Month: October 2019

Above: Bob Morris (left) with good friends and retired trainers Don Sellwood (middle) and Royce Dowling at Bob’s Cambridge home earlier this year

by Brian de Lore
Published 31 October 2019

‘A wonderful life in horses,’ is how I would describe the life of my close friend Bob Morris, who passed away in Cambridge on October 17^th, one month short of his 92^nd birthday.

In Bob’s passing, New Zealand lost one of the very best horsemen it’s ever known. He was also one of the great characters, a great stockman, a great mentor to many successful people in horses, and in his own right, very successful as an owner, trainer and breeder.

Robert Lloyd Morris was born in Cambridge in 1927, and it was there he lived for almost his entire life. He was a man who commanded unending respect from all who knew him. He was a man of the land who had an extraordinary knowledge of farming stock and thoroughbred horses.

A quiet achiever, he avoided taking credit for anything, or for helping anyone who needed help; he often shared his vast knowledge to the thoroughbred fraternity. He was a man of decisive action who didn’t suffer fools but equally was kind of heart, a loyal friend, and a man who liked his steak medium-rare.

He bred and raced numerous top horses over a long period. His most significant success as a breeder came with the Geoff Murphy trained Abdul in the 1970 W.S. Cox Plate. Abdul also won the C.F. Orr Stakes, the Sandown Guineas, the AJC All-Aged Stakes and the Liverpool City Cup.

He also bought and raced Savoir (Sovereign Edition) which won the 1000 Guineas at Caulfield, and the VRC Wakeful Stakes at Flemington, and on numerous occasions was second to Champion Filly Surround in the 1976/77 season.

In 1956 when aged 29, Bob took Sir Woolf Fisher’s outstanding sprinter, El Khobar, by ship to America after the horse had a string of victories in both New Zealand and Australia. The son of Gabador won the BATC Doomben Ten Thousand Guineas, The Ascot Stakes, and the AJC Warwick Stakes.

In Brisbane in 1956, he also won a match race with Syntax by eight lengths and was the best sprinter in Australia that year. El Khobar also had a successful race career in the USA before retiring to stud, firstly in the USA, and then back in New Zealand at Sir Woolf’s Ra Ora Stud at East Tamaki.

The accompanying photo of Bob with El Khobar in the USA surfaced only after Bob’s death. Although Carol Marshall worked for Bob, and was with him for 47 years, she had never before been shown the El Khobar photos – Bob wasn’t one to promote himself, even to the smallest degree.

Bob never married and is survived by his older sister Grace and his nieces and nephews, and Carol Marshall, who worked for Bob and lived with him and his older sister Margaret for all her working life before Margeret’s passing only three years ago at age 94. 

His best friend was the late Maurice Paykel of Fisher & Paykel fame. They were very similar characters, completely devoid of ego but realists, intelligent, and they shared a good sense of humour and a passion for horses. Bob was the practical horseman and Maurice was the enthusiast, and together they bred and raced many horses together over many years.

Maurice Paykel turned down two knighthoods during his lifetime, which was the measure of his humility, and Bob, like his friend preferred to stay under the radar Both were humble men to a fault, and close friends.

Together they bred and raced both the Hermes mare Sequitur and her daughter, Sequita, by Sovereign Edition. Both fillies/mares were multiple black-type winners.

When Maurice Paykel died aged 88, one obituary said: “Paykel has been described as a caring person, always adhering to high standards.” That was also Bob Morris to a T. Bob was the most punctual of men and detested latecomers and the thought of being late. When off the farm, he was a dapper dresser and always wore a hat to the races.

In the early days of Cambridge Stud, Bob had a significant influence on the preparation of yearlings and was a big help to Sir Patrick Hogan in getting the Stud established.

Sir Tristram’s first stud groom John White (aka Whitey) described Bob as “an outstanding horseman and outstanding with all stock, for that matter. Even with the cranky old Sir Tristram, Bob used to clip his mane, and all the yearlings manes, with a pair of hand shears. Because Bob was tall and skinny, he could stand up beside Paddy and do the perfect job on a difficult horse.

“His horsemanship was outstanding to watch,” said Whitey.  “In his lunge, he had a rope across the top to which he tied to the horses, and if the horse had a go, or fell over, that rope had enough slack, and the horse wouldn’t hit his head on the ground.

