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The TAB is slowly succeeding in turning me off gambling..... website debacle, machines on course and at pubs not being fit for purpose, no newspaper coverage, fiasco of form guides being published etc. But the absence of trackside radio has become an annoyance. A few times in the last week I have gone to listen to a race while out and about in the car etc and then remembered. I do miss the Saturday morning 8am show which set up the thinking for the day (the TV offering is 24 hours old, pre scratchings and with variable track conditions often a joke ... as are the selections). Oncourse at Riccarton Saturday I spoke to several people who felt the same way. It just feels like they would prefer to shut up shop ........ (and please no responses saying I am old fashioned etc etc etc - I do 90% of my punting on the phone or computer, and it used to be at a significant level - yes I can source info online etc )

If your betting on this , you have gambling issues . Watched some of this while in UK last year , mind numbing .

Totally agree Chelseacol, They have lost their way, slashed and burned and ditched most of the ingredients we needed. Just amazing. Lower floors have had significant staff cuts yet upstairs remains. The achilles heal is the wiz bang computor. There will be no advances until that item is resolved, time will not be its saviour just increased costs digging a bigger hole All very sad

isn't it called USA racing?

no radio sevice is beyond ridiculous words cannot express it ............

Just a question for all race goers out there. On Saturday at Ellerslie all the races were carded one after the other in the racebook, and all other meetings were put in the back of the book. I for one and my friends and owners I had with me with me prefer to have the racebook order in race sequence, as in whatever race comes up next is there when you turn the page. Saturday being Riccarton, Ellerslie, Rosehill, Caulfield etc.... Just interested in your thoughts......

It's a racebook as a guide for that meeting runners , colours , breeding and brief form plus adverts for sponsors , not a full weekend formguide for everywhere . No one can do the form seriously from a race meeting race book for 5 bucks .

This single decision encapsulates the total lack of understanding of the product and the customer , it says all there is to say regarding the capabilities of those charged with administering the NZ racing industry . I think there will be some form of backflip on this decision , but any savvy business would never have done it in the first place .

Enlighten me Stables If Stratfordonians (if that's a word) or Stratfordites paid for their Track 128 years ago with their own money, and they have survived without handouts from NZTR since then why should they be sold up to prop up bigger Clubs who have traditionally been "paid" more than they "generated" anyway? Are you a Communist? Mikie

Rubbish. If they don't hold a betting licence they can set their own date and hold a race meeting under their own rules if they are not a registered club under the Racing Act can't they? What's to stop them? And if an overseas operator wants to contract with the club to take bets on those events, what's to stop that? I think you are the one dreaming.

So do I.... if it's run at Club level and we sack all the suits that got us into this mess!

Maybe someone put your name to the horse and decided they couldn’t take the risk.....?!

Agree. But for me if I'm on course and using a racebook, I'd far rather have the races for that meeting there in consecutive order up front and not cluttered up by various other meetings around Australasia. Stick those at the back if you want to. I say good move by Ellerslie.

I saw this in Newcastle NSW, Its dumbshit stuff. Same dead eyed people playing it you see at the pokies. Similar statistics to lose.

