Chief Stipe

You're kidding me? Where's JJ Flash - same old same old JJ.

Going to have to live with it at some stage. The Government and its cabal of rock star scientists are not being transparent and honest with us. Even if you could possibly vaccinate 100% of people given that the vaccine horse that we backed is only 63% effective it is no path to nirvana. If the only alternative is years of isolation and the restriction of civil liberties then that is the debate we should be having.

Did you go to the same literary school as Thomarse?

I dont believe we are being complacent no more than any horse trainer is with regard to viral infection. If the opposite to complacency means living in fear and forgoing liberty then I'm all for complacency. I assume you are talking about Covid-19. If you are then what is the point of quarantine and isolating our country if we have to live in fear within it? At the very best it is an admission by the Government that they can't manage quarantine except to double down on it. I read an interesting research paper yesterday that found the majority of health workers that were infected with Covid-19 were infected by the process of removing their own masks. If trained professionals whose training has a key emphasis on the prevention of cross contamination and infection mishandle the removal of their masks surely enforcing the general public to wear them only makes it worse.

So complacency is OK then?

There oft nothing more stranger than the truth. If you are not providing supplementary cobalt to your livestock particularly on deficient soils then arguably you are not doing the best for your livestock. Hell 50 years ago in primary school I was taught about Cobalt deficiency on volcanic soils.

When you consider that 90% of horses bleed at some stage then it is inevitable that there will be more examples. The only time it needs to be reported is if it originates from the lungs and displays in the nostrils! The Catalyst explanation is entirely plausible.

Well therein lies the problem. What the hell do the Stipes do? The lack of information being published only leads to scuttlebutt, innuendo and conspiracy. Can someone tell me what the hell Goober Godber actually do?

Just checked the Stewards report - didn't you do that Galah? Yes there was blood in Avantage's nostril but it wasn't from its lungs. AVANTAGE (O Bosson) - Post-race the mare was found to have a small amount of blood in the left nostril due to a minor laceration in the nostril. No doubt the conspiracists will keep on with another interpretation!

I don't get the raceform magazine!

Are you talking about Strangles? Island there another outbreak in Canterbury?

Come on Galah do you really think that would be the case?

Rule Number(s): 869(2)and Whip & Rein RegulationsSubsequent to the running of Race 2, Mr Mulcay submitted an Information in which he alleged Open Driver, Mr K Marshall 'was in breach of Rule 869(2) when using his whip with more than a wrist flicking motion in the run home'. Mr Marshall was present at the hearing and acknowledged that: (a) He understood ... (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

I did not find it totally implausible. As someone from a farming background and horse training experience I could not find any reason to discount that defence.

When was the last time that you can remember the 4th Estate reporting the facts?

Wouldn't surprise me if he hasn't been at some stage. Seen pics on their social media pages with some of their most valuable horses in a 26 acre paddock with steers. Of course a valuable colt might be a different story. But not unheard of for these properties to share paddocks with bloodstock and dry stock. Perhaps not at the same time.

Has anyone answered my question about how many test positives Te Akau have had. I'm thinking only this latest one but as soon as I say that someone will do some digging. That's 1 in about 35+ years! Makes those Ozzie trainers look like bread thieves! Woops they are!

Give David Ellis a call. He is a fine judge of beef livestock afterall that's where he first made his money.

Exactly. Those stories are always doing the rounds particularly when one stable is doing better than others.

Why does it have to be internal staff? Just count all the individuals involved in getting a horse to the races particularly if you are a small stable or even a big stable that uses a horse transporting company.

"Everybody would want them to fail." Didn't happen with the O'Sullivan stable did it? The fact is in this case it would be impossible to prove that they had "cheated" even if they had. The horse has recorded a positive. That in itself isn't sufficient evidence to prove anything other than there was morphine in the horse's system. Hardly performance enhancing is it? Morphine isn't a "Go Fast" drug. As I posted earlier - how many positive tests has Te Akau returned over the years?

But that is the process working. As far as I'm concerned pre-race testing as you describe it with the scratching of horses pre-race would not add any more value except a lot more cost, evidential issues and the potential for injustice. You would be putting a testing regime unnecessarily under pressure to achieve nothing more than what you achieve through the swabbing process.

That would be an exaggeration!

Pre-race testing is limited in its application. As I said it opens up all sorts of problematic issues and makes things more complex. Be careful what you wish for.

I know you do! I can't fund them myself and I don't have any contacts in the industry. However BOAY can provide some value in return to anyway interested in advertising or promotion.