Chief Stipe

Be that as it may it is a good indication of the condition of the soil and obvious issues when it comes to irrigating evenly. I was being sarcastic Pitty - I should have used the sarcasm font. The point I am making is that the maintenance work done for example at Flemington each year is what many track manager's in NZ would pass off as renovation. The fact is we do SFA of either!

The track wasn't a Good track either - played more like a Soft 6 which makes the effort of Entriviere in the last quite remarkable. I don't think the track helped Probabeel either given Nettoyer is a knows wet tracker. Same for Armarelinha where her turn of foot was nullified by the conditions. I'm surprised Opie's comment was that Armarelinha had come to the end of this preparation.

Sure Pitty. Riccarton is an amazing track that unlike every Metropolitan track in Australia doesn't need significant annual maintenance (what we would call renovation!) nor a minimum 8 year cycle of major renovation. Yep Pitty, the agrarian expert of Canterbury, the South Island's top trainer, has the formula. This is what he calls a great track:

Interesting reading about the Caulfield and Ballarat training facilities. They irrigate their jumps tracks all year round.

Here's what you get at Ballarat: Sportsbet-Ballarat Training & Racing Facilities Sportsbet Ballarat is a world class training and racing facility with the following infrastructure. The Course Proper: Inner track: 1900m Start positions: 1000m, 1100m, 1200m, 1400m, 1500m, 1600m, 2200m, 2300m Outer track: 2400m Start positions flat races: 1000m, 1100m, 1200m, 1400m, 1500m, 1600m, 2000m, 3200m. Start positions jumps races: 3200m, 3400m, 4000m, 4500m Grass gallops available by appointment Manual irrigation The Polytrack: 1,900m Start positions: 1000m, 1100m, 1200m, 1400m, 1500m, 1600m, 2100m, 2200m Max field size of 12 horses Sand Track: 1600m Uphill Synthetic Track: 1400m Practice barriers x 4 Distance markers by light & electronic timing for every 200m Trainers Hut Inside Grass Track: 1550m Width approx. 18m Suited for Official Jumps Trials Regular Club jumpouts & grass gallops available 6 days per week Viscoe Track: 1620m Synthetic surface Available 6 days per week Jog Track: approx. 1400m Located inner field Provides opportunity for clockwise track work 6 days per week without special arrangement Jumps Lane: approx 500m Three lanes consisting of hurdle lane, steeple lane and logs Available to trainers 6 days per week Irrigated surface ensuring availability all year round Communal Walker: 10 bay horse walker (walker bay's leased individually on an annual basis) Undercover with full lighting Bull Ring: 100m circuit Option to install 1-4 moveable jumps within the circuit Sand base irrigated surface Available 7 days per week Horse Pool: Chlorine filtered Available 7 days per week Old Hill Track: 1200m Granite sand surface Timber railed Stripping Shed: Direct access to training tracks Wash bays x 2 Sand roll x 1 Tie up bays approx. 30

This is what you currently get at Caufield - note the number of staff. The cost estimates for the "new" developments at Riccarton might be a bit light on staffing! The Caulfield training centre is one of the premier facilities in Australia and houses some of best trainers in the nation. In addition to the racing at Caulfield, many well-known Victorian trainers and over 500 horses call Caulfield home. Caulfield Racecourse is ideally positioned just 8km southeast of the city, Caulfield is situated close to the city centre of Melbourne and is easily accessible by car, train or tram. Training hours; 4am-9.30am Monday to Saturday, 6am-8am Sunday. Course open to the public sunrise to sunset except race day Training tracks A sand track; 2005m x 5m Steeple grass; 1900m x 18m Polytrack; 1700m x 9m. (combination of wax, crumbed rubber, shredded carpet fibre and sand) Inside grass; 1400m x 14m Lead sand; 1500m x 6m Steeple and hurdle training facilities; 250m laneway containing 3 jumps of each Horse pool; open same time as training tracks plus from 1.30pm-4.00pm. Three full time staff that run training, they work from 3.00am-9.30am, 6 days per week 14 full time track maintenance staff that look after all the training and racing tracks and facilities Three full time gardeners 500 horses housed and train on course. There are no off course stables any longer On site veterinary clinic All water used for irrigation is bore water and rain catchment, use about 120 million litres pa. Public can access the track at; Queens Ave, Guineas Car park, Glen Eira Rd entrance and the top of the hill next to the sports oval.

