Jape

He will be very much missed. It is a long time since that I first met him in the box at QEII in his Radio Pacific days. Still going strong today. Best wishes.

I don't remember being able to have a one cent bet on the old site. Or a 10 cent multi. Or a Bonus Bet. Or a Double Up. Or watching the races on the laptop. Just saying. I had the usual problems when it was first introduced but it suits me now. (No, not the tiddlies. They're just for fun). It seems primarily to be set up for sports betting so we have to live with that. What concerns me most, like everyone else, is the cost, both present and future. "They" got caught out at the TAB when they went to upgrade the original system. I remember how we were told this could happen, that could be done, and all sorts of things. It appeared to be a home-run when, suddenly, it all fell over, at a cost of several millions.

Going by the various comments on this topic it is very much a case of : To each his own. However, I am intrigued by the reference to VIP punters and I think you may well be wrong, Lights Out. How much influence should the VIP punters have? When something called Flexibet was first presented to the TAB management by the Board it was rejected because of the negative response from the VIP punters. The TAB Board members thought otherwise and persisted. The result was: the introduction of Percentage Betting as it came to be known.

I am not at all sure where you get the "downhill in the early 90s" and "outsiders with no interest in racing or even betting" from. Check the Annual Report for 2003. Dedicated racing people with a passion for the industry. Record turnover. NZ still supplying great horses to take on, and beat the Aussies e.g. Ethereal and Sunline. Sadly, it was the dissolution of the RIB and the TAB and the formation of the RB that led to the features to which you refer.

This awful drama has turned into The Theatre of the Absurd.

Yes, a remarkable race, a stunning finish, probably Keith Haub's best-ever call at the line. To top it all off, there was, of course, only one LaZboy for the winning jockey so the two jockeys, Michelle and Wayne, hopped in together much to the delight of the crowd.

I find it hard to believe that GOM has gone. That is so sad. To the family, my best wishes, my condolences. Rest in Peace.

Excellent, chiknsmack, to see you are finding the Formguides so very useful, which they are. But do not dismiss so summarily the Comments Lines which are not produced by "some random stranger". Those comments are there to help people looking for information about a greyhound race field. The more experienced punter, like yourself, may not need such information as "Wide runner not suited to box 1" because you already know that. For so many others, though, that is an informed comment on which the reader can then make her/his own judgement.

No.

Randwick r1 -- 2 r2 -- 12 r3 -- 5 r4 -- 13 r5 -- 5 r6 -- 3 r7 -- 12 r8 -- 9 r9 -- 17 Flemington r1 -- 10 r2 -- 5 r3 -- 11 r4 -- 8 r5 -- 10 r6 -- 11 r7 -- 15 r8 -- 2 r9 -- 6

I hope you caught up with the FormGuides for both Cambridge and Addington today. They are severely abbreviated but every dog is covered and once you get the hang of it, you can follow it quite well. There is a huge amount of info there. Btw, I presume you people check out the Punters Lounge each day to find out what is available. If not, you should. I hope you have been taking note of the Comments Lines for all meetings except Addington. As well, there have been very good interviews. One with Marcie Flipp very good. Also Mark and Philippa going through the fields providing more informatio as they did today. I did Comments Lines some time ago now for a couple of months and they are/were very time consuming - several hours' work - but at least there was a payday at the end of the day. I am not at all sure this is the case at the moment. Just people trying to assist in providing the information for punters to have an informed bet and not just bet blindly. It is called generating revenue. That is the life blood of the sport/industry we call Racing.

Don't give up yet, Everton et al. There have been Comments Lines at the northern and Central meetings. Palmy again today and Wanganui tomorrow Then Cambridge on Thursday. Sadly, no Addington.

Check the Annual Report 2003. Record turnover. Percentage betting came in then. Yes, there had been 50pence/cents doubles previously but nothing like the breadth of % betting as it developed. I am sure many on here remember being at Addington and holding a double ticket on the first-leg winner and ready to exchange. Out would come an employee and we would watch as he manipulated the divs according to the influx of betting. Oh, number 6 has come in. Number 8 is going out. Quite exciting it was and occasionally, very occasionally, we would make the right choices. As I have said previously: Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end ...

Excellent to see the Comments Lines back for the dogs at Wanganui on Friday and I see they are there for Manukau tomorrow. For those people looking to have a bet on the greyhounds they are very worthwhile. Dare I say it - essential!

