Chief Stipe

That doesn't matter too much when you can still maintain the same or more punting turnover. In the old days they only way you could get a good punt on was on course. Now we multi-task. For example I've backed horses while in the stand at an All Black test and while at breakfast with a good looking woman (the race was across time zones!). BUT I do believe if you build up the grass roots (the provinces) then people WILL come to town. When people come to town the town people come out. That's what I like about Victoria Racing's Midway and Highway promotions. That's why I don't want to see either Ellerslie OR Alexandra Park fail because if you get the basics right they will once again be big revenue generating venues. Great horses help too. Build from the ground up and we can retain those crowd attracting horses. Sadly I thought Gold Watch might have been one of those.

I've always been a proponent of the approach: "If what you are currently doing isn't working do the complete opposite." Add to that "Don't believe your own fucking propaganda! When you do you fail." That last one is aimed at the TAB.

Perhaps not....but they sure as hell were competitive and were skilled at setting up the horse for the big punt (something you seem to be adverse to). It wasn't all for love! But the hobby was less expensive then for an owner and the odd punting coup and the home town cred from having a winning horse meant the losses were small. Hell we can't even go pat a horse now at the races unlike when I was a kid. Not even the Clerk of the Course grey one!

I realise this could be construed as a habit.....BUT I disagree. Sport isn't declining - just the models of engagement are changing and it is more competitive. Globally investment in sport and its economic activity is growing faster than Global GDP. It is just New Zealand that is falling behind.

That's special. Nothing like good free legged trotters in full flight. I had the joy of working a pacer unhobbled on a beach a few years back. She got it into her head to trot and picked up the bit. We were flying down the beach skipping along the waters edge. Both of us enjoying it immensely. I'm not so sure the Trainer was too impressed....as we were working faster than ordered.

Perhaps one of those racecourses they are going to "retire" could be the Dual Code Training and Research Centre.

Wouldn't it be innovative of the two horse codes to get together and develop a training centre for young people in NZ. They wouldn't have to look hard to find suitable horses. Geez they could even centralise the RIB Testing and Equine Research investments. Yeah na.....no room in Parnell or Petone for horses.

Yeah @Gammalite I just did a Google Maps flyover around Melton. Tracks everywhere. Used to be like that in Canterbury. 28 Harness Tracks in Victoria. Racing 7 days a week. They've made big investments in Melton (40km from Melbourne Central) and at Bendigo they have a Harness Training Centre offering Career Training. http://www.hrtcbendigo.com.au/welcome/ Perhaps that's the sort of vision both NZTR and HRNZ need in NZ.

So they are getting stronger? Where is the main Harness Training Centre in Melbourne?

Am I wrong @Brodie and @Gammalite but isn't Harness Racing in Queensland, NSW and Victoria getting stronger? If so why?

In a way I agree with @curious and I also agree with you @Gammalite. In my opinion both Ellerslie AND Alexandra Park need a pool of locally trained horses.

So move all Harness Racing to Canterbury?

Good spotting.

9 starts per horse over 6 months. Although that is a bit misleading. Wannabe N Paris has had 17 starts this season but he has backed it up in short spurts of 3 then a reasonable break. Not unheard of in old days less so today.

I guess some will say Woodend Beach should be banned as a PED.

Being able to work the horses at pace on an uncambered straight line over distance is a huge advantage. Evens them up physically and you can pinpoint gait and minor injury issues more easily.

They must be using Stainless Steel 316 (Marine Grade) to shoe their horses!!!

What horse wouldn't like this work environment?

No I actually agree that she could have been driven more aggressively. A Natalie drive perhaps but Robbie Close is not Nat is he? Why should it be your last comment? In this case you have definite evidence bordering on unequivocal rather than your usual supposition and innuendo. Why don't you do something like send a written complaint to the RIB and HRNZ.

In the words of the best - Roy Purdon .... “Dad was very kind with the horses, I never heard him even raise his voice with a horse,” says Barry. “That was such a special gift and then he had amazing attention to detail. “He believed that those little things, the extra little details, were the difference between winning and losing the biggest races.” Just 15 months ago champion trainer Mark Purdon received a reminder of the greatness of his father Roy, the harness racing icon who passed away on Thursday. Roy was 93 at the time but his eye for detail hadn’t deserted him and he rang Mark to tell him what he thought was bothering superstar pacer Self Assured, who was just days away from trying to win the New Zealand Cup but had been galloping away. “Dad rang and said he had watched a race the night before and then replayed it a few times the next morning and he thought Self Assured needed an undercheck on to help him step safely,” remembers Mark. “I looked at it and realised he was right. So we put the undercheck on, he stepped brilliantly and we won the Cup. “That was what Dad saw watching on television from 1000kms away which I hadn’t worked out sitting behind the horse. “And that was as a 93-year-old,” says Mark proudly.

