Chief Stipe

@hunterthepunter and @Rangatira have you both thought about getting a room together?

Perhaps they rang all the Trainers involved and the CD ones said they'd rather run on a wet track at Te Rapa rather than a swamp at Awapuni. Plus there may have been indications that being a week later more Northern 2yr olds would have been ready to nominate.

Well it is your favourite word and the members of it are as mysterious as your use of the term. Perhaps you cryptic post was more cryptic or idiosyncratic than usual for you.

For those who don't know @Joe Bloggs is referring to his imaginary friend the "CarteL".

King Of Swing creates history in Hunter Cup Luke and Belinda McCarthy celebrate King Of Swing’s Hunter Cup success at Melton on Saturday night By Adam Hamilton 01:41pm • 06 February 2022 0 Comments MORE history awaits champion pacer King Of Swing. Having become the first pacer to win two Hunter Cups and two Miracle Miles, he is favourite to be the first three-time winner of the $1 million Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 5. And it could be the last race of his stellar career which already has him seventh on the all-time Australasian stake-earners list at $2,786,046. Connections have declared he will be retired to stud at the end of this season, meaning the Miracle Mile or Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park in July will be his swan song. King Of Swing is one of eight two-time Miracle Mile winners, but none have been able to add a third since the race started in 1967. Co-trainer and driver Luke McCarthy declared the seven-year-old “at least as good as ever” after he took advantage of a perfect pole draw and dictated last night’s Hunter Cup to beat emerging star stablemate Spirit Of St Louis. King Of Swing strides away to win the Group 1 Hunter Cup on Saturday night at Melton (image: Stuart McCormick) He blasted home in closing splits of 54.2 and 25.9sec at the end of a comfortable 1min56.7sec mile rate for 2760m, the slowest Hunter Cup since former Kiwi great Smolda won in 2016 in a 1min57.3sec mile rate. “Sure, he had a lovely run in front, but he did that so easily. He felt great,” McCarthy said. “I know there was a bit of talk around about whether he would be able to lead or not, but I never doubted it. He’s almost impossible to get past when he’s in front.” The stats back it up with King Of Swing leading in 36 races and winning 33 of them, including his two Hunter Cups and two Miracle Miles. He drew poorly and had to sit outside the leader and winner Lochinvar Art when third in last year’s Hunter Cup. Now it’s back to Sydney and his favourite track, Menangle, for a Miracle Mile qualifier on February 26 and the Mile itself a week later. King Of Swing has raced 19 times at Menangle for 16 wins, two seconds and a fifth. But incredibly, he is unbeaten in 10 starts over a mile at the track, including four times at Group 1 level and the two Miracle Miles. Luke McCarthy looks to the crowd as King Of Swing crosses the line in the Hunter Cup “He’s a great horse, as good as I’ve had anything to do with, his record shows that,” McCarthy said. “But there’s no doubt the mile at Menangle is his absolute sweet spot. It’ll be great to get him back there.” Spirit Of St Louis underlined his stunning emergence when he followed a trio of major Victorian Country Cup wins – Bendigo, Shepparton and Ballarat – with a slashing second last night. “He’s amazing. That was some effort to do some early work like he did and still pull some ground off ‘King’ late in a 25.9sec last quarter,” driver Jack Callaghan said. “He’s absolutely flying.” He will get another crack at King Of Swing in the Miracle Mile, as will champion mare Amazing Dream and comeback star Lochinvar Art, who ran third and fifth respectively last night. While King Of Swing and Spirit Of St Louis will go through the qualifiers at Menangle on February 26, Lochinvar Art is set to tackle the Group 1 Newcastle Mile on February 18. “He’s definitely going to Newcastle,” owner Kevin Gordon said. “It’s my home town and I really want him to race there.” Lochinvar Art, who beat King Of Swing in last year’s Hunter Cup, found the task of sitting outside the “King” at just his third start back from 11 months on the sidelines with injury beyond him. He tired late, but was only beaten 7.1 metres. “We knew he wasn’t back to where he left off, he’s still building,” Gordon said. “It’s another step in the right direction and getting back to sprint racing is ideal now. Give him a better draw and some more racing and he can turn the tables in the Miracle Mile.”

