Wheeler: Spending out of control
THE NEW Zealand Racing Board has become despotic, says leading trainer John Wheeler, who claims it spends money willy nilly that the industry cannot afford.
Wheeler is incensed about revelations the board has had to revise the over-ambitious forecasts of its recently departed chief executive Chris Bayliss, leaving the codes facing more lean years.
‘‘They spend money hand over foot and we get the leftovers,’’ Wheeler said of NZRB.
‘‘I’ve been saying for 10 years that the funding model is wrong. How much longer do we have to tolerate it?
‘‘We shouldn’t be getting the crumbs. The codes should be getting what they need to make racing flourish and the board should be cutting its cloth to suit.’’
While Bayliss was talking a 50 per cent rise in returns to owners within five years, Wheeler said he gave up believing anything the board said years ago after a succession of ineffectual highlypaid CEOs had come and gone.
‘‘The board has been dysfunctional for a decade and it’s time the racing minister did something,’’ he said.
‘‘Costs have doubled in the last decade, they’ve hired more and more staff, it’s out of control.’’
Wheeler said the industry was now paying for the grand spending spree that Bayliss went on, including millions spent on moving to flash new offices in Parnell, a $10 million state-of-theart Trackside studio and a failed Triple Trio campaign.
Wheeler said he understood the cost of the failed Typhoon betting system was also a lot higher than the $11.1m the board wrote off in 2012.
‘‘Thoroughbred Racing needs only another $3 million or $4 million to make a go of it.’’