Chief Stipe

I haven't denied anything but I have pointed out the facts. Which is with all the millions spent on Inca and the millions spent on the RIU the number of "cheats" in the Harness industry numbers TWO. But you exaggerate the problems and do nothing to enhance the image of the industry. You obviously belong to the archaic belief system that harness racing (racing in general) has to be holier than thou and beyond all reproach more than any other sector of society. All that belief system does it set the industry up to fail for all the wrong reasons.

Probably wants you as an enemy.

Greysful Glamour and Nettoyer also went round today and are heading to the sale. I think there might have been others racing today too. Speaking of broodmares a winner today at Doomben - Nudge is out of Julinsky Princess.

Bloody big Kitty and more to come. Keeping her in racing trim helps her appearance for the sale as well. The cost of having her there and preparing her for the sale without racing would be much the same.

Give her a break! The winner had them ALL struggling a long way from home running a race record. 2:01 at Doomben is fair hiking.

I see Cullens UDR is still on the up. Big increases in the last 3 weeks. Looks like there might be an extra leg growing! $1.5m in stakes and the UDR is now 0.4305. Funny how statistics change (improve) during a season.

But your view is part of the problem - it is negative even though you try to paint it as a positive. Isn't the more important metric the one that shows that with the thousands of swabs taken each year there have been very very few positives returned? Has there been one this season? With the millions and millions of dollars of industry and taxpayer money spent on the INCA investigation there has been no evidence of widespread corruption or race fixing. Aren't we still waiting for a result? Essentially there is no evidence of widespread corruption. Yet we hang out to dry individuals who committed non harness racing crimes and who were dealt with through the court system. In effect we magnify any reputational damage done by association i.e. we negatively market the sport for no gain. No it shouldn't have been Karrot's answer because if focuses on the negative. The answer should have been that Harness Racing is as clean as any sport and after years of investigation no widespread cheating or corruption has been found. The focus shouldn't have been that the cheats are being caught but the fact that there are very very few. We seem to have this protestant self flagellating view of ourselves and that we need to apologise for what is a legitimate industry. This attitude is archaic and harks back to the days were concessions were made to appease the puritanical amongst society. It is a carry over from the Temperance movement. Racing has a negative image full stop and NOTHING has ever been done to alter that image or perception. Where is the positive marketing? We see it day in day out with Lotto but how is gambling on racehorses (supposedly a game of skill) any worse than paying large amounts to play a game of chance? What's more Racing constantly does dumb things that creates and focuses negativity. The administration of the sport seems to be a constant game of taking the foot out of the mouth and shooting it! For example the dumb unworkable whip rules. Or the harness horse rehoming programme. Why even attempt something that is impossible to achieve or even appease the do gooders? Can the industry rehome every horse forever? No it can't nor should it be expected to nor should it try to give the impression that it will. Is a horse any more a sentient being than a dairy cow? A dairy cow is kept in an unnatural condition of continuous lactation and when the volume of milk it produces declines is sent to the works. Is the dairy industry going to rehome millions of dairy cows each year to see out their lives on a nice green pasture with hard feeding during the winter? WHERE IS THE POSITIVE PROMOTION OF THE SPORT OF HARNESS RACING? Instead of ads promoting the propping up of the TAB why aren't we seeing the promotion of the positives of racing? What do we see instead? Silence when we get shafted by a biased journalist(s) and the production of a pathetic social media code of conduct to stop anyone having an opinion. What a brilliant focus of resources!!!

MVB has retired from Journalism. http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/125205470/columnist-dubbed-thinking-mans-redneck-bows-out-after-17-years?cid=app-android

The UDR for Cullen has gone up another couple of notches!

It's obvious that MVB and Sherwood are anti racing. The fact that they are being fed from within the industry pisses me off. Just as those that infer wrong doing but don't have the balls to post any substance.

Bullshit. It is obvious you have no interest in Harness Racing.

