Messara

How one club made a bold decision and lived to tell the story (and they put their stakes up!)

/ Mezzasez

 In the wake of the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments from those associated with clubs whose tracks are destined for closure I felt it was an opportune time to provide some perspective.

As I said last week, a reaction of grief is not unexpected.  However, I was left with the strong impression, after reading several online stories that some of those affected were yet to read the Messara report in full.  What was more surprising however, was the fact that clubs claimed this was out of the blue and unexpected. I realise that clubs in this country are run by volunteers but, unless they were totally removed from the realities of the industry, I find it difficult to believe they were oblivious to the fact we were operating on borrowed time (and borrowed money).

I’ve been in their shoes.  Of the three clubs where I served on committees two were small, country clubs.  We worked hard to keep those clubs afloat, working bees were the norm and the financials were never pretty.

With that type of personal investment there also comes a sense of ownership.  But committees, through the ages, have never “owned” their clubs they are merely caretakers for future generations.  As such they have a duty of care.

I am hopeful that those club representatives who reacted in a predictable knee-jerk manner when contacted by media after the release of the Messara report have now had time to read and digest the report.  I am also hopeful that they are now looking at the big picture and seeing a different future for their clubs.

Just a note here too, if you are gobbing off about the report without reading it then please refer to this segment of my earlier blog post Time to embrace the process and be part of racing’s solution – “Read it through, breathe, read it again.  Sit back, mull it over and ask yourself one question.  Am I going to be part of the solution, or part of the problem?”

If you insist on being one of those people who prefer to live in ignorance or glean your “knowledge” of the detail of the report from the mainstream media, then do the rest of us a favour and do not share your unenlightened opinions with us.  As of Wednesday, when I made my second formal complaint against a mainstream media outlet which persisted in broadcasting and printing mistruths, I decided that I would ignore comment from those who patently have not read the report. Other than to scream at them – you can do that in the Twittersphere by using all capitals – READ THE REPORT! At this stage I have refrained from becoming sweary.

Anyway, for those associated with clubs whose tracks are earmarked for closure who are beginning to see that this might have to be their future I wanted to demonstrate just how it could pan out.

I have often quoted the Feilding Jockey Club as an example of what can happen when a president, supported by his committee and members, makes a very tough, but very brave decision.

To give a little history – Feilding began racing in 1879 and, as stated in Tapestry of Turf it was one of the most prosperous clubs of the time.  In 1905 its two-day Easter meeting recorded turnover of 30,117 pounds.  To put this in perspective the turnover a two-day fixture at Canterbury was 19,784 pounds, while three-days at the Auckland Racing Club saw 27,994 pounds bet.  Things obviously just got better because a meeting at Feilding in 1920 when Gloaming graced the track the on-course crowd of 8368 managed to clock up an incredible 103,000 in turnover.

The club also boasted something which the racing bible claimed was a New Zealand record with Goodbehere family members filling the secretary’s role from 1891 when Edmund Goodbehere took up the position.  Following on from his 33-year reign Edmund’s son Guy served for 30 years before, Edmund’s grandson Brian stepped into the role. His 22-year tenure concluded in 1976, just three years prior to the club’s centenary.

Given its rich – in more ways than one – history Craig McNeill, the club’s president in 1999 did not approach the task lightly when he looked to reshape the club’s future.

Craig recalled the lead up to the decision to sell the Feilding JC property and relocate to Awapuni thus:

“Up until 1998/99 season, the Club was losing money, and basically going backwards and reducing its equity very fast.   A stop had to be put in place for this.

“Within the Committee, various members could recall the closure of Ashhurst Pohangina, Marton and Rangitikei Clubs.   They could see the benefit to those clubs who had gone through the process of centralising racing at one particular venue, namely the Awapuni Racing Centre.

“The decision was made by the then Committee to establish a sub-committee to proceed with the relocating of the Feilding Jockey Club to the Awapuni Racing Centre.

