Politics

On the Feb. 16 episode of BloodHorse Monday: Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith remembers late trainer John Shirreffs, Louie Rabaut and Sean Collins recap Kentucky Derby (G1) and Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep action.View the full article

Aren't you going for the POTY comp?

They actually declare it,  the racecourse a sellout if all the hospitality tents / tables are sold, for the size of the place (Auckland) they get fuck all, our old friend TAB didn't understand that like a lot of things, anyway I note senior citizens get a discount, I assume Mr Fish that includes you so 30 bucks ain't that bad to see some good racing. I often laugh when you see hairdressing shops offering discounts for seniors getting hair cuts, seems logical as most don't have much if any hair left lol.

brodie,nowornever,gamma,you all make very good points that i i wouldn't argue against.  i  believe the questioning that gets mentioned in canterbury stipes reports,even if it is after the fact and often involves what some think may be obvious answers ,is still very important as the sport needs ot be giving that perception of oversight,for the publics perspective that everything is above board. you also see  canterbury stipes question drivers tactics,especially when it comes to a lack of vigour in a finish or not making obvious moves.Now i note that never gets criticised on this forum and i think that is because everyone likes to see that type of oversight. if we go back to that old minefield,operation inca,i always argued and even highlighted some of the races involved before operation inca ever became public knowledge,,and that the stipes oversight was lacking.Some of the people involved appeared to have formed the opinion that they could take advantage of that lack of oversight.Now,i don't mean my favorite driver,b orange,i never saw him do anything wrong,but some of those others should have been getting asked qustions on  driving tactics and horse performances.Had that been happening properly,no operation inca.  so what i'm saying is,the perception as far as integrity is very,very important and the form turnaround questioning is just part of how that perception is put out there to the public and to trainers and drivers. The north isalnd stipes will never get any criticism for asking possible form turnarounds because they never ask the question and on the rare occassions you see something obviously dodgy up there,and it does happen,they just put the caps back on the binoculars and continue watching the races that way.

You could question every driver , every race about their tactics/ improvement or whatever. In the end there is just one winner. we have very few problems around Australia as the field size is a sensible 9-10 in every state , therefore they all get a chance in a race and you can't 'cover up' 'drive quiet' or 'keep for next time' like they do in the silly 12- 14 horse races of yesteryear. Where it's VERY easy to get your horse beat. Stewards in Aus will just look for one of Brodies big bet moves , and assess whether there were accomplices in helping the punted horse land the prize. Doesn't happen very often thankfully , there were some in country Victoria a while back with family members 'helping each other' out.  and There was a DQed former leading trainer did want to put $3000 on a horse a few years ago here in Queensland,  which resulted in the leading Trainer Vicki Rasmussen (Vicki never recovered and just races 2 horses she owns herself now after that year out)  and leading driver Shane Graham. getting very long DQ's  . People wanting to put Big bets on =  are nothing but trouble lol 😆🤣