“I can’t say enough about the man, to be honest,” continued Whitey. “He was a strong man, and he could fire-up if he saw any poor horsemanship. But over the years he gave me a lot of good advice, especially on buying and selling horses. A lot of the best advice I ever had came from Bob.”

My own friendship with Bob began in the late 1970s at a Trentham Yearling Sale. In the mid-1980s I went to Ra Ora Stud only on Bob’s encouragement. He was always my mentor. I viewed him as the giant who stood out from his peers, and I know I was right.

Bob’s view about looking at horses was, that you should form an opinion within 10 seconds of looking, and never go back to change your mind. He also placed a strong emphasis on how the horse’s ears were set; he liked them large enough and properly set – “the lugs are important,” he used to say.

Bob was different in many ways. He never forced his opinion on you, but he knew if you were open to learn, or closed to fail, and he acted accordingly without fuss or condemnation. He had a way about him that was special, a way not detected by many unless you got close to him.

And those that got close to him like Carol Marshall, John White and others will know that. It was a privilege to be a small part of the life of Bob Morris – he was a special man who made a difference to a lot of horse people.

Bob lived his life by his own rules, and in the end, went out by his own rules. He hated the thought of being a burden; he hated the thought of incapacitation from his deteriorating health, and in the end, he beat that inevitability by exiting on his own terms – the determination and courage he displayed throughout his life stayed with him to the very end.

RIP Bob, you were a colossus amongst horsemen (although you would hate reading this and probably deny it), and your memory is now etched into the annals of man-equine immortals.

Dedicated this week to the memory of my long-time friend, confidant, and all-round good guy Bob Morris who passed away last Thursday one month short of his 92^nd birthday.  He was an outstanding stockman, the best horseman I ever met, an inspiration to scores of horse people, proud, humble, highly respected, and my mentor and source of strength for the past 40 years. Bob was courageous and lived and died by his own rules – the finest man I ever knew. RIP Bob, your memory will live long.

by Brian de Lore
Published 25 October 2019

Do the research, speak to reliable people, and gather trustworthy information, and it’s not that difficult to discover the truth. It takes time and common sense and a bringing together of facts to point you in the direction of sound conclusions.

That’s all this blog is about. No delight is gained from a weekly barrage of hand-grenade tossing to administrative authorities to encourage them to act in the best interests of the industry stakeholders. Negativity is depressing in every language, but if you see something worthwhile slipping away that is salvageable, are you not morally obliged to do something about it.

Every week that passes by, I want to give up writing this stuff and do something more fulfilling with happy outcomes, but every week I receive more and more phone and email encouragement to continue the penned fight to hold industry decision-making to account.

One of the major problems is lack of industry awareness through want of a publication. Jonny Turner of the Otago Daily Times – the only major independent newspaper left in New Zealand – is perhaps the only writer left prepared to highlight these serious issues.

The loss of The Informant has been catastrophic. NZRB/RITA’s Best Bet’s is hard to find and hardly worth finding, and showed its colours last week when published on Thursday with no Caulfield form. How low does it have to sink? Do these people not correlate the formguide’s potential to stimulate betting turnover.

Boring it may be to bring back the Titanic analogy again, but this is a snapshot of  New Zealand racing. The NZ First guy is on deck talking to the DIA guy, and both are oblivious to the third and fourth class passengers scurrying for lifeboats after the ship has struck the iceberg. One says to the other, “I hope this North Atlantic weather improves tomorrow so we can have that game of deck tennis.”

On radio last week Racing Minister Winston Peters claimed he was spending far too much time on the racing portfolio which is in contrast to his Chief-of-Staff and political scientist Jon Johanassen’s revelation to The Optimist about five months ago when he said that if the Boss had to spend more than two hours a week on racing matters, then it was excessive and something was wrong.

Well, something is wrong, drastically wrong. Perhaps the Minister needs to increase his input from two hours to two days a week, but we all know he won’t. That leaves his right-hand-man Johanssen at the helm and steering the course while only giving Winston the co-ordinates once a week during that two-hour session. It’s evident Johanssen is the man plotting the course.

No skin in the game, no knowledge of racing, and no consequences for Johanssen when they blow the whistle for full-time on racing. On the other hand, Johanssen is the man who will advise and steer NZ-First policy or at least enact the policy, towards the supreme goal of NZ-First getting over the five percent threshold in the election next year, and retaining Winston’s position as power-broker for further coalition deals. That appears to be his prime focus.

