Chief Stipe

Another stunning constructive thought provoking post from @JJ Flash

Do they run on the course proper? I would have thought that galloping 105 horses on a Heavy 10 wouldn't do the track any good for upcoming meetings.

Especially if you can't see his head behind the bar!

Actually if you live in Auckland I'd advise to head down to the trials you will get to see the best of the NZ horse population going around. Probabeel Palamos Imperatriz Quattra Quinta Avantage Prise de Fer Entriviere Amarelinha Aeogon Cornflower Blue The Chosen One Hell you might even see "NZ's most prolific tipster" @Thomass looking for blinkers and flank welts!

Can someone please explain or are there really cracks in the Cambridge AWT.... There are trials at Ellerslie TODAY - currently a Heavy 10 (as of yesterday) but I'm picking that after last nights storm the track will be more like a 14. 16 trials and over 105 horses going around including nearly all of the Te Akau elite. I don't understand from an industry perspective what these trials serve other than giving Ellerslie some more revenue.

There's no plan. When was the last time we saw anything substantial from NZTR in terms of planning/strategy for the future? Where is the funding coming from for the maintenance of the three AWT's? What is the strategy to address the decline in our Group/Listed race status? What is being done to address the handicapping issues that is putting good horses out to pasture? Even more now that we see the collapse of jumps racing (I see Cambridge ran three jumps trials yesterday - too little too late?)? Apparently we are on the verge of a windfall in revenue from the TAB - budgeted and contrary to what some think it isn't YET in the bank! Do we see funding at the lower levels being upped to make it worthwhile for a small trainer to "have a go"? Group racing has seen stake increases disproportionate to any other level of racing. But where are the horses going to come from? Look at the nominations for the Group 3 Winter Cup at Riccarton. They are appalling. An average rating of 78.5 for a GROUP 3 race!!!!! No doubt there will be a mare in there that will benefit from the 2kg "assistance" it gets!

If you are neutral then why do all the social media posting? Some of us don't have this pathological need to feel wanted or part of a group as you do.

You're becoming boring and dreary @JJ Flash

But can't that happen on any condition of track?

Will you get a tax credit on your $7,000 water filter?

NEW RULES MAY REIN IN STATE’S RUNAWAY TRAINER RANKS July 28, 2021 5:58 pm By Matt Stewart, Racing Editor Racing Victoria is to apply more stringent criteria to those who hope to join Victoria’s swollen training ranks. There are currently 843 registered trainers in Victoria and an average of five a month make application. It is an untenable number that has contributed to a skills shortage and put trainers under increasing pressure to keep up and make it tougher for the state’s lucrative prizemoney pie to be shared around. A leading trainer this week texted that licences were found “in Wheaties packets,” an exaggeration but also indicative of a well held view that Victoria has too many trainers too easily granted a licence. A key requirement will be that applicants have worked for six years in a stable instead of four and had successfully transitioned to the formal role of foreman or assistant trainer. An RV spokesman said the new criteria would be introduced at some stage during next season, which begins on Sunday. Australian Trainers Association chief executive Andrew Nicholl said: “It has just been too easy for people.” Nicholl said in an ideal world, trainers who had struggled, for whatever reason, would find work with more successful stables. This would in part address the skills crisis because the stable that closed would no longer require such staff and the stable that absorbed that trainer would gain a skilled employee. “The problem is people want to follow their dream and the dream is they just want to be a trainer. In many instances, it’s just not viable,” Nicholl said. Nicholl said Victoria’s attractive prizemoney and options at many tracks throughout the state presented a double-edged sword. “Victoria is the place to be and everyone wants to race here. At the moment there are 43 (interstate) trainers with visiting trainer licences, on top of those we already have,” he said. Of the average of five applicants for licences each month, Nicholl said: “You can’t fit everyone in the tent.” Nicholl said training partnerships had gathered momentum from a trickle a decade ago to over 30. Clinton McDonald revealed this week that independent financial management company Knights had taken over his books to prevent him from becoming overwhelmed with both training and managing his business. Nicholl said such scenarios were becoming increasingly common. A handful of years ago RV inserted a suitability policy into its licencing process, meaning applicants with criminal histories or other factors that might make them a risk, could be knocked back. An RV spokesman said the Fair Racing For All Report published in 2019 had led to an update licencing and accreditation standards. “The framework is nearing completion and once finalised we’ll be communicating with the industry more broadly on the specifics. “The objective at this time is to begin rolling that framework out during the 2021-22 racing season for new applicants and to transition all existing licence holders across ahead of the renewal cycle for the 2022-23 licensing period which begins in late autumn 2022.”