Roy Purdon Obituary – by Michael Guerin 3 February 2022 in New Zealand 0 Just 15 months ago champion trainer Mark Purdon received a reminder of the greatness of his father Roy, the harness racing icon who passed away on Thursday. Roy was 93 at the time but his eye for detail hadn’t deserted him and he rang Mark to tell him what he thought was bothering superstar pacer Self Assured, who was just days away from trying to win the New Zealand Cup but had been galloping away. “Dad rang and said he had watched a race the night before and then replayed it a few times the next morning and he thought Self Assured needed an undercheck on to help him step safely,” remembers Mark. “I looked at it and realised he was right. So we put the undercheck on, he stepped brilliantly and we won the Cup. “That was what Dad saw watching on television from 1000kms away which I hadn’t worked out sitting behind the horse. “And that was as a 93-year-old,” says Mark proudly. Roy, training legend and patriarch of Australasian harness racing’s most successful family, passed away peacefully in Middlemore Hospital overnight, having only spent a few days there. That he lived in his own house until just before his death would have pleased Roy because he spent more time in hospital than any teenager should as a 14-year-old. “Dad injured himself playing rugby all those years ago and ended up having to spend six weeks in Auckland Hospital and then six months in a cast around his hips in the Wilson Home in Takapuna,” remembers his other Hall Of Fame trainer son Barry Purdon. “That left him with a limp for the rest of his life but it never held him back.” It also left Roy with the determination and kindness so often infused in those who know hardship at an early age, qualities that would define his life and his horse training philosophy. “Dad was very kind with the horses, I never heard him even raise his voice with a horse,” says Barry. “That was such a special gift and then he had amazing attention to detail. “He believed that those little things, the extra little details, were the difference between winning and losing the biggest races.” If New Zealand racing had a Mount Rushmore, Roy’s often smiling face would be carved into it alongside good friend Colin Jillings and his thoroughbred equivalent Dave O’Sullivan, all gentlemen of an era racing clings to but society has largely let go. Roy started out poor, first training with his Scottish immigrant father Hugh on a 400m track cut from bush in New Lynn and for decades battled to perfect horses who hadn’t been blessed with the same talent as their trainer. Roy won plenty of good races but Sole Command was one of his first great horses and it was in partnership with Barry, with Mark and son-in-law Tony Herlihy all part of the family business, that a two-decade domination ensued before he retired in 1995. Horses like Luxury Liner, Christopher Vance and the freakish Chokin headline the highlight reel but the list is long and magnificent. In all Roy trained 2019 winners in New Zealand, many of them in an era with only one meeting a week. 54 of them were group one, plenty more in Australia, where Roy was as revered as he was here. The numbers are huge but the real legacy of Roy and his beloved wife Margaret, who passed away seven years ago, are what he instilled in his sons Barry, Mark and Owen while he was a huge influence in the career of son-in-law Tony Herlihy, who married their daughter Suzanne. On Saturday night at Melton grandson Nathan Purdon has Amazing Dream a huge chance in the Hunter Cup as Roy’s legacy starts a new a chapter written in black type. Since Margaret’s passing Roy had enjoyed three great pleasures: his family and the never-ending success, showing people his always immaculate car and watching racing on Trackside, occasionally with a scotch in hand. He revelled in the success of others and would seek out phone numbers for those who did special things in racing so he could ring them to congratulate. Those lucky enough to get those phone calls would be better for them, as we all hope brushes with greatness will rub off on us. In a few, very rare, moments Roy would ring the boys and offer quiet advice like he did to Mark 15 months ago, because really, who else could give Barry, Mark or Tony those insights, see what maybe they missed? Which is how, 25 years after he retired, Roy Purdon helped prepare the 2020 New Zealand Cup winner Self Assured. A small, polite, humble man with a huge handshake has died. His name, his legacy, never will.

Nope. But what's your point?

Not weighing their horses. That surprises me as most of the Top Thoroughbred trainers do it regularly. Confirms something else though - the volume of in competition medication administered would require knowledge of a horses weight.

So YOU know that and don't put any of your hard earned on. So you are not a mug punter perhaps they others that rely solely on arbitrage, algorithms based on statistical form analysis are. They're not really that knowledgeable about the sport are they? Do you think the Preferential Barrier Draw race condition adds to the problem? From that draw on that track it was always going to drop out to last.