Really you make a "living from analysing form"? Must be damn easy to do that as what you posted about Manhattan, A Bettor Act and A Delightful Act was crap!!! I'd love to hear what other Harness BOAY'ers think about our respective form analysis of A Bettor Act. Why don't you really say what you think? You won't actually say "I believe Mitchell Kerr was using performance enhancing drugs on his horses!" You can't though because you have zero evidence. All you can do is make inferences, supposition and innuendo. One day you may see a modicum of evidence emerge and then you will jump up and down "I told you so, I was right and it has been going on for years!" But at the moment you have nothing. As I have posted elsewhere on BOAY I'm really interested to see what substance the RIU found in their clandestine raid on Alford. But so far there has been nothing, zip, nada, NOTHING!

I realise you are only THINKING but does the course have an equine swimming pool? A walker? Treadmill? On course facilities for a visiting or permanent vet? Good security and lighting? Plenty of room for all those things?

Freda - correct me if I'm wrong but you are: A local loyal Riccarton Trainer; An industry stakeholder; Have made an investment (time and money) in the industry. Surely those three attributes are sufficient for you to be informed of the plans that your investment relies on. Why do you HAVE to be a committee member to be informed? I just visited the CJC website - there is NOTHING on that site that clearly lays out the plans for the future nor for that matter promotes Riccarton as a future training location. NOTHING! https://racing.riccartonpark.nz/ Compare that to Pakenham - https://country.racing.com/pakenham/training-centre Full transparency, a clear strategic plan, full disclosure of costs and local rules!

It comes from revenue produced by tracks like Reefton and any other track that doesn't get industry subsidies. Ultimately the revenue comes from the punter. I'm not sure if the NZ punter has a choice between backing a horse on an AWT industry day at Riccarton and a nice grass turf track in OZ whether they will choose the AWT. As my mum always use to say "You know what thought (think) did - nothing!" But sold your best. What do you mean "State of the Art"? How is it constructed? Hopefully not along the lines of the past renovation's on your turf race surface. Will it have an irrigation system that works? You still keep avoiding answering the key question - what are the plans to renovate the main turf track for racing?

You are really struggling Galah. You have now switched the debate away from your original assertion to something different. Your original assertion was that "when A Bettor Act left M Kerr's training it lost a leg" - the implication being that its form dropped considerably. Arguably you could say its best form was when it was with the All Stars as a 2 yr old when it won a Group race and was Group placed earning $60k for the season. Its best season in terms of earnings. It went to the Dickie's and then to Kerr. Yes it did win 4 races in the 2019 season for Kerr. However, and this is the point that you choose to ignore, it last won a race in October 2019. That race was an easy R62-R74 race at Addington. The next SEVEN starts were with Mitchell Kerr for ONE second placing. The race after it won was the Kaikoura Cup where it finished 7th. The last run for 2019 was the Junior FFA during Cup Week where it ran 32 lengths LAST. It didn't have another start until TEN months later. In the next 5 starts it had only one placing a 2nd at Invercargill in a R60-R80 race. It finished 5th, 7th, 11th and 11th in its remaining starts for Mitchell Kerr. Everytime it has tried to step up to the next class it has failed abysmally. So to spell it out for you once again - the horse didn't "lose a leg" once leaving Kerr's stable - there is Zero evidence for that.

Turns out they were three jumps races at Stratford-on-Avon in the UK tonight.

Opened up the TAB website and was surprised to see there were three races to be run at Stratford in the dark.

I thought we should have a Topic for posting bloopers, bugs and general stuff ups from TAB-NZ.

Right so Cambridge Jockey Club with a horse training population of 1,200 needs a subsidy to keep their centre going? Doesn't bode well if training facilities need subsidisation from other parts of the industry to pay their way. Tell what happens when you close those other tracks down that are helping to subsidise the training centres? Who pays the bills then? But there weren't scores of meetings abandoned in the South Island anyway! On the rare occasion that meetings were abandoned they didn't cost the industry anything as they were budgeted to be abandoned and stakes weren't paid out. NZTR never had enough funding to deliver all the meetings they put on the calendar. There you go everyone. The South Island's leading trainer is being up front and honest - the rest of the clubs in the South Island will be bled to support the AWT. Start packing you kit bags and floats and head to the promised land of Riccarton. You might have to build your own stables in the car parks but nirvana awaits you. Just don't expect to gallop on the main turf track. I'm sure most of your owners are wanting to know when the main grass track will be renovated. After all the races run on that course are the money and glory races run on warm sunny days. Rubbish! If I did it would be a case of pot kettle back on your part. Pits - YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE PLAN IS!!! Otherwise you cannot plan you own business!!!!! Anyway you contradict yourself - on the one hand you say you will have many raceday starters on the AWT but then say probably not as they will only be industry days. The implication is you will use the AWT for training to get your horses fit for the Premier Days on the Turf Track. Good luck with that approach. But make up your mind.

