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This is our horse Precedence. Bred by Henrietta Bedford at Bloomsbury Stud. Raced by a group of us including Patrick, trained by Bart Cummings. Ran in 4 Melbourne Cups...should have won one of them, ran 5th in the last of them. Won $2m. Voted World champion Hunter Class last year. Competed last week. Check this out....al that after 7 years of race training...retired sound, no joint injections, no artificial help....

PLEASE, no more security as an over-reaction to this episode. I had to negotiate 3 levels of the goons at Cup week, Riccarton, 2019 just to catch up with Cubes in the Members Stand. They are already an out of control growth industry like road cone marshals!

It was an awful field, not the race it once was, very sad

I thought Waller's statement was first class. Just saying too.

There is no way the security could have stopped that guy, he sprinted from a way back and then jumped 3 fences. The only way he could have been stopped would have been with a gun, then you would have ended up with a pile of shit lying on the track. Don't think armed security at the races is an option.

He looks in great nick Berri..... It was good to see Hartnell and Chautaqua competing recently and being well cared for, as they should be.

Possibly Berzerk, people were travelling on the Friday of a long weekend or, depending on how long ago, they weren't yet able to bet on their phones. That aside and as I've said before, the dates committee either have no idea of local events or geographic, seasonal events or horse numbers that may enhance attendance and fields at a race meeting or they simply don't care. I presume the latter.

Possibly. We had a Sunday race meeting that fell after a Public Holiday Friday a few years back and it was a disaster turnover-wise. It appears the discretionary/entertainment $ doesn't stretch that well over a long weekend. Remember also that Australia turns over more than NZ on our races now. But again not losing sight engaging locally, or the programming debacle this season.

Makes perfect sense

I think the security was at fault.That Red Badge rabble were all too busy watching the race instead of the public.They were stationed 20 or so meters apart but not one of them even flinched until the incident was over.If that wasnt bad enough after getting that huge wake up call 2 races later just before the last race 2 streakers jumped the fence in almost the same spot and ran across the track and disappeared into the distance and across the track again to escape over the back fence.Red Badge security shouldnt be paid for the day after these 2 security breaches and maybe they should be asked if they could ensure their workers present themselves in a better condition of fitness in future if they want to keep their jobs.

I agree.After no local meetings on both Wellington and Auckland anniversary days it appears NZTR dont know what they are doing.Maybe a local should be running it?

It was an open handicap.

Sorry he never exactly answered your specific question but I think he did answer most things members had asked...I think it is good of him to do this JMO.

Yes, I am part of a minority. If commenting upon the abysmal performance of highly paid security officers is unwelcome then I must accept your vitriolic criticism on the chin.

