RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.

John Clydesdale

Members
  • Posts

    305
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Everything posted by John Clydesdale

  1. In reading Mike Dillon's piece in the Herald this morning, the most curious question arises. Why would the Track Manager at Wellington ask the Chief Stipe if he should water the track? Is there something missing that has not been reported?
  2. Leggy, my memory does get hazy at times, but I was under the impression it was to be commissioned before the Auckland Christmas Carnival. Is that what you understood to be the timing? If it is April, perhaps the extensions of time could come with a significant cost increase. The IBM/Police computer system blowout could possibly come under a threat if the delays continue!? I hope that is not going to be the case or the legacy we have of Mr Brown could be extremely expensive.
  3. want to keep any employee that had been employed by the departing failure. Be realistic, this is the very same guy who tried to provide a strategic plan that we would lead the world, yes lead the way in so many industry areas by 2015 and be credible???? Why would you think that he would have suitable enough capabilities to employ really good talented people when he has such impaired vision? Goodness, he cannot even get the computer system implemented that was supposedly due to running already........???? No news forthcoming about delays or have I missed that.
  4. So Sheriff, how is it that he has a seat on the Board at TR? Perhaps a further example of how low the criteria bar has dropped for some TR Board positions.
  5. The logic to come up with such a decision has me shaking my head. These guys know not what they do.
  6. 1. The amount of advertising support provided by the RIB was $250k per year for three years. $750k in total. 2. They, the NZRB, received pages of advertising space of advertising, the same as any other commercial advertiser to the value of the $250K invoiced. 3. The Board, under a previous composition of Directors, fully supported this plan as they recognised the benefit to the industry of a paper such as The Informant. The composition of the Board in now different. So, let us be fair and clear, the RB was NO benefactor, they received advertising space equivalent to the value they were invoiced. The same as other commercial clients. Trackside office staff members were provided FREE copies of The Informant as a part payment and part offset to the time The Informant was using for advertising. I understand the balance of Trackside time was invoiced to the Informant. In answer to Rod's thought of confirmation of impact on betting. The following Saturday after the Informant stopped publishing the betting turnovers in Australia dropped dramatically, 38% in Sydney and 33% in Melbourne.......only one reason.....NO information published anywhere. Names of horses in the weekly newspaper liftouts, but very little else. Nothing in the Best Bets or Turf Digest or racebooks at the track. So that perhaps can be confirmed as an indication of the impact of the loss of the Informant. Rod, the advertising space on Trackside is not fully subscribed, so the cost of space being used by The Informant as you put it, is answered both above and also by virtue of lack of demand on that time anyway. The other change that occurred, and of the most significance, is WHY would the RB want to charge just this single publisher, for the form information that can benefit the industry as a whole. Could there be another motivation somewhere..........? WHY would you charge someone that is going to help and support your cause when you have to PAY other commercial publishers to publish fields and editorial in the weekend liftouts. Do you also realise they pay those same publishers the same money it cost to run a single channel of Trackside.....where is the decision process in that? There are some very strange decisions being made by the NZRB management and now they are warning the stakeholders of the industry that the money coming back to the industry is going to be less than budget forecast..........HELLO........anyone there........HELLO.......perhaps change how you are thinking....... Mr Brown, there are owners, trainers, jockeys and punters telling you to provide information, no.....they are SHOUTING at you to provide information.........please do. Oh yes....I almost forgot. Mr Brown, you don't need to tell us that you are unable to meet budget on the return to the industry......just read what so many on this thread have readily identified......we knew that already......just rectify it!
