NZTR chief executive Greg Purcell answers the tough questions

NZTR

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Greg Purcell was asked the tough questions this week regarding the state of racing in New Zealand.

Purcell and the NZTR have come under fire recently as sub-par racing surfaces and lack of funding has proven detrimental to the once-flourishing industry.

A string of abandonments has caused industry leaders to seek answers from the NZTR about what can be done to help improve the state of racing.

Purcell was asked a range of questions, ranging from the state of tracks, investments, preparation and what’s going to be done in the future to ensure New Zealand racing has a future.

The chief executive appeared negative in nature and even described New Zealand Racing as the “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” but he did provide some answers as to why the sport is suffering.

The hot topic was about the recent abandonments and how they’ve affected the industry.

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Why have there been so many abandonments this season?

“Clearly we’ve had some unusual weather events through September and October. We’ve actually had more abandonments this year already than we’ve had on average for the last 10 years and we’re only five months into the year,” Purcell said.

“So we’ve certainly seen a disruptive pattern and in the past most of the abandonments do come in May, June, July period, into August – not so much into October, November and December like we’ve had.

“I think the concerning element for everybody is… when people expect to go to a race meeting, whether it’s Te Rapa, Wanganui or Awapuni, when there isn’t a severe weather event people are attending the races. The horses have already had a disruptive preparation this year and then to have those abandonments, that’s really been a tragedy for our sport.”

Is there a lack of investment in infrastructure?

Infrastructure is one of the talking points in New Zealand racing at the moment as the smaller clubs are finding abandonments to be a direct result of lack of funding.

Purcell understood the frustrations of racegoers, but didn’t provide a clear reason as to why there have been so many track-related issues.

“It’s understandable that people are frustrated, given the investment and participation. The people have a horse in training and the participants do have that horse prepared for that event on the day,” Purcell said.

“None of these issues are simple. Every one of these abandonments has an explanation and they’re often different and multi-faceted problems. Clearly we need to do a better job.

“Everyone knows the challenges, there’s a great excitement when you’re winning, but it’s a lot of hard work when things aren’t going to plan – clearly that’s the case at the moment.

“The frustrating ones like Te Rapa when the rail falls down or at Wanganui when after the first race, with just a light shower of rain, the course is slippery and the race gets called off, or at Awapuni on Saturday a fortnight ago.”

What’s being done to ensure a safe and quality racetrack?

Purcell highlighted the issues within the industry and ultimately put the blame on the clubs, which he said are at fault when a track isn’t up to scratch, but contradicted himself by saying a lack of funding for infrastructure is a main cause for the problems.

“The reality is we need to be doing more and what we’re doing at the moment hasn’t been very productive this season and it’s been very frustrating. We can’t expect people to participate and invest in our sport and continue to do so unless we resolve these issues,” Purcell said.

“They’re multi-faceted issues. We have a lot of policies and systems in place, we do a lot already, but clearly we need to do more. For example we do have a venue standards and guidelines, we do have abandonment protocols and procedures.

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“We do have ongoing maintenance programs, track inspections. We do soil and grass sampling and we have a track maintenance subsidy scheme.

“There’s a lot that we do and at the end of the day it’s the club that’s putting on the event and they’ve got the primary responsibility to ensure that works. The said, clearly clubs and the industry generally in New Zealand has been under a lot of financial stress.”

Purcell stated that there are multiple organisations vying for every dollar that goes into New Zealand racing, which is making it tough to bolster up the infrastructure sector.

“Every dollar has got five competing demands – track maintenance and infrastructure is one of them and over the last 40 years we’ve had a legacy of under investment in our country.”

Does New Zealand need less racetracks?

The argument that New Zealand needs less than 52 racetracks has divided industry participants. 52 racetracks is a lot for a small country, but the smaller clubs are the grassroots of the industry.

Purcell outlined the main racetracks which will and are being heavily used, but among the list was Awapuni which has recently had multiple abandonments.

“I think we’re all in screaming agreement in reality to the problems and the issues and what’s really happened here,” he said.

“We have four strategic venues; Ellerslie, Awapuni, Riccarton and Te Rapa. It’s essential those are properly and fully developed and are of appropriate international standard.

“Then we have a supporting 16 tracks around the country which are really important to us. What we’ve done over the last five years is moved an increasingly proportion of our racing to those tracks.”

In its current state, Awapuni is in no shape to host any race meetings. Purcell agreed that tracks need to be presented in a safe order.