Racing, like it or not, will be a political football for the next 12 months and the outcome for our industry will be inconsequential to all political parties – only the election result will matter while racing gets a further battering – if by that time the bank hasn’t called in its loan.

Aspirant National Party leader Judith Collins has already started, telling members of the Gore Racing Club a couple of weeks ago a vote for National will save their Club from being victimised in the venue closure plan. Shadow Minister for Racing Ian McKelvie has been talking about ‘nationalism’ and keeping the TAB for ourselves – a poorly conceived statement, Ian, showing you haven’t grasped the most crucial component of the Messara Report.

McKelvie may not have remembered that Nathan Guy espoused identical sentiments during National’s nine-year reign during which racing received nothing in return – treated like a colony of lepers. During his five-year stint as Racing Minster, Guy paraphrased the McKelvie view and also appointed Glenda Hughes as Chair who, in turn, appointed John Allen as CEO in that John Key/Hughes sideways shift deal.

Did racing ever thank you for that, Nathan? Well then, “thank you’ on behalf of racing. It was a minus $200 million decision for racing – we got the colony of lepers sidestep. No one is going to forget National’s nine-year treatment of racing in a hurry but, then again, we have to weigh it all up against the benefits racing has derived from NZ-First, the coalition, and Winston as our Minister over the past two years.

Imagine a set of old-fashioned scales; the dish on both sides is empty. No weight either side! That’s not to say our Minister in this two-year-old stint hasn’t made an effort and put in place a multitude of things such as reviews, committees, meetings, boards, legislation, working streams, etc, etc. But the tangible benefits for the industry, so far, is zero.

Anyone adding up the benefits accrued over the past 11 years from either side of the political spectrum, may elect not to vote at all at the next election. Or as an alternative, find some obscure party with no hope, but with a leader who makes a real-time contribution by going racing or just having a punt.

The aforementioned notion of seeking the truth in a world full of fake news was further dented this week when perusing the Grant Thornton five-year Racing Board Performance and Efficiency Audit. I would describe it as shallow, soppy, non-investigative, friendly to NZRB, and a complete waste of effort and, more importantly, money.

It’s not worth reading. If a non-racing person read it independently and bereft of industry knowledge, he/she would be lulled into believing that with some minor tweaking, the racing industry is going along okay.

Here’s an excerpt that demonstrates its shallowness: “The Fixed Odds Betting Platform cost $1.1m more than in the original business case (3% overrun) and was delivered 5 months later than planned. The cost was reported as $40.8m by the CEO to the industry and to the NZRB Board (sources: RITA website “June 2019 – Industry Update” and 29 January 2019 FOB Board Update).”

Grant Thornton used the RITA website as it’s ‘source’ on claiming the FOB exceeded budget by only three percent. Yet I can produce a recording of CEO John Allen claiming at one of his industry conversation meetings at Riccarton that the cost of the FOB would be $25 million. Later, in the letter from Glenda Hughes to the Trainers’ Association, the former Chair said it was $30 million. Over time it crept up to $40 million as the overruns became more evident – why don’t we just make it up as we go?

And then the exorbitant costs of the 125 or so contract IT people that was not capitalised, hiding the actual cost of something in the vicinity of $50 million. Grant Thornton has accepted the fake news on the website just as we are all supposed to accept it. Isn’t it disrespectful of these people to think the racing participants could believe it Why didn’t they engage Deloitte who have extensive subject knowledge, and would have produced a credible document?

Here’s another example of some soppiness in fake efficiency and performance reporting: “Other than investments in the key strategic initiatives, the NZRB maintained a strict approach to cost management. Excluding strategic initiatives and turnover related expenses, operating expenses have reduced over the last 5 years from $127.8 million in FY15 to $126.5 million in FY19 (unaudited).”

No further need to quote from this painful, drawn-out poorly presented document. It needs binning rather than reading, the same bin the RIU Review should be in after its release in July. The RIU review recommended the RIU should have autonomy and its own board – the exact opposite of what we need.

The Messara Report says the codes should manage themselves, control their own finances and determine their own future. The Burgess RIU Review, written by an ex-policeman, is recommending the integrity component of racing be disenfranchised from the thoroughbred code which flies in the face of the devolvement of power to the codes, and ultimately would prove unworkable and costly. Racing needs fewer boards, not more.