  7. The crux of the matter is to stimulate betting, not reduce it. I happen to agree with Don's view of Punna and his contributions, but hey Punna knows everything, yet nothing at all. Punna, why don't you give us the lowdown on how Betfair has "contributed hugely" to the industry, I want to understand how they have managed to do this........but please, some facts..not guesses. Rod, you are right, The Informant did have a lifestyle aspect to it, but that is what I prefer. I am an outdoors type and don't have time to scroll the net to assemble the information that the Informant provided me via a subscription. I notice your IT based expertise and therefore you use your IT experience to capture your information. I live in the country and we cannot get Broadband, even slow speed, and the dial up dropped out so much we gave that idea away. Therefore the Internet is not a residential option to me. Daryl, it is good to see that your contribution can generate the responses that good discussion needs......Merry Xmas to Joan and your good self. The Best Bets and Turf Digest did slump over the last few years from previous highs of 7000. The week before the Mastheads were sold to the NZRB they managed just under 5000, but when the NZRB first published them they slumped again to 4400 and I can confirm that the Informant outsold them. But let us put some perspectives into place here. We have a population of 4 million and via research we know 8% are interested in racing. That's 320,000 people. Of that number, only 10,000 people want to pay for the written information (TD BB and The Inf), that is just over 3% of the potential customers. It tells me that neither publishers have done a very good job at marketing their product, as there seems to be plenty of upside and room for improvement. Merry Xmas everyone and enjoy the racing.
  8. Go back to sleep as you are talking in riddles. I work in an industry where the circulation figures of all magazines and publications are available to me, so I do know the figures. But you read between the lines and come up with some other figure, and yet still not able to disclose any accurate detail anyway. The Editor of the Informant indicated that with the Best Bets being published perhaps for a third time in a week then yes, the BB market share would be greater. By pure act of frequency. I can tell you that when the NZRB started publishing the BB and TD for themselves, the circulation dropped. Can you understand the reason for that Punna? Putting it simply, they did not know what they were doing. They still don't. But the relevance and distinctions of what the Informant provided to the majority of us, which is believed to be better and superior to what the Best Bets delivers, just seems to fly over your head most days. I guess therein lay the difference between your requirements and the needs of a lot of other willing bettors. Until the Jackson Sreet publishers wake up to their own shortcomings as marketers, then they will continue to watch the turnovers drop away, because the betting public at large, other than you Punna, want decent and substantial information with which to bet. Not the garbage that you like and the lift outs in the Friday papers. An illustration; I wanted to bet on the Hong Kong races on Sunday. The Sunday Star Times had nothing but dashes next to the horses along with the jocks, they even had Mark Du Plessis riding there. So I purchased a Best Bets and that wasn't much better. Yes, there was the form, and some hazy race descriptions, but it was mostly worthless. Just a very poor presentation of information to inspire people to bet on a terrific race meeting that should have been able to generate a couple or three million of turnover. How do I know that, because I was aware of the starters form from an overseas betting company email to me and in the first of the Group 1's I backed Redwood. Good basis for doing so was provided by the other betting company. NZ punters had it at 14 to one. Then low and behold two of the three commentary team picked it first pick above Americain and Mastery and it then drops dramatically and becomes second favourite. That Punna, is an example of the Petone blockheads not doing their job well enough, as the odds became affected by the commentary team and not the form guides published for NZ punters.......!!!!!!!!!! If the TAB was a public company, the management would all be under third warnings with redundancy imminent. Just Pathetic.
  9. What a lot of rot you are talking punna. You have absolutely no idea what the circulation is or was for the Informant or the Best Bets to make such ill founded comments. If you do believe you know the figures of both please quote them here and also add the basis of proof with it.....then we can judge your credibility. Otherwise you are talking garbage and have not a clue about promoting your product.
  10. The number I mentioned is accurate. "Emotional?"......who exactly are you Ricky, obviously not a reader or supporter of the Informant and also not a punter. Perhaps you should be or could be in the marketing area of NZRB........?????? Besides Ricky, what the circulation numbers have to do with your future comments are irrelevant, the reality is that not enough information is reaching the punters and turnover is dropping.......and that is another fact!
  11. My understanding was that the numbers exceeded the number you mention. Effectively the publishers used fiscally responsible principles to stop publishing. I would hope the NZRB could be similarly responsible, but their decision processes to date clearly indicate the contrary. Colin Hayes has been attributed as the author of this idiom, "the future belongs to those who plan for it...." Two things come to mind.....Mr Green and his management team would not even know who Colin Hayes was and secondly they struggle to plan anything. John, the reason for Wgtn "on course" being down is the recession, but the "off course" dive is because of the lack of information, plain and very very simple.