Here you go everyone Replies to Racecafe questions February 2021 Questions are: Does he believe the TAB website/app has performance issues? and it is operating at the level they would expect after 2 plus years at a cost of over $80M? Of course there are always opportunities to improve the platform but fundamentally, performance and stability has improved significantly since going live two years ago. We are continuing to focus on improving our customers’ experience, including launching new products (such as Fixed Odds Exotics which is coming soon) with the goal of providing customers with a world class betting experience. As with any website and technology application (the cost of which was substantially less than $80m quoted in the questions), we can expect issues from time to time. However, we are confident in the performance and stability of the underlying Fixed Odds Betting platform, which was evidenced by record use on our website for the past two Melbourne Cups when it was put under immense pressure yet managed to handle in excess of 40,000 concurrent users and well over 100 bets per second. Does he believe the Gov can legislate to have NZ'ers bet only with NZ TAB, yet have foreigners bet with the NZ TAB? Are the double standards here? Every year +$130M is deposited by Kiwis with offshore bookmakers, delivering limited benefit back to the NZ racing industry. We are working hard to regain customers who have opted to bet offshore and we are seeing increasing numbers of them returning to the TAB by providing customers with options and offers that rival the big corporations overseas. Currently there are no significant restrictions on these bookmakers in NZ and we’d like the Government to explore similar interventions that exist in Australia with the blocking of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in their Online Gambling Review. Our clear, legislated, objectives are to maximise profits for racing and returns for sport. The reality is that every dollar deposited overseas is potentially lost income for both sectors in New Zealand. Why can horse owners race their horses in OZ but punters could not bet in OZ? The Australian Government's Interactive Gambling Amendment Act stops people in Australia betting with overseas bookmakers who don't have a licence in Australia and that includes the TAB. We have strongly advocated to both Australian and New Zealand governments to allow Kiwis to bet in Australia with the TAB, however, there’s currently no sign of that happening, at least in the short term. The NZ Government have started looking at the issue of online gambling, and we expect this issue will feature in their work. Have we a timeframe to see increased dividends to NZTR and therefore increased prize money? The distributions to the Codes by the TAB were set back in July and based on the forecasts at that time and reflective of the massive impact of Covid-19 on our industry. At this time we determined we’d pay the codes once profit has been generated and we would adjust dividends during the year. Pleasingly, both the Betting Information Use Charge and repeal of the Betting Levy have delivered greater returns than anticipated and these have been passed directly on to the Codes. The level of distributions are reviewed quarterly and will be next looked at this month (i.e. half way through the year) and will take account of the actual performance over the period. blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/c7d1c4f5-95ed-4ef0-829d-3387f5c75b93 The TAB’s job is to maximise profit for racing and that’s what we are focused on doing. The timeframe for the distribution of these profits from the Codes is not something we are involved in. Nonetheless, we are working in extraordinarily uncertain times which can change in the blinking of an eye, so naturally the Board are committed to operating in a sustainable and financially prudent manner. What is the turnover on the low class racing from South America etc? Presenting customers with live racing throughout the day and night means that we show racing from jurisdictions that many of our customers may be unfamiliar with, such as South America. There is genuine interest in the product, which is also offered by all our competitors, so to remain competitive we need to have a similar range of events and products available where possible. We’re projecting approximately $90M turnover on overseas racing (excluding Australia) and so far this year (since August 1) it is $47.6m. That’s up 13% when compared to the same period last year. Why hasn't the TAB adopted affiliate marketing? Is it a case of not knowing what it is? Or are the costs too high for the potential reward of bringing in new customers? We have tried affiliate marketing in numerous guises but with limited or no success. It is not something we plan on putting any significant investment into, but instead we’ll continue to focus on offers that resonate with our customers. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on our Bonus Bet offers and results show that to remain competitive we need to focus on this area to help grow customer numbers. A follow-up on Question 1. You ban any NZ-based site to advertise offshore bookmakers, but make no effort to get NZ-facing sites to advertise the NZ TAB. Why? blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/1553bfb3-6cd6-4d4b-a551-9fb303691ed0 The TAB does not ban advertising by offshore bookmakers in NZ. Advertising overseas gambling is prohibited under section 16 of the Gambling Act 2003 and regulated by the Department of Internal Affairs. The TAB does advertise across a variety of NZ websites to NZ audiences from Facebook to media companies like Stuff to sport-specific sites. Derek Handley has resigned from the Sky board. Do you think RITA should invite him to join as chairman i.e your successor or the very least as a director? The process to appoint Board members is not led by TAB NZ (formerly RITA) but overseen by the Department of Internal Affairs on behalf of the Minister. With financial reporting can you ensure domestic racing figures are reported vs domestic racing figures for the same period last year for the sake of transparency on how the NZ racing industry is doing minus Australian/overseas product? We provide a range of reporting direct to the Codes, including domestic racing comparisons with the previous year. It is important to note that often these comparisons can be slightly misleading with meetings changing dates, the month falling differently (eg 5 Saturdays vs 4) and other variables that may present themselves such as cancellations or issues such as kennel cough, especially so in these Covid-times. So although useful at a holistic level, they should always be viewed with a margin of error. Is it also possible to provide a turnover figure minus the bonus bet turnover for the sake of transparency? Turnover is an important measure to gauge performance, however it is not the most important measure (now we operate in a predominately fixed odds market rather that a pari mutual market with standard deductions). The most important measure is Gross Betting Revenue (GBR) - ie being the Gross Profit on taking a bet and the net profit on taking the bet. blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/b7097fc3-ed4c-4fbe-ad7e-05ac37a474cb The turnover figures presented in the monthly dashboard excludes the use of Bonus Bets. We refer particularly to profit in our Trading Performance updates as a guide to our overall bottom line performance - which at the end of the day, we agree, is the most important measure. 