Chief Stipe

Hopefully they'll have a review after the meeting rather than wait until an actual abandonment.

Speaking of punters clubs. Is the BGP turnover treated as oncourse turnover? If so that's a win to the club. I assume the reason you see Club Committees wandering around oncourse selling punters clubs tickets is because it benefits their oncourse turnover. A win for the TAB and the Club not so much the punter. Although it is a relatively inexpensive way of having multiple bets in every race!

There were two issues - shifty top and slipping. So what caused those conditions? We can eliminate the soil factor in this case (the primary cause of other track abandonments) because it is a new soil with a layered system and the soil structure is artificially maintained. So that comes back to the grass and irrigation. Hopefully they chose the right species of grass mix for the local conditions. The grass probably hasn't had time to fully put down roots and form a thatch hence the shiftiness. The grass could also have been too long and the showers during the day wouldn't have helped. The second factor is the irrigation. I imagine they haven't been irrigating enough at times or even inconsistently across the track. Cost is a factor - unless you have good bores that you own water isn't cheap in Auckland. Does anyone know if they upgraded the irrigation system? What type it is? I saw in one of the zillion promo videos water spraying from a section of the inside running rail. It caught my eye because it was a fine spray not going very far out onto the turf. One would hopefully assume that the track maintenance team have been well schooled on maintaining the StrathAyr and have abandoned their old practices completely.

So at Trentham they were paid nothing other than what they earned in riding fees from the races that were run. Of course there may have been a case where a Jockey had yet to ride so therefore would have been compensated as per above.

Well at least I'd have had fun trying. But typical you'd love to hand all your money over to Central Control and not have to do anything...like think.

I don't think a judgement can be made until we see the race sectionals. They ran good time over the 1600m and it would be hard to improve from anywhere. What disappointed me though was they didn't reshape the track much nor level the contour when they did the work. Ellerslie has always been a hard track to win from off the speed and in my opinion that's to do as much with the shape and contour of the track than the surface. I also don't think many of the Jockeys adapted either. Many didn't bustle their horses out early presumably because they felt the track would play even. That said there were a few who flew home even when the race was run real quick.

From the Race 4 Stipe Stewards Report: Following this race comment was made by some riders that their mounts were shifting in the ground. Films from Race 3 were also further reviewed where it was apparent that TEVERE had lost its footing rounding the final turn. Stewards convened a meeting with all riders and after viewing available film footage it was agreed that the meeting should continue. From Race 5: Following further comment from riders regarding the footing including W Kennedy who reported that his mount lost its footing passing the 600 metres, a further meeting was convened with all riders. After reviewing film footage and considering submissions from all riders present the decision was made to run the last race as scheduled. Race 6: PENDRAGON (M Zahra) – Lost its footing entering the final straight. LUPO SOLITARIO (R Elliot) – Rider reported that the gelding had failed to handle today’s shifty track conditions. LUPO SOLITARIO (R Elliot) – Rider reported that the gelding had failed to handle today’s shifty track conditions. MOLLY BLOOM (B Shinn) - When questioned regarding the performance the rider advised that it had appeared difficult to make ground from the back today adding that the filly had then peaked on its run over the concluding stages.

Ok cool. How was the 88 cents derived? My assumption is it was to do with the $1.01 entry price.

A better strategy was to stick with the straight win bet on Orchestral. BUT, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I read it the bet didn't they put their entire remaining pool up on the last? So if they had money left to pay out 50% then it must have come from a TAB rebate.

A statistical aberration.

Perhaps but I'd rather play with $100 myself. Each to their own.

A win for Entain even after all the concessions given. BGP will always struggle to make a profit by having multiple bets in every race. I think on a couple of occasions they were betting against themselves.

He said on Trackside they got half their money back. Didn't they also take a combo offer Orchestral Top 6 with something else? I guess the way it's written it seems to be $1.50.

She's the President. Shri Narendra Modi the Prime Minister is just as bad as the rest of your great group! He sleeps with the Russians.

I was referring to the previous dude as an indication of how stuffed Brazil is. The current one is worse - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/31/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-brazil-presidency-election-profile

Tell us more.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro - corrupt. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/30/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-property-payments-cash-allegations South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa - corrupt. Look up the investigations into his business dealings. India - Droupadi Murmu - probably the best of a motley crew. I note you omit to mention Russia and China and some of those dodgie Arab states. Geez yet another subject your profess to know something about yet blinded by the red haze.

What else would you spend thousands on vet bills for?

Misunderstanding of the rule and miscommunication. Why attempt to cheat for something that is easily detectable? That said they could have sought permission to use the drug in question on legitimate therapeutic grounds.

That's what I thought but with the added thought that the Jockeys left to ride at Wellington...well they're not the most capable!

Bring back Foxton.

I tell you another course that shouldn't be raced on for a while and that's Pukekohe. I'm wary of how New Pymouth plays next weekend as well. Meanwhile watching them coming from anywhere on The Valley StrathAyr.

It's been off for years. A friend had a horse race in the Wellesley - the shute was as hard as. The horse is now in the paddock.

Bollocks. A hodge podge of countries led by dictators and despots with appalling human rights records. Again blinded by ideology.

The cobalt issue has been done to death but I guess some just keep being bitter about it. Many millions spent in OZ on the issue and most of the outcomes were in favour of the charged. Some just walked away rather than spend their life savings in righting a wrong. As for the trough - the cows and the horses weren't in the paddock at the same time. But eh the knockers don't give a shyte about detail.