Chief Stipe

I really can't see how you can expect to see things change when you have NZTR who make the penalties and rules seemingly bereft of any motivation and the RIB an organisation that is broke financially and ethically!

Aren't the penalties set already for rider indiscretions regardless of the degree of carnage created?

So as we reminisce once again of the good old days perhaps we should get back to the here and now..... The RIB is out of control cost wise and contrary to the expectations set when the structure was proposed the level of adjudication has got worse not better. I wonder where they are going to find the funding shortfall of millions of dollars.

So bush justice?

By Roc de Cambes.....?! What's more boggier than a Heavy10?

Still needs to find a couple of seconds to be a champion. But heaps of bog tracks to race on.

Proves my point. A dead set heavy track and the long term best horses don't win. Something from left field. Perhaps you should front up with some cash and aim for The Everest with your Roc de Cambes mudder?

A Good 4. I guess they got the irrigation spot on.

Correct and sooner or later the major trainers will stop wanting to bring their horses. So the consensus is that the track has issues. There are differences in opinion on what caused those issues and what needs to be done to fix them. The facts are very little is being spent on fixing the problems, the irrigation policy will continue because it has to etc etc. Therefore sooner or later a really bad surface will present on a big raceday. I guess at least at Eagle Farm the Trainers and Jockey's put the acid on!

So where would you shift mares in foal, foals and stallions at short notice? How many horses? 200?

You obviously have no idea of the logistics of shifting a large stud operation even with allegedly "days warning"!

FFS wasn't it done THIRTY YEARS ago? Even if it was top notch how fucking long did you expect it to last? Hell Flemington has annual maintenance and major renovation every FOUR fucking years!

How many decades ago was that? Probably had the best of the soil condition and no one has spent any money since. .....and we wonder why tracks are fucked but let's just blame under resourced allegedly over qualified people trying their best working for admin idiots. Meanwhile trainers and owners those that are left reminesce about the good old days.

I thought the evac warnings were for a different area. As for arguing for the sake of arguing you are always calling for heads to roll over something.

Why should someone's head roll? Act of God is it not?

Studs caught in 'dire' flood situation Tim Yeatman & Ryan Reynolds@TimYeatman & @Reynolds_R11:39am Floodwaters at Yulong Stud. Picture: Patrick Murrell (@pamurrell) Yulong Stud and Gilgai Farm are battling rising floodwaters and threats to their horses after the state was lashed with significant rainfall and flooding. The situation at Yulong Stud in Mangalore, just South of Nagambie, is escalating, with boats needing to be called in to rescue a huge number of horses stranded in head-high floodwaters. At the home of Black Caviar, Gilgai Farm - just West of Nagambie, the situation is understood to also be dire with flood waters wreaking havoc. It comes as: The clean up begins for a number of farms in central Victoria who escaped major damage but suffered significant flooding;Race tracks including Seymour, Kyneton and Yarra Valley are closed due to flooding;There was no training at Seymour, Kyneton, Wangaratta and Swan Hill on Thursday morning;Car parks at Flemington are under water;Caulfield's Group 1 Cup meeting will go ahead;Saturday’s meeting at Wodonga has been abandoned due to surface water;Picnic racing at Alexandra has also been called off. Yulong's Sam Fairgray described the current situation as "pretty dire" at his property. Videos on social media have shown horses almost neck deep in water being saved by boats, while others have been led out of the flood by volunteers. "Water is still flowing back into the farm. It's halfway across the property," Fairgray told RSN927. "The water has never been this high before. It's horrendous.” At Three Bridges Thoroughbreds in Eddington, horses and staff are all safe, but a deluge of consistent rain has seen floodwaters inundate the large property with dams overflowing. “Thankfully we’ve been here for 17 years, and we sort of knew what might’ve been coming, whereas at some of those newer farms you just don’t know – so it’s just horrible,” General Manager Toby Liston said. “Our catchment is 180,000 megalitres, and we’re letting out 70,000 megalitres last night. It’s a bloody lot of water, we’re probably a kilometre across, there’s a kilometre of two-metre-deep water, there’s just so much water. We know how much work is coming with the clean-up.” Three Bridges Thoroughbreds on Friday morning. At Swettenham Stud in Nagambie, the focus of staff has shifted to helping those in need of urgent help after assuring all horses and staff were ok. “All horses are safe we’ve just got paddocks underwater; staff and horses are safe so that’s the main thing. We’re going to throw a few boats in and go and help the other guys out,” General Manager Sam Matthews said. “The way our farm is designed it’s on a steep gradient, so it actually hasn’t been too bad, the horses are hundreds of metres away from the water - we just want to make everyone else is ok.” A usually picturesque creek that divides Woodside Park Stud at Tylden is now an uncrossable river dividing the property in two sections, but thankfully all horses have been accounted for. “Look we’re not too bad, the creek runs through the middle here and it’s raging, it’s uncomfortable but we haven’t got paddocks underwater, the creek raging has cut us in half, so we’re stuck - it’s an issue but no mare’s stuck in water,” Manager Mark Dodemaide said. Woodside Park Stud on Friday morning In Euroa, the team at Blue Gum Farm are already into clean-up mode after copping the full force of the wild front. “We’ve had a lot of rain and a lot of wind – there’ll be a lot of clean up, it’s head down and bum up and getting on top of it,” Principal Philip Campbell said. “I’m sure there’s others far worse off than us, but it’s been a pretty rough time.”

BTW I was referring to Oz tracks I response to Fredas comments about Randwick and Eagle Farm. Of course the option most of you seem to prefer is to do nothing or race less. I guess one begets the other.

Where have you been hiding O'Brien? You were part of the problem - promoted stake increases and neglected track conditions.

Bollocks. How many of those were actually complete reconstructions? Most were only half arsed partials. Your only solution is to let god do the irrigating and put a plough through the track occasionally. I guess that works if you only have two or three meetings a year. Oh and no harness meetings!

The evidence that has been sent to me over the years concerning Riccarton indicate that slipping would have been an issue if not for the ameliorative irrigation policy. Unfortunately due to the poor soil structure arising from decades of neglect and no investment irrigation had to be in large quantities and could never be applied evenly. Moaning about something that happened 30 years ago doesn't address the underlying issue the soil is fucked NOW. As it has been in any number of our high use tracks in NZ. Let's roll the dice for Guineas week shall we? For every bad track reconstruction there have been at least twice as many good ones.

There isn't any. The closest connection is Nature Strip which is owned by some prominent Kiwis.

Anyone who could read a balance sheet and set of financial accounts could see what MacKenzie was doing was all smoke and mirrors. St no stage did he address the fundamental issues. However he very deftly pushed costs off the TAB balance sheet and onto the codes to make the TAB accounts look good.

Sorry what "NZ trained horses are in The Everest"?

@JJ Flash is representative of where the industry has gone wrong. It believes its own propaganda time and time again. The facts and the information has always been available although it has been harder to obtain under more recent regimes. The likes of @JJ Flash just listen to and repeat the corporate nonsense while ignoring the fundamentals hence the industry being in the state it is in. The sad thing is he isn't alone where all the major trainer stakeholders buy into the BS as well. Reap what you sow and the chickens have come home to roost.

I'm not so sure you are correct on that. However maybe the irrigation policy has avoided the slipping happening more often.