Chief Stipe

Right so you have no idea what the natural injury rate of Greyhound Racing is?

I look forward to your comments. Tier racing complicates many things e.g. handicapping.

Is it correct that if you compare Chazza's figures to those from NSW then NZ actually does considerably better with injury rates than the NSW jurisdiction. Perhaps GRNZ are shooting themselves in the paw with unrealistic KPI's. Nothing worse than a KPI that you can't manage by action i.e. one that has an inherent statistical rate regardless of management activity.

Why do we need any tiers? We don't actually have a huge horse population and simplifying everything would be a better option. In my opinion the quality of our fields doesn't change because of the day of the week or the amount of stakes being paid other than at Black Type level.

Greyhounds headed to the United States for homes to clear New Zealand backlog www.rnz.co.nz Retired racing greyhounds are headed overseas as the industry looks to find homes for its backlog of dogs. They are being sent to the United States, rather than waiting to be adopted in New Zealand. As of early June, 44 greyhounds have made the trip to new homes in the US. Darrin Williams from Greyhound Racing New Zealand said the adoption market there is wildly different from New Zealand. "They're exactly the opposite to us. We've got plenty of dogs and not enough applications. They've got piles of applications and no dogs because there's hardly any racing over in America. So, before they go, many of the dogs have already begun to be matched with the right home." Greyhound Racing New Zealand investigated the programme after seeing Australia do it and found it cheaper to send the dogs overseas than to keep them here in boarding kennels. Williams said there was a backlog of dogs waiting to be adopted, and while in the first ten months of this year they found homes for 478, the US programme will allow the waitlist to be cleared faster. "Because of the backlog, we needed to look at anywhere else that we could rehome dogs or anything else that we could do with them to make sure that they were in a home and in a home quicker instead of moving from racing life, racing kennel life, to boarding kennel life." There are 350 dogs currently on the waitlist for adoption, Williams said. Emelia Lake from the charity Greyhounds as Pets said interest in adoptions has dropped, especially in North Island centres like Auckland. "We are facing lower adoption numbers this year, largely due to the economic crisis. It is slower and we are really putting in a lot of work with extra events and things like that to get greyhounds into homes." She said the organisation was holding onto the dogs for longer as a result. "We work with them for however long it takes to get them into a home, so whether it be two weeks or two years, they will stay in our care until they do find their forever home." There have been calls for greyhound racing to be banned after deaths and injuries at the racetrack. The former government directed the industry to make recommended improvements to animal welfare or risk closure after a review into the future of the sport. SPCA's Arnja Dale said her organisation backs a ban and the industry should account for it in its planning. "Despite the industry being under review by the government for two years, they have continued to breed puppies, which is absolutely outrageous." She said New Zealand is one of six countries in the world with a greyhound racing industry, and if the industry were to close, the SPCA would help rehome the dogs. "We are the largest leading animal welfare organisation in New Zealand and will continue to speak for the greyhounds that can't speak for themselves and also help in any way that we can to rehome them, if indeed the decision is made to close the industry." The issue of a ban is now with Racing Minister Winston Peters, who said he will not be rushed on the matter. He said the dogs do get something out of racing. "Dogs love racing. Watch them in the wild. Just like horses. Three o'clock in the morning, everybody's quiet and they're out there having a race in the paddock. "So, before we rush off, there are certain instinctive things that animals like, and one of them they will do whether you're going to organise the race or not." Greyhound Racing NZ rejects the idea of a ban and said the industry has quarterly meetings with the minister and Racing Integrity Board about progress on issues brought up in the review.

Your point?

So you don't give them that much credit?

Geez Chazza you are working hard now to find something to moan about.

I know it is easy to rant about this BS on an internet forum... but when are those in charge going to fix it? For the life of me I just don't get it. I talk to more people that have skin in the game (calluses) than I do administrators and the former are so frustrated whereas the administrators are spinning shyte!

Well they are up against it when the CD trainers didn't want the AWT in the first place. Some very very good horsemen (persons) in that group.

No doubt your bromance @Michael has the answer.

I can see the Stipes report now. Or rather the excuse... "Mr Grimstone my horse was hungry and while walking around at the start he ate a bit of grass. I think that's why he switched off at the 600m. He started neighing at the sun after that."

But you hate mile races? Ok 90m further but...

Moved to Thursday? Same day as the race meeting. My guess is not enough entries. Which begs the question if you are a trainer ready to trial why not pitch up and throw your hand at getting some stakes money?

Uh Oh...I didn't read the fine print. Grass doesn't grow very well on sand. Perhaps we should sow Marram Grass?

I might apply. Happy for BOAY members to post their CV's and I'll withdraw my application.

Not the horses I've been involved in. They'd get on the bit when they sensed it was the final bend.

The best horses I had anything to do with didn't need any head gear. If a horse wants to race it doesn't need it. My understanding is a horse is very aware of those around it - blindfolding it limits that awareness. How many horses with a full set of blinkers have you seen run down because neither the horse nor the Jockey/Driver saw the other horse coming. Perhaps today we tend to want to get them going early and don't give them enough education.

The good ones don't need a whip. Often it has become a signal to them that it's the run home. But even then the good ones know that. If a horse is putting in all it can then the whip is only punishing it for good behaviour. That's a negative.

It would make a difference to @Gammalite he wise under the whip a lap and a half from home!

That's not what I said. The horse may have giving everything it could. The whip would have made no difference.

I note Swayzee got beaten last night the same way Leap To Fame did. A fast finisher sitting on the back of a grinder. Of course there'll be the conspiracy now that the stable money was on the second horse... Amazing this "magic potion" that you can turn on and off like a switch.

"Lost form" is correct the flip side of that is that when in form it is a talented horse. Grimson obviously found what was wrong. Arguably Leap To Fame didn't match his best form. Also I think Dixon drove a soft quarter around 30 in the last lap. He would normally grind out 4 quick quarters in a row. Don't forget he also had to work hard to get to the lead.

That's the key. He picks up one's he can improve and has a good strike rate. I wouldn't be surprised that like a lot of top stables he takes a scientific approach to training including using the latest treatments and customising/fine tuning feeds per horse. Expensive but it works. For example there are legal anti-inflammatory/anti-arthritic drugs that can be legally injected into knee and fetlock joints that last a year or more.