Te Akau Friday Update

David writes:

Racing in Singapore starts a little earlier tonight with the meeting at Kranji being a daytime meeting there due to Chinese New Year celebrations and it is just so disappointing that Trackside is not showing Singapore racing on either channel early this evening!

They simply just don't realise that if you can't bet and watch a race, you are not going to encourage people long term to grow the Singapore market!  Surely with two channels (and all these greyhound races from Timbuktu) surely they could show Singapore, even if it meant the Kranji races were replayed five or ten minutes after a race, even if it meant they had to be slotted in somewhere.

Surely this is an area that the TAB needs to seriously look at - afterall don't forget that Mark Walker is leading the Trainer's Premiership, Laurie Laxon is a multiple Premiership winner - both Kiwis!  Other ex pats like Bruce Marsh train there! Singapore Horse of the Year, 3YO of the Year, Miler of the Year War Affair was bought (by me but that's not the point) and is a Kiwi horse from Karaka.  There is great interest in the many Kiwi bred horses racing in Singapore!  The point I am making here is despite what the TAB says, there IS huge interest in Singapore racing.  If they want people to bet then they have to foster their interest and deliver!

I would like to congratulate the Chairman of the America's Cup team for his application to the government for funding for the America's Cup and I would also like to see a copy of the application that the Chairman of the New Zealand Racing Board made for funding for the coming Auckland Cup Carnival.  Wouldn't it be fantastic if we had a Racing Board that was proactive in this arena?  One that realised just how important the racing industry is to our economy!

Wouldn't it be fantastic if we had an incoming CEO of the Racing Board that actually came to the Karaka Sales to see exactly the state of the New Zealand industry and hear the views of those most closely involved?  The people who have their lifetimes invested in this industry, who employ thousands of young people across the country.

Surely the Auckland Cup Carnival coming up would be worthy of some government support - just imagine if our government and Racing Board got in behind the Carnival the week after next!   We could have people coming from Australia, horses travelling from Australia, more work for New Zealanders, more people wanting to be involved, more people breeding horses to meet the demand, more jobs - and then of course more tax for the government and importantly, more young people could be employed.

I want young people to have a future, a career path available to them in this industry!  I just find it so sad that we have a Racing Board that doesn't seem to be able to understand  the serious state of the New Zealand industry!  And it wouldn't be hard to turn that around!

While on the subject of grants - isn't it great that the government has encouraged, supported and been financially involved in the current World Cricket Cup tournament?  However I want them to show some foresight and see what this same type of support could do for New Zealand racing - we could have carnival similar to the Melbourne Cup Carnival where thousands of people would flock to our shores to see racing at its best!

Unfortunately we cannot compete with Australia in racing because the Australian governments (federal and state) realise the significance of racing to their economies and are very supportive.  Hardly a week goes by without an announcement from an Australian government of support that they are giving racing in one way or another - look at the Magic Millions raceday next January where $10 million in stakes will be contested in one day!  Government working very closely with the industry to pull this off!  The government there can see the value of racing and breeding to the economy - the number of jobs and tax that the people in the industry pay.

Anyway back to the important and positive news that Te Akau is all about!

Good luck to the team in Singapore tonight.  We will keep this website updated with any news as it comes to hand - also all the very best to Jason and the four strong Te Akau team tomorrow at home on our Matamata track -with Unsurpassed and Special Memories contesting the prestigious 2YO black type races - both races which Te Akau has won multiple times.