Chief Stipe

The same night as I mentioned earlier we had finished work on the market garden/orchard and headed to the Slut and Gutter to play pool. Unfortunately the local patched bikie gang was in full attendence around the tables. My mate was called Richard - so he went up (we were fairly brave in those days) and put our names on the board - Dick & Doug. The bikies thought it was hilarious. So they rubbed everyone's name off the board and filled it with variations - like Dickhead & Dugup and so on. They wouldn't let us leave the table as our names were always up next.

I think you are right but she did spend some time at the Hill stables to see if they could get her to go. If I recall correctly she was called Staggers because she got the staggers when young!

I think that was the horse Peter Malone was driving at Blenheim when he went for a gap and the gap closed about 150m out. His horse went down he went over the top and a few followed. He was knocked out and a few other injuries. Peter was a tall guy and a bit like Slim Dykman with his knees nearly up around his ears when in a sulky - I can still see him being thrown forward from the sulky. I worked a summer holidays at the vet clinic - the biggest memory being fainting when "assisting" in the operating theatre while a vet did a caesarian on a doe. Mother and fawn got through the operation better than I did!

Yes remember him. Always there or thereabouts looking for a tip. Joe Hill like setting a horse for a punt and Dad liked to too. No skulduggery just how you placed your horse and trained it.

I remember that two mile race well. Jack O'Donnell was the commentator. Dad got a tape of the race and I played it and played it until I wore it out. Could recite the whole race from start to finish. Now I can only remember about the last 600m! Easy to remember an O'Donnell commentary as it was like a story. High Chapparal won a couple of good races at Addington beating some very useful types like Micron and Trevira.

So why did you need to quote me twice? What's your definition of "hopeless"?

George and Brian are Joe's sons. Kirstie is the daughter of Brian. Don't know about Hill Street. What I do know about Hill Street is in 1981 after a mate and me had a few fantas at the Star and Garter in Queen street Richmond we decided to do the "switch backs" down Hill Street. The street used to go up and down like a roller coaster and we tried to get my Vauxhall Viva to go as fast as it could downhill and leave the ground going over the top. We missed the dead end signs at the end of the road and went airborne thankfully ending up on a big pile of sawdust. Effort to get it off with all the surrounding house lights coming on and before we got caught. My dad couldn't work out where all the sawdust was coming from in the garage at home for weeks! I don't recall George ever driving McShane. The Royal Blue, White Sash & Black Sleeves silks I think belonged to Joe. The first silks I can remember as my father's horse High Chapperall used run in them. That horse goes all the way back to Staggers which was bred by Peter Malone - the local vet. I'm pretty sure it was in the Hill stable in the early 80's. I was also a week late starting school as Dad took the family on a yearly sojourn on the Nelson/Blenheim harness circuit. I remember many a trip getting back to Hokitika crammed up next to cases of peaches from the orchard next door to the Hills and lots of other produce from Robinsons.

I agree and as for Winston - well everyone knows Winston. He'll be off on diplomatic missions when he isn't attending race meetings drinking single malt whiskies soon enough. Honestly I didn't think Luxon would step up but I believe he is. The proof for that is the squeals from the media, unions, academics and other Labour patsies on various boards.

You keep pumping out those ellipses. Three dots is the standard not four! We can only imagine what you were intending to write in place of the ellipsis.

That's the incorrect way. Your use of it is meaningless.

Did you go to the same school as @Thomass and didn't learn the correct way to use ellipses?

I haven't back tracked but then I didn't offer a bet did I. So you now agree that the National led Government will go full term. Good we're making progress.

That's possibly to save (YouTube) costs although if they did it right they could earn revenue from viewers. I'm not sure what the costs are for commercial businesses to host video on YouTube. I wouldn't be surprised if the approach is a hangover from the past where NZTR took a cost accountants approach to the storage costs. Storage costs have plummeted. About $4.50 a month for 1Tb of storage which can hold over 200 full length movies in 4k. Of course there is the client side restriction as well - YouTube will adjust the definition (quality) relative to your bandwidth. It is possible to overided this and force higher resolution but that's limited by what was loaded in the first place. Anyway it should be an automated process. Does NZTR or the RIB own the video?

Really @holy ravioli seems you have had your daily glass ov vinegar for breakfast with a side of hypocrisy. Was the Pot Kettle black? So I take it you have back tracked on "this Government not lasting the first term"? Or like your horse racing selections would you rather wait until closer to the next election, like one day out to determine what track conditions will be like?

Especially with today's technology they can watch the Stewards vision over and over on their 55 inch smart TV's. Speaking of the Stewards Vision replays - why can they get the race replays loaded within an hour but take up to 5-7 days or more for the Stewards Vision? Especially when the process should be automated. Does the RIB decide when it's released? It isn't as if they have to take the cans back to town to develop them is it? 5 days after the Saturday races you've probably ridden at least two more days and are focused on the next Saturday.

FFS back pedalling - you said they wouldn't see the term out! WTF does "in it's(sic) form" mean? BTW it's is a contraction for "it is"!

He voted to get rid of the Labour Government - he's hardly a committed National voter having only voted for them 3 times in 55 years!!!! Perhaps Stuff should have written the headline - The Unintended Consequences of MMP? What odd's are you offering that Tova and or Stuff won't last 3 years?

When you say non-industry person do you mean someone who has nothing to do with harness racing at all? If that was the case why start the whole episode? Yeah Na....most of it came from a disgruntled owner who used to be on these forums and then exited and ran a private Facebook page.

Yes it did. I have a picture of the RIB contingent all decked out before the raids. It's a farce.

Well said. But the "narking" wasn't based on anything real it was based on envy.

Queensland, NZ beckon for Shinn www.racing.com Blake Shinn will adopt the mantra 'have saddle, will travel' when he returns to the races later this month, with plans to ride in Queensland, New Zealand and Victoria over the festive period. Melbourne's leading rider and Scobie Breasley medallist from last season returns from his Melbourne Cup Carnival suspension at Flemington on December 20, before basing himself in Brisbane for four weeks while also traveling to New Zealand. Shinn will begin his Queensland Summer Carnival on December 23 at Eagle Farm but has also secured rides for the Group 1 meeting on Boxing Day at Pukekohe Park, including aboard exciting Kiwi filly Molly Bloom in the G2 Eight Carat Stakes. The 36-year-old's Queensland stint will be geared towards success at the lucrative Magic Millions Carnival. "The Queensland Racing Summer Carnival has become a showpiece event during December and I felt that basing myself in Queensland over this period will best give me the opportunity to avail myself to both local and interstate-trained horses whilst building momentum heading into the Magic Millions Carnival in early January," Shinn said. "It is such an important time for the industry with the first yearling sale of the season, which carries such significant participation both domestically and internationally. "The Magic Millions Carnival boasts both elite equine talent and such huge prizemoney and having been a previous winner of the two-year-old classic, I firmly believe that basing myself in Queensland over this four weeks will give me the best opportunity for success." Shinn's last meeting in Queensland is set to be on January 13, but he plans to return for the traditional Flemington meeting on New Year's Day and any Victorian jumpouts for his key mounts heading towards the autumn. He will also ride at the Karaka Millions meeting at Ellerslie on January 27 upon his return to Melbourne.

So what's this about?

A parliamentary term is 3 years. Geez you are worse than a snake caught in a wagon rut.

How much dosh should they have? Is $18m+ a year not enough? Would be if they spent it on the right things rather than Keystone Cops hiding in hedges, wearing flak jackets and walkie-talkies and then spending $14m+ on a fruitless court case.