Chief Stipe

The Waikato?

@the galah you should get a job on INCA as you are very good at extrapolating from A to achieve D! Yes dairy cows can excrete E. coli just as any mammal can. Nitrate levels can increase in water from uncontrolled dairy farm runoff but there are more than one source are more likely to occur from high country runoff. However why do you link E. coli, nitrate levels and bowel cancer? That is an hypothesis which hasn't been proven. There are numerous possible causes of bowel cancer. Who are THEY that did the testing? Where is the research paper? Were they all using bore water, rain water or reticulated supply? Did you know rainwater has nitrates in it? With regard to the high numbers getting bowel cancer this has been a hidden epidemic in NZ for decades and not just confined to rural areas but the big cities as well. Men are more likely to get bowel cancer than women - do they drink more bore water? We've seen cancer screening programmes for breast and cervical cancer for decades and I was involved in an attempt to set up a programme for proactive bowel cancer screening when working at the Ministry of Health. That was ditched and money directed back to existing programmes. The statistics were horrendous and those affected were dominated by men. You point the finger at the dairy industry yet the nitrate/nitrite issue in underground aquifers has been an issue for decades well before dairy farming became more prevalent. Why? Intensive cropping can be a source of high nitrates PLUS nitrate levels in underground water will spike after periods of drought (last summer?) followed by intense rain. The nitrates are more likely to come from cropping or dry stock ground than dairy pasture. Dairy pasture is predominantly on heavier soils with more organic matter which traps nitrates unlike the stonier lighter soils that dominate grain cropping. I'm not deflecting the blame nor ignoring the science. I'm actually recognising decades of evidence based research done in the Canterbury region. Easy to point the finger at the "wealthy big dairy farmer"! I've attached a paper from 1990 that shows high levels of nitrates leaching into ground aquifers from arable farming. Be afraid of those that fly the banner of "follow the science" - they don't mean evidence based science leading to a consensus and the truth but "follow the science" that supports their agenda. Can't you see the irony in that the grain loving part of the population may actually be more responsible than the dairy and meat lovers? EFFECTS OF MIXED CROPPING FARMING SYSTEMS 1990.pdf

So are you blaming bowel cancer rates on high E. coli? If it is E. coli then how come it doesn't affect women at the same rate as men? Greenpeace tested for nitrates but I thought the cancer causation link was nirites? I first attended Lincoln College (University) 40 years ago. The "Canterbury nitrite problem" existed then when the predominant agricultural activity was cropping and sheep farming. I spent the next 15 years trout fishing all around Canterbury - the L2, the Cam, the Waimak, Hart's Creek, Lake Ellesmere. I even studied the latter at Lincoln when doing a Masters paper in Resource Management. Lake Ellesmere was the most polluted Lake in NZ then and still is. There are a myriad of causes not just farming. You can't just blame Dairy Farming for the problem which has existed for more than 40 years. Doesn't stop Lake Ellesmere from being the largest trout fishery by biomass in the world. Geez throw in climate change (drought) and the zillion shitting geese in the area.

Based on what evidence?

How do you know it has "gone backwards"?

I'd say your thought patterns have been hijacked by the purveyors of bad science. The modern dairy farmer of today is light years ahead of those of the past in terms of caring for the environment. The recent Greenpeace work was a nonsense from a scientific integrity perspective.

If the latest data from the UK is accurate then the benefits of the vaccines are declining rapidly with decreasing levels of efficacy.

Says who @the galah? Surely not the recent Gteenpeace "drop your water sample off to be tested" data?

Who knows but you can bet that whatever happens it won't be what the thoroughbred trainers that currently train at Rangiora want nor in the interests of Harness Racing. Perhaps they will announce that the sale will free up funds to fix the turf track at Riccarton which according to the South Island's leading trainer is the "best surface in New Zealand when not irrigated"!

Will Harness have to buy CJC out? Will CJC give them the option considering they own 58%? Will Harness allow the Thoroughbred trainers to continue there? Will they charge them fees? If they do Will they be less than CJC?

Then you'll agree that we should be lauding these big stables investing their own hard earned into the industry. Any criticism for wider declining participation and revenue in the industry should be directed at the likes of: George, Castles, Mackenzie, Saundry, Woodham, Hughes?

It must be hard getting your horses ready for the coming Spring with the disruption and delay of the Riccarton AWT. Getting everything done before 8:30am in bad weather and poor must be challenging. I imagine it has been equally hard to prepare that glorious racing surface the Riccarton turf for the upcoming National meeting. Let alone further into the Spring for Cup week. Meanwhile from a Thoroughbred perspective (Harness may continue) the perfectly good turf surface at Rangiora inches closer towards its demise. No doubt the CJC is counting the dollars it will realise when it sells its share. Although that may not be easy in these economic climes and Harness is sure to have a say. What will the trainers based their do? Pack up and move to town? Will they absorb the extra costs or pass onto owners? Or will they call it a day? Rangiora has been and is ongoing a lesson in unintended consequences.