“There was a special meeting called for the purpose of discussing the proposed move. There was a presentation made from various industry personnel, mainly on the pro’s and con’s of staying versus moving.  

“The meeting was then asked to vote on the proposed move and there was a clear majority to proceed with the change of venue to the Awapuni Racing Centre,” he said.

What got the decision across the line, with hardly any opposition, was the fact that the presentation to the meeting clearly showed what would happen if the club stayed.

“What a lot of people do not realise, and the other clubs in the country who are facing closure will come to realise, is that moving made us stronger, not weaker,” Craig said.

“We are focused on the community and sponsors like never before and that sees increased investment and attendance at our meetings.”

The Feilding Jockey Club raced for just over 100 years at their last venue, that land after being sold to the Manawatu District Council in 1999 is now part of Manfeild Park.

The move, which saw the club transfer its racing operations to Awapuni, has been lauded as one of the best decisions made by a New Zealand club in recent decades Craig said.

Back in 1999 the Feilding Jockey club struggled to conduct three low-key midweek race meetings at their course and their feature event – the Feilding Cup – carried a stake of just $8000.

“Today the $50,000 Ricoh Feilding Gold Cup is a Listed open handicap with the club offered $232,500 prizemoney on this day, which is more than they paid out for their three meetings in the 1998-99 season,” Craig McNeill said.

Feilding currently runs three meetings at Awapuni, with the RACE Board allocating them the Manawatu Racing Club’s popular ANZAC Day feature meeting, which has provided the club with a second black type feature day.

“The club is in a very strong financial position and is a major contributor to the RACE concept,” Craig added.

Without making the move he is adamant the club would not have survived and he has no regrets about the decision.

“The club would be long gone,” he said.

To those clubs whose tracks are among the 20 slated to close he offers four bullet points:

  • “Embrace this proposed change”
  • “The Minister has given us a once in a lifetime opportunity – take it.”
  • “Do not be afraid of change.”
  • “Engage now with the venue you are looking to move to and start to agree how you can grow your business.”

“Moving gives the clubs a sustainable future and enables decisions to be focused on the customer and community, not on how to keep a derelict facility going,” he said.

Take it from someone who has been there and, instead of adopting a parochial view which would have heralded the club’s slide into oblivion, took bold action and allowed the club to thrive. History, and future racing generations, will thank you.

 

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Much to digest as we absorb the Messara report

/ Mezzasez

Fall out day.  That’s what a racing friend of mine dubbed today.

Friday 31 August 2018 will be remembered as the day those in the racing industry woke up and suddenly found our industry leading news bulletins across the board.

All those mainstream media types, whose exposure to racing previously may have involved being wined and dined by the Racing Board at a major Cup meeting, were in a muck lather.  Without the benefit of any understanding of what went before and the mess we were in, the recommendations of the Messara report had them in tizzy.

They weren’t alone.  The previous night, while the Rt Hon Winston Peters was delivering the report and before it had been released to the wider public, comments on the live stream of the event proved once again that some people should not be allowed near a keyboard.

There was, and still is, much to digest from the Messara report, this blog post will tackle what featured on this morning’s news.  The points most media latched on to, possibly due to their inability to understand the depth of our problems and what has driven us here, related to track closures and TAB outsourcing.

In general media land these have ended up translating as club closures and the TAB being controlled from Australia.

Subtle differences but enough to churn up a feeding frenzy.

