The Corner with Garry Chittick

You occasionally look around in this industry and wonder where it is heading. Those of us at the coalface need to realise that, despite our belief of our importance, the bulk of our population barely acknowledges our existence.

This is why the fight to stay relevant is difficult. We need leadership that strongly represents our cause. We have been extraordinarily fortunate to have a Minister of Racing who has gone in to bat for us; his concern is matched by his belief that we have a place in and a product that NZ would be foolish to lose.

Initially, a reduction in betting duty, a capital injection, and the total abolition of betting duty, where would we be without him?

Well, along comes the Lone Ranger, Entain. Their guaranteed $160 million for five years should be the platform from which we relaunch ourselves.

So, the question is: why do we still appear to be dragging our feet? My belief is that our administrators need to seriously address their priorities. That is, what is their purpose – we have had the opportunity to have TAB Chief Executive visit. We were going okay until he said they hadn’t decided how they would put to use their current reserves. Now, I want you to read that again, “their current reserves”. My immediate reaction was ‘here we go again’. After the most recent Entain commitment, I believe at the time of this conversation, there was around $270 million in hand.

Firstly, he was reminded it is not their money. So, are we confident they will make the best use of this asset – you two might be, but I am not. The problem is, the moment you have Board members who don’t understand the industry, then I doubt the picture we see is anywhere near their view. If we can’t foster a sustainable breeding base, then there will be no need for any of us, including them, although, based on most corporate entities, the top end will be last to notice.

Now we have a press release informing the country that our Thoroughbred Racing Board have made the decision to invest a starting point of $10 million in a mutual fund. Hallelujah, here we go again, clearly, we are struggling to maintain our annual foal crop. More importantly, the introduction of new sire prospects is at an unsustainable level, so is this the best use of our resources? Between the two organisations, I believe TAB $150 million, NZTR $10 million salted away won’t take us anywhere, but will help when we are finally stuffed.

If I had $10 million to spare, perhaps I would believe it might be better to speed up the remedial track work, or I might have gathered breeders and found a way to underwrite a desperately needed sire.

My point, if you haven’t grasped it yet, is we all need to understand what we are here for: no horses, no need for us.

Cheers,
G

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