KEY POINTS:
About $100,000 in turnover was lost when the TAB computer crashed for more than an hour on Saturday, New Zealand Racing Board racing manager Michael Dore said last night.
The on-course division of the computer system was out of order for about one hour 10 minutes from about 1.20pm on Saturday.
The starting times of races at New Zealand's three meetings were put back by one race from the original starting times.
Dore said each of the three meetings held one race while the on-course computer was out action.
"It took a very long time to isolate what the problem was and fix it," he said.
"It probably cost in the order of $100,000 of lost turnover."
There was added confusion when punters were told the start times of races had been put back but they still closed at the original starting time for off-course punters during the breakdown.
Dore said the on-course computer controls New Zealand racing on raceday and its authority could not be transferred to the off-course computer.
"While it was down we couldn't take control off them at raceday control [in Wellington].
"I don't know the exact technical cause of it.
"But certainly it will be well documented and so will the procedures to avoid it in the future. It shouldn't really have taken that long to fix."
Dore said he was thankful the breakdown didn't occur later when some of the day's feature races were being run.
- NZPA
