By MIKE DILLON
The New South Wales TAB has a plea for New Zealand racing - please run on time.
Delays in the start of some of our races being bet on in Australia have become so frequent they are a scheduling nightmare for Sky Channel.
Saturday scheduling is so tight on the Australian pay-to-view channel there is no way to accommodate races which continually start late.
"Yes, it is becoming a worry," said Sky's chief of programming Sam Nati.
Last weekend's New Zealand Cup from Riccarton was late in starting, which resulted in Sky having to show a split screen transmission with the next scheduled Australian race.
"We obviously don't like doing that, it is not fair on the race which is being run to time. Neither race ends up in its full glory. We are not able to present the races with their full impact."
The New South Wales TAB started betting on New Zealand racing at the start of winter.
The idea was to take the first four races from each of two New Zealand meetings, which were run before Australian racing began.
This has proved so popular, the TAB has extended the eight races to 11 and 12 in the past few weeks, taking in feature New Zealand races later in the day, which has meant they have to be squeezed into the normal live feeds of four or five Australian meetings.
"Saturday betting on your racing here has gone through the roof lately and we're very keen to run as much of it as we can," said Nati.
"But it makes it a bit tight for us and by the New Zealand races running late it prostitutes our product when it clashes with our races."
It is in the best interests of New Zealand racing to be on time - our clubs get a slice of the action from the NSW TAB.
It is understood some New Zealand clubs have received their first royalty cheques.
Because the NSW TAB is now a public company, it is shy about releasing actual betting turnover, but Nati estimates his company's takings on New Zealand racing have increased by between 300 per cent and 400 per cent in the last three months.
"The growth has been outstanding and it has become a very, very important part of what we do on a Saturday, but we cannot allow it to become disruptive.
"It remains a question of what we can do with the New Zealand racing after 12.30 pm our time and the punctuality of racing clubs will determine that."
VICTAB, the Victorian equivalent, is keen to bet on New Zealand and is working on its computer technology.
Racing: Tardy NZ hurting NSW golden goose
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