Chief Stipe

Have you missed not using the sarcasm font?

Please don't make me puke! I'm not kind nor part of the team of five million.

Come on guys although BOAY respects your right to say whatever you want at least play nicely.

That's fine your prerogative but hardly adds any credibility to what you are saying. As for not being bothered to look up the figures can you or @JJ Flash point us in the direction where we can do the analysis ourselves given that if we take you at your word one doesn't need special privileges to access the data.

Get over it whatever it is. Still waiting for your positive suggestions to improve Harness Racing.

Make that 643 cases in NSW today!

The Oracle’s runner-by-runner guide: Winx Stakes Verry Elleegant returns to scale after winning the Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick last year. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images) By The Oracle 11:13pm • 19 August 2021 Comments The first Group 1 of the new racing season is upon us as 14 runners do battle in the weight-for-age $500,000 Winx Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday. While it’s a decent-sized field, there doesn’t look to be a huge amount of pace with Kolding and Dreamforce expected to push forward from barriers 10 and 11 respectively. Thirteen of the 14 runners are first-up from a spell with Kolding the only runner to have had a run this preparation … and that could be crucial. 1. KOLDING This bloke’s won $6.3m prizemoney and six of his 11 wins have come at Randwick. He was heavily backed first-up in the Expressway Stakes ($3.80-$3.20) but he couldn’t sprint with the others over 1200m and finished fifth beaten 1.5 lengths. He wasn’t disgraced but you can expect him to improve out of sight second-up over 1400m and Chris Waller would have targeted him at this race. Has the fitness advantage on the others, will race right on the speed and be hard to get past. Verdict: Can win. Each-way all day. Kolding wins the Hill Stakes at Randwick. 2. THINK IT OVER One of the surprise packets of the autumn winning the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes, he then ran a huge race in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes to run a close fourth behind Addeybb and Verry Elleegant over 2000m. Has trialled well in preparation for this, has drawn low in gate 2 and has a great first-up record. Verdict: You’d be overthinking it if you left him out of your multiples. CLICK HERE: Winx Stakes field, speed map, odds comparison 3. CASCADIAN The Doncaster Mile winner backed it up with a fast-finishing third in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes over this track and trip behind Kolding in April. His first-up record is OK and he races well at Randwick. Hugh Bowman rides him for the first time in a race and from gate 7 he shouldn’t be too far off the speed. If he’s close enough when they hit the rise, he can finish over the top of them. Verdict: A must for the quaddie and first 4. Cascadian (right) winning the Doncaster Mile. 4. DREAMFORCE Now a nine-year-old, this bloke loves Randwick and has won six races from 19 starts here. He will be rolling along in front but it’s hard to see him fending off some of the better quality horses in the last 200m. You’d doubt he can improve given his age and while he’s been a great horse for a long time, the $14 on offer looks a bit short for mine. Verdict: Save the dream for another day. 5. IMAGING There’s no doubting this Chris Waller-trained galloper’s ability but the reality is he’s only won one race since coming Down Under — and that was back in March 2020 on a heavy track. His best form is on softer tracks and he won’t get that on Saturday. Verdict: Imagine he’ll beat a handful home. 6. STAR OF THE SEAS A bit like Imaging, he usually likes the sting out of the track to produce his best. But he’s far from ineffective on dry conditions and his Blamey Stakes win in February on a good track was strong. Has mixed it with these horses before and $26 looks a touch of overs. Verdict: Could sneak into the top 4. 