puha

Maybe we need a statement from Mr Saundry to set things straight and let us all know if this is fact or fiction .

Excellent article. People in the industry need to take note of this and do something about it before it is all too late.  I would also like to respond to members who were asking about my background as New Conservative's spokesperson for racing. My background includes working as a stableman for 18 months for Henry Skinner in Southland. Obtaining my own private trainer's and open horseman's licence and training a couple of horses before or after work. Serving on the committee of the Roxburgh Trotting Club as well as being an active member of the Central Otago Owners, Trainers and Breeders Assn.  I have also owned two thoroughbred broodmares. I know nothing about greyhound racing but am willing to listen and learn.

With racing about to resume NZTR have put protocols in place in case there are to many nominations at time of acceptance. The excess horses will be Balloted or eliminated and would hopefully get a start the following week. I think that Owners that don't owe any Nomination,  Acceptance, scratching fees etc should be the first horses in.  With this huge outstanding debt of 1.7 million for nomination and acceptance fees of which 750K belongs to Trainers why should the owners who have been paying all along have their horses eliminated before these non payers.
I know that the CD Branch of the Owners Federation has asked NZTR to ask for collateral security from these bigger debtors before racing starts. You are in some cases talking tens of thousands of dollars and possibly six figures in some cases. 
Bernard Saundry and James Dunne have been brutal in their attacks on some smaller participants that have owed money and in some cases been in the process of paying money back. The NZTR Board Members have been aware of the way that Saundry and Dunne have operated against these minnows. Where are the Board members now. Is it because the culprits are either friends/ or colleagues of Board Members that they are staying silent. 
If Saundry, Dunne and the NZTR Board Members are not prepared to act and retrieve the bulk of this money owed then they should resign. In the past huge amounts have been written off. Will this be the pattern again and history repeat itself.
Are owners happy to have the horses they have worked hard to pay for in training be eliminated from races while the recipients of this preferential treatment get first options on starting. The time has come for owners to say NO

Having a voice with Loveracing would be a waste of time .Question anything on that site and you get a private email warning you to toe the line or your barred

Having a voice with Loveracing would be a waste of time .Question anything on that site and you get a private email warning you to toe the line or your barred

Accountants would never get racing they would rather keep their money safely tucked away in the bank and sponge a drink off a mate . A punter treks oncourse with the dream of leaving with thousands in notes . Please don’t kill the dream .

Good that Dean acknowledges underlying problems, but let's deal with them. 
Slashing media, radio and no return of TV, no on course sellers and fewer presenters is simply playing with the fringes and has destroyed their marketing. No new punters from there 
Attack the real issue the ludicrous running costs, specifically the excessive wage bill at the top end. Let's start with a voluntary significant % wage cut, say 20% then they will get buy in from the few punters left paying the way. 
Move it

The government has give the DIA $2.5M to stop New Zealanders betting offshore.  This is such a flawed way of thinking:
How can we expect to stop NZ punters punting overseas but yet we want overseas punters to punt with NZ TAB?  Can't have it both ways. This would enable RITA/TAB to believe their betting platform is acceptable With a monopoly customer service deteriorates (hard to imagine but it would) Odds would get worse People find a way around it anyhow  
As a participate in NZ racing  I believe you can contribute to NZ racing by owning or punting.  So  why should punters be treated differently than horse owners.   You can own a horse in NZ and punt where you get the best treatment.  Alternatively if the Government is going to stop us punting offshore because it hurts the local industry, maybe we should go one step further and stop NZers owning horses offshore.  
 
Time to grow up and realise the country and world we live in.  The options going forward to look at have to be:
Outsourcing Racefield legislation Letting offshore bookies here (they are anyway) and then clubs can get some sponsorship from them. Joining a world tote  

I'll be honest as far as the Messara report goes i don't have a knowledge around the TAB , IT and all the other techy stuff so i'll defer on those . But regarding track closures and the racing product we didn't need him in my opinion . If they had gone out and got everybody participating in the discussion , and i don't mean just the recognizable big name faces , i believe there is enough knowledge and will for positive change that NZ racing could have solved their own problems . Peters and other people with influence continue with the rhetoric that racing has to fix their own problems before we get others i.e. govt etc to help , but honestly when has NZ racing as a whole been given the chance to do this . The people at the coal face know the problems and they generally have ideas for solutions , but , and i'm serious , there has never been a real will from the top for help , if there has i must've been in a coma .