Okay, the weekend gives me a chance to catch up and I've got some serious unfinished business from last weekend in the form of the Eclipse at Sandown which saw the seasonal re-appearance of dual Arc winner ENABLE, still in training as a 6-y-o. She went off favourite but was decisively held in second by GHAIYYATH who made most under William Buick. To be honest, the race went pretty much as might have been expected. Buick got to the front after 100m and had a fairly easy time of it in front. Sandown is a track which favours front runners but the key feature of last Sunday was a strong headwind up the finishing straight. I thought it wouldn't help GHAIYYATH but it didn't help the pursuers either who found it hard to make the ground into the teeth of the near gale. Buick had enjoyed the tailwind on the far side and still had plenty of petrol when quickening off the bottom of the hill. GHAIYYATH won by two and a quarter lengths and he might well have won at 2400m but we'll find that out another day. Not many horses have won the Coronation Cup and the Eclipse in the same season - post race plans suggested the Juddmonte would be the preferred route. York is another track where front runners are favoured but not to the same extent as Sandown. ENABLE ran okay but, to be honest, I have some doubts. She won the Eclipse last year and this was an inferior performance by 5-7 lbs. Trainer John Gosden told anyone and everyone before the race she was "85% fit" and while he occasionally bluffs, this time he was on the money. Time makes fools of us all and while I'm not saying ENABLE is anyone's fool, the question as to whether she has or can retain her full ability at age six is one I'm going to be musing on for a while. No plans for her formally but I suspect the King George, Yorkshire Oaks and then the Arc. JAPAN ran a much better race in third and was a head behind ENABLE. I know they still rate him very highly at Ballydoyle but they have LOVE who is now many people's idea of the Arc winner (she was mine as soon as she passed the post at Epsom). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9bDK0Ke_r0 On a busy racing day, the feature supporting race at Sandown was the Henry II Stakes over 3200m and this went to DASHING WILLOUGHBY and I believe they are considering a trip to Flemington in November. At Haydock, the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks went to MANUELA DE VEGA who romped home unchallenged by five lengths. The field was decimated by scratchings after overnight rain left the ground soft so I'm not certain what to make of this. She's highly effective on wet turf so an autumn campaign might be on the cards. The circus moved on to Newmarket for the July Festival. The opening day is Ladies' Day and to be honest it was fortunate there were no spectators as the rain was incessant for much of the afternoon and that turned the ground to Soft. The opening day feature was the Group 2 Princess of Wales and the rain was perfect for DAME MAILLOT who had been well behind ENBIHAAR on fast ground at Doncaster last autumn but reversed the form in style. She won the Pomone on heavy ground at Deauville last year so, rather like MANUELA DE VEGA above, she could be one for a wet autumn campaign. COMMUNIQUE made a bold effort to follow up last year's success in this race but came up against an improving filly on her ground. At York, the Group 2 Dante saw HIGHEST GROUND, a well-touted type in Newmarket, start odds-on for this post-Derby "trial" but he just ran out of steam on the slow ground and had to give best to THUNDEROUS, a more experienced typical Mark Johnston type, gutsy and courageous in a battle. Both the front two ran with credit. Friday saw a better day weather wise at Newmarket but the ground remained Soft for all they were racing on fresh turf.The feature Group 1 was the Falmouth Stakes for the fillies and mares and favourite for this year's renewal was TEREBELLUM who had run such a fine race behind CIRCUS MAXIMUS in the Queen Anne but this wasn't to be her day. There were two problems for jockey Frankie Dettori, first, the ground on which she was unproven and second, a field made up of finishers. He set the fractions and tried to quicken it from the front and get the others to get in each other's way but as TEREBELLUM hit the rising ground the petrol gauge was empty and she was swamped in the final 150m. The race went to Duke of Cambridge winner NAZEEF who showed tremendous determination to battle up the hill and scramble home by a neck from the fast finishing BILLESDON BROOK who ran another fine race. Let's not forget she won the 1000 Guineas back in 2018 beating Laurens and while she's had a few moderate efforts since, she's always kept very good company and won the 2019 Sun Chariot so she owes her connections nothing and will be a smashing broodmare. TEREBELLUM was third beaten two necks and perhaps the ground was the key or perhaps it was the nature of the field. She stays further and I wonder if connections will think about stepping her back up in trip though 2000m is a crowded market currently. ONE MASTER was slightly unlucky - he was beaten a length in total and fourth and had to switch around the winner which cost her momentum and ground at a critical time. Would she have beaten NAZEEF with a clear run? You can judge for yourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h9aSq0jZhM DANDALLA had put up an eye-catching performance to win the Albany at Ascot but had to work much harder to win the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes. She was reluctant to go in the stalls and while she got home here, I just wonder if the Ascot effort took more out of her than seemed the case. The placed horses, FEV ROVER and SANTOSHA, were coming off maiden race starts so the quality of the form is open to question but it's very early days for the juvenile fillies.

