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I had heard earlier in the week that John had been knocked over by a horse and that was confirmed today. Quite severe rib damage, I gather, but it could so easily have been worse. I am sure all Cafers would like to wish him well and trust that he has a speedy recovery.

I've got th script here. Welcome to your TAB, aka Thieves, Arseholes & Bastards. We'll offer you fuck all but we're guaranteed to exploit the vulnerable members of society then spend the profits on international junkets, expensive private boxes at the Lion's rugby matches, flash offices, spin doctors & long lunches, what we won't do is invest in the racing industry or the hard working people who provide the product for us to sell to our unsuspecting victims. C'mon board everyone, let us bend you over and violate you while stealing your hard earned money, and giving you absolutely fucking nothing back.

Thanks Guys. Two nice horses and both ridden very well. Viktoria has a real affinity with Pacorus, obviously mutual! A nice ride from Hairi saw the Edge get home late to get up! Thanks to my staff who do a fantastic job and to my loyal owners, another great day and the team is ticking over nicely!

Governance of New Zealand racing still in the 20th Century Brian de Lore "We are quite happy to allow planning processes to go on forever. It's not the big that eats the little, it's the fast that eats the slow." Those are the frustrated words of Employers and Manufacturers’ Association chief executive Kim Campbell uttered a few years back when asked what it was that impeded the Kiwi psyche in business. Campbell’s statement could be applied to the psyche we have in New Zealand racing industry governance today – “happy to allow planning processes to go on forever,” followed by a racing industry that continues to contract and disillusion the bulk of its participants. The brief history goes like this: racing was doing fine until the late 1980s. The economic crash of 1987 followed by the internet and technology revolutions of the 1990s brought globalisation and since then we have been gradually losing ground. Racing clubs started the TAB in 1951 but before long the Australians came, looked and copied the model before opening the Victoria TAB in 1961. Their prolific betting, larger population (they bet A$2.10 per head for every NZ$1 we bet) soon produced higher revenues, superior betting services and consistent, sustainable profits for a healthy racing industry. Then the big game-changer occurred in 1993 when the Northern Territory state government licenced Sportsbet, the first non-government organisation allowed to provide betting services in Australia. Three years later Centrebet became the first company to offer on-line betting – the tide had turned forever. With dwindling race crowds and on-course betting in the late 1990s coinciding with a burgeoning on-line betting industry, the Australian government stepped in with the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. The Act served to rein in the on-line bookmakers’ free-for-all that had been tolerated till then with a strict rules and guidelines, but then further game-changers appeared in 2007 and again in 2010 with the respective introduction of smart-phones and iPads/tablets. As technology advanced more on-line bookmakers joined the game, necessitating the drafting of race fields legislation to force them to give something back to racing. They were hurting the tote and paying nothing for the use of race fields and other relevant data. Sportsbet and Betfair contested the race fields legislation in the High Court and after dragging it through the legal mire for four years, a landmark ruling was delivered in March, 2012 in favour of Racing NSW. The 1.5 per cent of turnover amounting to over A$100 million that had been held in trust for those four years was freed-up to allow Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys to announce massive prize-money increases for the state. The door was now open for New Zealand to follow but, more than five years on, we are still working through the legislation for our own race fields. That Kiwi psyche kicked-in; we were slow leaving the barrier and have continued to fall further behind our counterparts across the Tasman. My reasoning for regurgitating this 25-year history is to emphasise how much the game has changed and then to contemplate the doubling of that amount of change over the next 10 years. That’s where technology is taking us – to a place unknown. Meanwhile, it may be this time next year or even further down the track before race fields legislation is introduced to Parliament, undergoes three readings and is then passed into law. Presently it’s in draft form only, still requiring fine tuning, and from what the writer has learned is ‘low priority’ from a government viewpoint. The racing industry viewpoint is race fields is ‘high priority’ because for each year that flows by without it being passed into law it’s costing the thoroughbred code alone $10 million that could go straight into stakes. And that $10 million is potentially $20 million annually, because at present Australian betting on New Zealand racing represents only 3.2 per cent of their turnover. Unlike harness (6.7 per cent) and greyhounds (6.5 per cent), the gallops have been poorly marketed across the ditch and so the potential to double the