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This shit is absolute madness! When the sporting world has virtually stopped as racing continues we "can" front line programming with Des Coppins among others? What are these brainless leaders in suits thinking??? This is racing's opportunity to market, promote and introduce potential new main stream numbers to the game! Unbelievable!

Go and put your head in a bucket.

Goodonya HQ.....there are some fuckwits out there. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12318914

IMG_4221.mov The link above is a screenshot video. The error that this video shows with the TAB website occurs daily for me. I have contacted TAB and told they have no outrages!!! Yet I get this all the time. $50M for this!!!!! How the fcuk can our $20M a year maintenance not solve this. This unfortunately time should still be an opportunity for us to put our best foot forward. Yet we have replaced racing TV programmes with greyhounds from USA. That just feeds the addicted.....poor morals.

Drives ya mad doesn't it. I don't bother with it if I'm out and about and want to check results etc, just use racenet it is there instant basically.

Tedros Adhanom / Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian, who is head of WHO has a degree and is not a qualified Doctor of Medicine. He appointed Robert Mugabe to assist him in 2017 and had to get rid of him. Adhanom was also tied in with Research with Ebola, HIV and other infectious diseases - look where he studied to see his full background. Has he helped spread it with his own travel? There appears to be a lot of Political figures or their partners who have tested positive for it so maybe they have all crossed paths with those who are mingling with the same carriers. The health and sanitation standards in countries like Ethiopia are not comparable with New Zealand & most western countries. We shouldn't be dumped into the same category as 3rd world country practices or where sanitation is s***. Adhanom was backed by a US PR firm Mercury Public Affairs to get the Head job of World Health Organization, his assistants are primarily from 3rd world type of countries where health care is substandard. Wuhan in China has a history of around every 10 years in the 8 or 9 year of sticking there rubbish behaviour into mainstream society. Look up the history of those places where it's originated from in the National Library & Papers Past NZ and one sees a pattern of political fighting between these countries. E,g Wuhan virus, Chinese Pandemic to see the history of pandemics and viruses and land wars. The timing with Brexit when things are unstable, and would be known to be unstable is also a factor. Incidentally Chinese who have visited New Zealand in November and December knew about it then so why was it not addressed then? It's time for accountability from those associated with the World Health Organization.

And JA came out with hundreds of thousands in the bank . They make me feel sick these corporate thieves always talking shit and delivering worse.

Stuff often contains 'fake news'....never hang your hat on what you read there ,big barry ! Usually tape the News and watch about 8.30pm after I milked the cows and said my prayers ! I fully expect racing to stop ,but as yet NO decision made. AFL is stopping but the A league and NRL seem determined to box on though current Government meeting could change that. As at 9pm tonight 'essential services' yet to be defined. You talking Australia...their closed beaches were well attended today ! You can always tell an Aussie ,but you can't tell em much !

wow what a muck up some allowed photos others doing as instructed not to attend. I agree with those that think HRNZ or RIU or rita or TAB are putting the sulky on the front end. now HRNZ is ordering me (a decrepid 72 year old) to not attend racemeetings or trials cos I may die !!!! Apparently unbeknown to me I havea compromised Immune system that's also 72 so its goodnight nurse if I get near a racecourse... Finally I have travelled through the looking glass with Alice and her mates .I wonder if I will be allowed to purchase a dressing gown and slippers so I can just slip away quietly and not leave the house to go to manawatu or sight my horse and never see the magnificent south island again. Icould also say closing Manawatu down is not solving anything but putting many fine trainers at risk of getting out of the game.(and owners and bettors. }

Is that meant to be outage Shano? Or are they talking about angry customers

The choice will be gone very soon , if it goes longer than Monday I'd be surprised . Racing needs to focus on feed supplies for horses, equine welfare and welfare of all participants . Now is the time for those at the top to put the shoulder to the wheel for those not so well off , if that's done maybe something will be left at end to rebuild after this is all over .

I'm a bit out of touch but isn't this the hunts season. That means gatherings of people from a wide local area. It's also a training ground for a number of jumpers or a place to test jumping skills. If hunts don't happen thats another reason to view the jumping season as gone. Jumps races are not vital to betting turnover. Its a no brainer, Cancel all jumping races for this season.