Russell Campbell started training in Rotorua before moving to Matamata. His first winner was Miss Hiawatha at Te Aroha on the 25/11/50. He also trained the very good mare Bellota who won the 1973 Ladies’ Mile, the 1974 South Auckland Breeders’ Plate and Rotorua Travelodge Stakes and the 1975 Foxbridge Plate and Avondale Cup. He also trained Neat who won five races at three and ran second to Young Ida in the 1972 Great Northern Oaks.

Hi All, With the loss of The Box Seat, Matt Markham and i have taken the step to create a Harness Racing Show. Called Behind The Tapes it can be views on the Off n Racing Facebook page, or the Off n Racing Youtube account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3f8EhS7Zn9QPOW9EzWmHWw Hope you enjoy Link for Episode Two is here: Video Times Below (Start) General News and Review (6.16) Over The Ditch with Brittany Graham (16.23) Junior Drivers Premiership (22.00) Canterbury Standing Starts (24.49) This Week's Selections Link for Episode One is here:

2020 is slowly coming to an end and yet people with ideas from the 1930s are getting a lot of press coverage.

I couldn’t see where they intend to hold race meetings per say in their press release. I think it will be more retrenching into a training facility like Bryely Park .Properly handled It still could be an asset to both the community and racing.. I do think that NZTR have handled things wrong.

Over here it's called "flapping" and it happens a lot in the greyhound community. There have been flapping horse race meetings and as you say any licensed professional found to have involvement would be looking at a lengthy ban if caught. It would matter if the Stratford breakaway started a tidal wave of clubs breaking from the current system and setting up effectively an independent horse racing body.At some point, NZTR would have to come to terms with the rebels and the central question would be the one I've often raised on here and other NZ racing forums - "who owns the product?" In the UK, the arrangement basically is the racecourses get income from the crowds (in normal times) and from "selling" the races to the media through the agreements they have with the two specialist racing channels and the off-course bookmakers.The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) sets the framework of the fixture list so x meetings on a Monday, y meetings on Tuesday etc and the courses fill in the gaps. Meetings over and above the "requirement" have to be self-funded. As I see it, Stratford couldn't "sell" its racing to the TAB under the current arrangement. That then begs the more difficult question as to the demand for the product. In the UK, we can get British (obviously), Irish, French and South African races in the day and the evening is made up of domestic sport in the summer and American action all the year round. Hong Kong racing is early for the betting shops even though many of these now open at 8am (and two Irish dog tracks start meetings at 8.10 during the week for the early business). Aussie racing is shown through the night on one of the specialist channels and you can play the exchanges at all hours. The time difference makes the showing of NZ racing in UK shops difficult but there are other markets in the Middle East and Japan which may be amenable to taking coverage and that'show you sell the product. I mean, you could start a meeting at 9am in the winter on an artificial surface and it would be an 8pm the previous summer evening in the UK and 7pm in Europe. That's how NZTR has to be thinking - selling the NZ product in an already crowded global racing marketplace.

5 Bucks !!!!! Saturday's book was only $3 bucks !...free to Members ! Fantastic it was too......attendees on the day go to see the 'live racing' so don't want to be at Ellerslie and see a field from Gawler , America or even Caulfield ,when they turn a page! Great to have the meetings at back of book [no America] with the Aussie racing showing quite a few facts,figures and colours. The Riccarton races had that plus a comment on most horses. As to the main purpose of the book Ellerslie ,it had a map of course facilities , plus all food options ,plus a guide to betting ,how to do it plus cost and percentages. It had a list of Jockeys and their mounts ,ditto trainers. It had a summary of all fields at front of book with pool options to bet into it. It had a speed map for 7 races. And it had picks , as well as comments on all horses ..and stats for last 3 starts including trials.! Anyone who took note of picks ,consulted with MGuerins editorial in Herald and Teds tips on BGP ,would have done very well.....as many did ! I've read hundreds of complaints in recent years re the track ,the coffee ,the choice of beer , the choice of champagne ,the loud music ,the commentator , too crowded, too empty ,too many young ones , too many old buggers,the suits ,the white coats , the JCA , the jockeys , the security , the marketing , the signage,the ticket sellers, the SST etc etc, But this is a first.......the race book ! I doubt if there is a better one anywhere !