percentage, given its exclusive time zone, is a very real one. Aside from race fields legislation, which NZRB CEO John Allen promised us in this session of Parliament in his February ‘talking to the industry tour,’ the fixed-odds betting platform which is part of the $60-75 million NZRB spend and was promised for early next year, is unlikely to arrive before the start of the 2018-19 season. Late last week in a call to NZRB Head of Communications Kate Richards, The Informant was told: “The FOB platform has been agreed to in the partnership with Open Bet and Paddy Power but it’s impossible to say how long it will take to implement – current estimation is that it will start in 2018-19 season. The Board has approved the partnership to start the process.” Does the time-frame blow-out also mean a budget blow-out? Cynicism for that comes from a perusal of annual reports, statements of intent, and budgets released by the NZRB over the past six years that show a series of under-estimated costs and over-stated returns. For example, in the NZRB Annual Report for year ended July 2012, the budget for employee expenses was $43,660,000 following the previous year’s actual of $41,149,000. But the actual for 2012 blew out to $47,155,000 – an additional $3.5 million over budget. Between 2012 and the year ended 2016, total revenue for the NZRB increased by more than $50 million ($301,881,000 to $351,923,000), yet the thoroughbred industry stayed ‘flat-lining’ in terms of its returns. Why? Simply because costs at NZRB were and still are spiralling. Is this the reason – or one of them – that prompted NZTR Chairman Alan Jackson to write the following in the Chairman’s Annual Report published in the November, 2016, edition of the Thoroughbred Monthly: “Looking forward, there is only so much more running to stand still the Code can sustain. We cannot have another financial result like the current one, and we cannot simply continue to reduce the number of meetings and races to raise stakes.” As stated previously in this publication, the NZRB wages bill has now soared to $66,824,000 as per the P&L of the NZRB Financial Statements for year ended 2016. Unacceptable in a public company environment, the difference here is that the NZRB came into being as a result of a now completely outdated Racing Act of 2003. The Act and especially Clause 16 is probably some of the dumbest legislation ever passed. It gives the NZRB carte blanche on how much they return to the codes with no accountability on their costs. It was written by bureaucrats for bureaucrats and has placed us where we are today. Back to the governance of racing, it’s not the fault of the NZRB but the government of the day and the legislation they passed that has put us in this hole. The NZRB comprises a group of people that don’t have their livelihoods at stake in racing because they are mainly corporates, marketing and IT people, whereas NZTR and fellow code governing bodies comprise in the main people with a vested interest. Ironically, the people at NZTR didn’t want to talk to me for this rant but the NZRB obliged. But it’s the NZRB that’s setting off down the path to its own FOB platform and an app for smart-phones, all at massive costs in world that will continue to leave them behind in technology. With at least 12 major bookmaking companies operating on Australian racing, some of which spend $120 million annually on IT to retain or gain market share, how could we believe our TAB could be competitive long term? Tabcorp recognised some time ago that scale was required to compete against the bookmakers. It’s now a massive, integrated betting organisation that supports all forms of wagering and is the rock that provides revenue for racing. Tabcorp is currently in the process of taking over Tatts (Ubet), which is the Queensland equivalent of our TAB. They have signed a deal which now only requires ACCC approval for the corporate merger. The deal will strengthen Tabcorp and save Queensland racing hugely in annual expenses. Tabcorp services also include retail, digital and sky media platforms – their strength provides stability for a strong Australian industry. Scale gives them competitiveness in today’s globalised wagering business which gives better service to punters and more back to racing. So why is the NZRB going it alone and risking massive capital to develop its own technology to compete against Tabcorp and the bookmakers who possess far bigger scale and budgets? The reason New Zealand doesn’t own its own banks is simply a consequence of scale. We are not large enough to go it alone when the market is global. Why wouldn’t our TAB instead outsource all betting services to Tabcorp and became part of the scale that would provide more certainty for our racing future? The answer may be in the DNA of the NZ psyche previously mentioned. Outsourcing to Tabcorp would provide $50 million to $70 million of savings over the three codes in annual expenses. Those savings would transform racing in New Zealand as we know it. But the catch-22 is that most at the NZRB would lose their jobs because that’s where the savings lie. Instead, the racing business is all-aboard the Titanic and heading into the North Atlantic knowing there are icebergs to negotiate. And is the NZRB the band that continues to play while rearranging the deck chairs? But just maybe it’s not too late to head back to port and replot a safer course?