My apologies you posted on the forum "12 industry days run between May and September" not 14. You intimated possibly more than 12.

Freda I suggest you and those in the "none of us" group give Peter Moody a ring at Pakenham and ask him what horses are suited by the Polytrack. Or ring a few of those trainers that have been working with the Cambridge AWT. Oh and while you are on the phone ask some questions about what impact grooming the track has on the firmness of the surface and the relationship between the frequency of that grooming and the surface consistency. I'd advise any trainer that is going to continue to train at Riccarton to do their research and adjust the type of horse they have in their stable.

I'm not against the AWT's per se. What I am against the rationale for having them, the lasting damage that will be done, the continual drain on resources and funding. Pits I would have thought that as the South Island's leading trainer and presumably an able businessman with a considerable investment in racing that YOU would have the business plan at your finger tips or at the very least perused it at length. However it is painfully obvious that you have NO IDEA! That does not bode well for the future. Are you sure about that Pits? I've NEVER EVER LIED - where have I lied on BOAY? But closing Timaru is the inevitable conclusion of installing the AWT at Riccarton. Connect the dots!!!! How else will they fund the damn AWT? How else will they pay for the renovation of the main Turf track at Riccartion without pillaging all the other tracks in the South Island? Pits all you can see is a big flash new shiny white elephant that makes you feel good and to hell with what once made the racing industry strong. Take a look at what turned Canterbury around - they administrators realised they need to feed the other unions in the Super franchise and needed to keep the Club network strong. What is racing doing? Creating 3 bleeding great black holes that are going to suck the life out of the regions and the non-elite clubs.

It wasn't a great ride from JMac. He got into that mindset that he had to get her to the outside and in doing so she started to fight him. I believe she is mature enough now to settle where she was. She expended a lot more effort and covered more distance than Adeybb in what was a slowly run race.

It's called ducking for cover on your part when you are called out. Still waiting for your explanation on the form of: Manhattan A Bettor Act A Delightful Act You see some of us just don't accept your narrative is true just because you can post it on the internet. BTW I suppose you see ghosts with the substantial drop in form when A Bettor Act went from the All Stars to Kerr.

Do you do ANY research? It got sick during its first prep in OZ. Was sold on Gavelhouse in September for AUD$27,000.

OK then expert - detail for the rest of us where they significant form changes were in the three horses that you described "as losing a leg since changing stables"? A bet you can't because you can't put your biased narrative to one side and objectively analyse the form. Manhattan A Bettor Act A Delightful Act Here is what I wrote so readers don't have to go back and search: OK - you can't say A Bettor Act has "lost a leg" since changing stables. It last won a race 10 October 2019 and has had one other placing since then in 9 starts! It has only had two starts from the Williamson stable. Its best success was when it was in the All Stars stable BEFORE going to Kerr! Manattan has had only 7 starts yet to win a race and has only run two places 7 months ago! Those two placing's were hardly in top fields! You might have a point with A Delightful Act but it has hardly set the world on fire. Last win was October last year and its next five starts returned one placing when it was in the Kerr stable. Perhaps it has reached its mark.

Supposition and very doubtful to be backed up by fact. I guess though it wouldn't be too hard to find a West Australian sucker. Galah pushing your narrative and repeating the same BS over and over won't fool me nor make what you say true. I presented the facts above and they are undeniable. One of the horses you pointed out to have "lost a leg" last won a race 9 starts and 18 MONTHS ago. Only 2 of those starts have been in a new stable!!!!!! FFS how the hell would YOU interpret THAT form? "ooohhh" says The Galah "a big drop in form after two starts in a new stable. Must have been on good juice at Kerr's".....

The general public don't give a damn about Greyhound racing. Won't matter how much spin you put on it. I'd be very surprised if Greyhound Racing in New Zealand survives this review.

Yes when I wrote that comment I immediately thought that it might have been exported. So it hasn't "lost a leg"! I was being somewhat facetious with regard to the RIU performance. My point was in relation to license holders. The data matching required is well with the rules of racing/gambling and they are quick to do it when there is a hint of "match fixing". I would have thought that a red flag would have been raised by both the amount being bet and lost and the fact that he was a license holder. There is no mention in the judgement that Kerr had been banned from betting in New Zealand. The RIU Betting Analyst only approached Ladbrookes for information after the RIU had "received information" from a third party i.e. a snitch. It was made clear in the judgement that NZ has a formal agreement with overseas bookies to legally receive the information it requested. BUT this was only AFTER someone had snitched. It isn't that hard to proactively monitor for issues especially when you have full time staff hired to do the analysis!!!!!