In last week’s blog, I quoted from the last RITA update which included this excerpt: “We expect DIA-led workshops to get underway with the Codes and betting operators later this month.”

Information received this week suggests that meeting will occur today, Friday 25^th. It’s the meeting that could have taken place a long time ago, and it’s only about getting the DIA workshops underway and likely to be about setting the rates and collecting the levies which under DIA direction is almost sure to be a tortoise-like journey.

DIA is also writing the legislation for the Racing Reform Bill No.2 which will have to be completed anytime soon if it’s to have chance becoming law before the year is out. Information gathered suggests it’s being rushed to get it ready for a first reading – not an ideal situation if National is prepared and waiting to disrupt the process for political gain. And not ideal if you want something good set in concrete.

RITA is probably powerless when it comes to expediting the process, but on other matters, it played a part in the appointment of Malcolm Burgess to do the RIU Review, was party to engaging Grant Thornton for the Five-Year Performance and Efficiency Audit, and failed to take the opportunity to clear out all the NZRB executives including CEO John Allen on Day One, July 1^st.

But back to the subject of net tangible assets. When a company’s net tangible assets in the business world are less than its level of debt, it’s called insolvency. Perhaps, in racing it’s called something else because no one else has mentioned the word.

Racing is in a negative state to the tune of around $20 million on that score. Betting Information User Charges and Point of Consumption may be coming next year, but how about the present? This industry is closer to the cliff’s edge that most would realise, and no one is talking about it.

by Brian de Lore
Published 17 October 2019

The muddied waters encountered when having a glance at NZRB annual accounts in recent years stems partly from the inclusion of ‘Gaming Trust Money’ in the net profit result. It’s confusing because it’s not racing income in real money terms.

Racing benefits from Gaming, but it’s not part of the business of running racing and isn’t included in the distribution of funds to the codes. The announced results should always be viewed exclusive of Gaming Trust Money.

Gaming directly funds the Racing Integrity Unit, Judicial Control Authority, and Racing Laboratory Services which in the 2018 Annual Report collectively cost more than $9.5 million (see the table below, Gaming Distribution). In total, racing benefited to the tune of $12.77 million in 2017/18, and in the same year, non-racing sporting clubs were allocated total grants of $3,556,348.98.

Although not prohibited by the Gambling Act of 2003, an agreement apparently exists between Racing and the DIA excluding race clubs from individually applying for grants – such things as a new mower for course maintenance. The Pines Golf Club, for example, applied for a $55,000 grant for a fairway mower and was allocated $10,000.

By comparison, Ashburton Racing Club is stretched financially and lost in the vicinity of $100,000 last year but cannot apply for a mower grant. They are both sporting clubs struggling for funds to survive – what’s the difference? Perhaps it’s time to review that arrangement and give race clubs equal opportunity with all other sporting clubs.

But I digress, the reason for highlighting the Gaming Trust distribution figure is to say the annual accounts would be more readable with its exclusion from the bottom-line profit – especially for simple minds like myself who detest unnecessary over-complication and have trouble dealing with jig-saw puzzles.

It was Isaac Newton who once said: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things,” and Albert Einstein who backed him up when he said: “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

One industry observer last week said (after the announcement of $137 million) that it wasn’t too bad and not much down on the $145 million result from last year. That’s how confusing these accounts can be unless you look long and hard.

So, the real loss for last season was around $30 million ($121 million income less $151 million distribution), and to pay the $151 million to the codes, the bank loan increased by $11 million and now has reached its sealing point of $35,000 million. In the season before last, the true loss was $17 million and when you add this latest result to the mounting debt, the industry has sustained a trading loss of $47 million in two years.

Of course, there could be some cost-cutting to come out when the accounts are eventually released, and the possibility of some depreciation allowance that will improve the figures and make the final result look better. But based on what NZRB has been spending annually, and not allowing for the usual replacement of items such as company vehicles, etc, the past year’s loss is $30 million in real terms.

For thoroughbred racing, the TAB results in 12 meetings between September 19^th and October 3^rd  (2 weeks) collectively showed a tote decline of $1,690,653. Ironically, out of the 12 venues, the only one which showed an overall increase in betting (35.4%) and increase in tote turnover ($101,473) was Gore – also the only one of the 12 earmarked for closure.

