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You are very easy to please. If you were to compare the closest to home product coming from Australia, we are a way behind. The post and pre race interviews staged there are informed, educated and in the most part, very enlightening. They capture so much in a short space of time and you get to see the personalities of Australian racing. Here you are treated to the personalities of the presenters. Every person is an initial by name, whether it be jockey or trainer. It is tabloid slang trash, without giving due respect to the person they are talking to. Our local presenters are not improving. The clown from the central region cannot even pronounce the names of some of the runners. All they are trying to do is inspire betting on every single horse in every single race. But the reality is, their standards are those of junior broadcast school entrants and the reality is they do not have the training required to upgrade their performance. One noticeable improvement has been the skilled responses coming from some of the jockeys. They have learned a lot and have a better understanding of the value of what they are saying to the viewers of the channel. So full marks to them. All we now need to get is better standards elevated by some of the interviewers. If you want to understand what a comments person should sound like, listen to either Hong Kong or UK coverage. The comparison will make you cringe at what we are subjected to in NZ.

I'm with you brother !

I just backed Allergro star At $3.50 in the 2 dog race as all the others were scratched/Suspended.

Suprised this fulla didn't get put out last Friday... No mention at all in the stipes report? C'mon stipe's treat the punters with a bit of integrity. The bookies must laugh at the mugs that line up to back him each start.

Thanks to wonderful stud and staff I managed to spend a week a few years back,learning the ropes during equine diploma

The one and only time I've been to Te Rapa on Raceday, I purchased a Zabeel cap for $30. Only to be spotted later on by Sir Patrick Hogan, and he asked me how much they were selling the caps for, I told him $30. He got some money out of his pocket and gave me $30, and I said thank you and shook his hand. I still have this cap to this day!! Thanks for the memories Zabeel, and happy retirement!!

Hi Hedley no problem at all mate. As always entertained and informed by your thoughts. I have no problem with challenging the powers that be over the illogical thought process of considering dropping free racing on tv. Makes absolutely no sense at all to me. Cheers Col

Yeah but nothing is "free" - in effect you and the other small punters who bet with the TAB are subsidising (through higher take-out rates) larger punters, punters who get rebates and punters who place all their bets offshore and never bet with the TAB but get free coverage ..... is that fair??

I agree with you Reilly and Portfolio, I,m only a small casual Saturday arvo punter...and Ive said it before,and others have pointed out on this site, if I was to make a concerted effort and use a system to "beat the odds" the TAB would label you a professional punter and close your a/c. My $50-100 a week punting money hardly justifies $46.92 a month for sky...I,m happy with free to air track-side

In general I agree that if it's available as a standalone package on Sky for $10 or so a month there should be no issue as if people can't afford that, they shouldn't really be betting anyway. The issue I see is that if they are trying to branch out to the wider gambling public with products like the Triple Trio, that would be more difficult if there is no Freeview coverage as it's unlikely the 'lotto and pokie' players they are trying to target would want to pay for the channel - they would rather tip their last $10 into the pokies every month - so it's much less likely to get their interest.

Portfolio, I'm not sure how you get $100 a month plus $70 a month to come to $120 a month. The issue here I think, and I don't know if it's even an issue, is at the moment to get Trackside and Tab TV on SKY, one has to pay for a whole lot of other sky stuff that some of us don't use or want. Hedley's point I think, is that if Trackside is only available on Sky, it may need to be available without requiring subscribers to also buy a host of SKY products they don't want. So if Trackside becomes available on Sky only, that's fine with me if it's say $10-20 a month. If I can only get it by paying for a host of SKY stuff I never watch and probably never will have time to, then I'm going to think twice about that. As I say, I'm not sure if that's the intention, but if Trackside access is tied to a subscription to a bunch of services that I don't want and would never watch as it is now on SKY then we have a problem. Not that I bet on NZ Racing anyway. I still like to watch from time to time.

Dear I say it, but if he was trained by a 'little trainer' he would definitely have been out once again last Friday... How it didn't even raise a mention in the stipe's report is beyond me, I'm sure the owners don't mind picking up a place cheque each week, but rules are rules and he's definitely not genuine.

Sorry Hedley me old mate...... I didnt mean turnovers drop by 20%. I dont know of anybody I know that is serious about sports/ horses that does not have sky. I would say if they dropped freeview , maybe 20% would be without trackside. But I reckon the TAB know what those people spend each week at the TAB, they would loose bugger all from these punters. From what I gather , the same people on here complain about the same things, cant get a $2 bet on phone bet, moan about the FREE trackside coverage they recieve, price of drinks on course, price to get on course.....blah blah blah. Those that moan the most on here dont even bet ??? So yep, for me , too bad, pay for it. Now as for your question regarding price for sky Hedley, we have sky in 2 rooms, with movies, sports etc. Part of this deal is with Telecom. We pay about Telecom about $100 per month for basic sky, home phone and internet. Then sky bill us $70 odd dollars for sports, movies and extra sky. So maybe $120 per month, I think it is good value, family of 4 all have their turn...Me the most!

No more freeview - then all we get is

Records that may never be broken even with dual hemisphere shuttle sires What a champ

..Talismen

handsome Is..as Handsome DID

Totally agree Reilly, I know I like to chuck money into the a/c and either bet from home or go around to mates places for a couple on satdy arvo,s and watch free-view trackside. Used to have Sky and found it mostly American / English football shit...not my cup of tea...added to that the cook complaining about the extra monthly bill. Even though they may be going to have live computer racing shortly...Thousands of Pensioners live by freeview and their telephone A/c,s.

If you took KFE out of this thats your class act gone. And the intelligence quotient would be way down too. These guys in TS need to engage their brain. They just burble on without thinking.

Wouldn't want to see a female with anything resembling a cue Memphis

Hi Lloyd. Look back at the statistics for the Telegraph, the quality of the vast majority of winners. Very few pretenders win that race. The same cannot be said for the Concorde or the Railway irrespective of the courses. I think. I did get your point though.

Cheers PJ From a totally unbiased perspective, that is probably the best call made anywhere, all day

Cheers PJ. I was a bit miffed after the first; watched the race and thought my WIN bet Drumregal had hung on by a head. Called first past the post too. Trackside switched immediately to some dog race and didn't see a replay.. was adding up my nice $4.60 collect when I learnt it had actually got beaten a nose!!!!! :( Oh well, as you say, on to Mutter Mutter - which I was doing a bit of anyway!

Generally I think Trackside provides an excellent service. Plenty of races to bet on ,little time on occasions for trivialities like divis which are almost immediately available on Internet . Plus the money soon hits your account. I'd give Trackside a rating of 90% plus on a regular basis. The blinds are a bit annoying but how many really want to see the horses pooing before the race [ a la the dogs] and the odd off the cuff comment is nonsense if you care about that sort of thing but overall an outstanding service We are lucky....a 90% plus rating ,ex entertainment !!!

Agree with all of the above.I managed to get 6x times the place 6 and was waiting like an excited puppy for the results. Half an hour later I have to get off my a%*e and fire up the computer for the results.Not good enough Trackside,