You do wonder what was the point holding that meeting at Tauherenikau. That track is all about on course attendance. A meeting at Awapuni would have been more convenient for about 95% of the trainers.

Not in my book> Who wants to watch 2 or 3 people discussing last weeks races and talking solely about the most favoured horses in the forthcoming weekend racing. The programmes as boring as hell. I no longer bother to watch it

If we're one of the only nations racing, then we're one of a few with betting content. So how do we keep racing going? Let's isolate every racing establishment with no exceptions for 14 days and have testing kits available for all participants. The day the entity goes into self installed hibernation they get tested. They then get tested at day 7 and then day 14. A test is not only to see if they have the virus but also if they have had it. Anyone who has had it is immune. Let's install infra red sensors, or have tested people with mobile infra red sensors at all entrances to race/ training tracks. No person goes to the track without either having three negative tests and the regular infra red screen. Social distancing needs to still occur while on the track. Jockeys and track work riders are tested daily as they go from horse to horse. And when I mean each racing establishment, I would also include any person required to be part of the process to train horses or hold a race meeting (float drivers, media crew, starting stall attendants etc). I wouldn't have tote staff involved because we are going to introduce a smart on-line presentation at a time of duress and we don't need extra risk of on course betting, although this may be introduced as we go along, as we understand the true nature of the beast in this country. We need to reduce the workforce in Petone. This is the golden opportunity to do this and also provide all other key employees the opportunity to stay on under reduced pay which wouldn't increase once the real embargo are lifted. They are being paid too much and most of them will be jobless unless we offer a candid solution. They can't be in the same building under lockdown rules. We go for an online solution only, with the introduction of additional systems from the savings of employees payments and the reduction of the mad salaries that are currently being paid to the likes of Glenn Saville etc. They've already stuffed things up so time and opportunity to start with a new crew. We need a seriously good Information Processing System (IPS) which is the Racing Post site on steroids. I know how to do it because I architected that in 1995. This would allow the international racing market (our customers) to have the tools to "get to know" our horses and people (distinctly different from the current idiot's positions in calling it "the Product"). The IPS could connect all the horses to all the owners (they can't see and touch their horses) and the content would then be available to all the punters. The media data could include videos and uploaded content that trainers/ staff and anyone else, decide to create. The owners (the owners of the data) could then allow their data (their discretion) to be used by the punters but that there is a default amount of information available. This could all be funded by the cost savings due to the layoffs and reduced salaries in Petone. And let's not get socialistic and unionist about this. These are extraordinary times and IF WE DON'T ACT, we will pay for it for years. When things were good, we were about to fail. While I'm at it, to have to provide a $17m annual fee to Paddy Power et al for the FOB platform, nows the time to kick that into touch and renegotiate. We're already millions behind on that (we haven't got some of the updates so we're being handicapped) and it isn't good and it was a crap deal. And sports in the meantime is crap. So we default and renegotiate. Now's the time!!! All bets are off. So back to racing. While all of this is going on, we have a chance of looking at things through clear lenses. The racing industry owns the tote. We've argued that for 30 years but the governmental powers that be, have chosen to act in an autocratic and dictatorial manner, and our bureaucratic representatives have been quite useless. Although the proposed Racing Bill has a suggested 126 changes in it from the latest round of submissions, unless it has what we need (first) and want (2nd) racing will always run second fiddle to politics. This this is our chance to reset the clock. We should simply say what we want and get on with the job. So to racing, for the next 6 months we may have a problem large enough to destroy the industry. When things were fine, we were messing it up. So let's change it. Let's use this period of financial and social duress to change things because we have to and want to. Winter racing is poor racing unless you can provide a spectacle. Yes Cambridge is going to have a all weather track. Only problem there is that it has a short straight and can only cater for less than 12 horses in each race before putting the racing real-estate under duress. I argued that if we were to build an all weather track, make it capable of taking 24 horses and for it to have a 800m straight at the very least. That way we can appeal to the international markets, have enough horses to make betting interesting (14+ horses in each race is ideal) and provide each horse with an equal chance despite the barrier draw. But