The tote turnover is a crucial figure for racing because the returns to the code are much higher than FOB. Fixed-odds-betting increased in all but two of the 12 meetings but overall nine of the 12 had declined on the previous year. The only conclusion to be reached is that the FOB platform has missed all the John Allen projections by the same margin as from here to the moon.

The immediate problem for racing is no cash. RITA has pledged a payout of $151 million to the codes for this season to maintain the $10,000 minimum but on this past year’s result they will have to find a further $30 million profit on a declining TAB turnover.

But as well as finding another $30 million, CEO John Allen has produced a budget which says the profit will be $165 million for 2019/20, which is $14 million above maintaining the current stakes level and a one-year improvement on this past season of $44 million. Well, it’s me that’s supposed to be The Optimist.

We have all seen the John Allen budgets for the last four to five years, and not one has ever come to fruition – the previous year’s missed by $36 million (see my table). Allen is graciously bowing out of the racing game at Christmas and taking all his racing knowledge with him, but in the meantime we have another Allen budget ratified by RITA.

I don’t understand it for a second, but try as I can I still can’t do jig-saw puzzles. Further issues are arising through the debt to the ANZ which was due for a repayment of $9 million at the end of July, and which is supposed to be totally repaid by the end of this current season. Hands up everyone who believes that’s going to happen!

We have to ask ourselves where the increased income is coming from to meet the budget. Currently two Australian betting operators are paying voluntary Betting Information User Charges (BIUC) but the others won’t kick in until next year despite the legislation already having made it law on July 1^st. Point of Consumption levy agreements are still to be negotiated, put in place, and collected and it’s tricky according to some observers. It’s a wait and see how it pans out.

The problem for RITA is the lunatics are still running the asylum in Petone and the DIA makes a snail look like Winx. Here’s proof of progress with John Allen and the DIA which was published in a RITA release on July 17^th:

“A working group, to be chaired by RITA CEO, John Allen and comprising DIA and RITA representatives has been formed to progress as a matter of priority for the industry, the regulations required to give effect to the new revenue streams established under the Racing Reform Act. We are making good progress in dealing with a range of complex issues in relation to the regulations and will provide a further update in the next few weeks.”

Then in RITA’s third statement  almost three months later on October 9^th:

“Introduce Betting Information User Charges and Point of Consumption tax legislation. The Board received an update on the development of Offshore Betting Charges Regulations. These regulations will be drafted by the Parliamentary Counsel Office. The DIA are leading this process but RITA has provided significant support. We expect DIA-led workshops to get underway with the Codes and betting operators later this month.”

How slow! This sort of stuff should have happened months ago. Why didn’t they just give it to the codes in the first instance? The workshops are DIA-led, which means it will happen in DIA-time which is something akin to Bula-time in Fiji for anyone that’s ever been there on holiday.

The industry will know more about the progress when the Statement Of Intent (SOI) is released soon – last year, it was 30^th July, and here we are nearly November. Cost-cutting could be an active feature of the SOI – and it needs to be.

The total cost of running NZRB from the 2018/19 accounts was $213 million. Then add the $40 million to run the three codes and the result is that 50 percent of all revenue from the industry goes on costs – that simply cannot continue.

The Fixed-Odds-Betting platform which was capitalised at $41 million but cost over $50 million, is likely to be written off by 10 percent in the RITA books at the end of July, but what its real value right now? If the TAB was to be outsourced, which it should be, its value only lies in its use up until outsourcing. The ongoing commitments to both Paddy Power and Openbet are other coming issues.

Cash has always been king, but our racing is fast running out of it. The game in New Zealand has been living beyond its means for years, and its high time it woke up to itself and stopped fluffing around. Forget the jigsaw puzzles and overcomplicated procedures and focus on the goal – get the agreements in place and costs down to the bone.

Racing in New Zealand has no assets of any consequence these days and is still exceeding its income with costs. It’s a recipe for a lowering of stakes despite the promises, or even worse – drastic action is required now!

by Brian de Lore
Published 11 October 2019

The strike-rate in Group One races in Australia by New Zealand-breds has been sporadic for a couple of decades, but Saturday at Randwick erased all memory of a run of Epsom Handicap outs with a momentous result for multiple parties.

