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

Minister announces emergency $72.5 million for racing

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1 hour ago, poundforpound said:

Uncle Shane delivers 26 million from the PGF

The rest, the governments 50 million,  pretty much all goes to RITA .......

It’s a great result for racing....but.....have we solved any of the fundamental revenue and profit  based problems or is this just another band aid slapped on a bleeding artery ?

I'm pretty certain that you and everyone else know the answer to that question. The winding down will continue just a bit delayed and we'll have 2 more AWTs if anyone wants one.

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Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, refinancing debt.  Nothing will change, no money for stakes.  Trackside all but dead and buried, where will the interest in racing be?  Sad indeed.  But all the well paid people at Petone will just carry on life as normal, overseeing the slow death of racing in NZ.

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5 minutes ago, departed said:

Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, refinancing debt.  Nothing will change, no money for stakes.  Trackside all but dead and buried, where will the interest in racing be?  Sad indeed.  But all the well paid people at Petone will just carry on life as normal, overseeing the slow death of racing in NZ.

Probably be seeking a bonus.

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Just now, Leggy said:

I'm pretty certain that you and everyone else know the answer to that question. The winding down will continue just a bit delayed and we'll have 2 more AWTs if anyone wants one.

Mid winter , an inside AWT,  rain blowing sideways , standing up against a hulking rusting derelict stand from  the glory days of old,  leaning up against a builders steel fence , shutters at the old tote booths paint peeling as a few of the same old horses that are left go round again , the CEO who looks like the guy from the UK comedy the fast show from years back  puts a notice up , he's been there a few years this guy collecting a wage  , the notice is the future of Riccarton should they get taxpayer funding , if only the taxpayer would fund us . The future of Riccarton maybe,  doubt it makes the coffee table book, wonders of the racing world .

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Most of us on sites like this understand racing and the huge financial hole it is in, but the wider public do not. Just go on Facebook and read the comments attached to the Stuff article that has been posted detailing the $72.5 mil. This is a big problem for racing/breeding now and into the future. I suspect and in fact know that if racing disappeared the majority of New Zealanders would barely blink. 

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3 minutes ago, kdt said:

Most of us on sites like this understand racing and the huge financial hole it is in, but the wider public do not. Just go on Facebook and read the comments attached to the Stuff article that has been posted detailing the $72.5 mil. This is a big problem for racing/breeding now and into the future. I suspect and in fact know that if racing disappeared the majority of New Zealanders would barely blink. 

Kdt , you've nailed it  totally . Look outside see what others think of game , this won't win friends or supporters . I fear for the future of racing . I know no one under 30 who punts on the game and I work and involved in sport with a lot .

 

 

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4 minutes ago, kdt said:

Most of us on sites like this understand racing and the huge financial hole it is in, but the wider public do not. Just go on Facebook and read the comments attached to the Stuff article that has been posted detailing the $72.5 mil. This is a big problem for racing/breeding now and into the future. I suspect and in fact know that if racing disappeared the majority of New Zealanders would barely blink. 

Yes that is the major problem we have.     Your staunch supporters like we have on this site, then there is the vocal minority that want to see the sport gone, and then the vast majority that are indifferent to it.    The problem is, the indifferent people as you say would not notice if it disappeared, and not going to go out of there way to support it.

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How much will go into stakes? Probably nothing. 

A bit chunk is going into paying for the bullshit artist John Allens hair brained betting plattform that he toured the country  promoting and sucking people in and failing to mention the $17 million a year  licensing fees it cost to run. 

All weather tracks will be used only for the go rounds 2nd tier horses midweek like they are in Australia so the feature day races  and all Saturday meetings will still be up for abandonment like they have been in the past.

For horses to race on the all weather tracks they need to first trial on them to get used to them. Can you see truck loads of horses travelling from Southland and Otago to trial for zero $$ at Riccarton and the owners paying for that, I think not.