“The last six months have been hell on earth. I wonder why I still want to be part of this industry.” So says Kate Goodrich who renewed her training licence for the new season last week after dealing with many issues over a long period of time – mental, financial and practical. I’m sure you know much of the back story to this. Allegations of bullying and threatening behaviour were sustained by an independent FBIS report as well as wrongfully suspended from training at Kilmore – or the basis for which was “flawed, injustifiable and does not withstand scrutiny.” Since then, it has been a costly and endless search for accountability and a torrid test of her well-being. Yes, there have been mediations and financial offers put to Goodrich to make good the distress, but there are bigger pictures she sees and continues to plow on. Only last week, Racing Victoria settled a substantial six figure amount on her legal fees in mediation on charges dating back to 2017. “At the Court Of Appeal where I was exonerated of the charges against me by RV, the three Supreme Judges refused to provide RV with indemnity certificates because they found RV had materially contributed to the errors made by both the VCAT & Supreme Court Judge,” Goodrich wrote in an unanswered letter to Australian Trainer’s Association boss Andrew Nicholl last week. “We had to risk all our assets, of most significance our property, to continue on with this case, this has caused me a great deal of stress and enormous damage to my mental health, I have been unable to continue as a trainer, so it has cost me my livelihood and my dreams. “Either mental health matters or it doesn’t. As an organisation you can’t say you advocate for the mental health of all trainers then ignore the controlling body abusing its power against a participant so extremely as they have done in the manner they ran this case, in my opinion, to mentally break a participant to silence them, I believe that some of those running Victorian racing have hoped I would take my own life,” she said. Goodrich is also reaching out to Victoria’s new Racing Integrity Commissioner Sean Carroll for assistance, after his predecessor Sal Perna claimed he didn’t have jurisdiction in intervene. “I have been pro-active in contacting Kate and trying to understand her story, but as there are on-going legal proceedings, it is inappropriate for my office to be involved,” Carroll said. “But I feel it is important that anyone can come to us at any time with any form of grievance and accountability for all, from my office to any licensee of participant is a priority.” Goodrich has just six runners last season, the latest on May 7 (called perhaps appropriately Too Hard To Handle). In the season this journey started 2012/2013 she had 109 runners. Even two seasons back she had 22 runners but now she wonders whether the reason to renew her licence and requirement to saddle five runners will add to stress. “I am hardly training any more now – I can’t put horses on a truck and travel 50 minutes each-way to Seymour, it’s just too stressful after all I have been through. “I leased a couple of my horses out, that almost killed me, as I had bred them, but I just need to hang in there and try and keep myself busy,” Goodrich said. “But at times I am mentally screwed up but it all and have no motivation for racing, I could possibly work for someone else but I’m not up for that.” “But I have decided to keep my licence, they can’t stop me doing that, and with my lawyers I will just keep kicking on.”

Took five races though.

That was obvious. They only had to read the Morton JCA ruling to have an understanding of the limits of their licensing powers.

Where does that place you?

My apologies but I have tried to hide the worst from those two posters (one and the same person?) which I considered to be well beyond reasonable criticism.

Well my last "skin in the game" involvement was with Thoroughbreds. I just don't like the inequity of the handout for the AWT's. However neither HRNZ or GRNZ have done anything about it. I have my suspicions given the history of Woodham and Hughes that they are compliant.

This post is fake news - I made it up. My opinion is that Greyhounds and Harness have been short changed. Thoroughbreds got the big handout ($35m) and nothing went to the other codes.

I don't see it as the end of the world as we know it nor an indication that there is widespread corruption in harness racing. Which it seems is how two Stuff journalists and you see it. As I've said many many times before what we have seen so far indicates that the sport is incredibly clean or the RIU testing regime is incredibly poor. The fact is it is very easy today to detect ANY anomalies in a blood or urine sample. (BTW I'm still waiting for the Navarros and Servis indictments to come up with the "go fast" drug).

Yeah great stuff! I was in love with Emma Twigg for a brief celebratory moment then learnt she already has a wife called Charlotte. So switched on to watch Prendergast and the two Gowler sisters in the 8's. Fantastic stuff! Then to top the day off screamed at the TV over the last 500m 9f the men's 8's bringing back memories of that fantastic day in 1972.

Wouldn't there have to be? How do they fund maintenance? Increase trackwork and trial fees?

Survey says "we don't have enough industry staff" particularly skilled Jockey's.

Wouldn't have a clue @the galah but I'm sure you'll find a negative twist somehow. When you say "treat" do you mean as in sugar cubes or a carrot?

Has anyone else heard the rumour on the street that the RIU have got the Wigg forced scratchings embarrassingly wrong? It will be interesting to read any follow up from the Stuff harness hit squad.

Rangiora will probably be lost as well to the industry if the Canterbury Jockey Club get their way. Perhaps HRNZ could lobby the Government for funding to purchase Rangiora as a dedicated training centre? That would be fair wouldn't it with the Thoroughbreds getting $35m for AWT's. One of which is unlikely to get much use.