Your point?

Why do you keep banging on about it?

What year were they? I realise you still use that torch for Mark Purdon.

Exactly. In 2013 the Harness Trainer Nicky Chilcott got done for presenting a horse to race which returned a positive to Tramadol (a synthetic morphine). Both the industry vet (Grierson) and expert witness Professor Tobin from the USA said that the level was insufficient to affect performance. Tobin said the level in the blood was the equivalent of 1 second on 320 years! Testing science has improved markedly since then and very low levels of any substance can be detected. So the chances of environmental contamination has also increased. The RIU seem intent on registering scalps, disqualifying and fining Trainers rather than addressing this burgeoning problem. Isn't the key to set limits above a zero threshold based on the levels that would affect a 500kg animal? Obviously with a margin built in rather than just zero. Added to that is the tests often record the level of metabolites of a prohibited substance which gives a good indication of the quantity that must have been injested originally.

Go Karrots and Jonesy. Appreciate your positive outlook! As for the new rules - they aren't signed sealed and delivered yet!!! Hopefully the HTNZ Exec will grow some balls and see that they don't need draconian rules over and above the laws of the land. One of the great things about Sport is having an opinion and expressing it.

These "illicit substances" were what?

Rumour or fact? Formalin is an aqueous solution of formaldehyde. Gammalite your liver synthesises formaldehyde. If you didn't have formaldehyde in your body you would be dead as some key biochemical processes that sustain life would not happen. Yes formaldehyde can be used to fix cells and to stop decay. It is a key component of many hoof treatments. I haven't seen what the volume or % formaldehyde was in the solution that Alford was going to inject into the horse. But it is wrong to infer that he was "embalming the horse". That wouldn't be conducive to performance would it? The reality is that in any blood test formaldehyde will be present. One must assume that unless the RIU were sitting on positive results the levels detected in swabs were not viewed as abnormal. That would lead one to assume that the levels injected were low. Why use formaldehyde intravenously on a horse? Formaldehyde has been injected into horses by vets in an attempt to stop internal haemorrhaging particularly in severe EIPH cases. Judging on the comments that Alford has made the horse in question was a bleeder so he was attempting to limit the extent of EIPH. That said the science isn't conclusive on it working but it certainly isn't a go fast drug. EIPH is another one of the issues in my mind that unless a solution is found will contribute to the undoing of the industry. The majority of horses suffer some form of EIPH while racing. Lasix has been used both in competition and training in the USA and many top galloping trainers in OZ use it frequently in training. Chris Waller being one.

It won't Freda unless those on the ground such as yourself demand that those things that affect them directly are first acknowledged and then fixed. For example the turf tracks, the course stables and yards, the security and lighting, apprentice training, consistency in judicial decisions. Things that make it easier for you to do your job. Then we might start producing a horse wagering product that we can sell at a competitive price.

Rule Number(s): Rule 870(3) and Breaking Horses RegulationsFollowing the running of Race 2 a protest was instigated by the Stewards against the placing of the 4th horse, AHWEL on the grounds that it had broken for in excess of 50 metres inside the final 200 metres. Mr D Ferguson the Driver of the horse represented the horse's connections and noted on the Information ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

McGrath got most of his sentence NOT for "setting up for the punt"! Come in HTP.

Which THREE?

I notice you didn't do a comparison with a NZ Galloping meeting.

How is it a "different scenario entirely"? In my opinion on the face of it the Sharrock case definitely involved a class A drug that conceivably is performance enhancing. The irony is the RIU established early that the morphine positive was environmental contamination most likely through feed. What is clear in the Sharrock case is that there is no possibility of an environmental feed source of methamphetamine I.e. P or its metabolites do not occur naturally in horse feed. You refer to the New Plymouth case which was never resolved. What actions did the RIU, Racing Clubs and NZTR take post New Plymouth to prevent possible environmental contamination or deliberate nefarious administration by errant persons?