Golly gosh, it is unbelievable. A day in which we had to wait until the last race for our turn. Met a lovely couple from Hokitika who are in the Griffin Syndicate( Majestic Man and Dark Horse) at the lunch table, going to visit our horse before the race, and seeing the race unfold, and the excitement and disbelief of actually winning, was a joy to behold. Whatever the after race wash up is from other runners in the event, we won the race. Oh, it the reason to be involved in ownership, as sometimes the dream does come true. Thank you Racecafers for your support, and may your turn be not far away. Cheers. Robert.

perhaps she backed into a stipes car in the carpark

I watch quite a lot of racing. I've spent a lot of time in the States, Japan and the UK. I've been to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Japan dirt Derby and very other type of second rate all weather track racing in the UK. All weather tracks are NOT the answer. Sure those top US races are sensational to be at. Saratoga in the summer is the place to be BUT average cannon fodder races for the masses is boring boring boring. We need to think laterally and stand out from the crowd. Jumps racing in NZ in the winter is the way to go. We give the flat boys a holiday during the cold wet months while we structure an incredible race series based on championships for horses that don't get warm before they hit 3200m+. That means we have a brand new market for the slow ones that really want further but have conformation and courage. We then realise the value of these horse while making events for races with more than 20 runners in them that within a couple of years become the biggest betting events this side of the globe. Did you know that 6 of the top ten betting events in the UK are jumps races...or than in Japan the 5th top betting event is a jumps race? And for good measure, the NZ industry sets up a satellite stable and training facility in Australia so that the flat bits can get access to that market in a subsidised process so that we earn Aussie $ with NZ people and horses. Lets call it Team NZ Racing and do what the boys are doing up in Bermuda. Just a different angle.....

Big good on you from me to Chris Wood today. What a great double. How Wooden Edge won when it looked liked it would run last at the 600. Good on you Woodsy racking them up. My multi on the 2 paid for a great night out with the wifey tonight. Pacorus was just awesome.

Cambridge are very mindful of the stakes problem but it's like making a silk purse out of a sows ear. They have just announced a restructuring plan in an endeavour to reduce costs. I have always been of the opinion that racing on a cold wet windy winters Thursday night cannot be of any advantage to anyone - the club, the participants, the on course attendance or even off course betting. Who wants to wait in conditions like these for 30 minutes between races 8 & 9 or 9 & 10 just because there is a bloody uninteresting dog race being run in the back of NSW or somewhere? These smaller clubs need encouragement, not obstacles from both the Governing body and the Industry in general. The new seasons calendar has just been released after months of waffling and scrapping and the end is result is - no change. When something is broken it needs to be fixed - and not left to wither away!

The highlight was the post race interview with John Gosden, I've never heard a trainer talk so much sense, so eloquently, with such detailed understanding and interpretation of each of his horses efforts, and all with extraordinary clarity and insight. The trainer of the Vela horse was impressive too, but Gosden was special. It's worth watching the best English racing just to immerse yourself in their knowledge and passion. I wish the lobotomised muppets infesting the Trackside studios could listen to the Gosden interview, firstly so they could learn from it ( fat chance ) and secondly, so they might just realize how infantile and ignorant their understanding is of horses as animals, the idiosyncrasies of tracks, and the actual racing. No chance though, NZ racing has long been hijacked by people who know nothing useful about racing, and hence the accelerating slide into oblivion.

I think you will find under new management at trackside he will be back sooner than later...I understand they are struggling to find replacements with guys coming through...just like Tony Lee in the galloping code.....

Kawiboy tuesday trackwork is now contained within the form guide (pg 6-7). Unfortunately on sale thursday means we simply can't run trackwork from the same day. Stoyd we will be improving our layout over the coming weeks based on the feedback we have received. As you point out some of the design didn't print as well as we had hoped and improvements will be made. Regarding number of riders we are working with NZTR and are confident come August 1st and the start of the new season we will have this fixed. Pleased to hear it! We appreciate the feedback and hope to continue to improve our product after what has been a significant undertaking to change our form supplier. Any further feedback is welcome, matthew@racingmedia.co.nz. Cheers Matthew Francis

hiding from his 7th wife

Stab me in the eye, the racing on them from Aus is as boring as batshit. I hope like fark we never make the mistake of wasting bucket loads of cash on a track like Canberra/Devonport. Spends the millions creating 2 or 3 much needed quality turf tracks rather than batshit racing.

A hizzy fit?

