Chief Stipe

She is a good Jockey. Very good hands and kind to a horse.

So you lost your dosh.

You're too sharp

Well it was your first discounted horse AND jockey.

I backed it and got in the pub sweepstake.

So you are looking for a $7.10 dividend to break even?

LOL if it was a school yard they'd only last 5 mins. Most are weight handicapped and the rest have slow reflexes!!

So you are having win bets on 7 horses?

Blah blah blah. Must be the $10k bet you are putting on or your lead cell is inhibiting the WiFi connection.

Bollocks. You non-picked two horses now try and pick the first four.

I guess it is the Kiwi way to find someone to blame. What about the Club Committees and Members sbould they carry some blame as well? I believe so. So you were "interested and passionate" about the sport of racing but "voted with your feet" which presumably means for the last 30 years you didn't do anything. Yet you readily blame someone else? An amorphous group you call "those that govern the industry"! The tide turned when to be a member meant you no longer turned up for working bees or remained active or read annual reports or attended meetings or lobbied for change but instead just paid your membership fees and expected top class facilities to wine and dine at the few times a year that they could be bothered to turn up.

It is about markets and economics. Who in their right mind at today's costs would spend 4 to 6 years breeding and developing a stayer? Unless you are loaded with cash of course. Or you roll the dice and buy a developed horse from Europe with a syndicate. As for the Aussie's focussing on earlier - developing horses haven't you noticed that many of the horses winning in OZ still have Kiwi breeding?

So you bagged two horses and a Jockey. Not quite your best form. So that leaves 22 horses for you to give us your selections from.

Beats a local committee member going around with a fist full of tickets trying to sell them. From what I've seen of punters clubs is they never return a profit which I guess doesn't worry you as you are used to it now.

Just be greatful that they are running a punters club - you will have more chance of winning something.