A couple of my mates have been doing alright on the the punt lately: How does the TAB encourage their betting.ANSWER they got emails from the TAB saying due to their betting activity the TAB informs them they are now ineligeble for all promotions and bonus bets. What a way to reward the loyal punter. And they wonder why people are betting offshore which they now intend to stop.

 

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1 hour ago, Red Rum said:

Kdt , you've nailed it  totally . Look outside see what others think of game , this won't win friends or supporters . I fear for the future of racing . I know no one under 30 who punts on the game and I work and involved in sport with a lot .

 

 

Some of those guys and gals on BGP look under 30 to me but my eyesight might not be 100 anymore:rcfe-happy-2:

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1 hour ago, kdt said:

Most of us on sites like this understand racing and the huge financial hole it is in, but the wider public do not. Just go on Facebook and read the comments attached to the Stuff article that has been posted detailing the $72.5 mil. This is a big problem for racing/breeding now and into the future. I suspect and in fact know that if racing disappeared the majority of New Zealanders would barely blink. 

Part of the problem is racing has no one in its corner speaking out. Successful administrators know how to communicate and explain to the general public by giving interviews to every network saying how important racing is, answering critics etc. When you don't do that the void gets filled by all the naysayers, then public opinion turns on you and the politicians bail.

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1 hour ago, JJ Flash said:

Some of those guys and gals on BGP look under 30 to me but my eyesight might not be 100 anymore:rcfe-happy-2:

Fair enuff , but I don't know them or play or coach them and I said I don't know anyone under 30 who partakes in the horse punting  But you make a very good point JJ .

 

 

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Thank you minister. You have at least created a life line that we should all be very thankful for, because without it, we were dead. We were technically insolvent. But remember, this is as much about sports as racing. Let's simple be honest about all of this and call it for what it is. Ground root sports and sporting organisations would also be stone motherless dead, so let's not get ahead of ourselves that it's only racing.

The problem that I have is that I don't think it's enough. If you have a current deficit of $45m and what looks like an operational liability for the FOB platform of about $26m, which they describe as its outstanding supplier bill, and you've got $20m for 2 all weather tracks, a $2.6m bill to the DIA to fast track work on on-line gambling revenue (what ever that means) and you're given $72.5m then the obvious is the obvious. 

So start with $72.5m less $45m less $26m less $20m less $2,6m and you've got -$21m. Hopefully the $50m to RITA is a grant and not some sort of I've got to pay this back grant. Hopefully RITA has re-negotiated the Open Bet/ Paddy Power contract to become a completely different deal. In respect of this, who ever made that original deal needs to be gone-dom. So let's say that happened and it was a good deal using a pigs ear to make a hand bag and the $26m is a good job done, are we happy that $20m is spent on two all weather tracks. It's a grant so I suppose it's OK but it would seem that its part of the $50m given as the grant to RITA from the PGF. Thank you Shane. We really appreciate this as well.

So now we've still got a debt of $21m, so I suppose halving the debt accrued by the past RIB idiots is a good move. Thank you RITA and minister for helping with this. We really appreciate that as well.

Love to know what the DIA thingy is all about. So where to next.....re capitalisation...."over the next three months officials will assess recapitalisation options" . Ever been on one of those board meetings and a member calls for recapitalisation. So now we're moving to ensure legislation is sorted to sell assets. I'd have them all valued to figure out which ones go and which ones stay. This Covid thingy couldn't have come at a better time. Remember the FOB platform....$50m worth and a $17m annual monkey....who needed that....sports.

So what's this all really about? A couple of good moves to get rid of the stench in the kitchen as long as they are good moves for the long term. Hopefully they renegotiated the Open Bet deal. But what now are the options? Three months for considering recapitalisation. That means three months of slash and burn looking at all options. What are they? Sell some race tracks, re-group others.....well that sort of should have happened of you followed the Messara report. Or the other rattle in the closet....outsourcing.....or maybe a bigger bold step called partial sale of the TAB/ tote license?!?!

