Winston's done more than enough, 2 all weather tracks and sees nothing but dislike for them by many, then giving his flash tie wearing friends at Ellerslie the betting monopoly so they can supposedly get a bit richer, the well must dry up one day.

You can see from this picture that the existing site is now completely landlocked and surrounded by hospitals and housing.  I wouldn't be surprised if the current medical centre nearby is looking to expand.

Proposed Sites.  Not sure which end of Portsmouth Road they are looking at.  I would say the NorWest end looks more likely.  

You really seem to be beyond rehabilitation, what positives in Harness Racing in Southland, racing all year, is that not a positive, they too have been jerked around by those who set the dates, but haven't as yet needed to be put on life support as Northern Harness is, all those extra Cambridge meetings was such a success that now they are backtracking and are now dropping some, throw in the fact that Aucklands been facing insolvency, at least the Southern Surge concept did boost numbers, larger stakes up North has changed nothing, fields are still pathetic, Akuta getting 10 grand for winning a four horse workout, nice but  the few left racing will thankfully milk the system as long as they can until reality takes precedence. Whats happening up North to harness racing, Rugbys going the same way, for the population there they are pathetic and as the population demographic changes it ain't going to get better.    

Interesting you mention the emma stewart horse. The fella doing the pre race comments said the emma stewart horse would be under instructions to press forward and make sure she took the early lead. Well a delosa pulled back straight away to 4 back the fence.funny.i've seen her drive a bit. Horses run for her for sure but has just an average tactical brain at this stage,in my oopinion.  the queensland horse driven by mr mcmullen all over the place. Broke twice then still looked to be running on without much room but ran into the back of the e stewart horse. i don't doubt mr mcmullen is a good driver like you say,but every time in a big race he is all over the place. as you say the leader drifted out. That appeared to be because r morris,the husband of the winning trainer, didn't rate his horse well at all. I don't know whether he did that deliberately to give his wifes horse a chance or just went too hard so as to set it up for the other mccarthy horse or most probably,he just drove a poorly judged race.There ws no need for him to throw in a 26.4 3rd 1/4,he  really should have been trying to conserve a bit of energy for the final stretch. I think had the likes of mark purdon been driving kingman,he may have even won but as you say he got  tired  in the last 100m becasue of the speed he had set up  and wandered around. stillhjis tactics made it a n exciting race to watch.

By Mike Love  Ashburton trainer-driver John Hay returns from winter hibernation to line up his well-thought-of gelding Moonshiner on the grass at Methven today. In what could be the omen bet considering the full moon this weekend, Moonshiner is a $3.50 favourite in Race 7, the Peter Lagan Standardbreds Pace over 2400m at 2.49pm. “I haven’t raced anything over the past few winters. I went on holiday for a month, so he (Moonshiner) had five weeks off. “I’m working eight at the moment. All just young ones and qualifiers. He’s the only racehorse I’ve got at the moment,” said Hay. The three-year-old Always B Miki gelding has not raced since winning his maiden back in April at Banks Peninsula, but trainer Hay still expects a good run. “I’m happy with his work at home. He’s done plenty. His workout was good, although we didn’t go much time,” said Hay. That workout was just last week at Methven, and although the times weren’t worth a second look, he still won very nicely. His last 800 was 64.2. “I expect him to go a good race. Just whether or not he can win, I don’t know. But he will improve a lot with the run too, whatever he does.” Moonshiner is no stranger to the Mt Harding circuit. As well as wining the workout he placed there too before winning his maiden.    “He’s carrying a bit more weight this time, but that could just be him now. He’s strengthened up a lot,” said Hay. While Moonshiner is having his first race out of maidens at just his sixth race day appearance, other horses in the event are much more experienced. Santanna Mach ($10.00FF), for instance, has won 23 races from 246 starts. Swift Guy ($.5.50) looks set to start second favourite while Logan Rock and Fergalicious are also well supported ($6.50).   View the full article

Incredible stuff. So it is going to cost more than $77.3m. So does that mean it will cost $77.4m? Seems like a very precise figure this far out. A metropolitan racetrack with no grandstands, just room for a tent. They should send these people off to Flemington and Randwick to advise them on how to make their tracks more successful. Good luck on getting the $20m out of the Govt. Winston might think he has already done enough over the years.

Even worse, a faded old can of DB Draught hahaha Anyway, so much for the conspiracy by NZTR to close down racing in HB.  They should put CW in the stocks in the middle of Hastings an allow all those racing people who he tried to undermine with his wacko conspiracy theories, to pelt him with rotten tomatoes

Trentham has a number of constraints.  The  biggest in my opinion is the lack of horses close by to enable a training centre to be developed.  The public facilities are stuffed and contrary to what some die-hard WRC members think the Champagne Turf is now more like a week old opened stubbie of Lion Red. Some will say that a training centre loses money.  In my opinion that's only because there are insufficient horses and they are not run correctly. The Hawkes Bay has a lot going for it.   I just hope they face the public stand the right way.  Has anyway noticed that most of the Grandstands have been built facing away from the sun?  I'm over going to the races sitting in the shade freezing my extremities off.  Nine times out of ten they face the coldest prevailing wind.  In that respect Riccarton is enjoyable in contrast to Hastings and Trentham.