Racing: Better integrity will help lift investment - Carter

Racing Minister John Carter says improving industry integrity, including a tougher stance against drug-taking, will help lift investment in racing.

Carter met industry leaders in Wellington on Monday, seeking ways to address racing's future profitability, given a wagering decline that, he said, amounted to $100 million in the past 20 years.

"No business can sustain that kind of reduction in its income stream and it is vital to the industry's future that moves are made quickly to increase participation and profitability."

The leaders of the New Zealand Racing Board and the three racing codes - thoroughbred, harness and greyhound - agreed on a new model of integrity services that would give independence to the "policing" of racing, he said.

Integrity services include the roles of stipendiary stewards and racecourse inspectors.

While the form of the new services has not been spelt out, racing leaders have been working behind the scenes on a joint venture tri-code model, similar to that in operation in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

One integrity issue is the use of the methamphetamine P by people involved in the racing industry.

"The Government has taken a tough stance on P specifically, and drugs in general, and your industry should too," Carter said.

A high level of integrity would make marketing racing as one brand more viable, he said.

"At the moment there is a tendency to operate in silos without the benefit of an over-arching plan," he told the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association annual meeting in Auckland on Tuesday.

But the Racing Board's strategic plan was over-arching, he said. "I'm excited by this strategic plan; it's aspirational, but so it should be."

Monday's leaders' meeting was not about the One Racing proposal, he told the breeders. The proposal, pushed by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, seeks to bring all the racing codes and the Racing Board under one structure.

"One Racing is not palatable to two of the codes and while that is the case, it isn't on the table," Carter said.

He said everyone in the industry needed to back the Racing Board, the body that runs the TAB, and industry leaders.

"I'm not interested in dictating terms, agreeing to submissions that don't have industry-wide buy-in, or messing with racing's governance structure. I am interested in the industry working together to find solutions to its own problems and plans for growth. If there is majority agreement and it fits in with the end goal then I will back it.

"It is early days yet, but there is every intention of having the highest-quality racing industry in New Zealand. I sincerely believe that this is the objective of those tasked with managing the industry at the board and code levels."

He also wanted racing's dependence on pokie money for stakes phased out.

- NZPA