities for extra races to be run and/or extra meetings added to the schedule.

It has been a real positive for the industry to be back into full scale training this week and we appreciate the effort from our participants to abide by the requirements of Alert Levels Four and Three as we work our way towards a resumption of racing during the weekend of May 29.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Better than nothing I guess, but the real test will be the stake money for next season.

Might just be running for ribbons in season 2020/21...

Ribbons that will be kept in a cardboard box and presented in the birdcage post race, before the said ribbons are returned immediately after the photographs have been taken. 

Cost cutting measures dictate that the ribbons need to be returned and reused after every race. 

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting that The AllStars stable are looking at sending a dozen horses to Auckland for racing in September October and possibly back to ChCh for Cup Week.

Yes Auckland will need their field numbers boosted a bit, but I am sure now that there will be many horses up there worked up and sold as they will be racing for the scraps in the bigger stakes races.

 It is going to  be a very interesting year coming up, and hopefully harness racing can get through this BS,

Hopefully Brodie is wrong, but I do feel that there are many things that are at play that are going to be Very detrimental to harness racing going forward.

 

Edited by Brodie
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Brodie said:

Interesting that The AllStars stable are looking at sending a dozen horses to Auckland for racing in September October and possibly back to ChCh for Cup Week.

Yes Auckland will need their field numbers boosted a bit, but I am sure now that there will be many horses up there worked up and sold as they will be racing for the scraps in the bigger stakes races.

 It is going to  be a very interesting year coming up, and hopefully harness racing can get through this BS,

Holefully Brodie is wrong, but I do feel that there are many things that are at play that are going to be detrimental to harness racing going forward.

 

By the time they pay the costs of travel to auckland and all the fees associated with training from that stable you would think an all star horse  would have to win a race each month just to break even given the reduced stakes at auckland. Why bother going unless it was for one of those stakes races whose stake is made to look attractive only because of the owners pre payments needed to maintain eligibility.

The one positive out of the reduced stakes at auckland , which has made them not much more than cambridge,is it  should lead to more consistency in performance from a couple of the stables up there that used to race the  same horses at both venues.

Its very sad that  those that led the auckland club made what turned out to be terrible business decisions that basically has ruined the  clubs ability to run races that would help retain owner participation at their current venue..They took a punt that some said was high risk at the time,and it failed.Always easy to say after that they should not have,but thats what did happen.

Time for them to  start planning to sell up all their assets  when the property market improves next year and combine with cambridge and relocate both tracks somewhere  else. Like harold park did,but don't put in a track  like Menangle.It must be no bigger than addington as those mile tracks have no atmosphere whatsoever,,and it must not be inside a galloping track like so many tracks that no one  goes to. Actually give the public a viewing platform close to the action in front of the winning post,not past it. 

Manawatu is not sustainable either really is it. If there is to be a second track it needs to be closer to where the bulk of horses are trained, and could be used only for a summer curcuit for say  3 or 4 months, that is a 1000m to 1200m grass track. And smaller all weather training only facilities inside it.

I know some may think that idea is a bit drastic,but its inevitable in my eyes. The sooner it happens the safer harness racings future in the  north will be. The longer it takes ,the more gloomy the long term outlook. Do they want a future or not?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, the galah said:

By the time they pay the costs of travel to auckland and all the fees associated with training from that stable you would think an all star horse  would have to win a race each month just to break even given the reduced stakes at auckland. Why bother going unless it was for one of those stakes races whose stake is made to look attractive only because of the owners pre payments needed to maintain eligibility.

They might be aiming to get some wins and then on sell some of their second and third tier horses who are not viable financially from their stable. Some All Stars owners might be having a clean out but if the stable has too many horses at Addington congesting the fields they may not be able to do that. You would think the top liners would be resting in the next few months.

 

7 hours ago, the galah said:

Its very sad that  those that led the auckland club made what turned out to be terrible business decisions that basically has ruined the  clubs ability to run races that would help retain owner participation at their current venue..They took a punt that some said was high risk at the time,and it failed.Always easy to say after that they should not have,but thats what did happen.

I find ti somewhat ironic that the ATC are pretty vocal calling for this and that about what should happen in the next few months when they are in such a mess themselves. It will interesting to see how long it takes them to get back to their pre virus stakes.

8 hours ago, Brodie said:

Hopefully Brodie is wrong

Hasn't happened yet so unlikely to start now.

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, the galah said:

I know some may think that idea is a bit drastic,but its inevitable in my eyes. The sooner it happens the safer harness racings future in the  north will be. The longer it takes ,the more gloomy the long term outlook. Do they want a future or not?

I don't think anyone has the balls.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Happy Sunrise said:

I don't think anyone has the balls.