I was on the NZGRA Executive when the Racing Bill was formed and discussed so was not really privy to the what, the why and the whatever. I had to relinquish that position when I was appointed to the TAB and at that point it was assumed that the Bill would become the Act within weeks or at most a couple of months. Things can take their time in Parliament and Racing is rarely a high priority. (It never ceases to amaze me that the politicians are so unaware of the amount of money that racing puts into the Government's coffers, for very little input, as well as boosting the pay packets of some thousands of employees. And their tax take). I do remember that the RIB did not seem as tight a group as the TAB certainly was. More than twice the number of people and some personality clashes. Maybe a code disagreement or two as well. But none of that would have suggested to me that Racing was necessarily going to be "improved" by the abolition of the RIB and the TAB Boards. The old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind. There was a period when merging and amalgamation became the new norm - remember the Local Councils? - and I suspect Racing came into this category. The resulting RB (Racing Board) bore no resemblance in personnel to what had gone before and that was Mistake Number 1. Add some awful appointments and then some wagering decisiona including taking Trackside off Free-to-Air and the downward slide was underway. Somehow it became a scree slope.

Sorry, I can recall some of those people on the RIB but not all. This is partly because of an erratic memory these days but also because we TAB directors never really had that much contact with those on the RIB. As for the TAB: Rick Bettle was the Chairman of both Boards and Tom Jamison, was also on both Boards. Along with Barry Neville-White, Peter Vela, Richard Sissons, Bill Kermode after Richard resigned and myself. The late Jim Leach became the transition General Manager until the Act came into force. I was the GRNZ rep after Mary Mountier resigned and was there for most of the last 3-4 years before the dissolution of the two bodies. Annette King was the Minister of Racing in my time before becoming the Minister of Health and Damien O'Connor took over from her. The final Annual Report for the TAB makes very good reading with record turnover and racing being in excellent heart while sports betting was starting to emerge as a wagering force.

Percentage betting in its previous form which is what you refer to was very limited and, funnily enough, was not considered as "percentage betting", nor referred to as such. "Flexibet" was the term used when this form of betting was first introduced to the NZ TAB and after some to-ing and fro-ing came to be known as 'percentage betting' with a much wider scale of operation that the 5-bob double and the like.

I have aired my views on the other forum. That is the Barry Lichter News Stories and the A to Z of NZ Racing and its demise. I would just add that my main point is that what was lost or disposed of, to be quite blunt, when the Racing Act came into being in 2003 were the people who were PASSIONATE about RACING. They have never been properly replaced.

Barry Lichter's summation of the situation is - sadly - very much "on the money". One point I would like to make, though, is that he makes no reference to the Directors of the TAB Board leading into the Racing Act of 2003. Prior to the Act there were two organisations responsible for the administration and ultimate success of Racing NZ. The Racing Industry Board and the TAB were separate units although the Chairman and one person were on both Boards. It would be difficult to find a more responsive and responsible group than those who comprised the TAB. Yes, you may consider I am biased but this was a genuine RACING group of people interested in RACING. Owners/Breeders/Punters, the General Public were all very well represented. This group oversaw a steady rise in the wagering on racing, including the first billion-dollar turnover. This was a time when NZ still reigned supreme in Australasia. The era of Ethereal and Sunline. I was personally appalled that not one of those people was on the new Racing Board. The expertise, the knowledge, the PASSION of those people were totally ignored, along with the loss of so much intellectual capital. Shame on whoever made those decisions, those appointments, which have rebounded so badly on the industry ever since. As an example, the issue of Free-To-Air Trackside would be raised each year and each year summarily consigned to the this-will-not-change in our time basket. There were a number of things which that group implemented including percentage betting and incentives for those running the TAB agencies up and down the country. As I look back on that time, I find it almost incomprehensible that Racing finds itself in such a parlous position today. A time to weep. A time to mourn.

Ha ha. Once again, though, I was very pleased with my final result at 13th and over $3K in the bin. BUT you are so right about the tardy beginnings. I grew up with the likes of Highland Fling and Lord Module and Thunder and Shorty Bijou. They often gave their opponents a good start before unleashing in the last lap - or even last furlong.. On the other hand, in my days as an athlete, I was a sprinter and long jumper and anything further than 220 yards was a challenge. Fast out of the blocks then try to hang on! Stamina was not in my genes. Those comps are great fun and certainly liven up a Saturday arvo.

Such as, Lowdown?

Stunning.

r1 -- 6/11/13/14 r2 -- 3/4/5/10 r3 -- 2/5/7/9 r4 -- 1/2/8/10 r5 -- 5/8/12/14 r6 -- 2/3/7/13 r7 -- 1/5/6/13 r8 -- 2/3/5/8 r9 -- 2/4/11/14 Thanks and Cheers

Thank you, GOM. I thought I had sent that reply above the other day. But we all know what thought thought as the years accumulate! Incidentally, I noted in the paper yesterday that NZ Rugby has just got a mighty handout from the Govt. $73.8m. Has anyone at GRNZ (or NZTR - or HRNZ) been knocking on doors to get a share of the largesse to help the people involved in NZ Racing? I certainly hope so but I have not seen any headlines like the Rugby one.

I have just posted on the Comp. Grand way to spend a Saturday arvo.