Chief Stipe

Rule Number(s): 638(1)(d)Following the running of Race 7, the Heartland Print 1400m, an Information was filed by Stipendiary Steward, Mr M Davidson, against Class B Rider, Mr R Beeharry, alleging careless riding, in that he permitted his mount, CHARLIE BROWN, to shift inwards when not sufficiently clear dictating O’HE’CAN inwards ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Actually they probably won't have that much cheek given they had enough money to build their own AWT without a taxpayer handout.

But has that mattered? Facilities haven't been the reason why on-course attendance has declined. If it was then the likes of Ellerslie, Te Rapa, Awapuni even Riccarton would have had increasing on-course attendance. They have also declined. Some clubs by comparison to the big ones have what you would call appalling facilities yet their on-course attendance hasn't declined for some meetings. I do believe the state of the facilities for the public has been a red herring for a long time especially for clubs when the on-course turnover revenue became less (through manipulation of the funding model) along with the ability to measure it with the advent of smart phone app access. However what has appalled me for decades is the state of the facilities for those that put on the show. I've visited many many tracks over the course of my horse ownership. As I've said before I'm one of those dedicated owners not an absent owner. I've been pretend strapper more times than I can recall. What struck me was the state of the facilities for the horses themselves. Stable doors barely hanging on one hinge. Having to use horse leads to tie the stable door. Bedding that was a dry powder of sawdust that hadn't been changed in 20 years. Hoses that didn't work or when they did disconnected and sprayed you with water. Yard water feeders that hadn't been checked or cleaned in years and often didn't work. Poorly designed yards that were a danger to horse and worker. What was even more unbelievable was that the major premier tracks were the worst! No lights and no security. The best was Ellerslie but only if you were a day tripper certainly not if you were travelling and expected to stay a couple of nights. Then there are the tracks! We lost our way the moment we forgot what we were about - horse racing. That is where we need to return our attention and forget about getting thousands flocking to a race course. Start from the beginning again. Quality racing on quality surfaces will attract punters which results in higher stakes leading to higher quality horses being retained leading to increased public interest. We have had the cart before the horse for too long. The only thing that differentiates us from the rest of the entertainment and hospitality industry is our racing. Do we really want to get more into that competitive industry where more businesses go bust each year than we have tracks (or even horses!)? What's the bet we will see Cambridge pitching up soon for industry money to build a new stand and restaurant at their AWT?!

You are missing the point. If a rule isn't workable i.e. cannot be enforced correctly or consistently (sure raceday Stewards and the JCA might be dumb which doesn't help) then it is a bad rule. It needs to change. What is the objective of the whip rule? To supposedly benefit animal welfare however there is no evidence that one whip or three with or without wrist action affects the animal's welfare. So the rule objective is to appease an apparent want from a section of society who view racing as abhorrent. Now whatever rule you have wont appease that want however because the rule is a badly constructed rule it actually achieves nothing other than bring attention to racing!!! If you have any friends in the RIU or the JCA then lobby them to fix the dumb rules!!!!

@Horace don't you think that dumb rules that are hard to police consistently provide more ammunition?

I'm sure most of the people at SAFE understand excessive wrist action.

I didn't realise they watch the races and read the JCA reports. Do you email them?

Well the rest of NZ Racing has been subsidising them for decades. Time to reverse the flow?

Race day horse positives? Or workplace testing?

Well there is no testing evidence to suggest that there is a doping issue.

Having a spell before starting its Cup build-up.

Did CJ "belt the shit out of his horse"? His case wasn't about the number of strikes but his wrist action. Daft rule too that you have to keep both hands on the reins at all times.

Easy to forensically test still.

Yeah right and then change how the reins are used and then ban the bit then the cropper then putting nails in their hooves then freeze branding blah blah blah.

It's not tiddlywinks.

Ditto. What I was inferring is that she wasn't pleading guilty to drugging the dog but presenting a dog to race that had ingested a prohibited substance. Any criminal charge will be focussed on finding who drugged the dog. Which at the end of the day will probably be the end result I.e. the same as the RIU investigation. Zip Nada. The dog could have even been nobbled somewhere between Foxton and Christchurch. Was it the only dog being shipped? If there was another dog was it tested? I'm picking that all that will happen is more opportunity for SAFE to grandstand.

What's the point of having 6 balloted out horses? Are they expecting scratchings if there is a change in track conditions? What impact does that have on Fixed Odds?

She took a publicly announced break. So no need to ask her. Precisely. Now we are getting somewhere at last. So you cannot say that the Purdon/Cullen stable is doing worse than a couple of seasons ago by measuring UDR alone unless you adjust for a number of factors. If you do that you will find that my assertion that they aren't doing worse than a couple of seasons or indeed their average season would hold up.

Which is what I've been saying from the beginning. It would be helpful if we could see the business cases that were done that show's nirvana is sustainable. All I see is the introduction of a much higher cost model of operation without a corresponding uplift in revenue. Which may possibly be one of the reasons Racing Victoria has limited AWT's racing tracks to two for the entire State. Strangely we think we are smarter and have three for a population that same size as Melbourne!

Turnwald voluntarily was tested for methamphetamine and negative results were returned. The RIU did do a thorough investigation including visiting the training property. All that aside if animal welfare criminal charges are laid who would they be laid against? They can only be laid against the person who gave the Greyhound the drug. From the evidence provided and agreed by the RIU/JCA it couldn't have been Turnwald. Tunwald pleaded guilty and didn't mount a defence after it was clearly established that the dog ingested the drug before the race not after or by environmental contamination. Under the JCA system you don't really have much choice unless you want to spend thousands of dollars defending yourself. It becomes a war of attrition and the RIU/JCA have endless buckets of industry dosh to play with. In any event it was clear that the dog presented to race after having ingested a prohibited substance. As the trainer of the dog the bucks stops with you. However that guilty plea doesn't reach the threshold for a criminal charge under the Animal Welfare Act. Now a full blown Police investigation may find who did give the drug to the dog. Ironically if they do it will exonerate Turnwald unless they can find evidence that she knew about it before hand. All in all it will be a difficult investigation and MPI alone don't have the skills or the resources to do it - they would have less than the RIU! SAFE have one objective and that is to end all forms of racing. Laying a complaint to MPI gives the case more oxygen, feeds the rabid journo's (who don't know what they are talking about) and keeps a negative case in the public eye while a review is going on. A good chess move by SAFE. Sure you could argue that someone close to the industry provided the source material but don't be naive to think that SAFE won't play this for as long and as hard as they can. Of course we haven't seen the Industry Administrators go on the front foot over this pointing out that a positive such as this is very very rare especially when you consider the thousands of tests that are done each year.

Right so when they improve it is only because of the driver they use. Who happens to be the same driver that they have used in past seasons. What are the other tools?

Pitty is in dreamland thinking that nirvana is going to come to him.

A waste of tax payers money. If the RIU/JCA with a far lower burden of proof couldn't pin the administration of the methamphetamine on any one individual what chance has MPI? MPI is a Government Department of 3,000 highly paid (Average salary $120k) underachievers. Just ask any farmer in New Zealand!

Rule Number(s): 638(1)(d)JUDICIAL COMMITTEE RACEDAY DECISION Informant: Mr M Williamson, Stipendiary Steward Respondent: Mr C Johnson, Jockey (Class A) Information No: A14458 Meeting: Wanganui ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Rule Number(s): 638(1)(d)JUDICIAL COMMITTEE RACEDAY DECISION Informant: Mr M Williamson, Stipendiary Steward Respondent: Mr R Elliot, Jockey (Class A) Information No: A14559 Meeting: ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article