Celebrating with good cause were Waikato Stud who stand Kolding’s sire, Ocean Park, Trelawney Stud for breeding and racing the Cox Plate winner sire, Wentwood Grange who co-bred, foaled, reared, prepared and sold Kolding at the Premier Sale in 2017, Guy Mulcaster who purchased him for $170, 000, and New Zealand’s pride and joy trainer Chris Waller who made it four Epsom wins, albeit his first with an NZ-bred.

Kolding’s success broke a 27-year drought for a Kiwi-bred horse in the Epsom, the previous being Kinjite in 1992 when the Garry Chittick bred four-year-old son of Centaine and Wenona Girl’s daughter Pilmuir, by Super Gray, took the race by almost two lengths from two more Kiwi-breds in Prince of Praise (Crossways) and Palatin (Palatable).

Prior to Kinjite, New Zealand horses had enjoyed regular success in the Epsom with such names as Dalmacia, Bold Diplomat, Leonotis, Citadel, Lord Nelson and the celebrated Syd Brown-trained Triton who prevailed in 1972 in a historic win over the legendary Goondiwindi Grey, Gunsynd, trained by T.J. Smith.

Garry Chittick was new to the breeding business in the mid-seventies and was yet to establish Thornton Park Stud at Longburn when he attended the Sydney Easter Broodmare Sale. He purchased the Champion and subsequent Australian Hall of Fame inductee Wenona Girl as a 17-year-old mare in foal to Planet Kingdom (Star Kingdom).

Unfortunately for him, the mare had a mishap when unloaded from the plane upon her arrival in New Zealand, and slipped the foal. Three years later in 1978 she produced Pilmuir and ten years after that Kinjite was foaled in Thornton Park’s final season before the Chitticks upped stakes and moved the operation to Waikato Stud.

The Wenona Girl purchase gained justification with Kinjite’s success, but without the accident and with a little luck a Planet Kingdom filly would have greatly sweetened the venture. Wenona Girl won everything – the Winx of her day – with 27 victories from four and a half furlongs to a mile and a half. Fifteen of those wins are today rated as Group One races.

With Garry Chittick cheering home Kolding to his game Epsom win to give Ocean Park his first Group One victory, he was unaware his previous cause to cheer an Epsom winner had been so long ago with one he bred himself.

Others celebrating were Australian jockey Glen Boss who claimed his fourth Epsom and 83^rd Group One winner, and my personal friend in 83-year-old Sydneyite Warren Pegg, who co-bred Kolding and who has had a long and fruitful association with Wentwood Grange at Cambridge.

If not celebrating, the whole of the New Zealand racing and breeding industry would have at least been cheering home a rare Epsom Handicap NZ-bred trifecta. The result is massive boost for New Zealand Bloodstock and especially for the coming Ready To Run Sale in November, and it clearly sends a strong message to Australian owners and yearling buyers that New Zealand-breds are still very much a force on Australian racecourses.

The 2019 Ready To Run Sale is strong with 414 lots catalogued including 12 by Ocean Park, 18 by each of Per Incanto and Champion Sire Savabeel, 15 by Showcasing, 13 by the resurgent Tavistock, eight by Rip Van Winkle and seven each from Smart Missile, Pins, Shocking and Charm Spirit. The strength is both paternally and maternally, and the NZ Epsom trifecta is sure to have reignited Australian interest.

The Epsom result was perfectly timed after The Bostonian’s Brisbane winter Group One successes and only a week before his contesting this Saturday’s Group Two Alfa Romeo Schillaci Stakes over 1100 metres at Caulfield. A win in that event would likely see him contest The Everest on Saturday week.

Also enhancing NZ-breds with only a slim chance of The Everest inclusion was Saturday’s Hawkes-trained Premiere Stakes (1200m) winner Brutal, by O’Reilly, who won his fifth race from just eight starts which is inclusive of the Gr.1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m) in the autumn, and who has the turn of foot to have been a considered option for the $14 million race.

Brutal has been set for the $7.5 million The Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill on November 2, and this week was to contest the Gr.3 Sydney Stakes (1200m) at Randwick. Slots for The Everest are now in short supply and Brutal may miss a start for that reason, although Michael Hawkes said an offer would be carefully considered if forthcoming.

As unusual as it would seem for a Doncaster winner to be competing against Australia’s best sprinters in the world’s richest sprint race on turf – stranger things have happened. Brutal ran his last 600m in the Premiere in 34.02 and last 400 in 22.65 and the Hawkes camp is under no illusion he has all the attributes to be competitive.