What's that phrase...... deja vu? Or is it Groundhog Day? Meanwhile I understand the Polyfill at Riccarton got TOO WET to lay!!!! Geez not many weeks left to the National meeting (I assume the grass has grown at Cutt's Brush!) and then we have the lead up to the Guineas.

But the cause isn't the emergence of "big stables" - correlation doesn't equal causation! You have no idea what numbers make up the Syndication of big stable horses. Is it not possible that there are more people with less percentage shares. This has happened in the Thoroughbred industry as it is the only way that people can afford to have an interest. The cause in the decline are increasing costs and declining returns NOT the creation of "big" stables. Those stables have economy of scale. So shouldn't the focus of attention be directed towards the TAB and HRNZ? Afterall it is they that have the greatest influence on returns to the industry.

NZTR Board unethical in appointing one of its own http://www.theoptimist.site/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2nd-final-skeletons-2-header-size.jpg by Brian de Lore Published 23rd July 2021 The New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing board proved conclusively this week that it lacks integrity, scruples, and the nous to recognise its proper role in the racing industry. Racing people this week are aghast by the appointment of the new NZTR Chief Operating Officer announced on Thursday – NZTR’s own board member Bruce Sharrock after the advertised position drew an international response. This board needs a sign nailed to the board room wall for its next meeting, with this C.S. Lewis quote in large letters: “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” Well, the perenially diminishing number of racing’s participants and stakeholders are watching and are fed up with the treatment they’re getting from an organisation that exists supposedly to run the thoroughbred racing business smoothly for the people that fund it with hard-earned cash – the owners, and the hundreds of volunteers who have been serving this industry forever. As New Zealand racing has continued to suffer from years of substandard administration and contracting numbers of horses and owners year after year, NZTR in its wisdom this year decided to expand its executive staff with the creation of a new position called Chief Operating Officer. The question is, why when we are an industry strapped for cash? http://www.theoptimist.site/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2nd-final-skeletons-2-Full-Size-1024x653.jpg How can it be justified? What are they paying? It’s unlikely to be less than $250,000 or $300,000/pa. Why does NZTR suddenly need this new person now, or is this an orchestrated set-up to replace the outgoing Bernard Saundry who leaves in July 2022? In a phone conversation with Bernard Saundry on June 16th, I asked why they were advertising. He said: “We’ve got that much work that we’re not doing what we need to do, and there are projects that need to be completed, and I can’t do it with the existing resources.” All you get out of Saundry and the media releases are the same old platitudes without detail, but The Optimist suspects that Sharrock, when he takes up his new role on August 30, will start dealing with the likes of the Dargaville Racing Club to try and enforce land sales and the equity transfers to NZTR from the clubs earmarked for closure. Sharrock has been appointed to the new role after two of the current seven-man NZTR board applied for the position. It is also known to The Optimist that a highly qualified Australian applied for the job, but he realised he was no hope (just as everyone else who applied was no hope) when informed during his second Zoom interview of two rival applicants coming from within the board. High-quality applicant not in the hunt Needless to say, that applicant was ropable, as will any other applicant will be who wasted his/her time going through a process designed for appearance sake. The interviewing was done by Saundry, who reports to the board, and was appointed by the NZTR board four years ago. Draw your own conclusions. Boards are entrusted with responsibilities and should be accountable, but as we saw with the NZRB board that existed until 2019, the behaviour can be appalling and the Directors’ Police never turn up. Don Argus AC FAICA outlined five principles for directors in Australia about 20 years ago which are still applicable today. Here are three extractions: Every board owes its primary duty to the company or stakeholders. No stakeholder (shareholder, employee, customer, or any other) is entitled to preferential treatment. In discharging their fiduciary duty, directors should disregard their own interests. The real key to effective governance is a properly functioning board where mutual trust and respect lead to open, informed and timely debate on any and every aspect of a company or entity’s affairs. The NZTR system of board appointments has faltered, otherwise, you wouldn’t have four directors residing in Auckland, three of which were well known to each other before their appointments. Another lives in Hamilton while the remaining two come from Hawkes Bay and Canterbury. Current Chair Cameron George, who currently resides in Australia, is well-known as CEO of the Vodafone Warriors. Bruce Sharrock is a Global Director of Esportif, a sports management company that manages a large number of Warriors’ players, and Andrew Fairgray worked for Vodafone. These three are far better qualified to run NZ Rugby League than they are racing. Fairgray and George are on Facebook together, photographed with the Vodafone NZ Derby trophy in March 2017. Was the Members’ Council who make the appointments to the board aware of the association of the three before the appointments? Did they do their due diligence? The strong rumour in the racing industry has been that Waikato Racing Club CEO Andrew Castles was the likely successor to Bernard Saundry when he leaves in 12 month’s time. When I repeated that notion to Bernard Saundry in June, he confirmed that he was also hearing the same rumour. He didn’t comment further. Cameron George and Andrew Castles are former flatmates. Castles is also a close friend of TAB CTO Dean McKenzie who in turn is a former co-director of a sports management company with Bruce Sharrock. All up, this is a cosy group, a little bit too cosy for comfort. When Cameron George became Chair last November, his first media release stated NZTR would adopt a policy of transparency, but to date, we have learned little from him, and the transparency comes exclusively through The Optimist.