no. They chose to put a square peg in a round hole by having the all weather on the existing race track where only a 300m straight was possible due to real estate that was available. That track didn't need to be where the current track was. So what is good winter racing? The UK has taught us that. Eight of the top ten betting races the UK are jumps. Amount bet on jumps racing vs flat racing....jumps 26% higher. Number of online or television spectators jumps versus flat...Jumps 23% higher. Biggest betting race in the UK and Ireland...Jumps race. Why you might ask? The intuitive response would be to say that jumpers are older horses so there are more opportunities to get to know the competitors. The second would be that people like the event to last longer. A third would be that with obstacles, the event (from an entertainment perspective) is far more exciting. The fourth is that people intuitively like to identify with courage and winners of these races exemplify that emotion. The fifth would be that people get bored with the money men (Arabs, Coolmore etc) winning races as the "small man" cannot afford to compete, whereas in jumping they can. So let's embrace these statistics and provide a new racing calendar for our winter racing. This just so happens to coincide with all of this virus stuff. Let's right now, and quickly look at NZ's whole race program and react very quickly. Let's set up a new competition to look after this winter/ wet track / jumps type of horse because there aren't enough good flat gallopers to provide the sort of competition that we need to make it appealing to the rest of the World for betting, so let's take two parts to this. The first is to create something of such interest that makes it different. That could be setting up a race competition for horses racing up to 5000m on the flat. Let's make a whole program for this. This would turn a few heads in the World and make it a unique betting opportunity. We have the horses, we just need the events. As its run in winter, the mere fact that they are slow doesn't matter. In 1793 each race in the UK calendar was 3 1/2 miles (that is 5638m) unless otherwise notified. There were only 42 notified races and they were all over 2 miles (3200m) and the traditional horse person objected to these because they thought it too short. As its winter, we can train them on softer tracks so better for them on their legs. You will find a new breed of participant if you do this. If you chop $50m out of the over bloated and inflated salaries in Petone, these races will be worth racing for. The second is to create a proper jumps calendar. We would start by a hierarchy of races. Unfortunately we don't have a large group of jumpers so we need to start a novice championship series for hurdlers and steeplechasers, with a graded pattern (initially done with incremental stakes levels) so that we set up the big iconic races culminating with the Great Northern Steeplechase. We can't leave out the flat gallopers as our two year olds and young ones need to be able to go through their paces. We could simply go through history and identify which races in the past (over the period of the next 6 months) were part of the stepping stones to horses that featured in large races later on and promote them better by having a focus on their relevance and educating people about this. Remember, you can't make a stayer a sprinter but you can make a sprinter stay. It's all about training the fast twitch fibre types to have slow twitch characteristics. But I think the main thing is that we need to change quickly at this time. We are in for a rocky road but if we do change NOW, then we might just beat the tide. So first things first, how do we get enough testing kits available to the racing industry participants (28,000) to get going? We need to fund this so let's get the Minister to do something properly and quickly. Let's get a group of racing's warriors to demand a change to the current program so that we survive. Let's take the opportunity to rationalise the current RIB's position and let's not rely on those currently in charge. Let's give any current RIB employee the opportunity to suggest how they would quickly restructure the RIB to enable it to be operational with 50% of the current racing with only an online offering. The brightest and smartest ideas keep their jobs in order to execute. This could be done by issuing a terms of reference document for them to work from. Let's go online and via phones to deliver a superior product quickly. I for one could get a team together to develop everything remotely in respect of the software needed. We could hold industry think tanks that ultimately report to a consensus appointed group who have the final say. This consensus appointed group would be appointed by EVERYONE in an online one person one vote environment. I'm picking this couldn't be any worse that has recently happened with the debacle over the proposed Racing Bill because anyone associated with that isn't really the type of person needed for this initiative. But we need to act now.....and by now I mean now!!! .....and I'm quite serious about this. We were in a mess before.....we were in a mess 20 years ago but no-one listened. Our mess is bigger than we now know....we need to get going...this is a time for a call to arms....set aside weird shit thoughts that we had the liberty to think about before....because our paradigm has just shifted.