The thing I've noticed since the announcement last week of the A/W tracks is the number of industry participants that have spoken so positively and glowingly of getting them , i don't get it , do they have information that is not already in the public domain or as i suspect they have just been blinded by the light and driven by the self interest aspect . 
I also suspect the Messara report is being quietly squirreled away in dark room in a cellar somewhere . 

Their whole mentality about not consulting the wider community in racing is they think if your a no name , smaller , battling trainer/owner/ small club administrator then you don't carry any weight and your opinion doesn't carry any weight . Some of the best thinkers i have met have tended to be low profile characters and not ones to push there opinions on others but when asked for opinions usually have something worth listening to , and most have been no name , smaller , battling racing people . Racing people at all levels know and understand their sport , not just the ones on high .

We are now using the exact same script with the A/W tracks , too few making the decisions with very little input from industry participants . The main point for me is that NZ racing isn't big enough for 3 A/W's , circa $39mil for 3 tracks is money that could be spent in a much more sustainable way , that is before factoring maintenance costs . These will become bigger white elephants for NZ racing than the FOB debacle . In 10 years i believe they will either be sitting redundant because of a lack funds to repair or upgrade , or because of a lack of use due to participants having lost faith in them .
Either way they along with the FOB will become massive millstones around our necks , so much so racing might not be able to recover .
They need to go out to their wider base of racing participants and ask for feed back and find out if there is genuine support from all sectors in regards the necessity for these tracks , and i don't mean just big name trainers/owners/administrators based around where these facilities will be .

Having your racing license taken away is out of all clubs hands I guess but what isn’t imo is the right to stay operating as a training facility ,farm jumpouts and in lots of cases a valuable resource for the wider community . I can’t get my head around how some think they could just seize that asset and use it how they wish using the weak argument it’s for the betterment of the wider industry . If the clubs still operate as I’ve mentioned the general local public will be the big losers with no access to live racing . What the F is happening to our country within a week Cops can enter your home without a search warrant  and a whiskey swilling politician thinks he can start thieving others land with the swish of a pen .Cant see rural NZ bending over to easy .

“A separate review is underway on the executive leadership team whose top six members took home $2.5 million between them last season.
RITA board members earned $263,667 for the 14 meetings they attended last season”.
 
A management team collectively earning less that $1mill could do the job.
Seriously if these numbers are legit this is just BS. So these clowns are collectively paid $18k to attend a single Board meeting!
No wonder the industry is drowning. Outrageous sense of entitlement. 

I know RITA inherited this mess but they have hardly been pro active in getting costs under control . Up until last week they hardly made a wimper about restructuring , then bang more announcements than the govt document drop of 2 Fridays ago , and then the use of COVID as having been the destroyer . But of course nobody from top level got the chop , OH ! but they are currently under review , not holding my breath . These are the guys that were in large the ones advising J A and helping him manage his grand plans . Why weren't they one of the first under the microscope , not just in last weeks announcements but surely they should've been put under the blow torch as soon as RITA came into effect . No RITA didn't create this mess but they must hold responsibility for allowing the disease to continue unabated .

Anyone miss this?

Surely it is time for "name and shame". Everyone is randomly blaming John and the Shot-putter for this, and they must ultimately take the blame, although it doesn't seem to have done either of them much harm, they just walk into other jobs. Perhaps Barry could dig up some background to these disastrous decisions that are destroying the industry. As he points out it is Racing that is bearing the brunt of this. I don't notice any rugby grounds or basketball stadiums being shut down and sold off to fund the shortfall. All care and no responsibility for sports, while Racing gets sent broke. Who were the big pushers of this disastrous policy? Was it driven from the top,  or from others and the top was just too stupid to see what a disaster it would be?

Pretty sure that’s right .Wairoa is my Fav all time track , great committee ,volunteers and the racing folk are treated so well all week by the locals and that includes everyone from stable staff right through to owners .Huge loss .

Stuff me wouldn’t they look at the mess he just left behind here? Only saw him once in the flesh was like a puppet on steroids 

Your full of shit unless you can show us your winning ticket?

Stuff me wouldn’t they look at the mess he just left behind here? Only saw him once in the flesh was like a puppet on steroids 

I can't believe how John Allen could gain another high profile executive job in the same country......Let alone the same City
Makes my blood boil that he can Bullshit his way into a $700K job at NZRB - do F all but talk more Bullshit....Waste $50 Million plus and just move on like nothing has happened.
These Gravy trains for executives have to stop......No one should be paid more than the Prime Minister......unless you own the business and earned the money yourself.

The moneys right on the Lolly

The moneys right on the Lolly

Stuff me wouldn’t they look at the mess he just left behind here? Only saw him once in the flesh was like a puppet on steroids