Chief Stipe

So what is wrong with them going to the knackers yard? At least they served a useful purpose rather than going to a an industry funded crematorium for a memorial service and turned to ashes!!!

Now the do gooding activists are saying you have to look after them for 30 years because racing them for gambling and entertainment purposes is immoral. Meanwhile they over feed their pet dogs on canned dairy cows.

Why is it a problem? Rehoming every horse as you infer is not possible for practical and cost reasons. Either accept that and move on or go down the emotive rabbit hole with the eventual conclusion that racing stops. Don't buy in to the emotive BS.

Then why didn't you post those figures earlier? BTW you seem to have forgotten your research disciplines. Where are the source cites?

How would you know as you aren't seeing the complete wagering figures. Based on what? What's the purpose of it being bullshit? These are the figures from Australia and I understand that the Tote as a percentage of total wagering turnover has decreased even further.

Excellent post @hesi Nor is posting out of context screenshots of alleged whip rule misdemeanours. Those like @curious and @Thomass - seem to have gone soft in their old age.

You are really misguided in the way you are trying to achieve that.

Clearly her and anyone who gives her the time of day with her wacky theories.

Do you have the sectionals for each horse? There was only one race that they went "34 and change" and that was Autumn Glow who is a very very good horse. Are you suggesting the track wasn't a Heavy 10? Not surprsing after 200mm of rain during the week. No doubt the track will start falling apart as it always does as the season progresses. Perhaps Waller has a point in that regard and that the track should be rested and maintenance work done during winter much like they do at Flemington.

Sure but in my opinion he was never going to beat the first two.

Perhaps not but the sanctimony of some individuals who have had a long involvement in the racing industry who now wish to foist their select horse utopia on the rest of us is just wrong.

Why the puritannical difference? Both livestock and bloodstock are bred for profit regardless of how they earn it. A dairy cow exists in a perpetual cycle of lactation for nearly the entire year to produce milk fat for human consumption. It doesn't have a personal attendant nor 3 feeds a day in a nice warm stable. What's ethical about that? As for the "cultural" argument. It's a nonsense and nothing more than conceptual construct looking for uniformity. Of course it doesn't stop anomalies occurring like the poor deprived Iwi organisations that pay less company tax than anyone else. @curious you seem to be having a late life crisis where you have this guilt about gambling and horses as entertainment. What about those horse sports that don't involve gambling? Do you want them banned as well? I guess Polo is definitely off the list.

Since when have you had more than 20 horses in work at once?

But that would have been cruel and unjust.

To quote @Freda "Bollocks". You've never seen a horse seriously maim a human? That't right it's your fault the horse is blameless.

I have. If you have a stable of 20 or more horses then at least one of them is nuts. Their only excuse for living is if they can run fast.

Right so we just ignore you. Then why comment? How old should they be? 4 days? Three months? Two years? And England is a cot case as a country. Happy to eat other countries meat but not their own. So your vet friend faced reality and didn't like it. Did he inspire you to go vegetarian? Or maybe halal killed animals while facing Mecca? I guess you don't eat chicken either.

Why not compare them? I guess you've never had an insane horse that no matter what you did was always dangerous. No I'm guessing if you did you blamed yourself. Isn't it hypocritical to elevate animals that you produce for sport above similar animals you produce to eat? The sport animal lives a lot longer than the one you want to eat.

Make sure you buy the ones with the plastic covers @Huey .

Also @the galah if you and this woman were balanced in your views you wouldn't label Xenon a "fridge gas" to sensationalise your viewpoint. The fact is it isn't a fridge gas except in very high end applications. For a start it is very rare and expensive to procur. It is an inert noble gas and does have actual medical uses. I don't recall reading anyone being caught administering Xenon gas to horses. Regardless logic would tell you that obtaining sufficient Xenon secretly to administer in any quantity to your horses would be an extremely expensive and problematic process. I put it in the same league as the emotional description of formaldehyde being an "undertakers embalming fluid". As I've pointed out many times before it is an essential chemical to life and is naturally produced in all our bodies and is essential in cell funciton. It is also used as a treatment for toughening horses hooves. It has been a common livestock feed additive used to control dangerous pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella. It is even present in fruits and vegetables at levels around 50ppm. Anyone administering either (Xenon - nebuliser, Formaldehyde - intraveneously) would not be achieving anything performance wise but more likely the opposite. Why would they do it? Probably because they are dumb and ignorant. But "fridge gas" and "embalming fluid" gets great headlines in a podcast or the Otago Daily Times and has you pursing your lips and sucking a lemon. If I have any criticism of the RIB, NZTR and HRNZ it is that they don't tackle this BS head on. One by saying it is BS and two educating dumb trainers who may consider transgressing that they are not achieving anything. Further the RIB, NZTR and HRNZ in my opinion should be doing more with regard to research what therapuetic treatments ARE good for horse health. Alongside that they should standardise the rules on prohibited substances and withholding periods and have a more scientific basied approach on environmental contamination. They wasted over $10m of industry money on pursuing INCA when it could have been better spent on being positive. Heads should roll for that debacle but they are so entrenched in the negative culture that they'll be there until retirement.

And you're not muddying the waters with your unsupported opinions and allegations? Perhaps she did but she, like your, drew unsupported conclusions based on pseudoscience and subjective analysis. Neither of which she has experience let alone expertise in. I have no issue with a horse being turned into pet food just as I don't have an issue with dairy or beef cows going the same way. That's the cycle of life. Then perhaps more should go via the petfood route rather than spending the rest of their life bored in a paddock. As for the rehoming of racehorses the hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me of those who breed or buy a horse, race it and love it and all the fun but then start crying a river when the realise they have to do something with it when it has stopped being productive. Yes I will although it is easy to do so because neither of you present facts or evidence to support your generalised opinions. Window dressing what? I'm pragmatic about livestock and I'm pragmatic about an industry that breeds and races horses as part of a business and professional sport. You can't sugar coat the hard facts. If you want to be vegan or wear plastic shoes then go for it but don't foist your opinions on me. Perhaps she does just like some "influencers" are convinced that man didn't land on the moon. But why let a nutter influence what the industry does? Why don't we have people holding up cans of pet food to all the dog lovers saying "my horse keeps your dog happy and fed"? That about sums it up "her heart is in the right place". However her head is in space.

There is a difference between expressing an opinion backed up by evidence and fact than one based on prejudice, innuendo and hearsay. What's worse is when some individual's do the latter hiding behind non-de-plumes or like Wightman hide in private groups making attacks. If you are going to say things like "there is widespread illegal doping and corruption in racing" based on nothing but ill informed opinion then you are damaging the sport you allege to love or you are in disguise and actually do want to bring it down. The Open Letter from the RIB, NZTR and HRNZ had a valid point. I just wish they do more about dealing to the crap from the likes of Wightman and others.

In most cases her interpretations are utter bullshit. Hell she isn't a vet nor a forensic scientist yet disects horses and comes out with outlandish and blatantly incorrect statements about what she finds. She's nuts. What specifically do you know exists on a large scale? If it is anything like your conspiracy theories around PED's and undectable drugs you'd be completely wrong. Again her dissections are utter BS. Many of the stories doing the rounds are just that stories. As for your allegations of widespread use there is zero evidence to support your view I seriously doubt you actually like Harness Racing. Bollocks. The industry doesn't need anymore like her. Her types are irrational rumour mongers who are often hypocrites and who hate racing because they believe it is harmful to horses. If you support her then you are in that camp. Ignore her and her irrational concerns thats the best approach. Don't give her oxygen nor any of the malcontents.

Then why blather on about all that BS? Just as bad as posting distorted screen shots of whips.