Cathy Odgers' web site has much more detail on this matter, and the irascible Leo comes out smelling of roses. I was surprised that HQ security ejected two customers who had gone into a toilet cubicle together and then locked the door. Those bastards don't miss a trick. I imagine the male offender told his friends that he was ejected after he ejaculated.

Sheer gossip......dunno why the intent to knife the club at every opportunity by some on here. The club seemed to implement very strict measures on who attended. One winning trainer had 8 runners ,and main two staff also had drives.Another 'winning trainer' had 3 x horses in one one race,Another winning horse had over 50...closer to 70... owners so possible at least one of these there in a race night role !The horse manager unable to attend as the club had strict protocols in place. When one trainer has 8 runners and driving also it does need truck drivers , strappers ,horse washers etc to be there as 'needed' assistant. What I did see was the park and surrounds come under strict closedown after 3pm with security and club stewards manning entrances and tracking all vehicle movements with businesses other than Chinese restaurant closing at 3pm.And even some stewards were required to vacate before races ! One can assume the trainers 'help' list was compliant as well. Very mischievous to be continually putting the boot in IMO.

The jetbet system was progressively upgraded over years and is still more fit for purpose than the current system, They keep bemoaning the number of favourites winning as the reason for little or no return for some options. The automated pricing with the new platform seems to weighted to a much lesser return and there may be a fundamental flaw in its structure.

Are you putting up your hand Insider? You can have one of the two seats you've given me. I'm pretty skinny and shouldn't need both, though two votes might be handy to keep Leo under control.

I got done by a Ranger and got Blue bottled at Muriwai last week Tassie which was also the site of NZs last Shark fatality Adam Strange. RIP , not to mention where NZs last home made Hovercraft decapitation occured Only thing you gotta watch for at Kirra is the hollow righthander and local talent

What could he do? He got beaten by Dreamforce when it lead here last time giving him more of a start ,albeit over slightly shorter. If he goes forward and sits handier and gets beat the stiles do him for racing against his normal pattern and the punters get Disgruntled. The Track suited the better positioned Bostonian ,who as you know has a great sprint so the run was better than it looked. Given the bias must of been a slight risk with the benefit of hindsight lump on next time when theres pressure up front over further

Maybe... but for $50m + 20m a year less we had a functional user friendly site without the frustration and exorbitant costs! Just NUTS!.... and another example of piss poor leadership and mismanagement!

Could I remind you the days of the six o'clock swill have gone. Time to get real.

Has to go here. Probably tomorrow. Shift to level 4.

On honeymoon ?

I think the next move will be for Trackside radio to just become a simulcast of Trackside TV. In the unfortunate event of a jockey, driver or trainer getting the chinese flu, the curtain will come down on racing soon after. I don't agree with this, but it will. Try and enjoy what we have now. Because soon it may be gone. I hope I am wrong. Sometimes you don't know what you have, until it's gone.

Really like Thompsons horse Mamaragan Trumpy. Hell of a run in only his second start. Could be something special.

A lot of info and stats that may or may not be 100% accurate and we wont know for sure until after the fact ,but on youtube I saw a video by 'khan academy' that examines chinese data from after the peak seems to have passed and the most salient point is that the death rate is the only number that can be trusted, and from that death rate you can estimate the true rate of infection.If there is a 1% death rate then 200 dead means 20000 exposed a 4% death rate means 5000 exposed and so on ,also it seems that the time from exposure to first symptoms is 5 days and another 15 days until death ,20 in total or 3 weeks based on facts from ground zero surveys of the sick and dying.

Once the leaders bias was exposed at Rosehill, it was always going to be a Farnan benefit race. I had the F4 in the wrong order, expecting Farnan to be run down in the last 100m by either Tagaloa or Away Game. But the bias took paid to that theory. It was also nigh on impossible for TAS to win and I agree, Randwick is his track. He’ll keep.

That leaders bias yesterday was ridiculous Gruffy. If you weren’t close, you were no hope for most races. There might be some form reversals when they get back to Randwick.

So Timothy didn't have to put his glasses on!

