All too often with these blog posts I have one idea in mind – occasionally positive – then something happens which leads me down a totally different path.

Once again, that happened this week thanks to an interestingly timed press release from the NZRB wanting to paint a pretty picture of a bright future where they will remain relevant.  Add to that a club whose track is on the Messara report’s closure list and toss it out there to a gullible waiting media and you have said track being used to further NZRB’s PR narrative.

We are now a full two months down the track since the Messara report was released.  We have seen it discussed and dissected, often by those who have not read the document in its entirety, and submissions have been made.

If you are feeling somewhat depressed about the whole process and what the future might hold then read Brian de Lore’s piece in The Informant this week.  A fabulous representative group of the younger generation, who rely on racing for their livelihoods, have shared their thoughts around the industry future.  I was particularly taken with their use of the Malcolm X quote that the future belongs to those who plan for it.

They are certainly right when they go on to say that our industry has “languished at the hands of those too short-sighted or ill-equipped to make the tough decisions and necessary changes.”

As if their words had conjured him up like the infamous Dr Faust, that same evening the man who sold the thoroughbred code down the river by signing off on Section 16 of the 2003 Racing Act was front and centre on TVNZ news.

Interestingly, the person who was largely responsible for several industry bodies casting a vote of no confidence in his organisation around that action, has now taken on the mantle of protector of country racing.  Go figure?

The subject of the TVNZ story was the Gore racecourse and its survival.

Forget the future of the entire industry.  Forget the other 90% of the Messara report.  Let’s just focus on the fact that the good people of Gore want to keep their track.

Of course, it is impossible trying to get the New Zealand general media to get their heads around what has been going on in racing for the past 15 years.  As far as they are concerned racing occurs during a small window which begins around Cox Plate time and rolls through the spring carnival, summer Cups and Festival, incorporates the Karaka sales and Karaka Million (thus perpetuating the myth we are all rolling in it) and winds up some time around mid-March.

They must find it bizarre when they are confronted with a mid-week meeting in the boondocks.  The interview subjects for their story were quite telling as they included the failed and tainted administrator and a “trainer” who, according to the NZTR website, does not have a current licence.

While the great unwashed might have ended up having some sympathy for the club president trying to save her venue, there was probably a sense of healthy cynicism when it came to local politician Hamish Walker and his petition.  Those of us with long memories can remember going down this route before.

The clumsy link between a poor, put-upon, provincial track facing oblivion and “shock horror” the NZRB issuing a press release which proclaimed “distributions to the three racing codes reaching a record $148.2million” smacked of desperation from an organisation which itself is facing oblivion.

Until such time as the Annual Report, signed off by actual accountants – hopefully not the same ones who signed off on the error-ridden Statement of Intent – is sighted I am not buying their numbers.

According to the press release the Annual Report will be released on Friday 7 December at the NZRB AGM at their head office in Petone.

If that is the case, and one can rely on so little of the information coming out of the NZRB Head Office being based on fact, then there will be little or no time for perusal of the figures prior to the meeting.  Given the fantasy figures used in the Statement of Intent I am sure that once us poor plebs can view the Annual Report online it will be very well studied.

In the meantime, expect the continuing party line from NZRB that all is well with them financially and the Messara report is a giant conspiracy designed to crush racing in the heartland of New Zealand.  There should be a prize for the first general media journalist to notice that the NZRB emperor’s new clothes are indeed non-existent and to start looking at the parts of the Messara report which don’t relate to proposed track closures!

While we wait for that modern miracle to occur, I hope everyone enjoy the purist’s race day on Saturday – what’s not to love about a race day where every race is a group race and no less than four group ones!