Before we delve further into the mainstream media misconceptions here is the full list of recommendations from the Messara Report.  I do recommend that anyone with any involvement in the industry first reads the report in its entirety before making any comment you can find it here:

https://www.dia.govt.nz/vwluResources/Racing-Report-August-2018/$file/Review-of-the-NZ-Racing-Industry-Report.pdf

  • Change the governance structure, so the NZRB becomes Wagering NZ with racing responsibilities devolving to the individual Codes. This will sharpen the commercial focus of TAB operations and improve the decision-making and accountability of the Codes.
  • Establish Racing NZ as a consultative forum for the three Codes to agree on issues such as entering into commercial agreements with Wagering NZ, approving betting rules and budgets for the integrity bodies, equine health & research, etc.
  • Change the composition and qualifications for directors of regulatory bodies.
  • Request that a Performance and Efficiency Audit of the NZRB be initiated under section 14 of the Racing Act 2003, with particular emphasis on the operating costs of the NZRB.
  • Amend the Section 16 distribution formula of the Racing Act 2003 to a more equitable basis for fixed 10-year terms.
  • Initiate a special review of the structure and efficacy of the RIU and allied integrity bodies, to be conducted by an independent qualified person.
  • Begin negotiations for the outsourcing of the TAB’s commercial activities to an international wagering operator, to gain the significant advantages of scale.
  • Seek approval for a suite of new wagering products to increase funding for the industry.
  • Confirm the assignment of Intellectual Property (IP) by the Clubs to the Codes.
  • Introduce Race Field and Point Of Consumption Tax legislation expeditiously. These two measures will bring New Zealand’s racing industry into line with its Australian counterparts and provide much-needed additional revenue.
  • Repeal the existing betting levy of approximately $13 million per annum paid by the NZRB, given that the thoroughbred Code is a loss maker overall, with the net owners’ losses outweighing the NZRB’s net profit.
  • Clarify legislation to vest Race Club property and assets to the Code regulatory bodies for the benefit of the industry as a whole.
  • Reduce the number of thoroughbred race tracks from 48 to 28 tracks under a scheduled program. This does not require the closure of any Club.
  • Upgrade the facilities and tracks of the remaining racecourses with funds generated from the sale of surplus property resulting from track closures to provide a streamlined, modern and competitive thoroughbred racing sector capable of marketing itself globally.
  • Construct three synthetic all-weather tracks at Cambridge, Awapuni & Riccarton with assistance from the New Zealand Government’s Provincial Growth Fund. Support the development of the Waikato Greenfields Project.
  • Introduce robust processes to establish traceability from birth and the re-homing of the entire thoroughbred herd, as the foundation stone of the industry’s ongoing animal welfare program.
  • Increase thoroughbred prizemoney gradually to over $100 million per annum through a simplified three-tier racing model, with payments extended to tenth place in all races.

Now let’s just take a look at those two items which have been the focus of media attention today.

The recommendations around the outsourcing of the TAB’s commercial activities are as follows:

  1. Progress full operational outsourcing of all domestic wagering, broadcast and gaming operations, to a single third-party wagering and media operator of international scale, under a long-term arrangement with the NZRB (Wagering NZ) holding the licence and contracting all operational activities to a selected outsourced operator.
  2. Seek the approval for the NZRB (Wagering NZ) to: • Conduct virtual racing games; • Remove legal restrictions in Section 33(3) of the Gambling Act that prevent the NZRB (Wagering NZ) from acquiring class 4 gaming licence venues; • Conduct in-the-run race betting; • Conduct betting on sports where there is no agreement with a national sports organisation.
  3. Complete the chain of agreements and arrangements to prepare for the outsourcing process including the assignment of Intellectual Property (IP) by the Clubs to the Codes.

Hardly what it was painted as by an over-exuberant AM Show this morning, but that is what happens when an industry is so far off the radar as to be non-existent for most!

Again, I suggest reading the entire report to see all the alternatives which were considered and how these recommendations were reached.

The issue of track closures was one which also tripped up more than a few this morning, with most of the courses mentioned being ones which were labelled to continue.  For some reason the perception seemed to be that those tracks destined end their days would all be country tracks.

There will, of course, be a grieving period for those associated with the following 20 tracks:

  • Dargaville • Avondale • Thames • Rotorua • Wairoa • Stratford • Hawera • Waipukurau • Woodville • Reefton • Greymouth • Hokitika • Motukarara • Timaru • Kurow • Oamaru • Waimate • Omakau • Winton • Gore.