WELL THAT IS PUNTERS CLUB 14 DONE AND DUSTED SOME REALLY CLOSE RESULTS THAT COULD OF GONE OUR WAY BUT DIDNT FINAL TOTAL IS $6411($291 per share) TOTAL INVESTED TO DATE $9680 WITH A NET LOSS OF $3269 Payouts will be done over the coming week and each member will be advised via email once done. Once again thank you everyone for your ongoing support and to Pete, Bluewater and Baxter we wish you all the best for the future and the door is always open in the future. Club 15 starting 15th July and will post new thread after lunch or tonight.

A good friend of mine, from Britain, who knew well both Vincent O'Brien and Lester Piggott, reckoned that Chris was second only to the great Lester for sheer natural talent.

And what a record that will be. Go for it Chris. You are the most naturally gifted rider in my lifetime. I don't care what anyone else says, that is my view!

wonderful win today by a great horse

Yes, he did have plenty to say on plenty of things that didn't concern him! Funny how you can be so vocal when you are robbing people and living the life of Riley. They finally caught up with him, good riddance I say!

So finally what I've been saying for years is proved correct in the courts. This guy rang me a few times threatening me with violence if I kept telling the truth about him. What a pity they didn't get the ultimate and probably the most frequent offender Acklin too, plus his corrupt mates at NZTR and the various clubs he worked with on all the rorts. Lock the fucking lot of them up I say, they're parasites who exploit the vulnerable members of society. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11876589

The results this week alone have been remarkable not to mention the season to date. 12/06 7 wins from 12 races 14/06 8 wins from 11 races 16/06 9 wins from 12 races I have no afiliation to this kennel on any level I'm purely voicing an opinion.

7 years off and his first year back was slow his second year back and he was second to Lisa Cropp 2006/7 122 winners,2007/8 he rode 102 winners when chasing her he rode 20 winners in the month of June 2007 including a few over hurdles In 2008/9 he only had 63 winners. Why one might ask??..well the answer is simple,,a stipe who went by the name of Cameron George......as well as getting him some unjustified suspensions Mr George got into his head..Cameron George left and went to Harness Victoria and Reid Sanders became Chief Stipe.. I complained to Sanders that Johnson had not had any suspensions since he took over. His reply in a polite manner was that Mr George did not understand Chris Johnson's riding.....after all he was Australian..he expected Johnson to belt every runner He has won 4 Grand Natonal hurdles,a Great Norther hurdle on Clem and a Wellington Hurdle. One ride on Rough Habit and a group 1. one ride on Avedon and a group 1 One of his best rides ever ..Loader in the Railway Go team NZ in the Americas Cup

Chocante's full brother (Shocking - Strictly Maternal ...by O'Reilly) Hermanito, won at Wanganui yesterday 14 June. He's a beauty too.Janelle Miller trains. First start. No recorded jump outs. J Parkes first up over 1600m. I believe the owners Mesdames Freeman & Price have plenty of moola. The Overseas offers, for this lovely horse will be tempting. He's not a HK horse. (Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in Janelle's stable.I have no close relation to Chocante: I have never raced 99 horses: I dont own or play Slot machines. )

I keep repeating myself but again I say, If the Board is serious, it just has to give the order to the Executive, " find 15% reduction in costs and present your planned reduction by end of month." There's a saving of about $7m for starters. They should start the ball rolling by declaring an immediate reduction in Board fees of 15%.

I'm not sure some of the "facts" in there are actually facts but bloody well done Brian for a journalist to finally stand up and raise the serious issues. Where have you been hiding?

Replay up on Sandowns Greyhounds, facebook page of Silver Collar, 1.6k views already as i write this. Facebook has been about for a long time. They say its a funding thing that grnz cant pull of a facebook page. My boss finally got into advertising through facebook, running promo's and new products arriving. With a definate increase in business and hitting a market we were missing or lost. Frustates the you know what out of me that N.Z. greyhounds cant pull off a facebook page. Rant done - over and out.

Surely it would be more prudent for the Club and the "powers that be" to cease racing there in the months of June July and August. Racing in better weather would be helped by the long twilights in Southland . In the warm months it can still be daylight at 10 pm. Travelling to Invercargill in winter has often been risky, especially the frozen hills in the middle of the night. I am of the opinion that winter racing at Invers is a welfare issue for the people and also for the dogs on an unpredictable surface. Ray Adcock

In your opinion which seems to be the minority... we all get it you don't like him enough said... the guy has a tough job one of the decent hardworking guys in the industry....I for one would not like his job...cut him a little slack.

