JJ Flash

The whole commentary thing is like musical chairs these days. JT again made a good fist of his metropolitan assignment last night. Greg

A possible difference being AJ was a chairman whereas GH is now the CEO. Completely different positions Greg

London Express at NP to help Tess celebrate her birthday. Greg

He loves the baubles of office too much to go when he should. Its easy to see why people compare him to Muldoon and we know how that ended up ,IMF at the back door Greg

I seem to recall that a certain proposed marine reserve was quickly discarded by the coalition courtesy of Winnie. You wont see that again for some time if ever. Likewise, money will be coming into the racing industry from NZF that would not otherwise be forthcoming Greg

Surely a full audit would be carried out by RITA board to ascertain the exact situation they are inheriting Greg

I take it Glenda and her board will stand by the final set of RBNZ accounts that RITA inherits. Given the balance sheet destruction will those accounts be cleaner than clean - your guess is as good as mine Greg

Alternatively , those who funded his party manipulated him for their long term benefit. Greg

A very factual synopsis of the situation. The Muppet Eastern whip obviously has no.idea about NZ employment law. Sacking him would cost the industry a fortune Greg

Yes , he is the current CEO of RITA. If he is not feeling v nervous about the new board and its capacity to remove waste and stupidity then he is in for a hell of a shock IMHO Greg

That was a tragic event for more than just the connections. He won this weekends Queensland Derby in 75. May have been the first Kiwi horse to do so Greg

Tell us which of his victories you remember best

Three years off and not pushing his comeback taking just the single drive Greg

Lets see what sort of shape she and her fellow NZRB board members left the place is in when they report their final Financial accounts. I'm tipping their will be some serious balance sheet reductions for starters. Greg

A great article which puts things into perspective from line one Let’s get straight to the point, the racing industries in NSW and Victoria are flying. There is massive prizemoney being splashed around like it’s growing on trees, and the participants can’t help but rub their hands with glee. The jockeys in Victoria are even competing for a $400,000 booty in the Star Of The Saddle competition, well at least a couple of them will be. Over the past couple of weeks we've had drum rolls followed by huge industry announcements, last week it was more than $100 million in prizemoney being on offer during the Melbourne spring, including five bonuses totalling $4m. In Sydney of course there’s the $14 million The Everest, which is this year complemented by the shiny new toy, the $7.5 million Golden Eagle. Queensland and West Australia are being left behind in the arms race while South Australia is a basket case. The end of the rainbow finishes in Sydney and Melbourne, so it came as no surprise when West Aussie Bob Peters elected to send a couple of his stable stars to Sydney for the spring. Forget about the summer back home, the money on offer in the east is impossible to ignore. There’s plenty of talk around that the money trees in NSW and Victoria haven’t shed all their leaves yet so there’s more to come. It’s like someone found the combination to the vault, or better still they’ve discovered a money-making machine out the back. And they have. So where is all this money coming from? Well the answer is simple, it comes from you, the punter. Without punters racing has nothing. With a raft of tax increases over the past few years administrators have found a way to squeeze every last drop out of the bookmakers, and in turn those taxes are passed onto the punters with bigger percentages and smaller returns. Then there’s the old rounding down issue which gets pushed aside as if it’s nothing, but the reality is punters are getting ripped off big time. A horse could be paying $1.99 but with the rounding down the dividend will be $1.90. This delivers tens of millions to the TAB’s coffers every year. As far back as 2003 the then TAB supremo Warren Wilson said "rounding is part of the funding model or price, so if you take it out of the equation there is a need to make up the revenues somewhere else" while adding "in the end it is the same result". So, the bottom line to the ‘rounding issue’ would be take out the rounding down and replace it with another model where that $1.99 would be rounded up to $2 but the result would most likely be a rise in the takeout rates. Another beauty is the rebates being paid to major players for doing their business with the jolly green giant. The take-out for win dividends is 15% on every race, but some players are getting back anything up to 10%, it’s a pretty good deal if you can get it. Rule out some no-hopers and bet to a 100% market with the view to finishing even on the race then pick up the rebate. Again, the bottom line is the punter at the lower end of the food chain is the one subsidising these rebates. The racing industry in NSW and Victoria has never been healthier and it’s getting bigger virtually every week, however along the way there has to be collateral damage and the ones getting damaged are the punters. While all the power brokers are giving themselves a pat on the back maybe somewhere along the way they could spare a thought for those who are actually paying the piper, the punters. I spoke to a bookmaker about the increased taxes they are paying and there’s the Race Fields Fees, Point of Consumption Tax, GST and company tax, plus you’ve got your normal costs associated with running a business with the result being the prices now being offered are close to 120% on Victorian racing. “Previously we’d bet to a 110-112% market but with all the taxes now you have no option than to pass it onto the punter by betting shorter odds,” he said. So, is it sustainable to be injecting so much money into the racing business through increased prizemoney which is funded solely by the punter? “We bet $1.95 lines for the State Of Origin and that equates to 102.5%, and while understanding there’s a difference in sports betting and betting on the races the discrepancy in the percentages is significant,” the bookie said. “We are seeing dramatic increases in sports betting while I just don’t know whether it’s sustainable on the races, and in the end if turnover flattens out how can they possibly continue to increase prizemoney levels.” Mark Haywood, who has a been regular contributor to Racenet over the years wrote an article on Champion Bets where he compared the market percentages on all Victorian thoroughbred races from September 2016 through to May this year. He used official SP prices and found the percentages fluctuated between 118% and 116% early in his study until steadily rising from March 2018. His study showed from January this year the percentages were always over 120% and more recently they have been over 121%. So, while the racing industry is clearly winning, there must be a loser to pay for the journey and who is that loser? The punter of course Racenet