Congrats Bernard - another one bites the dust

[Bloke]

12 hours ago, Dark Beau said:

I am a member of the Wellington Racing Club. They along with the Rangitiki, Marton, Feilding and Manawatu Clubs make up RACE. 
If there has been a change, the Members certainly have not been advised. 
Having said that, the previous CEO left under very strange or unsavoury circumstances. Since then very little have been forthcoming from RACE while they have sourced a new CEO. 
I guess we now wait on what he (the new CEO) has to say once he has his feet under the desk. 
However, should RACE have fallen to bits, and Wellington have the ability to do it’s own thing, nothing would please me more, so long as they were fairly compensated (or get back the money) for all the land that has been sold at Trentham over the last 5 years, and which has gone into RACE’S coffers. 
DB

Wellington joined Race after Wellington went "Belly Up" around 2005. Crooked John Fokerd  had been Treasurer for many years. Fokerd and was subsequently  struck off as an accountant after stealing a large 6 figure sum from a client. To my knowledge Wellington has never gone back to see what Fokerd might have got up to. 

When Wellington joined Race they got to appoint two directors of Race and the clowns appointed crooked Fokerd and Mike Brown as directors. Brown was, at The time, President of Wellington and in my opinion a total idiot.  

Then Race decided to build a conference centre at Awapuni and borrow $9M from the BNZ, on the basis that Race would sell residential sections that they were developing and repay BNZ from that.

However, along came the GFC and they were rooted as they could not sell the sections. When they finally did sell all they were clearing from the proceeds of sales was  interest so the debt was not reducing.

Unfortunately Dark Beau, Wellington have to wear it as  at the time they had Brown and Fokerd as Directors.

[Reefton]

2 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

Based purely on geographical/locational advantage @Reefton  - a cheap shot in reality.  In my view West Coast racing needed Hokitika, Greymouth AND Reefton.  You all needed to get more flexible about where to hold the meeting on a given day.  If all at one location you'd likely to get more abandonments than less.  Of course one location doesn't guarantee a good track either - Riccarton being the classic example of that.

The anecdote about the hole in the track is strikingly similar to my experience except the hole I found was four foot deep and the width of a football and 5 horse widths out half way up the home straight at Ellerslie.  But then Reefton is perfect is it not?

What do you mean 'Based on geographical advantage?'  Omoto is built on a riverbed and is floodprone.  Always has been always will be.  The Grey River backs up and Omoto is (among other places) where it goes.

Nobody said Wet Coast Racing didn't need all four but  NZTR arbitrarily decided they didn't want Hoki and look what the Hoki reaction was?  That's not my fault and was not what I wanted.

BUT .... for all that none of the Coast tracks are up to the appropriate standards required.  They are all too small and, in Kumara's and Hokitika's cases, far too poorly draining.  Running there on bog tracks may have been acceptable 40 years ago but it is not acceptable now and is frankly an embarrassing spectacle.  By that I mean the Hokitika debacle three years ago of the kid miscounting the rounds and the grey horse coming from 20 lengths last 400 out to get up and win.  Yes highly entertaining but really?  Is it suitable for international consumption?  The number of trainers prepared to put their charges through such arduous exertion is going to get less and less and less(same applies to the Wellington July meeting and, if it happens too often, National Week).  I wasn't aware a the time(on the piss with my new Irish mates!) but Kumara was perilously close to the Jockeys pulling the pin this year due to inconsistency of the track where the newly renovated part met the older renovated part at about the 600m. 

Not to mention years ago when we had Greg Radley here commentating and when peering through the pouring(and I mean POURING!) rain at Kumara his quote 'this would never happen in Australia'.  Classic stuff and highly amusing but if we want to be taken seriously?  (or for that matter the recent Riccarton debacle or half the other courses in NZ where the first move in winter  is straight to the outside fence)

As far as holes in the Reefton track goes well no. There have never been holes like that and if there were I would be asking for the the meeting to be abandoned.  Until recent ties we had one RJ McCann on our committee would has ridden on a few tracks in his time and I am sure he would be demanding abandonment if we produced something like that.  We simply wouldn't race.  A few years ago we had the track hammered in the rain by the Trotters a few days before.  Due to it's extraordinary drying powers it would have been no worse than dead 5 the next morning(after the trots) so we got a 12 tonne vibrating roller onto it.  Gary Foskett came down, saw the roller still parked by the track, and shook his head.  We might have had bare patches but they were flat bare patches! 

And as far a s flexibility don't talk to me about flexibility.  The previous time the Trotters hammered it we wanted to move(with five days notice) to Greymouth and the TAB guys just flatly refused.  There is no aversion on any of the Club's part to shifting at late notice but the cooperation from the powers that be can be lacking.

 

 

[Chief Stipe]

47 minutes ago, Reefton said:

What do you mean 'Based on geographical advantage?'  Omoto is built on a riverbed and is floodprone.  Always has been always will be.  The Grey River backs up and Omoto is (among other places) where it goes.

 

And Reefton isn't.  Out of interest what is the percentage of abandonments at Omoto compared to Kumara?