Maybe,but they won't make progress without making the hard decisions. The worst business decision would be to make no decisions . The truth is they probably know what has to be done,but are having difficulty getting enough courage to put those plans in motion.

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Happy Sunrise said:

They might be aiming to get some wins and then on sell some of their second and third tier horses who are not viable financially from their stable. Some All Stars owners might be having a clean out but if the stable has too many horses at Addington congesting the fields they may not be able to do that. You would think the top liners would be resting in the next few months.

might be trying to reduce to number of stablemates racing against each other

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

10 minutes ago, Rangatira said:

might be trying to reduce to number of stablemates racing against each other

It was nice to see in the purdon Rasmussen interview that Rasmussen was openly willing to give opinions. 

There's no doubt the industry needs this stable to continue to be a strong flag bearer. They are always going to be the one the general public identify with the most so lets hope they retain all their owners,despite the likely reduction in stakes.

As an aside you can't help but think this virus has highlighted what was already there as far as where racing had been heading. Its just brought the need for change forward.

I don't know what ive pushed on my computer but everything seems underlined for some reason.

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Rangatira said:

Mark and Natalie’s nitty gritty harness racing assessment under L3

Natalie is just dying to let rip in that interview. She did well not to drop a few hundred f bombs.

Her thinking is like many it seems. Pretty blunt assessment, especially about the communiciation. Listening to that, it does surprise me how little public griping from trainers there is in NZ about the state of the game considering her obvious frustration and passion.

I also wonder how, HRNZ etc don't utilise the knowledge of these 2 people and others like them in decison making. For them to be left in the dark is extremely poor. 

If stakes are any lower than normal in the new season I can imagine them setting up a satellite stable in OZ and their focus will be increasingly over there. Wouldn't blame them.

If only racing in NZ was run as professionally and successfully as the All Stars.

  • Like 2
  • Champ Post 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Happy Sunrise said:

Natalie is just dying to let rip in that interview. She did well not to drop a few hundred f bombs.

Her thinking is like many it seems. Pretty blunt assessment, especially about the communiciation. Listening to that, it does surprise me how little public griping from trainers there is in NZ about the state of the game considering her obvious frustration and passion.

I also wonder how, HRNZ etc don't utilise the knowledge of these 2 people and others like them in decison making. For them to be left in the dark is extremely poor. 

If stakes are any lower than normal in the new season I can imagine them setting up a satellite stable in OZ and their focus will be increasingly over there. Wouldn't blame them.

If only racing in NZ was run as professionally and successfully as the All Stars.

that is about the most concerned i have seen elmer

worried what nat would say next

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Mark and Natalie are co corned about Racing then what do you think every other trainer should be thinking?

If the AllStars are worried about making a dollar then yes the racing industry is effed!
 

Every season the AllStars stable plunder the stakes in the big races and leaves very little for every other owner and trainer!

Not putting them down and have always just stated that racing is suffering due to their domination and it isn’t going to get any better while they maintain  a stable in NZ.

What this pandemic BS will do is drop everything except the salaried dickheads at RITA.

Owner no.s, trainer no.s , stake money,  will drop substantially and will I believe be very sobering as people drop out of the racing there won’t be anyone coming into it.

You could tell that Nat wanted to not pull any punches but Mark was trying to keep her a bit subdued.

If I wore a hat I would take it off to them for expressing their opinion the way they did.

Lets just hope we are all wrong and things are not as bad as they appear, but certainly wouldn’t be offloading anything on that at the mo.

Let’s get NZ harness up and going again as over the Oz stuff every bloody day.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Brodie said:

If Mark and Natalie are co corned about Racing then what do you think every other trainer should be thinking?

She seemed to show genuine concern for the general well-being of the wider industry. 

Instead of HRNZ or Guerin doing interviews about the best horse you have ever seen etc ...answer: Winx..(surprise me) He should be doing Q&A about ' What is your number 1 suggestion to change harness racing for the better'? of every trainer. Even by email and present the results. I would be interested in that. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Happy Sunrise said:

He should be doing Q&A about ' What is your number 1 suggestion to change harness racing for the better'?

Would make for a good episode of The Box Seat......but hell would have to freeze over for them to skate on that ice.

Edited by Happy Sunrise
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be pretty sure that the AllStars will setup a stable in Australia in the next year as the stakes here are not going to be what they are used to winning.

There is no way that harness can support the stake money that they have been putting up for for group racing, as the punting dollar is going to get an absolute hammering!

Reality is that the strain of this virus has been extremely weak and has not caused any real distress to anyone’s health in NZ apart from the frail people in rest homes.

Media and Ardern have made this out to be far worse than what it is and has killed many businesses unfortunately and that will affect harness racing indefinitely.

The fact is that this virus is only a middle of the road virus according to a virologist from Auckland and what happens when our annual flu hits us in June?

