More of the Same!

[Peanut]

On 4/13/2022 at 7:29 AM, Huey said:

“While restrictions have caused huge amounts of frustration, particularly for those in the north who were locked down for four months, the fact is we continued to trade and operate all the way through.

What planet does this "fact" come from?    NZTR might have continued to operate all the way through but racing and training stopped during lockdown and horses that should have been earning money for owners were just sitting in paddocks costing it. 

[Huey]

Surely after the superlatives delievered to Woodville for yesterdays race meeting its time that club was rationalize and moved on , volunteers putting together a family fun race day with kids everywhere should be something of the past. 

Here's hoping our new CEO can rid the industry of places like Woodville as quickly as possible to save the industry!

[mikeynz]

1 hour ago, Huey said:

Surely after the superlatives delievered to Woodville for yesterdays race meeting its time that club was rationalize and moved on , volunteers putting together a family fun race day with kids everywhere should be something of the past. 

Here's hoping our new CEO can rid the industry of places like Woodville as quickly as possible to save the industry!

I think your taking the piss😀

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Huey said:

Surely after the superlatives delievered to Woodville for yesterdays race meeting its time that club was rationalize and moved on , volunteers putting together a family fun race day with kids everywhere should be something of the past. 

Here's hoping our new CEO can rid the industry of places like Woodville as quickly as possible to save the industry!

Yes, not a good look.

[Doomed]

1 hour ago, Huey said:

Surely after the superlatives delievered to Woodville for yesterdays race meeting its time that club was rationalize and moved on , volunteers putting together a family fun race day with kids everywhere should be something of the past. 

Here's hoping our new CEO can rid the industry of places like Woodville as quickly as possible to save the industry!

I can remember the days when Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton all used to race at Easter time. Not sure what will happen when they get rid of all the small clubs that don't mind racing on those days.

[mikeynz]

2 minutes ago, Doomed said:

I can remember the days when Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton all used to race at Easter time. Not sure what will happen when they get rid of all the small clubs that don't mind racing on those days.

Maybe they will move Riverton at Easter up to Riccarton, maybe on the AWT, Tyler and the Riverton mob will have to leave thursday, bring on centralization.

[Mark D]

And some more of the same - keep selling off land to fund operations but with little plan to make those operations better (see Ellerslie hill sale) and of course putting out the begging bowl to Government

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington-top-stories/128422014/plans-to-transform-trentham-into-racing-housing-and-retail-hub

Edited April 21, 2022 by Mark D

[Doomed]

2 hours ago, Mark D said:

And some more of the same - keep selling off land to fund operations but with little plan to make those operations better (see Ellerslie hill sale) and of course putting out the begging bowl to Government

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington-top-stories/128422014/plans-to-transform-trentham-into-racing-housing-and-retail-hub

Didn't RACE spend heaps on developments at Awapuni and cock it up?

[Huey]

2 hours ago, Mark D said:

And some more of the same - keep selling off land to fund operations but with little plan to make those operations better (see Ellerslie hill sale) and of course putting out the begging bowl to Government

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington-top-stories/128422014/plans-to-transform-trentham-into-racing-housing-and-retail-hub

This sort of thing never works, it's always racing that ends up the 3rd or 4th activity and is over run by the others.

[Doomed]

3 hours ago, Huey said:

This sort of thing never works, it's always racing that ends up the 3rd or 4th activity and is over run by the others.

I suspect at Trentham they have no other option. This is probably the last desperate hope.

[Bloke]

8 hours ago, Doomed said:

Didn't RACE spend heaps on developments at Awapuni and cock it up?

Yes they were developing surplus land at the back of Awapuni into residential sections. The proposal originally was to sell the sections and then demolish the public stand and build a conference centre.

They did the sub division in stages and after selling the first stage which was only a small percentage of the overall development, they went ahead and built the conference centre by borrowing $9M from BNZ.  They planned to repay this  from the sales of the remainder of the sections.

However, along came the GFC and section sales came to a standstill. They were straddled with total debt of around $12M and when they finally sold some sections, the proceeds only went to paying off interest. Since then it has been a case of selling off any of Race's land assets they can in a desperate bid to reduce the BNZ lending.

I doubt whether they have either learned any lessons from this debacle or have anyone on their committee / board who has knowledge regarding property development.

 

 

[Kihikihi Kid]

Wasn't it even Ellerslie and Rotorua on the same day back at Easter

[Freda]

7 hours ago, Kihikihi Kid said:

Wasn't it even Ellerslie and Rotorua on the same day back at Easter

Not sure...but certainly,  Riccarton and Riverton both raced at Easter. Riccarton on Saturday,  Monday ( I think ) and the following Saturday.   Riverton on Saturday,  Monday and Tuesday.   There were, in those days, sufficient horses/ riders for those days to clash without a problem.  Often horses would come up for the last day at Riccarton and the Great Autumn Hcp.  A worthwhile target for the Riverton Cup winner.

Riccarton changed all that by choosing to go away from the traditional Easter dates, which are dictated by the Church calendar.  They felt that, as the dates were not consistent year on year, that connections could have more surety in programming their horses' racing.

I think that was the reason for the Ellerslie shift too. 

Some may think that was/is a sensible choice, others may not.

Riverton retained it's traditional Easter focus.  With the alarming drop in both horse and rider numbers, it's just as well...although at the time, I don't think that could have been envisaged .

[mikeynz]

1 hour ago, Freda said:

Not sure...but certainly,  Riccarton and Riverton both raced at Easter. Riccarton on Saturday,  Monday ( I think ) and the following Saturday.   Riverton on Saturday,  Monday and Tuesday.   There were, in those days, sufficient horses/ riders for those days to clash without a problem.  Often horses would come up for the last day at Riccarton and the Great Autumn Hcp.  A worthwhile target for the Riverton Cup winner.

Riccarton changed all that by choosing to go away from the traditional Easter dates, which are dictated by the Church calendar.  They felt that, as the dates were not consistent year on year, that connections could have more surety in programming their horses' racing.

I think that was the reason for the Ellerslie shift too. 

Some may think that was/is a sensible choice, others may not.

Riverton retained it's traditional Easter focus.  With the alarming drop in both horse and rider numbers, it's just as well...although at the time, I don't think that could have been envisaged .

Addington always had and still have Easter Saturday, I can actually remember, sad as it is Easter Saturday once had Ellerslie, Rotorua, Tauherinikau,(check spelling),Fielding and Riverton, with Hawera and Addington followed by Forbury Park at night.

Easter Monday was same except Riccarton instead of Rotorua and Roxburgh, that was in the mid seventies.

Didnt need all the stuff from oz to attract our attention.