7. KEIAI NAUTIQUE This former Japanese galloper is an interesting runner but you couldn’t back him with stolen money on Saturday. His last trial was hardly convincing. He’d be better suited in something way easier than this. Verdict: One word. No. 8. MASTER OF WINE Hasn’t delivered on his early promise and looks outclassed against this lot. He could beat a few home but it’s hard to get excited about his winning chances. The $51 on offer is unders. Verdict: Have a glass of wine instead. CLICK HERE: Winx Stakes field, speed map, odds comparison 9. BRANDENBURG If a roughie was to run in the top 4, he could be the one. His two runs in Queensland in the winter behind Zaaki were pass marks and the trip north could have really brought him on mentally. His two trials since have been excellent. He’s drawn wide so expect him to push forward. If they don’t go too hard early, he won’t be far off them at the finish. The $41/$9 on offer is more than double his true odds. Verdict: Underrated. Can run top 4. 10. MOUNT POPA The Hawkes galloper has much bigger targets in store for him this spring but he has plenty of class. From gate 1, he shouldn’t get too far back and he could run a cheeky race, even though 1400m is well short of his best distance. Verdict: Doubt he’ll climb the mountain but can finish within three lengths of the winner. 11. MO’UNGA We all know this bloke could be anything and it’s exciting to see him back at the track. Who can forget his mind-blowing run in the Randwick Guineas in the autumn. While he wasn’t wearing blinkers, his recent trial posed more questions than answers. There’s no doubting his ability but from barrier 12 where does he end up in the run? He can’t give some of these quality horses too big a headstart. If he can win this, watch out for the spring but he’s hard to have at the $8 on offer. Verdict: Watch and learn. 12. VERRY ELLEEGANT There aren’t enough superlatives for this outstanding mare who’s won $8.6m prizemoney. She won this race last year but that was on a Soft 6. In this race two years ago, on a Good 4, she ran ninth of 10 and she will get a dry track on Saturday. You’d be crazy to say she can’t win given her champion qualities but $2.90 seems rock bottom. Her big targets are later in the spring so you’d be brave to take the shorts on offer for her first-up tilt in this. Verdict: With a verry big wince … take her on. Verry Elleegant winning the Winx Stakes last year. 13. SHE’S IDEEL This mare is targeting the Melbourne Cup so she won’t be anywhere near wound up for this over 1400m. From gate 14 she’ll get out the back and will be hoping to pass a couple of runners home in the straight. Verdict: This race is far from ideel. CLICK HERE: Winx Stakes field, speed map, odds comparison 14. HUNGRY HEART This pint-sized mare took all before her during the autumn winning back-to-back Group 1s but this is her toughest test. She will land in a good position from barrier 3 and given how tough she is, she will be thereabouts when the whips are cracking. Unless she’s improved out of sight, however, it’s hard to see her troubling the more experienced weight-for-age campaigners in this. Verdict: Place only. OVERALL VERDICT: 1 (Kolding) — 3 (Cascadian) — 12 (Verry Elleegant) — 9 (Brandenburg).