However, as the Messara report stresses, the clubs associated with the tracks would be encouraged to continue to race at nearby venues.  Had the recommendations of the 1970 McCarthy report been acted upon in full then many of these tracks would have closed some 45+ years ago and perhaps we may not have required such bold actions now.

The recommendations around track closures, which also includes those around prizemoney (the positive news which appears to have been overlooked by the general media) follows:

  1. Reduce the number of existing thoroughbred racing venues in New Zealand over the next 6 years by 20, from 48 to 28 venues, and establish Cambridge as a new synthetic track racing and training venue within 1 year, so making a total of 29 venues. Sell all freehold racecourse land of the closed venues with the proceeds to accrue to NZTR. Maintain racecourses in all regions of New Zealand where racing is currently conducted. Not require any Race Clubs to close but encourage them to race at another venue or merge with another Club.
  2. Significantly improve the racing and facilities infrastructure at all remaining tracks over the next 6 years and build 3 synthetic racing and training tracks (including Cambridge) over the next 3 years, at an estimated total cost of about $190 million.
  3. Fund all the proposed capital expenditure by the sale of surplus freehold racecourse land, grants from the Provincial Growth Fund for the synthetic tracks and co-funding by some Race Clubs. Clubs racing at retained venues (or NZTR as per recommendation 5 below) should also be required to sell any surplus freehold land holdings to help co-fund infrastructure investment.
  4. Build an exceptional new racing and training venue in the Waikato within the next 8 to 10 years at an estimated cost of at least $110 million and then close and sell the Te Rapa, Cambridge and Te Awamutu racecourses to fund the development. There would then be 27 thoroughbred venues racing in New Zealand.
  5. To allow for recommendations 1 to 4 to be implemented, amend the Racing Act 2003 and any other relevant legislation to provide for the vesting in NZTR of the ownership of freehold racecourse land and other net assets of Race Clubs. This would allow NZTR, if it decided not to issue licences to a Race Club/s to hold any race meetings at a venue, to then take possession of the Race Club/s freehold racecourse land and sell the land with the proceeds being used to benefit the entire thoroughbred racing industry. The proposed amendments to the Racing Act 2003 should also facilitate the ability of NZTR to negotiate loans, secured by the freehold racecourse land, to fund infrastructure investment before the freehold land of the closed venues is sold.
  6. To introduce a simplified 3 Tier structure for New Zealand thoroughbred racing and a simplified Prizemoney Matrix that will provide for about $110 million of prizemoney (up from $53.7 million in 2016/17 and an estimated $59.4 million in 2017/18), including 6th to 10th prizemoney, subject to the implementation of the other recommendations in this report. All races at the same meetings to have the same minimum prizemoney whether they be an Open Handicap or a Maiden race.
  7. To introduce the measures described to reinforce the importance of good corporate governance practices by Race Club controlling Boards or Committees, to improve the Race Club management skills of CEOs and senior staff and to lift the NZTR minimum acceptable standards for racecourses in terms of the presentation of racing tracks, training tracks and facilities infrastructure. Increased attention should also be given to ensuring the adequate training of all Race Club staff and, in particular, track maintenance personnel.

If you have managed to get this far then you will realise that this report is not a “once over lightly” effort.  There is depth and the type of insightful and intelligent analysis which, had it been present at NZRB may have precluded the need for a report.

Over the following weeks I will be unpacking the report and, with luck, following its progress through to implementation of Mr Messara’s recommendations in their entirety.

As our Racing Minister said last night,”Many will have plenty to say,”  however I encourage them to take on his advice to “judge [the report] against what is critical for the industry to survive.”

The Minister, as he concluded his address last night, ended with the words Brutus spoke to Cassius in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

This quote adorned my office wall for many years.  A reminder to seize opportunity when it came so as not to be left rueing what might have been.