Last sentence in this post is the most sensible thing you’ve ever posted!

Shoot out to see who has the last word haha

For example on Derby Day would you want to constantly flick through races from Dustbowl Downs or Mudville Park .

Surely they could give me one win every so often

Dean out of his depth and the rest of the leadership team muppets. Their cuts are just anything that can be cut with no idea of the loss caused by the cuts. Meant to be a genarational change forward not a leap back to the fifties.

I understand where you are coming from I do understand that there are cost savings by racing at Addington do much, and I know it’s a great track, but if a compulsive punter like myself is already bored and already doesn’t watch on TV I wonder if this progress is sustainable A lack of interest now would seem to be a major worry in, say, 3 years time The same thing happened to Rugby in a way. I remember having to go to the Pub to watch Rugby, then we all got Sky and watched at home. I watched every game that year, even the ones on at 3am. Fast forward a few years and after overkill I just watched the local NZ derbies If the local races are on twice a year you’d go to the track. If they are on 75 days a year you wouldn’t go, would you? Mikie

You never know maybe they will have to condense them .

Racing was all about a day out having a bet. So many great day outs now its boring Addington Aucklandetc. Remember the tracks like AMBERLY,MANDERVILLE,HORARATA,PLEASANT POINT, RANGIORA,CHERTSEY,SEFTON,SPOTSWOOD, TIMARU,HURUNUI,GREYMOUTH TC,WAIMATE,KUROW, the list goes on. They were the tracks that created interest and gave one someting to lookforward to. Great days out ,huge fields and on and on. Now we have empty stands ,some owners and a few trainers.

Totally agree. I am a truck driver (old truck) and miss it.

Sector groups not happy about this. Requesting costing of what went before. And a viable lower cost plan of what is possible in the future. There are advertising and sponsorship possibilities. Owners Fed say worst affected are drivers of trucks and tractors. Thats where complaints are coming from.

Yes he did, but it sure as hell won't be allowed to happen for 8 years

If you keep posting intelligent posts and questions you’ll become a Restricted Poster, a bit like a Restricted punter Like you, I remember the virtual races at Christchurch Casino. They used to be on the TV at the top of the stairs as you turned right to head towards the Bar Mikie

Do they respond to terse emails? I sent a couple of terse emails to my bank once and they responded immediately, couldn't do enough for me. Sent a couple of terse emails to the TAB and basically got told to fuck off.

It's an awful concept for punters. If you're serious about making a profit, you would simply back your runner to place, instead of taking much shorter odds and only getting your money back if beaten. It makes no sense to bet into the Winsurance market and only mug punters will be attracted.

Totally agree. They turned me off - literally. They offered me a $30 Bonus Bet if I deposited $50 (plus their $2.15 fee) to my account. I had a winner at Wanganui coming up so thought why not. Despite numerous attempts I was unable to deposit any money and home came my horse without my money on it - at 10 to 1. God loves a trier so I kept on trying but then found I was locked out (so couldn't even watch trackside over the weekend on my desk top). Anyway I put through a request for Password reset thinking this will fix it - Log in failed, your account is locked. Please select the 'Forgotten Username or Password' link and reset your password. After doing this it still failed to let me in. Now this morning, I can now reset my password and open my account - a bit too late TAB. Literally my horse has bolted into the winners circle without me on it, and my funds have bolted overseas

If you out driving, you shouldn't be looking anyway that's why ditching radio is the biggest blunder made

Well I'm only questioning your bullshit. I don't like people pushing conspiracacy theories.

This post is spot on. Trying to feed notes into the bloody thing is frustrating. Then navigating between screens takes a while - interrupted at the beginning by it then bringing up a screen saying you just deposited $20 about 30 seconds after the money went in. Which I was aware I had done without being told !! Then large fields don't appear on one screen (WTF) etc etc etc - they are absolute dogs. Thank goodness we still have tote staff on course for those who don't use the phone.