“At the moment the track (Awapuni) is really struggling,” Purcell said. “Tracks need to be presented in a safe manner and that’s an essential requirement.

“We’re not going to race anywhere that’s not safe and those issues… and pretty much every track has issues that need to be managed to ensure the track can be presented in a reliable and safe way.”

How much money would be required to achieve your targets?

“In 2013, NZTR published its infrastructure policy – it goes through a whole number of issues and what it identifies is that $60 million is required for development at our 16 major racecourses in the country to bring them up to an acceptable standard for racing surfaces, training surfaces and public facilities,” Purcell said.

“It’s beyond NZTR’s existing financial capacity to fund a $60 million program over 10 years at the moment. Over the last four years we’ve funded $6.5 million – $4.5 million of grants from NZTR to do a lot of substantial reconstruction, draining and irrigation works at our main tracks.

“We’re totally in line with the philosophy of appropriate standards at our main tracks.”

What would a hypothetical $60 million injection do to the industry?

Purcell stated that a $60 million injection into the industry would help fund the major tracks in New Zealand, but that leaves the minor tracks left out to dry.

Purcell was aware of this problem and without funding, these lower-graded tracks will continue to provide less than satisfactory racing surfaces.

Many industry professionals will be seeking an appropriate split of funding which will enable the financially-struggled clubs to survive and ultimately flourish.

“Of course they’d be substantially different in a whole number of issues in relation to the reliability of our tracks, in relation to our customers’ facilities and in relation to our training facilities, but the money that I’ve spoken about in the $60 million is talking about only been spent at our 16 major tracks,” Purcell said.

“We do have around 30 other tracks (36 to be exact), which are of strategic importance to our sport, but they are clearly of community importance.”

Purcell continued to outline the importance of keeping the country-style tracks in circulation.

“Clearly they’re of iconic cultural significance to our sport and great introductions of people to our sport, which is important,” he said.

“There’s clearly different expectations from the customer, also the trainers and jockeys about some of the once-a-year type tracks.

“Clearly they need to be saved. Do they need to be Ellerslie? No, if you go to Australia – in New South Wales alone there’s 127 racecourses, many of which we’ve never heard of, but they fill some community roles.”

Does NZTR have any say in the matter?

One comment that shocked viewers was when Purcell stated that the NZTR has little power on what happens in certain aspects in New Zealand racing.

“You spoke about selling tracks and spending money which is an admirable skill, admirable objective, but like many things in New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, NZTR has a lot of authority, but very little power,” Purcell claimed.

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“We do not have the power to besume (sic) assets of clubs. We do not have the power to put clubs under administration. We do not have the power to redirect assets and amalgamations.

“What we do have power to do is to be, at the moment under the racing act and the legislative structure, is be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, when a club actually ceases to race.”

What did he just say? Purcell not inspiring participants with confidence

Greg Purcell was quickly pulled up on his usage of the phrase “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” which suggested that New Zealand racing was only there to help the struggling and desperate clubs.

“I was talking in context of the smaller facilities, so look – the consolidation of our sport is a rational methodology. However, we’ve got to take people with us and we’ve gotta have the power and authority to undertake those actions and today that hasn’t been the case,” Purcell said.

“There are important and significant community benefits that accrue, so our policy at NZTR is to support our major tracks, to run more of our racing at these tracks and to support infrastructures at those tracks tracks and have community race clubs allowed to meet the minimum standards which require them to present their tracks and facilities in a safe and reliable manner.”

Does New Zealand need a synthetic track?

The final question fired at Purcell was whether New Zealand needed a synthetic track, especially in the winter months where horses are more accustomed to the outside rail than the inside.

“The synthetic track notion is something that really everybody generally now supports. NZTR is a proponent of a synthetic track, particularly in the Waikato where we’ve been seeking for some time now – to establish a training and trialing surface and to actually test out in real conditions in New Zealand a synthetic surface,” Purcell said.

“It’s one that comes down purely to economics. At the moment, over the past four years with our average increase of 0.6% per year, we’ve got a stagnated income stream and unless that income stream can grow significantly, clearly consolidation and reduction of our sport is inevitable.

“That’s not what we want to see, we want to see a growing, sustainable industry and what we’ve done is we’ve had incremental steps and clearly we’re acknowledging that that’s not good enough, that we clearly need step change and the last five/six years we’ve seen a continuation, particularly in Australia.

“Sydney and Melbourne (has) seen significant increases in revenues which has driven $100,000 in (race) prizemoney.”

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