As the Minister said last night, we can either accept parochialism and poverty or use Mr Messara’s report as a blueprint for survival.

Time to learn from the past and forget the piecemeal approach

/ Mezzasez

When I was a kid, a journey with my grandfather was a travelogue of often defunct racecourses and anecdotes of what had gone on there years earlier.

My favourite tale involved the old Carterton track where he claimed he broke his little toe.

Between the time he quit race riding and established himself as a trainer many of the tracks he used to frequent had gone the way of the Dodo so there were plenty of stories.

So, what has that got to do with anything you ask?  Well, last week the NZ Herald, finally realising the Messara report was an eventuality whether their NZRB-employed “reporter” liked it or not, ran what I refer to as a “non-story”.

With the report yet to be released and so consequently light on any facts the writer went for the divide and rule approach by focusing on the fact Messara had been asked to focus on the thoroughbred code.

The reasoning was twofold he decided – our code had “fallen the furthest behind its Australian equivalent in terms of stake money and infrastructure, particularly New South Wales racing” and this doozy – “it was serious players in the thoroughbred industry, like Sir Patrick Hogan, who were among the most vocal Peters supporters before last year’s election.”  Right….so now we have established the level of media we are dealing with, lets move on to another aspect of the piece which left readers in no doubt as to the writer’s absolute terror that the gravy train may be about to derail.

Lacking an actual story, he decided to attempt to provoke the provinces with the following statement: “Reducing the number of racing venues in New Zealand also looks certain to be recommended but again that will be met with considerable resistance in some regions.”

No prizes for either assumption.  There is no doubt that, for our population, we do have a surfeit of tracks, likewise, if you are going to suggest to a club that they might want to curtail their activities and relocate then you had better be armed with a good argument.

Not every club is double-blessed in the way the Feilding Jockey Club, New Zealand’s best example of a club moving down the road, was – with the advantage of owning land someone else was prepared to pay money for AND being driven by a forward-thinking president and committee who put industry interests first. If you need further convincing just compare their Cup stake these days to the figure they ran for at their old home track.

Considerable resistance is an understatement based on my personal experience too.  I am old enough to remember going racing at the Opaki track just outside of Masterton – in May, it wasn’t pleasant.  At the time, working at BloodHorse magazine I was already aware of the glut of tracks in the country and the fact that some of them were looking pretty shabby and struggling to survive.

In my youth and naivety I suggested to a few of the locals – all heavily involved in the industry – that it wouldn’t be long before we saw racing in the Wairarapa solely at Tauherenikau.  Needless to say the reaction was instant and negative.

The same suggestion, it turned out, was made in the 1946 Finlay Royal Commission, although no one reminded me of that at the time!  Eventually it did happen, albeit about 40 years after Finlay and co’s recommendation.

The Herald picked the right irritant if it wanted to stir up anti feeling prior to the release of the Messara report.  The arguments around which clubs should survive, which should amalgamate or pool their resources and which should just pack up their tents have been hotly contested since Finlay’s Commission mooted the same.  

Anyone remember the Otautau Jockey Club or the Waiapu Racing club or the Tolaga Bay Racing club?  Those three were among six clubs the Commission recommended have their licences withdrawn and relocated to other clubs.  By the time the 1970 McCarthy Commission was back revisiting some of the same ground those three had gone, while many of the others which it was suggested might rethink their futures were still raging into the night (I’m looking at you Masterton)!

So here we are five Commissions of Inquiry down the track – yes, FIVE – 1911 Clifford; 1915 Hunter; 1920 Kent; 1946 Finlay and 1970 McCarthy – obviously we are very slow learners, something Waikato Stud’s Garry Chittick reminds us of regularly.

