When the Racing Phoenix arises from the ashes, what form should it take

[Freda]

On 3/31/2020 at 1:27 PM, curious said:

Hard to know isn't it, with not a breath from the Minister, RITA or NZTR other than the shutdown regulations. Any coms from the likes of the CJC about an operational plan for survival and resumption? They'll be going backwards pretty fast if they are still paying staff with no revenue?

A bit off topic..but,  I got an email this morning informing me that there was to to be no stable rent charges for the month of April.

I wasn't really expecting this - hoping, of course -  but, good on them.   They will be getting no income so a decent gesture.

[Hesi]

Been crunching a few figures

From the RITA Wage subsidy data

Business Name Number of employees paid Total amount paid Last updated RACING INDUSTRY TRANSITION AGENCY 595 $4,075,087.20 08/04/2020

 

Then if you look at the 2019 NZRB Annual Report, there are 136 people over 100K.  If you use the median of the data provided, you get that those 136 people were paid 20.52 million, about $151K each on average

So then going back to the Wage subsidy, take off 136 people from the 595 claimed, that is 459 people.

Look at the staff costs in the 2019 Annual report, 61.5 million

That leaves 459 people to carve up 40.98 million.  That is an average salary of $89,300 for those 459 employees paid under 100K.

Approximate, but still eye watering

[mardigras]

Horrendous numbers. I can't think what that many people can be doing there, except possibly adding to the obesity statistics of NZ.

Who knows what discussions have taken place, but surely they would have been in discussion with those employees unable to be utilised along the lines of,

'we'll pay you 100% (or 80%) for 4 weeks. After that, with your agreement, we will continue paying you the subsidy. If you don't wish to continue with the subsidy, we will have to make you redundant as we can't afford to keep you'

But being a government agency effectively, I expect they just said, we'll pay everyone, no problem. It doesn't impact us - just what we have left - and we've never really worried about that before.

Employee law still applies, so you have to have negotiated agreement, you can't just do whatever you like.

[Hesi]

As I see it, this is the huge problem that exists in the industry, the detachment and inequity between the people running the industry and the people in the industry, and it is at this time that it becomes even more apparent.

Does this sort of gulf exist in Fonterra, Zespri, Summerfruit NZ etc etc?

[Globederby19]

20 minutes ago, Hesi said:

Fonterra

Yep. I worked at Fonterra just up the road helping to run gas lines for their new Mega watt boiler plant for milk powder production.

The subcontractor company owner I worked with said personally that he had never seen such a top heavy organisation in his life. He was dumbfounded.

 

[Hesi]

Used to work for NZ Co-op Dairy Co, before it became Fonterra.  Had modest offices, along with the testing laboratory in London St in Hamilton.

Sounds then Rees like the same story.  These organisations set up to serve the industry that set them up in the first place, end up the other way, the industry become subservient to the hierarchy.

Usually it takes a major upheaval, to bring about a change in culture, hopefully Covid 19 is it for the racing industry.

Ironically the NZRB had its very own Culture section, Head of Culture, Section leader Culture etc etc

[Globederby19]

1 hour ago, Hesi said:

NZRB had its very own Culture section, Head of Culture, Section leader Culture etc et

Yes thats how he described it. Head of Dept,   Assistant heads(plural) of Dept,    assistants to assistant  Heads of dept,    secretary to assistant assistant Heads of dept, and all on 80 grand ,plus doing nothing but paper shuffling and justifying their positions. Multiply that by many Depts and one can see why it grows exponentially to a very large cash cow.

 

[Hesi]

Michael Guerin: Comeback dates for New Zealand racing to be released

16 Apr, 2020 5:00am

 5 minutes to read

Racing will be restricted to a small number of galloping tracks with permanent fibre satellite links for Trackside television, including Ellerslie. Photo / Photosport

NZ Herald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racing's road to a return will become much clearer on Thursday.

And while enormous questions still exist over the industry's finances one thing for certain is a dramatic reduction, in the short-term at least, in the number of racetracks to be used around the country.

The Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA), which is effectively the TAB, will release the enormously-revised racing calendar for the rest of the season on Thursday.

 

Whether those meetings go ahead of course depends on the Government returning the country to Covid-19 alert level 3 next week as many expect and also the Ministry for Primary Industries relaxing rules around the training of horses and race meetings being allowed to be held without crowds.

Heading into lockdown racing bosses were confident they could race at level 3 with strict protocols but that can't happen immediately because thoroughbred racing in particular has so few horses in work.

If racing is allowed at level 3 and we move to that next week, greyhound racing would be the first code to come back while harness racing in New Zealand would be likely to return on May 29, the last Friday of the month.

 

Thoroughbred racing will return five weeks later on July 3 if there are no other major Covid-related disruptions between now and then.