Sydney track managers don't hesitate to irrigate within 24 hours of start time especially based on raceday weather forecasts. We seem to be fixated on producing a D4 on raceday morning instead of focussing on a track that can be used based on the weather forecast. That said what would people rather have a D5/D6 or no races or roll the dice?

You could say this is where our tracks are headed. VID-20210528-WA0000.mp4

I remember having a long chat with a very good CD Jockey - Hayden Tinsley about CD tracks. He surprised me with his ratings. He rated Taranaki as the worst. That threw me as my horse had won the G3 Taranaki Cup on it. But it was the first F1 rated surface that day. It probably would have been that yesterday if the rain hadn't arrived. He rated the best as Hawera. My view being that it was a peaty bog track. But he said it was the fairest and most consistent track over all the ratings. Looking at it now I'd say it's stuffed too!

Earlier someone mentioned that OZ seems to cope better. Well they still have abandonments BUT they continue to reinvest in upgrading and maintaining their tracks and are fortunate that their climate is not as variable as ours. Needless to say they haven't looked to close good racing surfaces down either.

The AWT's were never going to fix the problems we have been experiencing in recent weeks or even prior. Trainers don't really want to race on them other than during the winter and a couple of weeks either side. For example you'll never see a Thornden or a Guineas run on them.

Well it has been a chestnut that I've been banging on about since 2006 after having walked quite a few tracks on the morning of raceday that my horse raced at. So that's 16 years. The worst one's were Ellerslie, Taranaki and Te Rapa.

Yep Gural loves clean racing. From the Meadowlands website directions for horsemen: Lasix Information The renovated Back Paddock, now with gates on the stalls, will serve as the receiving barn and include a Lasix Stall where the medication will be administered. Issued by Dr. Barbara Greene, New Jersey State Veterinarian: All horses racing on task must report directly to the Back Paddock and will be treated with Lasix FOUR (4) hours prior to post time for their race Each horse must have a representative bring the horse to the designated treatment stall and witness the Lasix administration. Your horse will be scratched r late or if there is not a representative with the horse for treatment

Sorry to hear about your mood. So you went straight to the C's and T's? Page 7 and page 30. But that's because the so called PED's aren't actually PED's. Hence both Robinson and Fishman getting done for "mislabelling". There hasn't been a positive because Vitamins, minerals and amino acids aren't tested for!!!!!! I'll repeat again the only PED that has been admitted to is Clenbuterol. Robinson and Fishman were both con men. Fishman will be lucky to survive prison - the people he was dealing to have connections that don't like being conned. Yet Gural has been inconsistent in his approach hasn't he. Not only has his operation not found any PED's through testing but he has given an amnesty to the Trainer/Owner Adrienne Hall that admitted she had bought these so called "PED's" off Fishman as long as she gave evidence in court. The evidence she gave was basically "Yes I bought these stuff of Fishman and I didn't know what it was just that he said it would make my horses go faster." So the Feds have had samples of the so called PED's now for months - where is all the retrospective testing and charges? So you are accusing John Curtin and Peter Tritton of cheating and being corrupt?

I doubt they maintain water budgets. Looking at the Hawera Trots it was evident that the track hadn't had any water on it for a long time. The other issue of course is that many tracks don't have good irrigation systems nor cheap water to access.

Sand based - couldn't go wrong.

That was more than 30 years ago. The problem has been no investment in renovating and resting the tracks periodically.

TAB NZ has announced a raft of new Fixed Odds Betting Options to counter the loss of racing opportunities. Generous odds are being offered with the TAB reducing their book percentage from 172% to a generous 168%. Option 78345 Days to next Race Meeting Abandonment. Current odds range from - less than 7 days $1.05 to 25-35 days $101. Option 87433 How many races run before Abandonment. More to follow.

Update from NZTR. No Tauherenikau this week - investigating a replacement meeting.....

Have they started building it yet?

The announcement heading says the meeting has been Postponed.

The announcement says the meeting has been postponed.

Hawera is stuffed at the moment. Harness abandoned there today.

Is the team leader working on a reprogramming plan?

The next Gallops meeting at Hawera is not until 27th April 2022. If they had bothered to irrigate Hawera over the summer to keep the grass growing they wouldn't have had a problem. But irrigation costs.