Verry Elleegant chases another big payday Verry Elleegant can add another Group 1 to her imposing tally in Saturday’s Winx Stakes. Picture: Getty Images By Ray Thomas 09:32pm • 19 August 2021 0 Comments Sydney’s super mare Verry Elleegant will vault to sixth on the all-time list of prizemoney earners if she wins the Group 1 $500,000 Winx Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday. The Chris Waller-trained mare is currently ninth with $8,591,744 and can move past Chautauqua, So You Think and Classique Legend on the earnings rankings led by her former stablemate and world record-holder Winx with $26,451,174. Verry Elleegant is the TAB $2.90 favourite to win the ninth Group 1 race of her career and join Winx (2016-17-18) and Tarien (1953-54) as the only mares to win multiple Winx (formerly Warwick) Stakes. Waller has five runners in the Winx Stakes including Kolding, who is 20th on the prizemoney table with $6,392,450, and provided Sky Thoroughbred Central’s Richard Haynes with a summation of his big-race runners earlier this week. “Obviously Verry Elleegant is a talking point being a Caulfield Cup winner and having so many Group 1 wins next to her name,’’ Waller said. “She’s drawn well and looks to get a nice run. “Hungry Heart is coming off the back of three wins in the autumn and she will be competitive over the 1400m. “Kolding has drawn a bit wide but has had the benefit of that first-up run (fifth behind Phobetor in the Missile Stakes). “Star Of The Seas runs well fresh and has been placed in this race before (second to Verry Elleegant last year) and Imaging is deadly fresh.’’ There are four active horses in the top 20 prizemoney rankings, including Classique Legend. Waller trains the other three – Verry Elleegant, Kolding and Nature Strip, who is 11th with $8,026,685. Verry Elleegant certainly deserves her lofty ranking on the prizemoney table given she has won eight Group 1 races from 1400m to 2500m under handicap, weight-for-age and set weights conditions. Four-time Cox Plate champion Winx is the nation’s top prizemoney earner. But in this era of inflated prizemoney races, using career earnings as a measure of equine talent is not an exact science. It’s a different take on the so-called prizemoney wars but how would the records of the great champions of the past compare if they were updated to the prizemoney levels of the modern era? What would the legendary Phar Lap have earnt if he was racing today? Where would the great Tulloch rank, or Rising Fast, a four-time grand slam winner? And what about the mighty Kingston Town, who became racing’s first $1m earner 40 years ago? There are a range of variables to consider including the changing prestige of races, the introduction of new races and the abolition of others, so the final results are open to interpretation. But Phar Lap’s record stands the test of time, winning 37 of his 51 starts – ­including 36 of his last 40 races – including of course the 1930 Melbourne Cup and two Cox Plates (1930-31). Phar Lap won all the major weight-for-age races of his era including some that are no longer on the turf calendar, and I equated his earnings on Australian soil as about $28m before the great champion won his final race, the 1932 Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico. At the time, the Agua Caliente, which is now defunct, was the richest race in the world, so by today’s standards this means up to $10m could be added to Phar Lap’s earnings. Rising Fast won the 1954 Caulfield Cup-Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup treble, the only horse to win the big three in one spring carnival. He returned the following year to win another Caulfield Cup before a close second in the Melbourne Cup. If Rising Fast was racing today, the winner of 24 of his 68 starts, would have amassed more than $25m prizemoney. Makybe Diva prizemoney record stood for a decade before she was passed by Winx. Tulloch is the only horse to win the ATC, VRC and QTC Derbies and Sires Produce Stakes, plus the 1957 Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and three Queen Elizabeth Stakes. As the winner of 36 of his 52 starts, the great horse’s career earnings would be more than $27m today. Kingston Town was the first horse to win $1 million when he took out the 1981 STC Cup. He also won three Cox Plates, ATC Derby, Tancred Stakes, Sydney Cup and dominated weight-for-age racing, winning 30 of his 41 starts. By today’s race valuations, Kingston Town would have won more than $22m. Kingston Town retired with total earnings of $1,605,790 which stood as the national prizemoney record until Beau Zam became the first to pass $2m in 1988. Better Loosen Up claimed the record when he won the 1990 Japan Cup, breaking the $4 million barrier, before his rival Super Impose moved beyond $5m winning the 1992 Cox Plate. Octagonal, the 1996 triple crown winner including that epic ATC Derby, plus the winner of the Cox Plate, Australian Cup and two Tancred Stakes, eclipsed Super Impose’s mark when he retired with $5,892,231 in 1997. But then the great Kiwi mare Sunline emerged to claim the prizemoney record when she won $11,351,600 after winning two Cox Plates (1999-2000). Sunline’s record didn’t last long with champion Makybe Diva claiming her unprecedented Melbourne Cup hat-trick in 2003-04-05, to earn $14,526,900. Makybe Diva’s record stood for more than a decade before Winx posted her world record total of more than $26m with four Cox Plates, three Queen Elizabeth Stakes, four George Ryder Stakes, four Chipping Norton Stakes, Doncaster Handicap and Epsom Handicap. OUR TOP PRIZEMONEY EARNERS 1. Winx $26,451,174 2. Redzel $16,444,000 3. Makybe Diva $14,526,690 4. Sunline $11,351,610 5. Northerly $9,341,850 6. Chautauqua $8,821,935 7. So You Think $8,813,497 8. Classique Legend $8,635,500 9. Verry Elleegant $8,591,744 10. Santa Ana Lane $8,236,366 11. Nature Strip $8.026,685 20. Kolding $6,392,450 HOW DO THE GREATS COMPARE Phar Lap – $38 million Tulloch – $27 million Rising Fast – $25 million Kingston Town – $22 million

