Chief Stipe

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.

Quiz: Name the Horse. Name the Jockey. (I was seriously divided this day on who was better looking). The Racecourse. The man in the suit/black coat in the background.

@Forbury it wasn't you I was referring to. But since some of us are getting a bit nostalgic. Remember this era of forum chat:

LOL. I remember comments like those at the time. Standard line for some who didnt watch the entire race or understand the effort. She did everything wrong and was put off stride at least three times. It was that effort that got me excited topped off by the ease of win. She hasn't changed often throwing that head up and around.

Actually upon further analysis the scratchings aren't that too bad. 94 horses going around over 10 races. 3 races hit a bit hard with scratchings. Two of them R65's. Is that a programming problem?

Shame about the scratchings today at Ruakaka. Surely you would want to race on a confirmed decent surface than take the risk that your next opportunity will be worse or even worse abandoned!!!!

Who couldn't see that coming. I guess the positives are he is a Kiwi and knows how horses are trained. Hopefully his first decision will be to disestablish is previous role of Chief Operating Officer! Now that he has the job here's hoping he puts a fire under Cameron George and the rest of the Board!

Hot and very humid at Ruakaka today. Currently 25 C and 130% humidity....OK I've exaggerated with the humidity. I hope the local club has a great day - they've had a raw deal compared to other clubs over the pandemic. Shame it is a closed meeting as there are 100's of locals gagging to get out to see the races. Ruakaka - the track where Verry Elleegant won her Maiden! Race Day Weather: Cloudy Track: Dead 5 Rail: True Weather and Track updated at 6.48am Wednesday 9 February

These two constraints to improvement annoy me the most. One is an easy fix - the handicapping (and the programming). The other not so easy - the tracks but still fixable with the right investment, planning and some flexibility and the utilisation of some really good existing tracks rather than closing them down. If you elevate the needs of the horse above everything else then many of the perceived constraints about some tracks become meaningless. So what if Foxton can't accommodate 3,000 people under cover? The tracks are another reason I get pissed off with the whipping rules virtue signalling. They talk about horse welfare yet are prepared to allow these horses to be sent out on unsafe shitty tracks. What I also find annoying is that Trainers are too scared to do anything about or even say anything. They tend to turn up and bury their heads in the sand (I guess that is another reason for all the sand on our tracks!) and just accept it. I've told this story before but it will always stick in my mind. I had a horse racing at Ellerslie and as I always did when she was racing I walked the track. So early in the morning before breakfast I walked the track and found it was in an appalling state for a Grp 1 Premier day - I even found a deep hole in the home straight that was like a large post had been pulled out and the hole not filled in. I quickly went back to the hotel on course and found the Trainer and we went back. A couple of Jockey's were walking the track and another trainer - Nigel Tiley. Anyway after we walked the track Tiley said - "I'm scratching my horses - this track isn't good enough" - my Trainer said "Shit I wish I hadn't seen that, if we hadn't come this far and all this expense I'd scratch too." They hadn't seen the hole at that stage. We ended up putting a tree branch in it - I wish I had taken a photo of this tree suddenly growing in the middle of the Ellerslie home straight. To this day I think about what would have happened if I hadn't walked the track and found that hole. You could put your arm down it up to your shoulder and still not touch the bottom. Yes a bit of an extreme example. BUT as far as I know only two trainers walked the track before the races and I backed the rides of the two Jockey's that I saw walking it. Of all the tracks I've walked on race day I've very rarely seen a Trainer do it. Let alone complain to the authorities. Last year NZTR in the annual report show expenditure of $95k on Track Maintenance. $2.2m on the new computer system and I understand the cost is blowing out by the week.