Chief Stipe

I haven't made any assumptions on what you wrote. You said Aranesp was in widespread use in your day. I wouldn't be surprised if this was once again pure speculation on your part. Quote: As for using Google as a research tool - yes I do use it. You would have to be a ignorant Luddite if you didn't. Shame your band leader's Neil Bennett and Archie Butterfly don't use it effectively. The majority of what Butterfly @Archie Butterfly writes is crap which if he was a true Journalist he would have discovered by doing some simple research. Anyone with a modicum of literacy will have seen that what I have written has come with legitimate references backed up by science. I can only assume that you belong to the rumour mongering group that hides behind private online forums spouting bullshit driven by envy and jealousy. So who is burying their head in the sand? Certainly not me because I have done the research. If there is widespread EPO doping in Harness Racing in NZ which hasn't been detected then it can't be from a lack of testing technology, resources or money which the RIB has. If you want to spend unedifying and negative time scanning every race looking for turn around's in performance and then Chicken Licken shouting in online private forums or behind paywalls then go for it. But what a sorry sorry existence. BTW Archie's latest angle is also wrong that being the one where Trainers are timing administration so that a spike in EPO induced RBC occurs at race time. He is following this line because the micro-dosing angle has fallen flat on its face. So he has to find another way to milk this crap to keep people buying access to the other side of his paywall. But this new angle is absolute BS which fails on a number of counts. A spike can occur if a large amount of EPO is given - it isn't guaranteed nor will it be consistent. So you would need to constantly monitor the RBC's of the horses being doped which would require a compliant Vet with the necessary testing technology. It is all pointless anyway because testing of swabs would pick up the rHuEPO over a wide time period. But you keep banging that conspiracy drum @Blossom lady. Sure one day another horse will return a positive to rHuEPO (I know of two in the last 10 years in OZ) and your lot will cry from the rooftops - "We told you so, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Feds only got lucky. Been going on for years."

Look out this weekend @nod there is a Cyclone predicted to head down close to NZ to the West. A Cyclone Giselle track.

Think Carbine.

And he sat on the side of the railway line and said to himself..... "if I wait long enough I'll get those sleepers.."

OK I'll start things rolling. Hayden Tinsley Great judge of pace and a kind rider. Also a punter and would tell you bluntly if your horse was cheating. BUT would also understand where an inexperienced rider had been dictated to by a mongrel horse or one behaving badly.

I don't agree with that. Any good rider with good hands that could nail pace would suffice.

For those that don't know the history of racing @KickintheKods is taking the piss. Wasn't a Waterhouse involved?

Who do you think would make good Raceday Stipes?

Norm Holland WAS a Stipe. But shouldn't there be at least a few good Jockeys amongst the Stipes? Actually that would be a good Topic in its own right - which ex-Jockeys would be good raceday Stipes?

I experienced the same vision. No disrespect to Lee but speaking to her was a bit hard. Classic horse person in that regard. They talk better to horses than us humans. Beautiful hands with a horse and a kind rider. My horse didn't respond to every rider (had 25 different riders!) but she did to Lee. Threw Michael Walker! Woops there are clues in there!

I must be older than you. I'm sure the best deal I got was 8 for 1. Must have been better at conning the bookie!

To this day I have a vivid memory of when I was about 4 being asked by my mother to go down to the local Dairy and get a packet of Cameo. I knew she wanted cigarettes (she was a two packet a day forever) which I hated even at that age. So I loaded a lemonade bottle onto the tray at the back of my little trike and off I set. Mr Baird the Dairy owner asked me if I wanted cigarettes or a packet of biscuits. I returned home with an icecream all over my face, 8 aniseed balls and a packet of biscuits. Mum looked at me and asked for the change which I duly handed over.

Returning a large lemonade bottle and getting an icecream and 8 aniseed balls.

Nope.

Correct. Now Lee Tiley. Great horsewoman and a good looker.

Yes you have the colours of Cent Home correct. Bonus question what champion of yesteryear wore the same colours?

Why is it "bollocks" @Freda? Who would you have rather had in charge McCutcheon and Holland or Oatham?

In my opinion commingling has Fcked us up. Firstly it has distracted us away from marketing the local product and secondly it has made the TAB NZ price takers not makers.

Yep - the grab a couple of jugs after work and before getting home for tea crowd. Plus an awakened OZZIE punter.