  12. When you are not being fed the information to bet with, what do you do.........you don't bet. The Informant put the information together for people to use when ascertaining their bets. Presently you get little information....so people don't bet. The people in the marketing department of the Racing Board really do not have any idea as to that requirement for the average bettor or punter. Their brains are immersed in plaster of paris and until they ask what we require the trend will continue to gain speed. The recently referred to survey about integrity drew a sharp response from the Chairman, perhaps he needs to do a survey as to what the punter requires...........information. Broad information that is not available at present. Bring back the Informant and Mr Green, you may see your turnovers return to some form of stability, not the continuing momentum of spiralling down. We are in good Spring racing with little or no information available apart from the odd comment from a form appraiser. I would much rather have the form and make up my own mind thanks. The industry turnover is shrinking and the deck chairs are being shuffled about......where is the Captain?
  13. This is the man, Andrew Brown the CEO of the New Zealand Racing Board, that should welcome and receive all the thoughts and comments regarding the state of the industry as it now stands. Mr Brown appears oblivious to the reality of what his current betting figures tell him, then perhaps we can influence him with direct comments from us all. We can also provide our thoughts on their capabilities as publishers and also ask why they are unwilling to support a paper that encourages betting by way of providing the comprehensive information required to formulate an informed bet. andrew.brown@racingboard.co.nz
  14. All of the elements that are required to have an informed bet are not there in other publications, bar the Informant. A sorry state when the Petone HQ people have no idea what people require to make betting decisions, but the Jackson Street people have no idea about New Zealand punters anyway as the power brokers come from the homelands. A land where betting processes are in tatters, the industry is in crisis, where the most prominent industry infrastructure stakeholders tell the administration what is going wrong, but do they listen.........No. Nothing wrong here chaps! No, nothing at all. Betting turnover is shrinking, owner numbers are shrinking, horses in training numbers are shrinking, foals being bred are falling to record low levels. But hey, nothing wrong. Lets become publishers, give some people some info, but not enough to satisfy their requirements, close out any competition using any means possible and lets put anything we can get in front of the bettors out there. They will go for it...........won't they! No chaps.........they won't. Put the four knotted hankerchief on your noggins and go out to the field and have a look around, ask a few questions that you do not know the answers to......you may get some worthwhile info about all the codes in the betting industry and what is required to make them prosper, because sure as the sun will dawn tomorrow, if you try to translate what you had in the land of mushy peas, you will fall well short of what you need to do to improve the industry here. The BHB ask the bookmakers to contribute a small percentage to help the industry in Britain, what do they do? Ah yes, lets go and register our companies off shore.....somewhere where we don't have to meet the BHB levy requirements...... Sorry guys in Jackson Street, which bookmakers did you say you worked for before you joined the Racing Board?
  15. Filly is outstanding, Hammer is green but talented, but there is a Dubawi that could return to form without it being a major surprise!
  16. Very disappointing to see such a small field in such a great race. Obviously other fellow Australian trainers don't give themselves too much of a chance against SYT and MJ. As small as the field is, the race won't disappoint us.
  17. I think if you use this thread as part of your own research, then you can acknowledge there is a need for the Informant. I suspect that also the research of your own hard learned experience must tell you that you need to broaden your view. There is no one single solution to what people want or need. Your own product, which I note you didn't use the opportunity to promote, has a value to some people, but so does the Informant, more particularly on a wider industry readership basis. I like the breadth and fabric of the Informant material, not just one single strand of the weave. So I think we can just agree to disagree. Good punting.
  18. Peter, Would I be right in thinking or picking that you may have an agenda or gripe with the Informant? Your motives are not that of an industry supporter, rather a competitor who doesn't know anything about publishing or costs of the same, but most importantly, one who doesn't know how to market his product or service. If you product is good how do you market it? Here is an opportunity for some free advertising care of the Sherriff. But as I have said earlier on this thread, The Informant was a direct hit in marketing terms for the TAB products. TV (outside the channels they do not own), Radio (ditto), Newspapers are no where near the market penetration that The Informant achieves. So Peter, marketing 101, lesson one, "get to your target market in the most cost effective method possible". Leave your sour grapes somewhere else as it has nothing to do with "support" but everything to do with "marketing".