On top of these Commissions we’ve also had a Ministerial Review, which I vaguely remember in the early 1990s; the PwC industry report of 2002; the Ernst & Young Performance and Efficiency Audit of the NZRIB of 1997 (what I wouldn’t give to see something like that delving into Jackson St these days!); the Racing Industry Working Group report in 2003 and that is probably only scratching the surface.

And where do we find ourselves people?

Being controlled by an obese organisation which is haemorrhaging money via the open oozing wound which is its operating costs.  It suckles 870+ employees, with the knowledgeable and necessary being squeezed out at the expense (and I mean expense) of the six-figure earners who are disconnected and disinterested.

We are racing for stakes which wouldn’t – at the lower level – be out of place in a racebook from thirty years ago, while costs have continued to escalate.  The following from the 1970 McCarthy Commission report would not be too far removed from how NZ trainers are operating today – “training fees charged by the licenced trainers barely covered the costs of feed and labour…trainers relied chiefly on their customary 10 percent share of stakes for their personal income.”  You want to know why so many of our promising young horses are sold off-shore, there’s your answer.

Our infrastructure is struggling to remain fit for purpose thanks to decades of neglect – if it wasn’t for the weight of Health and Safety demands number eight wire would be all that was holding us together in some places.

Make no mistake, this Messara report will paint a clear picture of what needs to be done and don’t be surprised if it sounds vaguely familiar.  After all, we’ve had a swag of Commissions and reports which have recommended the way forward. In each and every case these have been adopted in a piecemeal fashion, with the hard decisions avoided to our detriment.

The 1970 McCarthy report, in its conclusion, was wary of this after stating its recommendations were designed with the object of presenting one comprehensive plan of reform.

It stated: “Piecemeal adoption would lose much of the advantage of a plan aimed at ensuring a viable future for the industry as a whole.  Hopes of this are less likely to be fulfilled if the recommendations are not seen as inter-related.”

The final statements of that Royal Commission are worth repeating in full:

“We cannot leave our task without stressing once more two points which we have made often during this report.  The first, that though racing and trotting are merely different parts of an industry which includes other groups as well and which must therefore have machinery to co-ordinate and direct it, yet we firmly believe that the two codes should be left to decide their own internal structures and run their own affairs as they themselves would wish, without direction from others, save when the economic welfare of the whole industry is involved.  Because of this belief we have refrained from some positive recommendations which we might otherwise have made about matters which we think would be better changed. The second point is, that though we are convinced that the industry will experience increasing difficulties and challenges in the years ahead, its situation is far from desperate; it has much vitality and many forces for good. It must, however, prepare for the future by mobilising and employing them with the greatest efficiency.  Only if it does that, will it live vigorously and prosper.”

We had the chance in 1970 but lacked the cojones to make the changes needed.  Let’s not make the same mistake this time.

 

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Winners are grinners, until you delve into the figures!

/ Mezzasez

Forgive me for the length of this blog post as I set out to write about one topic and then I had a winner!

Yes, one of the fab four in which I hold varying sized shares rocked up at Ruakaka and showed the world what a Galloping Weka can do.  Wekaforce, a daughter of Showcasing and Spera, was introduced to me by Janine and Les Wallace and so I joined the large team (including several mates) which races her from Tony Pike’s stable.

Wekaforce showed she might have an interesting career in front of her with a smart winning effort at her first trial at Te Teko recently and hence she found herself today in a two-year-old race.

While Vinnie Colgan had been on board at the trial his unavailability today meant Michael “The King” Coleman climbed on board.  It had been a couple of decades since he last won for me, I reminded him via text last night. “Couple? Try three,” was his pithy reply – obviously my various trainers weren’t putting him on enough!

So, long story short Wekaforce showed she was well named and added to Showcasing’s ever-growing band of winners with a four and a quarter length victory.   Vinnie may have difficulty prising Michael off in the future!

As I’ve written previously, it’s always a huge buzz when you have a winner and great fun when you can share it with your friends.  However, as I’ve also written before we are all in this for the love of it and that excitement because the financial returns just aren’t there at the moment.