Interestingly, Epsom winner Kolding is also aimed at The Golden Eagle, so NZ-breds could be strongly represented in that rich event. Kiwi representation could materialise as the strongest seen in many years for the remainder of the spring with five-year-old Surprise Baby, by Shocking, now the favourite for the $8 million Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November after the Adelaide Cup winner took out the Bart Cummings (2500m) and firmed into $9 for the Flemington two-miler.

Add Thousand Guineas Prelude winner Acting, by Savabeel – bred and owned by Waikato Stud, coming into contention for this week’s grand final at Caulfield as fourth favourite, and the representation is strong. Madison County should also run well in the Toorak this week.

Epsom runner-up Te Akau Shark who ran his final 1000m of the race in 58.61, now heads towards the Cox Plate on October 26 in which he has firmed with bookmakers to the fourth favourite at $10. Jockey James McDonald was incredulous the four-year-old son of Rip Van Winkle could run so well and not win, adding further merit to Kolding’s performance in staving off ‘the Shark’s’challenge over the final 300 metres.

Top Kiwi two-year-old of last season Yourdeal, by Dundeel, should be an improver when contesting the $2.2 million Caulfield Guineas, also on Saturday, but the Tavistock Busuttin/Young trained The Holy One is a winner at three of his five starts and is favourably drawn in barrier four, and rated a better chance according to the bookmakers.

Kolding ended his sire’s frustrating near misses in important Australian races, and with third placegetter Star of the Seas consolidating the result, the spotlight is firmly focused on Ocean Park. His progeny and other highly ranked NZ-breds in both Sydney and Melbourne should see Kiwi-breds achieve their best Australian spring in many years.

The Optimist
www.theoptimistco.nz
the optimistnz@gmail.com

Rt Hon Winston Peters
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Racing
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control
Minister of State-Owned Enterprises

3^rd October 2019

Dear Winston

Re: Your letter 2019/20 Ministerial Expectations of the Racing Industry Transition Agency

I decided to write to you personally in response to the publication of your Letter of Expectation to RITA Chair Dean McKenzie which inexplicably appeared on the RITA website last week for reasons unknown despite the fact the letter was two months old.

Yes, it was receipt stamped 25 July, but no date appears on the actual letter – very strange!. Being a suspicious type which was conditioned into me through reading so many NZRB Annual Reports, I decided to ask you personally if you could clear this mystery up, and in the interests of transparency for the racing industry, I further decided to make it an open letter.

So, did you tell RITA to post that letter on their website? I’m presuming the answer will be yes because RITA would not have suddenly posted it two months after the event of their own volition, given that the contents of the letter was in-reality putting the RITA board on notice; giving them a bit of a euphemistic smack around the ear to incite some action – that’s the way I read it – how could it be anything else?

A couple of readers of my blog independently of each other, both involved full-time in the industry, claimed you were throwing the RITA board under a Wellington bus (one that was running late) and wiping your hands of the industry, and saying ‘I’ve done all I can and you’ve let me down.’ But I reject that accusation. I didn’t see it that way at all.

On the blog I posted two weeks ago, I highlighted four or five promises listed in the NZ First pre-election racing manifesto that had not come to fruition. Not for a moment would I presume or suggest the release of your letter had anything to do with that, but I find it interesting, and I’m sure that most stakeholders in the racing industry also find it so, that you thought RITA needed a stern reminder of the reasons for their existence.

And the reason for RITA’s existence, which formerly was MAC, is clearly stated in the MAC Terms of Reference released in January and confirmed in the MAC Interim Report which your office released in April. And that is to operationalise the Messara Report which at this point in time, in this writer’s view, is clearly not happening.

Why it’s not happening is very much a mystery, but in the end it probably comes back to leadership; it comes back to decision making or the complete inability to make a decision. It comes back to getting the job done, transparency, and accountability which RITA said they would have but haven’t delivered. We still have none of those attributes, so the question is, Winston, do we have another ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing?’

In a TV interview last Sunday, RITA CEO Dean McKenzie made it very clear that RITA has no appetite for a partnership outsourcing of the TAB. When questioned about the future of the FOB he said, “The betting platform is there, so the industry has invested a significant amount of money in it – the decision has been made – so we have all got to get on and make the best we can of it .”