If we have something like this again, where we have lockdown and racing curtailed then unfortunately it will be the death knell for harness racing in NZ.

Why was racing in NZ needed to be cancelled when Australia with a far larger population has not had any interruption to  it whatsoever?

Reason is simple, we are now being dictated to by a socialist leader who doesn’t give a rats about business people and wants  to bring them all down.

Sooner people in NZ see that the better or the country is doomed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Brodie said:

If Mark and Natalie are co corned about Racing then what do you think every other trainer should be thinking?

If the AllStars are worried about making a dollar then yes the racing industry is effed!
 

Every season the AllStars stable plunder the stakes in the big races and leaves very little for every other owner and trainer!

Not putting them down and have always just stated that racing is suffering due to their domination and it isn’t going to get any better while they maintain  a stable in NZ.

What this pandemic BS will do is drop everything except the salaried dickheads at RITA.

Owner no.s, trainer no.s , stake money,  will drop substantially and will I believe be very sobering as people drop out of the racing there won’t be anyone coming into it.

You could tell that Nat wanted to not pull any punches but Mark was trying to keep her a bit subdued.

If I wore a hat I would take it off to them for expressing their opinion the way they did.

Lets just hope we are all wrong and things are not as bad as they appear, but certainly wouldn’t be offloading anything on that at the mo.

Let’s get NZ harness up and going again as over the Oz stuff every bloody day.

In my opinion I think racing will not be impacted  by the virus as much as many think it will be.

I believe the virus will be the fall guy and only a small part of the actual reason for any changes. It will be other pre existing factors that will lead to reductions in stakes. Stakes being paid pre virus were not justified based on a proper business model. People blame the tab,hrnz,rita.... but the reality is racing does not have the turnover or  public appeal like it used to. Lots of sports are the same,its just they don't have as many targets to blame like racing does. Stake levels were living on borrowed time anyway based on turmover..

Auckland is an  obvious example of the virus not being the real reason for reduced stakes..

Having said that the tab has many outlets in pubs effected by the virus and you do wonder what will happen to many of those businesses and  that may impact down the track on the tab.

I think the virus is an ideal smoke screen for industry leaders to gain the impetus to implement changes 

Follow Winston Churchill's advice"Never let a good crisis go to waste". Participants will be more accepting of the pain if it is delivered at the right  time.

 

Edited by the galah
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Happy Sunrise said:

Natalie is just dying to let rip in that interview. She did well not to drop a few hundred f bombs.

Her thinking is like many it seems. Pretty blunt assessment, especially about the communiciation. Listening to that, it does surprise me how little public griping from trainers there is in NZ about the state of the game considering her obvious frustration and passion.

I also wonder how, HRNZ etc don't utilise the knowledge of these 2 people and others like them in decison making. For them to be left in the dark is extremely poor. 

If stakes are any lower than normal in the new season I can imagine them setting up a satellite stable in OZ and their focus will be increasingly over there. Wouldn't blame them.

If only racing in NZ was run as professionally and successfully as the All Stars.

Pay the believers Happy

 

Greg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, the galah said:

I believe the virus will be the fall guy and only a small part of the actual reason for any changes. It will be other pre existing factors that will lead to reductions in stakes. Stakes being paid pre virus were not justified based on a proper business model. People blame the tab,hrnz,rita.... but the reality is racing does not have the turnover or  public appeal like it used to. Lots of sports are the same,its just they don't have as many targets to blame like racing does. Stake levels were living on borrowed time anyway based on turmover..

Pretty sure thats the way RITA see it as well , the previous lot were out of control and living in lala land. Expect lower stakes next season until structural reform of NZTAB is undertaken and even then it might not be enough

 

Greg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, richard Yardley said:

Why do we have so many people in the system  both codes and RIU  on high salaries who are takers which is causing the parties who provide the product to take all the risk for the minimal rewards. ?

It is the norm isn't it? Same in any industry. With the price of things these days if one can look after themselves they will. 

At least the RIU have a functioning and important role. What a lot of RITA do I would have no idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just heard on TV1 news that RITA are going to be making 230 odd people redundant!
Apart from salary cuts and spending savings it was not going to be enough to offset the drop in wagering.

Will be very interesting to see what the jobs at RITA are that are being gotten rid of?

Will the big wigs take a salary cut, of course not because they have got rid of 230 jobs that perhaps were t needed anyway!

Read the other day that 25% of CHRISTCHURCH City Council workers were on in excess of $100k and the wages Bill was something like 40% of the expenses of the council, no wonder our rates have increased incredibly over the last few years.

These companies that are paid by the taxpayer and ratepayers just don’t seem to have any qualms about ripping the people that pay their salaries off!!!!

The Accountant or someone along that line at the CCC that came from England is on well in excess of $500k or $10k per week?????

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...