Chief Stipe

What type of AWT?

Or Reefton.

Weird run from Atishu. Dropped right out which it does but on a track going off not a good move plus it was throwing its head in the air strangely.

Didn't say that. I reviewed some of his recent races and observed issues which clearly you haven't. I saw issues in last nights run and mentioned those. You didn't appear to notice in your analysis that he was the only horse being tapped up from the 600m to keep his position. Was that because it wasn't mentioned in the Stipes report? WTF on you on about in this paragraph? You are the one that jumped up and down and started the Topic with "How long does R Cameron get (off) for his drive..." FFS you even contemplated that was there a possibility that he took, in your opinion, the wrong option because of some financial gain. I watched the race last night live and reviewed it as soon as I could last night and came to a different conclusion to you as I could see reasons for what happened. That's my opinion and I gather from @Unhinged's comments that the horse has issues that we are not aware of. But no doubt he'll get a holiday and the 10,000 word dissertation from the RIB after getting the betting analyst to look into betting patterns will talk about upholding standards and maintaining integrity in the eyes of the betting public blah blah. All from a position of having SFA knowledge of driving a harness horse just like most of the betting public.

As opposed to....... "He should have gone to the outside at the 200m and would have finished......" Where exactly? Na just throw the book at him and put him out for a quarter of the year.....nup up that make it half the year. When was the last time YOU sat in a sulky @the galah as opposed to spending a lazy Saturday morning reviewing the Stipes reports and then the race replays?

He's tough alright. Certainly can pick up a Grp race in OZ. Not so sure about beating Zaaki though. If they are kicking onto the Cox they are going to have to pick up a decent win somewhere before then. I think he is better on a better track. For a moment I thought he was gone and they were going to swamp him but he kept giving.

I reckon he hits his outside knee too.

Well he will have to absolutely zonk this field if he is going to be competitive against Zaaki in the Cox Plate.

That's Michael. Doesn't comment on anything except when he can have a dig at someone. I gather you got past the R's in your remedial reading/rehabilitation programme.

Back after a spell. Runs 1:22 on his ear and smashes a very good field easing up! Beautiful galloping style. Annabel could groom me anytime......

Oh well - one of the bright sides of lockdown and the presenters staying in the studio is we don't have to listen to the 7,567th rerun of the standard Rogie interview - "He's a really good horse. I've been telling everyone this for some time. He'll only get better."

Well wouldn't they need a total of $1,500,000 in turnover to clear enough to cover the Stake?

Just the Win pool?

Are you psychic @the galah? How do you know or don't know what issues the horse has? Been a long time since I worked with Harness horses but I can see a few things he does wrong. He does at times become intractable and also runs out of his gear from time to time on the verge of breaking.

You wouldn't referring to Mascarpone were you?

They are actually the future as well. The idiots haven't worked out that they should turn the stakes funnel up the other way and that you might find that the quality of the top gets wider and you have more revenue. I just watched the Herbie Dyke. Embarrassing the quality of that lot racing for $60k. I bet there are a few in there that won't win a maiden. Those that do will be on an export plane within a week.

Exactly. I've noticed that when doing my track by track analysis across Australia. Each State is following the same policy. So winning a maiden is the same as an R65. When you consider how much money is sunk into a maiden before you get it to the races there is a good argument that the stakes for a maiden should be more than an R65!!

I don't like the draw either but he did draw 2 for his Caulfield win. The issue with the draw is if the track has gone off by the time race 8 comes along. Agree $5 (in OZ) is a little too short in this field. No value at $4.50 on NZ TAB.

You haven't given any explanation why he should get 3 months or 6 months. So he made an error of judgment (in my opinion there are mitigating circumstances) to not take the chance to move to the outside at the 200m (that is what is in the Stipes report). In my opinion he should have moved earlier. Why didn't he? The horse wasn't going well enough and was being tapped up to keep on the back of the horse in front of it. If he did go then he would have had to start using the persuader with much more vigour a long way from home. The rules don't give you much latitude to do that anymore. The opportunity at the 200m was a split second and occurred at the same time as he pulled the ear plugs. Hell if he had pushed out another horse and it broke he wouldn't have got 6 months!

Really? But it is the best surface in the country!

I'll reiterate I'm not advocating that increasing stakes is the cure all but that a better distribution should happen. You are correct the stakes on offer at Premier meetings are "extraordinary" but that is at the expense of all the other meetings which have lower stakes and whose revenue is used to subsidise the top end.

On course turnover doesn't matter as a financial measure any more other than an indication of how many people were on course but in saying that a better measure would be counting the people not the money wagered. It is very difficult to measure on-course turnover without some sophistication in the recording of where bets are coming from. Many people now use their smart phone and the TAB app to bet rather than going to a tote window. Why queue and walk some distance for a bet when you don't have to?

I don't believe the current stakes levels are extraordinary. In real terms they are no more than 1987 if not less when looking across the complete range of race stakes. The issue is that the distribution has been skewed more and more to the Grp and listed racing. My beef with stakes (oh the pun!) is that they keep topping up the top end for no financial gain nor increase in field quality. In fact the latter is declining no matter how much money they throw at them. The problem is the stake levels at the feeder levels - the lower grades. There is just no incentive to keep a decent gelding in racing. If you get an offer from Hong Kong, Singapore and increasingly Australia you sell.

Wait around for what grass track? They are busy closing the good ones and Riccarton Turf is a lottery regardless of whether or not @Pitman is standing on the irrigation hose.

Send them to David Browne if they have any talent. Looks like the poor bugger is stuck in OZ until after Christmas. Yet another reason to wish Elephant all the best this afternoon.