Now that's where things get interesting....sale of the Tote. Could that be possible?

 

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8 hours ago, We're Doomed said:

Does anyone have any idea what the $26m of outstanding supplier payments are? That's a bit more than being a few days behind with your power and phone bills. 

Look forward WD !.......I note Tony Pike [ex - accountant] mentioned this as well.

Every year at year end 31 July , Creditors have been between $25k and $36K [2019].

These mostly under the headings of Accruals ...probably  the monthly cost of expenses paid once or twice a year...see below.

Employee entitlements......annual leave and contractual payments ,maybe some redundancies.

Racing and Code distributions payable.

Trade Payables/creditors......likely to be Communication and technology exp and Premises and Equipment exp.

These would be ongoing even without NZ racing.And there could be some GST and Gaming duty .....and abit of NSO Sports commissions e.g. Table tennis, Tennis ,E-Sports etc.

The Annual reports are all on RITA website....still waiting for the latest overdue 6 monthly one.

I find the RITA one has a lot of information........hid the Loan a bit and didn't give details of it.

I think the 2019 one not as informative as those previous.

Of course plenty of 'positivity' in the narrative ,about all the records set e.g. Active accounts [no doubt the reason for free bets] and new account holders[ no doubt cos they gave you $20 to join !]A few years back they described themselves as a 'Powerhouse.

And Glenda and John often stated that it was a myth they weren't doing well......they said they were doing great......NEXT MINUTE !

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And the NZ Herald is tonight suggesting in an article that one of the "hooks" is that NZ'ers will be prevented from betting with overseas betting agencies, in the hope that substantial amount will then filter through the NZ TAB instead. Thoughts? 

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9 hours ago, Patiti said:

The Aussies did it to us and I have been surprised we haven't done it earlier.

Even NZ punters who happen to be in Aus on holiday are barred from betting on NZ TAB.

Yes, that is an interesting one. You can't access the NZ TAB from Aussie and France, and I'm sure other places, but you can from the UK. And of course we can access Aussie totes from NZ.  As I understand it, it all comes down to whether there are agreements in place to pay some sort of rights if people in one country access overseas totes. I have no idea why there isn't some reciprocal agreement between NZ and Australia. Perhaps someone could explain the current state of play. This was of course where the NZ industry was going to make millions by charging Aussies to bet on our races. It just never occured to anyone that our racing isn't particularly appealing. You only have to be in Aussie and watch a group race from NZ at Otaki or Trentham and then they switch to an Aussie provincial meeting at somewhere like Kembla Grange, and you think: "hold on, which of those is the premier track?"

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3 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

I note that the two all weather tracks will each cost $13m. The govt tosses in $10 for each and Awapuni and Riccarton front with $3m each. I understood Awapuni wasn't in great financial shape, and Riccarton can't even afford to pull down their eyesore grandstand, let alone build a new one.

3 million Riccarton have to put in , they have 3 million ? .really !!!!!  Quite frankly if they have 3 mIlion  why have they got  crumbling , dangerous concrete steps in front of that old derelict stand . Utter madness the whole thing . I don't mind awt racing as such , but honestly running them round there in front of that old derelict stand with no one there to drive pitiful amounts of turnover off track . Who  comes up with this shit .It a big pit of thrown away money . 

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8 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

I note that the two all weather tracks will each cost $13m. The govt tosses in $10 for each and Awapuni and Riccarton front with $3m each. I understood Awapuni wasn't in great financial shape, and Riccarton can't even afford to pull down their eyesore grandstand, let alone build a new one.

Nobody wants the AW tracks its another dinosaur...you wait till horses start breaking down left right and centre...and they will I have seen first hand what happens on these BS tracks....They should have gone with Strathayr and had world class tracks that punters love...but no they went the dumb way as normal.

 

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