Chief Stipe

The industry pays regardless. However some clubs have pissed away more than others. At the end of the day all a Trainer wants is safe track to race on and a safe stall to tie the horse up in before and after.

Jamie Searle - terminal but thankful Michael Fallow May 17, 2025 Wingatui trainers Terry and Debbie Kennedy, former top South Island jockeys, visit Jamie Searle at the Otago Community Hospice in Dunedin this week.Supplied Jamie Searle is pegging out with a strong sense of uplift. The former Southland Times racing, sport and regional reporter has written thousands of stories for a community that is now gathering support around him as he faces the tail end of a terminal diagnosis for a rare and pretty brutal form of stomach cancer. And now he’s become a story himself. Word of his illness has sparked a detonation of support, making for an uncommonly busy deathbed as he fields calls and messages. All the busier because his stricken situation, until very recently, didn’t stop him making work calls and filing stories from his hospital bed. As he saw it, life in general, and the likes of Easter races in particular, were still providing news that deserved be put out there. “Everyone’s got a story to tell.’’John Hawkins / The Southland Times Tears come readily to him nowadays - “I’ve had my meltdowns’’ - but they’ve more often been of gratitude for the messages and calls he’s received. It’s perhaps not easy for a modest man to say publicly, but he acknowledges that if there’s one phrase he’s found himself saying a lot, lately, it’s “I love you, too . . .’’ As for those messages - quick, Jamie. Pick an example. “Oh, fundraising offers to get me special medicine. Too late, guys. But wasn’t that typical New Zealand? Typical Southland. They get behind you. “I’ve had pillars all around me, helping me along the journey,’’ he said. “I’ll walk into a new world feeling I’ve been lucky. Done what I wanted in life.’’ Searle, 61, spent 36 years at the Times, 28 as a dedicated racing reporter, then moving into other sport, and community reporting. Jamie Searle in his element.Nicole Gourley / The Southland Times The Times was “more than home to me. It was a family,’’ he said. He lightly describes himself as “the slowest reporter in Southland’’ but it has been a characteristic of his career that he has always strongly preferred personal contact to zip-zap phoned interviews. From teenaged sporting up-and-comers to Anzac veterans, to just about anybody he’s ever met at an A & P show, he’s come to realise ‘’everyone’s got a story to tell’’ . “You just need to spend a bit of time with them to get it: People live interesting lives.’’ When necessary, he’s stepped up to cover stories of conflict and reproach, but his nature and his professional approach have always been to more ardently seek stories of achievement and positivity. Jamie Searle, listed among colleagues and friends.Supplied His ardour for racing has never dimmed - he’s owned more than 200 horses in his day, typically those he’s assessed as deserving second chances. He is an inductee into the New Zealand Trotting Hall of Fame’s media honours board. On industry racing programme The Box Seat, presenters recently shared memories and thanks for his “enormous’’ contribution to Southland racing, his support for the south, and his collegial presence as a man who would willingly lend a hand to anyone he could help. An “enormous’’ contribution to the racing industry, in particular.Shaun Yeo / Stuff The thoroughbred, harness and greyhound codes and Ascot Park Consortium have decided to name a piece of lawn that greets racegoers on their arrival at the venue the Jamie Searle Lawn. He’s touched, of course. “If they need a flash mower for it, I”ll buy one for them,’’ he added, brightly.

Luck and benign weather conditions. Perhaps Trentham should be left as an Autumn tracks only as at least then the track is irrigated correctly. I see they broke 1:09 for 1200m and I note there is no mention of the times being hand timed in the Stipes report.

Well we all turned a blind eye for decades to problem. "Just turning up and competing" - that is the nub of the problem. I've never understood how the most important aspect of racing or riding a horse is treated with a "she'll be right attitude" "or I hope it'll be alright on the day" by the very people who are affected the most!!! Over the decades and considering all the tracks I have walked I would say at most 5% of trainers or jockey's even bother to inspect the track before they or their charges race on it. I would say though that there is a difference between those tracks that have a flourishing training centre and those that don't. You wonder why trainers are not consulted on track changes! But I guess most trainers are more worried about where the next bale of hay is coming from. WRONG! The immediate problem is making the decision where the limited capital available is going to be spent. The choice is clear - Hastings or Trentham. One option is cheaper than the other and has more chance of success.