Without outsourcing, Winston, this industry has a very bleak future and not to outsource flies in the face of the priority recommendation of the Messara Report and would deny racing its most significant revenue income stream for increased stakes money.

What we currently have is the same NZRB/RITA leadership team lead by CEO John Allen who apparently hasn’t gone on gardening leave after all, and RITA which is a board that’s met four times and therefore not involved in the day to day running of the industry. And who can RITA be listening to and gleaning advice from on the direction they take going forward – certainly not the codes. No, they can only be collaborating with the same executives who all remain employed – the same team that has cost racing $200 million in the past five years.

In your letter to McKenzie you say, “The Government remains committed to resolving key long-term challenges facing the country including sustainable economic development, increased exports, decent jobs paying higher wages, a healthy environment and a fair society and good government.”

That may be so – your commitment, that is. But the next bit you wrote is entirely wrong. You say: “The racing industry is well positioned to contribute to addressing these challenges.”

The racing industry is not well-positioned at all. Just the opposite, in fact; it’s bleeding, badly hurt and dying a slow death. Everyone knows, Winston, that you are busy with Foreign Affairs, and all that other stuff, and have only two hours per week to devote to racing – and fair enough. But in the last month I have been visiting racing people in the Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Otago, Southland, and Canterbury, and I can tell you that many are distressed or penurious or as some Aussies might say – flyblown!

One breeder in Southland said, “unless we get some good news from Winston in the next few weeks, my eight mares will not be bred this breeding season.” Also in Southland, a prominent trainer categorically stated he would retire if stakes did not increase in the near future.

Your letter also makes some excellent points to RITA including what Cabinet agreed to on April 15: “agreed to the overall intent of the Messara Report as providing the best approach to delivering a New Zealand Racing Industry that is financially sustainable, internationally recognised and competitive.”

The letter also goes on to say: It is expected that RITA will:

Change leadership

• lead a programme of change to return the industry to a well-managed and sustainable growth path

• deliver on the Government’s intentions by taking decisions in the commercial interests of the industry – considering the long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable industry, where participants are valued and able to prosper and the industry contributes to its full potential for the benefit of the NZ economy.

 • make best use of the $3.5m Crown contribution to the cost of industry change – ensuring that this funding ‘buys change’ rather than underwrite business as usual activities.

The $3.5 million mentioned above was part of the last budget, and it clearly states it’s for the cost of industry change. So, why isn’t it being used? What is RITA waiting for? RITA was MAC and between the two they have had nine months to plan and execute substantial changes – the industry doesn’t buy into the excuse currently used about RITA’s ‘newness.’

Winston, the RITA comment on cost reduction: “We expect the costs to be less,” which was conveyed last Sunday on Weight-In, is the same vernacular we heard from NZRB. What are the real cost reductions? When can we expect to see a budget for the current season? We are now into the third month of the season and no Statement of Intent. The commitment made by RITA in the Interim Report was to be inclusive and transparent with the participants of racing – it hasn’t happened.

Last week I made an error when I stated NZRB/RITA were $25 million in debt to the bank, but since then, digging around I’ve discovered the figure is $10 million higher at $35 million. Chairperson McKenzie said that RITA was not borrowing any more money from the bank, but what he didn’t say was the nothing was paid off the debt when due at the end of July. If RITA has rolled over the debt into the new season isn’t that effectively reborrowing it.

I also slipped up by saying the Paddy Power commitment was for ten years, and Openbet was for five years. On checking up, I found it was the other way around, but it doesn’t alter the commitment to pay $17 million annually which is guestimated to total $130 million over the ten years.

Overall, your Letter of Expectation was confirmation of what should be happening, but nothing tangible has so far come out of it for the stakeholders – and you sent it well over two months ago. As one observer remarked privately during the week: “We have seen a lot of hui but not much do-ey.”

More importantly, the finances don’t stack up – anyone who reads January’s Half-Year Report from the NZRB, studies the TAB figures, and has access to a calculator will soon be able to work out we are diving head-first into a large bin of wet horse manure.

In the meantime, before that occurs, on behalf of the industry we all hope you are now fully recovered from your old rugby injury procedure? Please note that on your list of Ministries at the top of this letter I have elevated Racing into first place from fourth above Foreign Affairs – more in hope more than in expectation.

Yours sincerely

The Optimist