Not a problem - I know ...... the process actually beings the day before when the track surface is spiked and opened up so that on race morning there is access into the surface. I arrived at the track at 6.15am and applied water around 6.45am. Now at this stage before the water is applied the track is frozen to a depth of around 25-30mm. The water effectively softens the top of the frozen sand (which you have to remember has been spiked the day before) allowing the tractor which follows in behind to start the breaking up process of that top 25-30mm. The amount of water applied at this stage was no more than 350L spread across and around the whole track. This water is not allowed to sit and freeze as the track surface is constantly worked during this time. In fact the surface was worked right up until 10 minutes before race 1. Water was applied at 2 other stages through the process - again with the truck at 9.45 am where another 350L across the whole track, where at this stage the sand has been broken into stone like clumps and the water again helps in the process of breaking down those clumps in conjunction with the tractor which is still moving the surface around. The final stage of watering occurred between 10.45 and 11.10am when the outside irrigation was used to defrost the outer extremities of the track as well as the artificial turf in front of the boxes, as well as the stone like sand ice cubes that hadn't quite defrosted on the track. If you have any positive ideas on how this process can be refined then I'm all for it. Well I'm off to rugby now - might find JIMMY hiding in the bottom of the ruck Tim

I agree, more of OUR money is being wasted. Can't the idiots read Race Cafe and then act on the advice given for free? Too easy for simple folk, but TOO HARD for the highly paid excutives, most of which are ex NZ Post failures. Just my opinion. Liz

I can't work out and I have brought it up numerous times, why are we so set on the rating bands? What would be wrong with a rating 60, 70, and 80 race. Why are we so set on 65, 75 and 85?

No mention of Media Works board, or Bravo Board amongst others, or all the good horses she owns all or a part of. I'm pretty sure she actually owns and races more horses than the entire NZRB and NZTR boards combined if you ignore "Played and Missed" Jackson and his rapidly diminishing team. It's also of curious interest that Labour and Helen Clark gave her the NZOM and now National have made her a dame. I should also mention that it's of great delight that she is generally considered to have been responsible for getting that whinging left wing loser John Campbell off our screens, I don't if that's actually true but if it is that's worthy of a gong in itself.

Craig, I am amazed that your post has resulted in very little comment. I think the ruling is strange and I was interested to see what the general populace thought about it. Do you think it is that no one really cares or everyone is afraid of the new Social Media Policy. To see if the latter may be true I followed the instructions in the current magazine and went to the dogs/rules and policies and althought the new Alcohol and Drug Testing is there I can not find the Social Media Policy. Can anyone enlighten me as to it's content as I may very well be in breach of it. The heading social Media policy makes me uneasy at the best of times. Censuring comment not in line with Party policy has been a nefarious tool of dictators throughout history. I liken it to the discussion at an AGM of the association I attended where the Drug and Alcohol policy was being discussed and the RIU advocated that the stipendary steward should decide who gets tested for whatever reasons they feel warrants it. I argued that this could lead to victimization of a lisenced person. The unfortunate Ross Neal answered for the RIU that he give an absolute guarantee that there was no chance of an overzealous Steward. I disagreed as I have had experience of just that. I'm willing to bet I am not the only one.

Brodie added value and debate. Was not malicious, never baited anyone directly. Created posts and then kept them going. More often than not saw things others didn't see. Totally irrelevant if one did not agree with him. Half of this site think Goon and Kotare are wrong anyway. Brodie is welcome back anytime in my book.

Mr BS, I have sponsored races myself, normally kicking in $3K plus a dress rug for a 12-15K race and that gets me naming rights, free drinks and a couple of club sandwiches. I have done it to "give back" after enjoying ownership success and using funds that "may" bring in some business but usually not. Fast Track is apparently only returning a portion of new business attained already, not from potential returns. That is why I get the shits when our industry is captured by "talkers"

If you are going to the Cup then make sure you get tickets into the Hill Stand. Great view and your seats are reserved for the day.

See Brian made a cameo appearance on dogzone today. He hasn't changed at all has he. Bring back Brian!!!!!