11. Can you clarify what kind of cost/benefit analysis is conducted on what frequency for new overseas racing product and whether you are monitoring trackside viewing as well as betting activity to gauge stakeholder appeal or otherwise? Are you measuring whether new overseas racing is simply splitting existing turnover more or whether it is adding to the existing turnover? We actively measure betting on all racing and sport and use the data to help inform our decisions. In order to remain competitive we need to have a very similar (or hopefully better) suite of options/products that our main competitors. If we don't, we will simply lose customers - so it's not so much a question of splitting existing turnover as we effectively compete for customers 24/7 with sport and racing events continually going on around the world with other betting operators based all around the world - it's a global marketplace. We are conscious of getting the right balance between domestic and overseas racing, both in terms of promotions and Trackside programming. Ultimately our goal is to maximise profit for racing and overseas products play an important role in achieving this. We are currently working to secure new, more detailed data/information from Sky on viewing trends/numbers and hope that, should we be able to access this, it will provide a platform for us to more closely objectively measure viewing trends. We also know that different customers have different views on content, so hopefully we have enough quality racing to appeal to all interests if overseas racing isn’t your cup of tea. 12. What do you see as the top 3 things the Tab does to "promote NZ racing". blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/c8a78f36-f151-4b37-aaa8-b167cebb0aed At a basic level, Trackside presents live coverage of more than 1,000 race meetings every year and extends the breadth of its coverage for many of the premier race meetings. We also actively promote racing on our digital platforms and we provide significant funding to the industry racing publication, Raceform. It is important to note, however, that under the Racing Act 2020, the objective to promote New Zealand racing now falls under the auspices of the racing codes. Nonetheless, we know the effective promotion of NZ racing is in all our interests and we work closely with the Code to promote the sport where we can while maintaining our focus on maximising profits for reinvestment within the industry. Our job is to maximise profit for NZ racing. Our business is approximately 1⁄3 domestic racing, 1⁄3 overseas racing and 1⁄3 sport - we need to have a strategy and balanced focus across these three sectors to achieve this goal. Clearly, despite significant investment there are still technical challenges with the new website and it is no more competitive against multiple offshore agencies than the old site was. What is done is done but what are the long term plans to attract a wider audience to use the NZ tab/get a satisfactory product for the significant annual sum being paid? There are still improvements and tweaks we need to make to the platform and it is an ongoing commitment to improve customer performance that is a continual work-on for us. We have, however, made real progress. The feedback we are getting from customers through our measurements of their attitudes to products and offers and the positive key metrics we live by such as customer numbers, bet count, turnover, GBR etc. all indicate this progress is real. Nonetheless, our focus remains (now the business has been stabilised) to improve customer experience further via increasing promotional activity, staying on top of tweaks that are required and adding new products. Has the tab considered asking for widespread existing customer feedback eg via survey online and or at racetracks to identify what services/experiences are valued (or not) and blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/9ec9def8-e389-44d9-bcbb-9f7905f530f5 wanted (or not) that may not be available currently, to inform future planning? Surveying our customers is something we have certainly done in a number of forms - the racing industry is good at providing feedback, whether that’s through the call centre, the retail network and our social media channels. We also have more formal research in place. And written feedback on any matter is also always encouraged and gratefully received at helpdesk@tab.co.nz. We know we can certainly improve in this area going forward though and we’ll continue to explore how best to do this. 15. Current turnover growth is very positive, however there is a widespread post lockdown boost in other areas for example in retail also. Are you confident the current growth will continue? If it doesn't or the figures become less favourable, can you guarantee you will continue to provide the racing industry with the current level of financial reports for transparency? While the TAB is performing well at the moment, we have to be realistic that we are operating during a period of significant global uncertainty and we are cautious not to get ahead of ourselves. Any major disruption to racing or sport, either at home or overseas, would have a material impact on the business. As well as growing revenue, our improved financial position is directly attributable to the approximate $20m in operating expenses per annum we have removed from the business, thus making it more sustainable. Getting both increased revenue and a reduction in expenditure at the same time is a recipe for success in any business, regardless of what you sell. When we started publishing monthly trading reports from 1 August - no one knew what was going to happen then. We did so to provide up to date, transparent and valuable information to our key stakeholders to stop gossip etc, and focus on facts. We are very mindful of this and while our monthly dashboards currently present a positive picture, we know this may not always be the case. blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/7d92d465-3843-4aab-bf1c-e2b70476a887 blob:https://www.racecafe.co.nz/d942ba99-df73-4a80-a973-555fd353d37e We committed mid way through 2020 to releasing monthly performance updates and we see no reason why we would move away from this.

Agree somewhat, but have Pub Holiday Mondays been in decline due to the muggle that is the calendar , there are most certainly public holiday dates that would work in the regions. Surely the public holiday on course costs in particular for the club would be negated by better on course turnover due to it being a public holiday.

Northern Harness loses another of it's 'Open Class' pacers to Aussie , joining regular race rival Star Galleria who also left in recent weeks. I guess it was only a matter of time ,and I imagine the few left in North will also join them. Peferential draws and racing off long handicaps can only keep them so long. But full marks to the Telfer stable and its owners for trying to keep the higher class going.