Interesting comment by McCutcheon but probably taken out of context. A good mate of mine and I had a good session with Noel after the races at Ellerslie in the Novotel bar where we were staying. The mother of my child was upstairs getting ready to go out for dinner. Matty and I were well gone as my horse had won the last, we had had a bloody good punt and we took full advantage of being in the Presidents bar as Owners with all the free loaders that gravitated there once racing had finished. Bloody interesting talking to him. Sadly the day was marred by the death of a young Jockey at Riverton (I think) and Noel as Chief phoned Trackside to get the race video removed. But back to the comment - yes the pace of the race is irrelevant in the sense that if you have a horse that races handy or on the pace it doesn't matter what the pace is you should be up front. Again context.

Although it is a bit long watch it to the end. A Jumps race that has everything and a twist at the end.

Now all that wouldn't be a stupid idea if the Taranaki Racing Club owned the course they race on. Sell and develop a decent training and racing centre on some flat land with peaty soil.

Racing: Stipes promise at least a fine for riders who slow the pace 13 Feb, 2005 09:30 PM4 minutes to read By by Mike Dillon Watch out any jockey who gets the lead and packs a field up over the next few months - a fine or suspension is guaranteed. After Saturday's abortive stock car-like $100,000 Sir Tristram Classic, stipendiary stewards' tolerance of jockeys creating unnecessary danger by slowing fields down to ridiculous levels is zero. That no runner fell during the group-two Classic at Te Rapa on Saturday is a miracle. From the winning post to the beginning of the back straight, the field slowed to little more than three-quarter pace. The result was shuffling with such volatility that senior riders were white with shock. "That was dangerous," said Noel Harris, who won the race on Tusker. "Crap," was how Hayden Tinsley described it. Former stipe Ginger Tankard said it was the roughest race he'd seen in years. "It was bullshit. If one horse had fallen they'd have all gone." The problem began when Mark Hills went around the leader on Axis on the bend out of the straight with a round to travel. The tempo, already pedestrian, appeared to slow even further, although Hills denied that. Lisa Cropp, three places back on the rails on Myladys, was immediately in trouble when her mount tried to climb over the heels of Bible Class, the horse that had yielded the lead to Axis. As Cropp angled her horse out of trouble a chain reaction back through the field eventuated, with Tusker and Leith Innes on Sahara Flight flushing out wide to avoid clipping heels. Half the field was so badly affected that many were travelling sideways for a number of strides and eventual runner-up Authoress was so badly galloped on she returned with a gaping wound just above the fetlock on her off-side hind leg. The net effect was that a number of riders were forced into tactics that did not suit their horse, but meant lessening the danger. Finishing down the track was a better option than lying on it. Stipendiary stewards faced a massive problem. They had to act. They gave warnings to all those in the jockeys' room after Race 2, which was ridiculously slow - the time of 1.40.54 for the 1600m was more appropriate to mid-winter racing. The message from chief stipendiary steward Noel McCutcheon and assistant Alan Coles was, "Don't pack fields up to the point it creates danger for those behind". It had appeared Hills would be charged for the Sir Tristram Classic incident, but he was not in the room after Race 2. Stewards instead gave him a warning. There is no question that a big part of the problem is many of the younger riders are unable to judge pace to the same degree as the likes of Harris, Coleman, Innes and Tinsley. Australia has been clamping down, charging jockeys with careless riding, a rule which seems slightly inappropriate but is applied for the want of a better rule. McCutcheon said that when he attended a stipendiary conference in Australia last year the Australians were looking at framing a specific rule. It would be good if we followed. Stewards said they would have charged Hills with careless riding had he been part of the original warning, a stance Hills was not entirely comfortable with. Being able to judge pace was one of the first lessons jockeys of earlier decades learned. Norm Holland, still involved on raceday, rode against the best in his high profile career in the saddle. "You had it drilled into you. The likes of Bill Broughton and Grenville Hughes were outstanding at it," said Holland at Te Rapa. "And more recently David Peake and Bruce Compton had it drilled into them by [trainer] George Cameron. They were good." Tinsley believes it is probably the single most important talent a jockey can possess. "The best judge of pace will win a race. If you can do it well, you have half the field beaten before you go out. Half the jockeys out there can't do it well."

The track is not Te Rapa. Yes about Norm Holland. He and Noel McCrutcheon were probably the last of the ex Jockey's that played a hard but fair game as stipes. How many stipes do you see in the parade ring today? As ex-Jockey's they understood how to read a race and it took a smart Jockey to put one across them.