Well I am one of the owners . DD was waiting for someone to give him a drag up and in hindsight waited to long as no one moved. Are we unhappy, I cant speak for all of us , but probably not. We have been well served by DD, but he is not infallible, and that's horse racing.

Honestly Brodie. You would win the NZ cup for whinging. Any betting organisation around the world bans or limits punters who win more times than they lose but you seem to be in to disbelief on why the NZ TAB does it. Are you honestly that stupid or are you just playing dumb. A casino will ban anyone who constantly wins all the time. If I won poker everytime i played against my mates would they continually let me play. Would any business in the world continually sell to another company for a loss. Pretty simple champ. NOOOOOOO. BRODIES world is obviously full of angels and flying unicorns.

I am lucky enough to be in the same syndicate as enteebee so also have an interest in 2 horses racing in the jewels. To say I am proud is an understatement - it is a dream something that I never envisaged happening to a little person like me. What makes it so special is that I am sharing this moment with so many great syndicate members who have been introduced to this wonderful sport by someone who really wanted to share a dream with other people.We may not spend the money that the big owners spend or have the really big time trainers but we have a passion that can be seen every-time one of our horses race.It doesn't matter where the meeting is we are there supporting the industry and of course our horses. It is not just the members who are there but their family and their friends. We support the clubs by going on course, by using their catering and their bars and of course by betting but most importantly our money is supporting all clubs be they smaller clubs or bigger clubs. At Ashburton on Sat there will be a huge turnout of members, family and friends all contributing to the coffers of Harness racing in general.This is good for the club and Harness racing in general, Personally I don't care how many races the big owners or stables win because to them it will just be business as usual but for us it will be a dream come true. Win lose or draw we will be there in force and although a win would be great we are realists and know that our trainers will have done us proud regardless and that we still have 2 good horses, Finally a big thanks to Nathan Williamson, Phil Williamson and Brad Williamson for taking us on the drive of our life - good luck everyone!!

Ha on trip hone half cut finished second in punters comp . To be fair she's been a barren spell but we up and away again gotta love Racing

It is boring

100 wins, well deserved CWJ, but you have to shake your head at Trackside. Rather than a few quick words from the man himself, I'm sure the smile would have been huge, they say they have to cut to Oamaru lead in.............. with just under 12 mins still !!!

Yayyyy we got some cream for those P'Gers Lovely stuff bro's - fantastic total on a 'mare day .. cruising nicely for the play offs .. I feel like doing a ...

Whilst flag starts have come into being at every track for steeplechases this season Garry Phillips has been doing flag starts at Trentham for years without a problem. So it is a bit harsh to blame him when the horse itself was being a moron. Very difficult to call them back with that first jump so very close to the start also. I have seen jockeys dislodged at the start when coming out of the barriers with horses going sideways and cannoning into another (no suggestions of doing away with barrier starts)so a bit rough jumping up and down over this one instance from a flag start.

Total after week 20 is $6230.20($283 per share) TOTAL INVESTED TO DATE $9240 WITH A NET LOSS OF $3010 well a good team effort this week collecting $357 ( but oh so close to 2 decent collects of Pete's quaddies. So onto the grand finale next week and Ritchie and Brownfox to hit a home run. I will put a new thread up for the next club at some stage shortly.

Hi JIMMYINTHERUCK Thanks for your opinion of me - it's all good as it's impossible to please everyone . Can I ask Jimmy - what you know about the process of defrosting the track and more importantly can you run me through the whole process that occurred on Tuesday and your take on how much water was used, the times applied and why it was used when it was? Once you give me your version then we can compare our ways of defrosting the track and perhaps we can come up with a better way of doing it that works for all parties but come up with it in a constructive way instead of shooting off at the hip. Remember that this process was implemented after the abandonment of our meeting on June 23, 2015 when we lost a meeting due to a frozen track. Incidentally that day no water was used in the thawing process. This process has been used on 6 different occasions since then without fail. I look forward to your constructive opinions so we can move forward together. Thanks Tim Eade - Track Manager, Southland Greyhound Racing Club.

I dont agree. With the change in the payment system for clubs on race days NZTR have contiruted towards the lack of numbers. Except for premier days clubs are paid a set amount per meeting with no income from on course turnover. Therefor it doesnt matter whether you have 50 people or 500 people on course these industry days as you will get the same money. There is no incentive for clubs to encourage punters on course. I know these days arent as big as days gone by but unless there is an incentive for clubs to people on course it wont happen.