I feel confident as I write “at the moment” thanks to the promise of the Messara overhaul.  At last it feels as though someone might slash through all the wastage at the NZRB resulting in increased returns to those who are actually forking out to put on the show.

So, in a convoluted way that brings me to the original topic I had in mind before I got side-tracked by a winner!

Racing’s contribution to the nation’s economy has been laid out in some detail in the latest Size and Scope report produced by IER for the NZRB.

IER have a long-standing relationship with the Racing Board, having conducted research at Summer Festival and other key meetings over the past six years.  The company brands itself as a boutique business consultancy which specialises in the areas of research, strategy development, economic and social impact studies, and performance measurement in sport, racing, tourism and the entertainment industry.

I must confess that I did nag NZRB CEO John Allen as to when the document might appear online, having read that it was due around now.  To his credit within days the report surfaced exactly when promised yesterday afternoon.

Much of what is reported should be widely known by those at the coal face and, while I will focus on a few points here, I recommend checking out the original 90+ page document if you are interested in looking at how the industry is tracking in your own region or if you want more detail around the other two codes.

The big numbers are around the industry’s value-added contribution to the country’s economy which sits at $1.6billion – $1,633.5m to be precise.

We also employ 14,398 FTE, with 46% of these employed as a direct result of racing activity (take a bow NZRB, you’re likely to be top of the heap here, if not with numbers employed then definitely thanks to your wage bill).

When it comes to the other figures I have only concentrated on the thoroughbred code and, please note, the numbers relate to the 2016-17 season.

The total number involved in our code is 34,768 which is made up of 3,705 breeders; 15,951 owners; 1013 trainers; 228 jockeys; 2633 racing club and industry staff; 6475 staff employed by participants; and 4,763 volunteers.

During the period under review we welcomed 3,354 live foals, while there were 6,376 thoroughbreds in training.  The majority of these – which I am sure will come as no surprise – were in the Waikato, with 46.9% trained in the industry heartland.  The next two regions, which are each home to 12.7% of the total were Taranaki/Manawatu-Whanganui and Auckland.

During the past season in the wording of the Size and Scope study the “thoroughbred training activity is responsible for generating more than $274 million in expenditure impacts in New Zealand.”

Now remember, this is just the cost for those in our code and while I know we are all incredible optimists this figure just confirms it.  So, we paid $274m to get our thoroughbreds to the races and, at the end of the season, the money distributed to the THREE codes by the NZRB was $135m (according to the IER report) or $137.6m (according to the NZRB Annual report).

Apparently, we’re meant to be ecstatic to be racing for $10,000 minimums (yeah great, 30 years ago winning a $10,000 race paid your training fees for a year, I hate to think how quickly the winner’s share of today’s $10,000 race will be eaten up).

What I find really galling is the fact that the Board wants us to be grateful for that minimum level and the fact they are “giving” the industry $137.6m.  All this while they recorded operating costs of $136.3m last season.

We’re also meant to be grateful that they’ve reeled themselves in a little bit and dropped those costs by $5.1m (3.7%) from the previous season.

If the chairperson of the board is to be believed we’re all idiots and we simply don’t understand why they’ve had to spend so much over the years.  Witness this little snippet from the NZRB’s Statement of Intent 2018-2020 – “The reasons for the historically increasing trends in NZRB’s operating costs over the decade to 2014 have not been well understood in some sectors of the industry,” she said.

Rather than explain to us plebs why it was necessary to spend so much instead we get the old policeman tactic of  “move along folks, nothing to see here” and  Glenda tells us: “However, the key point now is that the current Board and management are succeeding in reducing NZRB’s year on year normal operating costs.”

If that is the key point then the Messara report can’t come soon enough!

In the meantime I shall raise a glass to Wekaforce and the Galloping Wekas team – we might not get rich but we are anticipating plenty of fun based on today’s debut win.