Wonder how much of this will end up as waste?

Did our normal Saturday shop today at Countdown and PaknSave. Obviously NZers don't know the meaning of '''Don't panic Mr Mannering'' Both carparks full,people filling their trolleys with enough food to last until Xmas,couldn't wait to get out of both supermarkets. Ye gads the world is ending.

Given the Govt is just about to hand out $12B can you see them dipping in again to bail out this lot Gub...? Will be a real test for Peters.

Their latest innovation is dishlicker betting on the U.S.A. I have often commented that if you see me betting on the greyhounds, take my car keys off me; Because I am obviously motherless drunk. Seriously though, people betting on American greyhounds should have a direct link to the Problem Gambling Foundation.

eljay quite apt that the song Stuck In The Middle With You was a big hit for Stealers Wheel. TAB senior management have been asleep at the wheel for years and with their policy of jackpotting betting pools have been stealing off punters for years as well.

What a mess,the old site was basically fine for racing .

I told a mate who works for Radio Trackside last week that they would go crawling on their hands and knees to the government but it has happened way sooner than expected. Such a shame they frittered their rainy day fund on ridiculous projects like Typhoon, Triple Trio and blew $50 million on the worst betting website in the industry. The government should not give them one fucking cent. They need to get rid of most of the 150+ suits they have who get paid $100k plus for doing fuck all. The idiots on the board should also all be fired for hiring clowns like John Allen and Glenda Hughes who got them into this fucking shambles, and RITA should be dissolved immediately. They need to be reduced to a nuts and bolts operation with no freeloaders. And yeah, if I had any money in my TAB account I would be getting it out yesterday!

Lets hope the Gumment is as compassionate and sympathetic and willing to work with the TAB ,as they were with us when we tried to tell them the new web site was shit and the arrogance that you showed us and told us to suck it up and get used to it .Well what goes round comes round , suck it up and get used to it. By the way your web site is still shit Cheers BH

$3.8 million error ? Heads need to roll!

Boy it is complicated being an old soldier and it has just got even harder. You lost me Archer just after Avian , Cheers BH

UK closing schools. NZ government is so lacking in confidence the only decisions they make is copying UK or USA. Watch Ardern close NZ schools in vulnerable areas soon.

These are revolutionary times. Possibility of mass unemployment. Any job is a good job. it is obscene that there are non required personnel each "stealing" hundreds of thousands in salaries. Racing does not need self professed marketing gurus promoting fixed odds over tote betting. an exercise that is dubious at best. At least $5 million can be saved by bringing back salaries to the level I outlined and immediately. Most likely if these absurd salaries persist across all industries there will be blood on the streets. Mark my words.

Here you go...5-14% of all viruses are corona viruses Didn't we have it last year ? Is it even new? Where is it tested ? in clinics? In hospital? In the general public? Basic questions go unanswered. It's on a par with climate change sculdugery

There is obviously going to have to be some rationalisation if racing carries on and the virus carries on. There doesn't seem much point meetings like Marlborough taking place if all of the participants have to travel to get there and the public aren't allowed to attend. Those two meetings should probably be moved to somewhere like Timaru and Ashburton. Not much point holding any meetings that are largely an on course event. Racing is obviously going to become an offcourse only event for a while so we might as well keep participants costs as low as possible. I am sure someone in management somewhere is thinking this all through, so no need for us mere mortals to worry about it.

Get rid of some of these under utilised northern meetings, and give one back to Waimate

If they want more people to watch it, try putting trackside on Freeview.

If he is gone hope it the first of many...useless bunch most of them..blood sucking leaches.

Whatever happened to RITA's Shaun Brooks? Shaun's the former Chief Financial Officer for the New Zealand Racing Board/RITA, and a man who surely has had contributed much to the industry's declining economic position in recent years. Shaun tagged along with John Allen to the roadshow meets around the country and was employed as part of the senior management/leadership team since Oct 2015 up to sometime late in 2019 (I guess). Looking today, Shaun's disappeared off the RITA website and into obscurity, I can't recall a media release giving him a pat on the back and wishing him well as he explores new career opportunities and seeks to spend quality time with family.