Fake news. But I guess 12 meetings in 12 months is a bit taxing for Trentham i.e. once every FOUR weeks. It isn't about setting dates it is about setting a pattern/programme that allows horses to progress through the grades and distances as required. I realise that concept might be beyond you but then you are in good company given it seems NZTR aren't much better. LOL idea of what?

Only a matter of time. Have you started baking cakes yet for the cake stall fundraising? Or organised a raffle? To help fund bringing Trentham up to some degree of respectability in the racing world.

Wrong. @Trojan has been a member in her own right for a very long time. Wrong. I've never picked apples in my life. I did run the then largest apple packhouse in the Southern Hemisphere for a time. Everything is above board from my perspective however not so with some others players in the market so to speak. BTW try posting your comment under your other alias on the Comic Dog site. I'm not so paranoid or as thin skinned as other so called administrators - actually I might post some of the email correspondence at some stage. Do fill ya boots @Dark Beau

Nope.

Last week everyone was complaining about transport costs i.e. Otaki vs Hawera. Either way the Owner pays.

Well @mikeynz I'm sure you would like a day out at the race. But Owners would have to subsidise your enjoyment by paying the extra transport fees.

Didn't look to be going good enough when it needed to improve.

Why reinstate Blenheim when you have Rangiora or Motukarrara?

I haven't seen penetrometer readings published for NZ Tracks for a long time. Are they still taken? If so why aren't they published? I noticed for the first time yesterday that ENTAIN is publishing penetrometer readings for OZ tracks on the TAB when they are available. Probably been doing it for a while but only just noticed. LOL so used to not seeing them.

I can't fathom any reason why they wouldn't fix the issue both the distance measurement AND the electronic timing if they were serious about being a professional racing organisation. Unless... Do they have no funds? Is there a major redevelopment of the track scheduled? Or have they decided to close Trentham down as uneconomic to renovate and move to Awapuni? Or do false times make the track look better than it is?

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-leighton-smith-podcas-30246213/episode/leighton-smith-podcast-272-february-19th-2025-muriel-newman-and-michael-connett-268475735/?cmp=android_share&sc=android_social_share&pr=false

Opie had a smaller one than that basically they are just something to attach the stirrups to. I wonder if they are harder or easier to slip?

Official - hand timed.

How frigging hard is it to get one of those wheelie thingis and measure the distance? It's not as if the move the rail in the shute.

If the times are incorrect and are adjusted later off the video why bother posting them in the first place? At least they've worked out how to not broadcast the drone shot for the first 600m. Must make it easier for the commentator as well as the Trackside viewer.

The whole case was a bit of a stitch up was it not? 8 dogs out of hundreds over how many years? Incurring a $10k fine. The irony being that the hearing was heard the same month as Winston Peters told the Greyhiund industry that they were out of buskness The reality is there are a lot of good racing dogs that are going to be down and or a lot of money being paid to people to take the dogs and picked up by not scrupulous people. In light of the circumstances one section of the decision is particularly amusing given the so called "social license" has already been crossed out legislatively. 34. Mr Dow emphasises that breaches of this nature threaten the greyhound racing industry’s social licence and sustainability, requiring penalties that deter similar conduct and uphold public confidence.

But it isn't ENTAIN that declare the official results it is the raceday stewards and the judge. ENTAIN is doing a service by paying out immediately when they see clear placings. I suspect the delay is between the Judge and the system that supplies the full results to ENTAIN.

I think you miss my point. Tartan Tights was trained in Southland. Raced and won between Gore and Auckland in an era where it was a damn sight harder to get around. EA Winsloe. Nothing to do with money but a willingness to travel with a decent horse.

Won a bit of money off Tartan Tights when she flew home under a Chris Johnson well timed(?) ride to win the 1994 1000 Guineas. In those days horses didn't mind travelling all over the country...well their trainers and owners didn't mind!