I can't fathom why McKenzie would in the half year August 2019 - January 2020 financial report make mention at the beginning and the end of his comments the impact that Covid 19 has had on most business's across the globe. Covid 19 had zero effect on the a bottom line of the accounts in question. In comparison to previous 6 monthly reports it's a 'con' 'dense' statement and as such lacks the required information to be able to fully comprehend the true situation. It's poor financial reporting when an Organisation doesn't have the previous 6 months alongside the current figures and if you look at last years 6 monthly report report both current and this years both figures exist. The Racing Minister said that RITA would be a transparent and open agency well it's obvious they are far from that. The first 6 months there appears to have been no real urgency towards cutting costs and then along comes Covet 19 and gives RITA the jump start they needed but due to basically doing nothing in the first 6 months they had no other option to adopt but a cost cutting knee jerking reaction which meant maybe some things were cut which shouldn't have been eg Radio Trackside . .Mmm do you think the axing of Radio Trackside would resulted in a decline in public interst of the Industry. Why didn't RITA communicate with their customers as required under their mandate to do? They obviously forgot about that small detail of been open and transparent. Ha financials structure had no chance when millions in Bonus Bets oddly gets coded to the wrong area. I mean come on how could it not have been picked up earlier when all of a sudden one area of cost starts going above what it should be. Most financial Organisations would actually call that creative accounting rather than blamed on a coding error. Great financial structures implemented when it takes months to pick-up what should have been noticed after a month. So that's a fail by RITA. Looking at the figures and results that's a fail by RITA Update from RITA aug 2019 4th meeting board Near a year on the same pin gets given bad results going punters way and big punters betting less. Must be some punters making plenty out there. Oddly enough the best sports result ever occurred in the first 6 months when the TAB won over $7 million from the Rugby World Cup. Fail Does that $26 million relate wholly to the first 6 months? And is it reflected in the expense accounts? Why are they reporting revenue growth in this area when merchant fees charged to a consumer are only supposed to be a recovery of bank credit card costs by a Company. The expense and income from this area should cancel each other out. Elite customers don't pay credit card fees and with them turning over % wise in betting more than the average 'Joe' punter it seems they are subsidising the free ride for the Elites. John Allen said the $50 million dollar plus $17 million a year in costs would be world class and enable the NZ TAB to competitive with overseas rivals. Well the first thing you do is remove credit card deposite fees like all TAB"s and Corporate bookies have in Australia. Paying a fee to use that nightmare of a site is a joke. Poor NZ punter deposites $20 into his account pays his bank $2.15 for a credit card fee, if he uses card credit pays about 20% then punts into tote pools with a top takeout of 26% then they poor $#$@ard has to try and pick a winner. That credit card fee came in a year after Bayliss and his ex banking GM mates came in. The NZ TAB would have a good % rate on their merchant fees, most companies that do charge a credit card fee are around 2.5% so teh $2.15 on a $20 deposite is a high % for a customer to pay and on that type of a transaction results in a money making excercise. Interesting Lotto don't charge a merchant fee for online deposites. The merchant fee for debit cards online is 1% and $0.00 through eftpos. If anyone was charged a merchant fee of $2.15 by the TAB when depositing online during Lockdown e-mail them for a refund as banks waived merchant fees during this period. Its not the amount but the principal; as punters already get stung enough without adding to the TAB's revenue line when they don't have to. The first 6 months I would rate RITA's performance 2/10 as saw nothing to make me think they were onto it and made changes needed.

I agree Greg

Yes. Total revenue is dead flat. That's post the new platform, with most of the racefields fees coming in, and with the first phase of the betting duty reduction in place. And there's no reduction in expenses.

HELLO ......... NOBODY IS LISTENING. They have sacked all the good ones and left those that should have been sent away BEFORE they started this excercise. How could they do this other than who was prepared to work for the least ??

It says new improvements, read more here, but won't load to read it! Do they have any proof reading before they implemented this