Racing will be restricted to a small number of galloping tracks, with one of the key factors being whether they have permanent fibre satellite links for Trackside television, which makes it significantly cheaper to telecast the meetings.

Tracks that have the links include Ellerslie, Avondale, Pukekohe, Te Rapa, Whanganui, Awapuni, Trentham, Riccarton and Invercargill.

Ellerslie don't traditionally race in July and have no reason to change that because while Auckland might have plenty of people, they won't be allowed to go to the track anyway and it doesn't have many horses.

 

So it would seem more likely tracks like Te Rapa and Pukekohe would host races because they are closer to the horse population, while Avondale could be used once a week for July and perhaps August.

While the calendar will only cover July for thoroughbreds, for that month it seems likely there will be three thoroughbred meetings a week, one in each region, potentially one on Friday or Sunday, and two on Saturday.

 

 

 

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing boss Bernard Saundry says there are no plans to bring the return of the code forward and NZTR's focus for now is working on getting racing back in July and the protocols around that.

"At this stage at least the two islands will be quarantined from each other from a participant's point of view and we are also working on what would happen if one region had to go back to level 4, how we would work through that," says Saundry.

 

 

Many northern trainers would prefer to race at Alexandra Park when harness racing returns. Photo / Photosport

Harness racing looks set for a far earlier return using Alexandra Park, Cambridge, Addington and Invercargill.

The three regions would look to race once a week but quickly moving to twice a week for Addington because of the larger horse population in Canterbury.

In the north there should be enough horses for at least six or seven races per meeting at Alexandra Park and Cambridge on alternate weeks in June.

Most of the northern trainers the Herald spoke to preferred to race at Alexandra Park and that would seem logical considering the biggest stables in Waikato were all closed when the Cambridge track was.

But Cambridge has the advantage of having a greyhound track so can be used for dual-code meetings, therefore driving more turnover utilising the same staff admin and broadcast staff.

The next most important step for northern harness racing is reopening both the Pukekohe and Cambridge training tracks as soon as the Ministry for Primary Industries allows it so the over 200 horses trained there can add to the horse pool faster.

What dates harness racing gets allocated will be interesting because while Friday night is the gem in the industry's crown that becomes less important while people aren't allowed to attend.

So there will be an appetite to experiment in time slots where there is little competition, not only from racing but other sporting codes.

One of those could be Wednesday nights, which has no major Australian night gallops, no rugby or rugby league games so a dual-code meeting at Cambridge could attract plenty of racing and potentially even sports viewers.

While the dates and venues for racing should be confirmed on Thursday, what stakes clubs will be able to race for is still unknown and could remain that way for at least a couple more weeks until RITA bosses get a clearer picture of the financial carnage caused by no domestic racing and almost no sports betting worldwide.

[Maximus]

perhaps for the upper North Island they should rotate Pukekohe, Avondale and Te Rapa for July and August. I daresay they are hoping to bring Hastings back in for September/Oct 'Triple Crown' series

[curious]

On 3/27/2020 at 12:02 PM, mardigras said:

We could look forward to a birth rate increase in early 2021?

Sex toys boom

When the prime minister gave us 48 hours to prepare for level four, many of us chose to prepare for a month-long dry spell. In those two days alone, sales of sex toys tripled. There’s been some concern that there will be a post-lockdown baby boom, but a Family Planning spokesperson felt this was unlikely because people are unable to leave their bubbles and become pregnant.

According to Emily Writes, the majority of toys sold were from beginner ranges, so coming out of lockdown the industry might have a few more regular customers. Online stores are still cleared for delivery during levels three and four.

[mardigras]

1 hour ago, curious said:

Sex toys boom

When the prime minister gave us 48 hours to prepare for level four, many of us chose to prepare for a month-long dry spell. In those two days alone, sales of sex toys tripled. There’s been some concern that there will be a post-lockdown baby boom, but a Family Planning spokesperson felt this was unlikely because people are unable to leave their bubbles and become pregnant.

According to Emily Writes, the majority of toys sold were from beginner ranges, so coming out of lockdown the industry might have a few more regular customers. Online stores are still cleared for delivery during levels three and four.

What has been news to me is the extent to which a large number of pregnancies must occur between people that don't share the same house - well that's what I derive from that comment.

[curious]

Yes. I noted that. It's apparently a Family Planning strategy.

[mardigras]

4 minutes ago, curious said:

Yes. I noted that. It's apparently a Family Planning strategy.

That's likely more effective than contraception. 

[curious]

4 minutes ago, mardigras said:

That's likely more effective than contraception. 

Yes. If you can only have sex if you leave the house and you're not allowed to do that it should be 100% effective.

[Hesi]

I watched Breakdown Live last night, about the troubles of Aus Rugby, and I couldn't help relate so much of what has gone wrong, to the troubles in Racing, lack of accountability, refusal to listen to grass roots