Well is it dropping in your opinion? If so where is the evidence? Or are you predicting the future?

How do you know that "overall participation drops"?

Sweden did OK without lockdowns.

If the Christchurch stables are anything like their Clevedon ones then they are sure not sparing any expense! From the Coresteel Facebook page:

Huge surge in numbers for Telfers 22 July 2021 , News by Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk The Telfer tsunami is coming, with Stonewall Stud and Stables having just put an additional 36 horses into training. One of the country's biggest and most successful operations expects to have around 80 horses in work, spanning both islands. Stonewall’s brother-sister partnership of Steve and Amanda Telfer are currently third on the national training premiership with 63 wins, behind Robert Dunn on 122 and Michael House on 77. Among the stand-out performers have been B D Joe, Enjoy Me, Darling Me and Dance Time. And reinforcements are on their way big time. Of the 36 new horses, “about a third we bought at the weanling sales, a third at this year’s yearling sales and a third we have bred ourselves,” says Steve Telfer. “There are a lot of babies.” Among them is Delightful Reality who Stonewall Stud bought at this year’s NZB Yearling Sale at Karaka for $300,000. She’s a Bettors Delight filly from Western Australian Oaks winner Major Reality. “We’re just starting with her,” says Telfer, ”she’s broken in nicely and has great manners.” But like a lot of young stock it’s now wait and see - “a lot of the horses will be going to the trials in mid August – September.” While they're based at Ardmore in South Auckland, expansion to the South Island is well advanced, with work currently underway to re-build Jack Smolenski’s old barn in Canterbury. It will be the permanent base for Amanda Telfer, along with stable foreman David White and top driver Tim Williams. “There are so many opportunities down south.” In the meantime the team will operate out of the Dancingonmoonlight stables in North Canterbury. The upmarket property also has retired New Zealand Cup champions Christian Cullen, Monkey King and Baileys Dream on site. “We should kick off September 1 with 12 horses there,” says Steve Telfer. Of his dozens of juveniles two have Telfer particularly enthused, Mitch and Obsession. Mitch is a two-year-old colt, by Art Major out of Cheer The Lady, who was second at Alexandra Park on March 6 to Arden’s Horizon. “He’s only had the one start and was narrowly beaten and is 3-4 weeks away from the trials.” Obsession (Captain Treacherous – Pure Magic) is a two-year-old filly with one win in two starts, downing Montana Glory in the NZB Standardbred 2YO Pace at Alexandra Park on March 12. “I’m excited to see what they can do.”

It is now public knowledge that Tim Williams is joining Steve & Amanda Telfer at Stonewall Stud when they set up in CHCH. Tim starts in September, they have brought JW Smolenski's Weedons stable as well as a number of neighbouring properties. They plan to have 40 or 50 horses in the South Island. Initially they will train out of the Dancingonmoonlight stables until the new stables are built in Weedons.

I'd suggest if you dont know Molloy you had better do your homework real quick. Certainly before you throw your support behind him which you appear to be doing. Don't forget it was partly his nasty irrational behaviour that led to the creation of BOAY. If I wanted to be popular then I wouldn't have an opinion or would behave obsequiously like another channel owner does. Well at least in public but hypocrisy knows no bounds with some. Sycophancy has never been one of my strong points. Channel 3 started only because I wouldn't moderate @Thomass. I've achieved that by taking him on and exposing his true character. Bear in mind he isn't banned like he is elsewhere. Nor are you for that matter. I'll reply whenever I want to as can anyone on BOAY. Not many places you can do that freely is there?

LOL trust me I have no time for that little man. As for love affairs your posts reveal your true feelings That aside there will be many that will come out and publicly show why he isn't fit for public office. I'll be one of them posting his late night texts and voice recordings of vile rants and threats and his underworld connections. But I guess that's the kinda guy someone like you supports.

Not Lord Balina - it's Bletchingly that is the key in the pedigree.

Apparently 4 million more people have died in India than reported by the "corrupt Government"! Where are the bodies? 27,000 people die a day in India in an average year.