Chief Stipe

Really? How? Give us all one reason to trust Putin or Xi Jinping? Let one Iran! As for the USA it wasn't long ago you were telling us they have no power or influence. Make your mind up. It's like arguing with a schizophrenic! Try living in India, Russia or China. Actually please do.

Lot 55 - Zoustar colt. Jamie Richards and David Ellis went head to head. Went to Richards for $725,000. I'd say experience had set a price. https://www.nzb.co.nz/sales/24kaa/55

The drama, the passion, the excitement... Better than watching a SOAP any day.

Lot 55 - Zoustar colt. Jamie Richards and David Ellis went head to head. Went to Richards for $725,000. I'd say experience had set a price. https://www.nzb.co.nz/sales/24kaa/55

Describing yourself. Meanwhile more slogans and ideology. No substance and a distinct reluctance to explain how BRICS is any good for the world. We await.

Entain turned over $9.5m yesterday which pays the stake for one race. Good news for all the enthusiasts is it will be a 2 day carnival next year. Entain may even have a horse running as they intend to spend $1.5m at the Karaka sales.

That's not true. My observation is they win from all positions but you need to get moving to be handy before turning for home. The straight is the shortest in Australasia. But the shape and camber plus surface allows you to improve. As for yesterday let's look at the sectionals first.

This is the old layout. Would be great to overlay the "new" layout. They don't seem to have done much to bend out of the home straight. Still tight and up hill (might be wrong) so will be the same kamikaze race for positions 2000m and above. The home bend is long with a sharp turn in and still downhill which isn't conducive to improving your position before the straight. Horses seem to become unbalanced on the bend regardless of the track. Although I would have thought the new surface would have helped - perhaps the jocks are still riding on memory.

So how does that excuse your hypocrisy? You've just agreed with what I posted. You are only pro-BRICS because you are anti-Western Alliances. To the point where you'd rather align with dictators, despots and the corrupt. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran and the UAE. Do you have ANY principles?

I'm asking you to justify your BRICS slogan!!!! Typical tactic by you when you can't. You dream up a counterfactual and ask everyone else to justify it. Let's face it you are superficial and a hypocrite. You promote BRICS only because it is anti all Western Alliances.

Hardly! Whereas you throw out slogans that have no substance! Tell us why the BRICS is THE group to belong to? None of the countries in it have a civil/human rights record that you supposedly aspire to and are riddled with government and corporate corruption.

That's why I like Moonee Valley - with that camber the entire field can start bunching from the school to the final bend and sling hook for home. They've never been able to do that at Ellerslie. Shame that instead of selling all the silver they used some of that land to reshape the course.

Again you need to see the sectionals. If the top horses are going fast evenly through the race then of course the winner comes from those that are on the pace. Probably the reason Gai Waterhouse is doing so well at moment - all her horses are trained to get out quick and fast and sit on the pace. The other scenario where on the pace works is when they walk for the first half of the race and sprint home. I think there were a couple of races like that yesterday. Add into the mix Jockeys ability to read pace and do something about it if it doesn't suit their charge. Too many Jockeys get too scientific about what suits their horse and don't adapt to the conditions or the actual race pace.

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.