[Chief Stipe]

50 minutes ago, Reefton said:

Running there on bog tracks may have been acceptable 40 years ago but it is not acceptable now and is frankly an embarrassing spectacle. 

But it is OK to do so at Riccarton?  Or Awapuni, Trentham and Ellerslie.

[Reefton]

11 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

And Reefton isn't.  Out of interest what is the percentage of abandonments at Omoto compared to Kumara?

Over a hundred years a lot more abandonments at Omoto(though in days gone by they postponed not abandoned - which is what Pam was talking about picking up debris at Omoto - they raced the day after they were supposed to).

Up until their first track renovation(maybe 25 years ago) Kumara NEVER abandoned.  Didn't matter how much it pissed down the show must(and did) go on.  Omoto did not have the luxury of the show going on when the show was under a metre (or more) of water.

 

[Reefton]

15 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

But it is OK to do so at Riccarton?  Or Awapuni, Trentham and Ellerslie.

That is for Ellerslie or Awapuni or Trentham or Riccarton to decide.  I will worry about my little dump - let their vast array of admin staff concern themselves with the look they portray

[Chief Stipe]

3 minutes ago, Reefton said:

That is for Ellerslie or Awapuni or Trentham or Riccarton to decide.  I will worry about my little dump - let their vast array of admin staff concern themselves with the look they portray

But why come down hard on West Coast racing producing "bog tracks" (they don't always do that) when the big boys do it all the time and have been doing it for years?

[Chief Stipe]

7 minutes ago, Reefton said:

Over a hundred years a lot more abandonments at Omoto(though in days gone by they postponed not abandoned - which is what Pam was talking about picking up debris at Omoto - they raced the day after they were supposed to).

Up until their first track renovation(maybe 25 years ago) Kumara NEVER abandoned.  Didn't matter how much it pissed down the show must(and did) go on.  Omoto did not have the luxury of the show going on when the show was under a metre (or more) of water.

 

Exactly the show generally went on.  More of the show could have gone on if the ivory tower administrators and West Coast club members had been more flexible in shifting meetings to one of the four courses.  Hell they do it in Australia!!!!

A few weeks ago the Echuca meeting was flooded by the Murray River - I think it was 24 hours out and they shifted the meeting down the road.  In NZ it is all too hard.

 

[Reefton]

26 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

And Reefton isn't.

Reefton is built on a riverbed yes but it does not have the same flooding issues Greymouth has and anyway the Inangahua is a much smaller river.  The Grey River is very much constricted a couple of miles west of Omoto by the gap the river goes through then it is only a mile or so to the sea with its huge tidal effects.  Reefton does not that that resistance so close downstream and to my knowledge Reefton Racecourse has never flooded.  Why are you asking questions you presumably know the answers to

 

2 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

But why come down hard on West Coast racing producing "bog tracks" (they don't always do that) when the big boys do it all the time and have been doing it for years?

I have no idea and care even less.  Insofar as I know anyway NZTR does want to shut us down because of bog track they want to shut us down because of duplicated tracks

[Chief Stipe]

Just now, Reefton said:

I have no idea and care even less.  Insofar as I know anyway NZTR does want to shut us down because of bog track they want to shut us down because of duplicated tracks

That's where NZTR are fraudsters.  They don't want to close tracks because of cost (what does it really cost NZTR for each West Coast track?) they want to limit the number of meetings available to the Coast and pinch the assets.  The latter because they are bereft of any idea on how to increase revenue.  The silver bullet is supposedly the 14 meetings a year on the Riccarton AWT.

What they don't realise is closing tracks is negative marketing and severely curtails their community reach.  I assume you looked at the exercise I did on locating the tracks in Victoria.  Is it any wonder that they seem to have a strong and vibrant industry when every town seems to have a sanctioned track?

[nomates]

Chances are we will be staying in level 4 , going to be interesting to see how they reorganize things with the Foxbridge being an important lead up to the Hastings races . 

If they have been smart they will have already modelled a contingency plan for the short term , and get it out ASAP to give trainers and owners some clarity .

Have i spoken too soon ?.

[Huey]

6 minutes ago, nomates said:

Chances are we will be staying in level 4 , going to be interesting to see how they reorganize things with the Foxbridge being an important lead up to the Hastings races . 

If they have been smart they will have already modelled a contingency plan for the short term , and get it out ASAP to give trainers and owners some clarity .

Have i spoken too soon ?.

Should have been a plan in place well and truly before this lockdown occurred. A prolonged lockdown and this industry is gonna be in an even bigger mess than what it was heading for.

I cannot believe some of the bigger stables under demanding more immediate clarity from NZTR or are they all just giving up and sending horses to Aus ?

[Gospel of Judas]

6 hours ago, nomates said:

Chances are we will be staying in level 4 , going to be interesting to see how they reorganize things with the Foxbridge being an important lead up to the Hastings races . 

If they have been smart they will have already modelled a contingency plan for the short term , and get it out ASAP to give trainers and owners some clarity .

Have i spoken too soon ?.

They all be asleep at NZTR and Rita. Bar when most likely have team Zoom meeting and pretend how doing everything they can! just like episode of Grace and Favours!