Bob Dylan couldn't have put it better when he penned The Times They Are a-Changin'.
Of course, it's a safe assumption he wasn't referring to the improvements in technology in betting operations when he was compiling the lyrics to his classic back in 1963, but it seems very appropriate now after this week's announcement.
Many punters from the past 20 or 30 years (and even further back than that) will have fond memories of calling Phonebet to place their bets on the Saturday gallops, the Friday night trots or - in more recent years - the All Black test.
That all but appears to be over with the New Zealand Racing Board closing the Phonebet centres for regular calls from August.
Only a small team will be kept on to take calls from those punters with medical exemptions, while others who have relied on Phonebet will need to adapt to using other channels - be it Touchtone, using the internet or the TAB app, or wandering into a store more often.
The writing has been on the wall for several years now.
The minimum bet has slowly increased over the past decade or so and usage has plummeted to about a tenth of what it had been 15 years ago.
I cannot remember the last time I used Phonebet.
The mobile website is my go-to now if I'm away from my laptop and I much prefer the options of placing my trebles and quaddies through that format.
I'm sure I'm not alone in the 45 and under age-group, but let's not forget much of the racing public is older than 50 and will be wondering how they're going to place their bets if they're not comfortable with Touchtone.
The promise in the press release on Monday suggested plenty will be saved by switching to the fully-automated Touchtone channel, but let's hope those users of phone accounts don't throw their hands up and walk away from putting on their weekly bets because it is all too hard.
... results in change
Placing a bet is not the only area in which technology has changed the information flow for racing fans.
In the world of ever-decreasing newspapers, race results are slowly becoming an endangered species in some newspapers.
However, the Otago Daily Times prides itself as being the only major daily (if not the only daily paper in New Zealand) to run every single result from every New Zealand meeting.
Many others have ditched greyhound results - ironic really, seeing as it's the code which has experienced the most growth in terms of meetings in the past 10 years - while deadlines for others mean they can only publish some of the night harness meeting results, if at all.
Like all sports, results are available elsewhere - most notably online - but we know how important results are to our readers.
I welcome your feedback on either topic.
Lazy Fiver
I was well off the mark in the Stradbroke, so let's go On The Rantan (race 3) into G I Joe (race 6) at Addington tonight.