Arguably the Pzifer and Moderna vaccines are therapeutics. They certainly aren't vaccines that we have become used to over the years. I had a debate with a chap in his late seventies the other night - he has got the Covid-19 Fear Factor real bad. The topic was the chances of dying from Covid-19 if you were below 30. I said it was so low that there was no justification of taking the risk of getting the vaccine. Got the usual argument that but it was the responsibility of each of us to protect others which I presume in this instance was him as he was the one that is most vulnerable. I questioned why did it matter whether anyone else was vaccinated when he already was? Oh but you are more likely to spread it or get ill and fill the hospital beds up (shouldn't hospital beds always be full? Who likes an empty motel and their workers sitting around drinking coffee?). Anyway the statistics started flying when I mentioned the risks known and UNKNOWN (they haven't been tested long enough!). You have more chance of getting hit by a bus than dying from the vaccine! Yes but I don't stand in the middle of the road and anyway there is only one bus every hour where I live and less at the weekend. You have more chance of getting hit by lightning - yes but I don't stand outside in a lightning storm! You have more chance of winning Lotto than dying from the vaccine - OK well I'll buy a Lotto ticket and you go get your vaccine booster shot.....

500 cases a day in NSW - Royal Randwick to race tomorrow.

@Gammalite NONE of the vaccines stop ANYONE from being infectious. But the fact is the vast majority of those that return a positive test and recover from Covid-19 either are asymptomatic or if not tested have no idea that they have been infected!!!!! That's a fact. In Sweden the average mortality age of those who died from Covid-19 was HIGHER than the average mortality age!!!!! I.e. Covid-19 deaths DIDN'T change the average mortality age!!!!!! Sure there were excess deaths for a period but since January this year there has been significant Negative Excess deaths i.e. less people died than would be expected on average. Over the length of the pandemic the last 18 months has shown only a marginal increase in the number of people who have died BUT they were OVER the average mortality age!!!

SO publish the accurate data - now that's a challenge to both of you. Of course it doesn't hide the fact that that data and information was in the past made public and published for ALL to see. Not those who THINK they are in some inner "circle of trust". A lack of transparency and honesty is why the industry for all codes is in the mess it is! Don't you get that? Hell you only have to look at what look after your mates clubs using Pokie money has done for the industry!

Let it go @JJ Flash - the only reason you post on BOAY is to bitch and try and bring it down. That's obviously what turns you on. But in terms of hypocrisy if you tried that on ANY other channel you would have been punted long ago.

We had @Thomass - still do in a way has in lurks and posts laughing emoji's frequently. His nose is out of joint because he has been called out frequently. As for Brodie - well we have Brodie, YOU, Forbury, Retarded Drive, JJ Flash, me, shit need I go on?

Then name the source.

BULLSHIT @Michael!!!! You can find any number of posts where Brodie and I have disagreed and vehemently at that. So FAKE NEWS!!!!

FFS Michael aka Mikie!!!! LET IT GO!!! Brodie has his opinions as do you but you are more prone to ad hominem attacks than him. Lo and behold things escalate. I haven't a clue is Brodie is a "nutter" which by the way is a totally non PC term in today's world. But I do know for a fact that the TAB has severely restricted his punting due to a long on history of them being taken to the cleaners. I've had that confirmed from multiple sources.

I don't care who comes and goes. No favours on BOAY. But if you can't accept robust debate and different opinions then wander over to the "Be Kind Site" or the Hypocrisy Site" and help with the mayoral campaign. As for who has left and who has stayed and who visits you have absolutely NO idea.

Although not on THIS Topic - research in the UK on a very large sample of about 700,000 has found that Pzifer is 82% and AstraZeneca 67%. I think it is criminal to be vaccinating children who are NOT at risk with an experimental vaccine that has such low efficacy. Amazing what propaganda and Government promoted fear does to intelligent thinking people.

Ease up Michael. You throw your toys then come back and try and throw your weight around. Any chance of both YOU and Brodie getting back on the topic of this thread? Oh that's right you have secret squirrel information from a secret source who you trust. Hell if that doesn't reek of conspiracy what does!!!

FFS you really are a sensitive petal! I express an opinion and you see it as an attack!!! I responded to the remark about Brent Crude suggesting there were other spot markets more relevant to NZ. How the hell is that an attack?

Yeah well it certainly isn't coming from our own crude oil refined locally. So the only way for fuel prices to go in NZ is upwards particularly when we will have to pay a premium to negate transportation risk.

Well that kept you busy for the last 10 hours! But even so that supports Brodie's contention that fuel prices are continuing to rise. The increase in Dubai Fateh Crude has been 76% over the last year.

What I find so disheartening is that decent normal average New Zealanders are too scared to say anything anymore or challenge the status quo. Personally I'm sick of hearing from Skegg, Baker, Wilson, Wills, Hendy and co about Covid-19 - apart from Skegg who has a modicum of world respect the others are hack scientists bordering on frauds. Check Baker's research history - it is CRAP. Wills is non-existent!!! And they made her "New Zealander of the Year"!!!!!! I attended a Yachting New Zealand presentation to the local club the other night. The presentation was about what YNZ was doing for the clubs and promoting sailing. I came to the conclusion that they aren't doing that much however it was the bit at the end that really got me frowning. We were told that YNZ would be making a effort to "Te Reo" YNZ. I could feel some tension in the room but NOT ONE person said anything they just sat there and meekly listened. I asked the obvious question though - "How was introducing Te Reo to Yachting NZ going to promote sailing and what benefit would it be to my local club?" Oh and I also asked what WERE they ACTUALLY going to do - change Yachting New Zealand to Waka Aotearoa? Oh and how would they measure the success of Te Reo-ising YNZ. Their answer was that they would count the change in the number of Maori members in clubs. I would have been more agreeable if they had been honest and said that "if we do this we will get extra funding"!

Masks are not an essential item I have in the house so got caught out with the sudden decree from Herr Jacinta that you had to wear them to go to the Supermarket. I thought I could use a pillow slip with the some slits for the eyes but then realised I would look like this and would no doubt have gotten arrested for any number of offences.