  19. As passionate as we obviously are, and no matter where we gain our information, do you consider that the value equation I raise in my information is worthwhile......? Given the head of our industry is a numbers man, I would have thought those numbers are worth a review, perhaps even entertaining a second thought about advertising in the Informant could look appealing on a value for money basis, ie. expense versus return!
  20. Peter, it does have trackwork. But as I stated, it has a lot of other benefits that single sites do not have. That was my point. I use the various sites that provide the benefits you mention, but none has the collective information of the Informant. I live in the country and cannot get even average dial up performance, so on the weekends the internet is not an option to me. So the internet world is not available to everyone all of the time.
  21. I suspect you have almost answered your own statements. Yes, TV ratings are under pressure at times, but that is the nature of competing media. It is now more diverse and fragmented but the highest rating TV events are still matching those of the past. People watch TV less, primarily because what is available to the viewer is less attractive than previously, but again because of competition. Even after all of your online escapades you state you use the paper as a point of reference. That is the point of the Informant, reference and easy as pie. It is handy, no need for logging on required, The Informant has good human interest stories, something the FF never mastered. The Informant has better form reference and has trackwork info, also other performance factors that you don't easily access elsewhere, all in one easy tabloid. If you think it is all going to be an online future for all of that sort of information then you are deluding yourself. Yes, you will get various aspects, but at this stage there is no apparent online answer to the existing Informant structure and composition. So support it by buying it or advertising in it or at the very least tell those marketing gurus that you are so cynical about at the RB, that they should continue to advertise in it, as that is, in the main, their target market. Oh Proper..... next time you have a cup of something, drink of something, and what you are presently pouring into what you are driving and the clothes you are wearing......well they have all had an influence on you by the effect of marketing, which makes me want to lol, because your early comments tend to indicate that your not a guinea pig of marketing, but in reality you unwittingly are!!!! But thanks for the help in confirming that the RB cannot manage a marketing budget, along with the other aspects of a cash organisation that seems to be losing money at a rate of about 20% pa at the moment!
  22. The "funding" you describe was for advertising in the publication. Each page for advertising has a value, as does the content contained within the ad. So the money paid to the Informant by the RB was for advertising space, not a cheque without performance requirements attached to it. If the marketing wasn't working through it, they would not have continued to support it for so long. Perhaps it is the message in the ads, who knows? What does come into question for me is whether the RB actually know what marketing is? Figure this out...........they pay the Informant for every page of advertising and presumeably had received the desired response.....they pay the Herald $900k per annum to put the race form as an insert in the Friday paper. The Herald circulates well at 265,000 copies, potential readership of 500,000. Stats tell us, according to the RB, that 8% of the population are interested in gambling. That translates to a potential interested readership of 40,000. That equates to a cost of $22.50 per head of potential readership. The Informant circulates to the nation, potential 4 million, say 50% that can read, that's 2 million, 8% of the 2 million potential bettors equates to 160,000 people. Say $250,000 p a of advertising, that equates to $0.56 per head. It is a long bow to say the Informant has that readership and I am not saying that 160,000 people read the Informant but you need numbers to work out the representative value. The same formula and comparisons are used. $900,000 to insert in The Herald, in a scattergun approach or $250,000 to advertise in The Informant which has a dedicatedand intersted purchaser and reader!!!!!! There is only one winner in that race, and by a wider margin than Sunline's second Cox Plate. Just ask yourself if the RB staff know anything about marketing? The answer is plain to see.
  23. Informant to possibly cease publication By Gus Wigley (Editor/GM, Thoroughbred Publications Ltd) This week
  24. Pam, I don't have any inside knowledge at all, other than I believe there is a need and requirement to keep the industry as strong as it can be in the South. In saying that, I was disappointed to see some poor types presented at the sale this year. There were some very good types who deserved the attention they drew and that saw them sell well in a very tough market, but I fail to understand why vendors present substandard pedigrees or types with an expectation of a good return. Breeding and racing in the South has a bright future given some of the stallions available and families that continue to develop and improve, but I tend to understand where NZB are heading. I breed and race in the South as well as up here in Auckland, but I was just curious to get some feedback from the breeders themselves.