Chief Stipe

Another point I was making Gammalite is there doesn't have to be special entertainment for kids. It is about interacting with them when you are there. I hate it when I hear "Oh a racecourse is no place for a kid!" Why not? Sure there are people drinking, gambling and sometimes misbehaving but they are safe places. Generally safer than many City malls. When my daughter and I went on our annual holiday together it was often the only holiday I had as well. Did I stop going somewhere to have a cold beer? Course not. Did I leave her sitting in the car with a can of coke, a packet of chips and an iPad? Course not. I took her with me. She'd have an orange juice and a packet of chips and Dad had a couple of beers and we would have a bit of a yarn. We'd occasionally meet people and I taught her to introduce herself, to converse properly and to be polite i.e. learn how to socialise correctly. Yes occasionally there might be something that was a bit off. But I'd explain that to her. Quite frankly Thomas's view pisses me off. All he does is unjustifiably reinforce the view that a racecourse isn't a place to take a child. Hell if my daughter had heard the BGP chanting she would have laughed. She wouldn't have thought about any hidden meaning or innuendo which seems to be fixated in Thomas's mind. Cancel culture - I hate it. Making rules and regulations and supposedly protecting our children from dangers only makes them more vulnerable and confused. FFS now they have to worry about whether they identify themselves as man, woman, gender neutral, binary and so on! LOL I remember when I took her (age 11) down to the local at St Heliers one holiday. Pitched up to the locals table - truly representative of the St Heliers community - white, male, rich. She'd already met a few of them and she was made welcome. The boys gave her a seat. Anyway the "new All Black anthem" screened on TV - all in Maori. Well there was a varied opinion about that I can tell you. It set one guy right off. Ranting, raving, swearing - a real performance getting more and more wound up. Anyway with perfect timing my daughter chipped in "Jimmy you really aren't showing the aroha there are you?" Stopped him dead in his tracks - speechless with a slowly emerging grin. I was gobsmacked and proud. The rest were cracking up - here was this young lady very politely putting Jimmy in his place when they were about to tell him to STFU!

Didn't worry many of the horses of yesteryear.

Our handicapping system has been absolutely screwed. The 2kg female allowance doesn't help nor does it achieve what it was brought in for. It is easy to focus on one stable and one Jockey as a means to vent our frustrations. But they are only symptoms - the issues are more fundamental than that.

I actually disagree that there isn't a lot for kids at the races. When I was racing a horse I always took my daughter to the races from the age of 3 to about 5. She loved it until the other parent found out and started pushing a perception of the races that quite frankly doesn't exist. Unless you go find it. Let's face it you can find that anywhere including a Rugby match. That was about 11 years ago. I made the race day a learning and fun experience. The mandatory hot dog and chips and orange juice. Dad a pie and a beer Patting Dad's horse. Don't tell anyone but I used to put her bets on for her. Age 3 she was able to read the race book, understand weights, read the odds off the TV screens and put a dollar each way on a horse she liked the colour of or that looked "cute". As she got older I taught her more complicated mathematics like factorials (boxed trifectas) and how to read form. Even then there were groups like the BGP on course. Awapuni University day for one. She observed and thought they were funny. I pointed out examples of how to behave and how not to behave and the dangers of certain behaviours and what caused them. I guess a snapshot of life which she would encounter but alongside her best mate her Dad. My horse raced at Ellerslie on Derby Day and I took her with me. We lived near Wellington at the time and were on a tiki tour of the North Island. She was the best dressed child on course - her and I shopped for her outfit and accessories. We were in the members stand. Do you know what? Of all the race day experiences her and I enjoyed that was the one that I felt the most uncomfortable about. There were more frowns and look down the nose looks than we had experienced before. Ended up going to the Public stand.

A classic example Gammalite. Yep all a bit of fun.

What's your real issue? You don't bang on like this on your Twitter account. I note on that account you actually write "normally" without the hyperbole and BS. I guess that is because it would detract from your claim on Twitter that you are: NZ's most prolific tipster of winning Thoroughbreds...at VALUE

Do some bloody homework for a change. In the list there is more than one recidivist offender. Hell the list would get a lot longer if you went back to March 2018. Why don't you post this crap on your Twitter account?

The human race is getting bigger. I'm picking the last time you were 48kg's naked and dripping wet was your first day at kindergarten.

In the list I posted above there is more than one recidivist offender. As for Australia - I suggest you do some more fact checking. There are exceptions made every week over there in all of the States. Which is not surprising when you consider that they have a wider effective range of weights.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your story. The only horse they had in for the day was Quattro Quinta! Of course nothing to do with his family.

Dunedin aka Forbury aka ....... is NOT censored. He is moderated i.e. his posts are checked first before being published. I think that many people would agree that some of his posts are way over the top.

Actually why shouldn't all these Jockey's give the game away. All have had weight related issues in the last 12 months. Opie Bosson Hazel Schofer Leith Innes Troy Harris K Chowdhoory B Lammas M Hashizume D Turner Cameron Lammas Ryan Elliot J Lowry K Asano A Calder N Downs Z Moki

Rule Number(s): 869(2) Whip RegsMr Munro alleged that Mr Kyle (MAN I’M GOOD) struck his horse free of the rein. Miss Haley demonstrated on the video that Mr Kyle, who was on the rails, used his whip with one hand free of the reins. Mr Munro commented that Mr Kyle had crossed his hands and had used the whip free of the rein on two occasions. . (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Rule Number(s): 870(4) 1003(2) Breaking Horse RegulationsMr Munro sought the disqualification of horse 6, IN SEQUENCE, placed 4th by the Judge as it galloped in excess of 50 metres in the final 200 metres. Judge's placings were: 1st 8 SMOKIN BANDAR 2nd 10 AFTERBURNER 3rd 1 HORSE OF COURSE 4th 6 IN SEQUENCE 5th 9 SPOTLIGHT THE VALLEY (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Rule Number(s): 869(2) Whip RegsMr Munro alleged that Mr Ferguson (R K FINN) used his whip in more than a wrist flicking motion in the home straight. Miss Haley demonstrated on the video that Mr Ferguson, who was taking a passing lane run, used his whip with more than just a wrist action. Mr Munro commented the whip was raised too . (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Rule Number(s): 869(4)(6)(b),(c) pushoutMr Munro alleged that Mr T Larsen (SASSY’S VC) shifted outwards passing the 1250 metres forcing the outside runner LA ROCCA (Mr A Milne) wider on the track. Miss Haley demonstrated on the videos that Mr Larsen was racing 4 back on the rails when he shifted out. In so doing, he pushed Mr Milne from 2 . (Feed generated with FetchRSS)View the full article

Should Hazel Schofer give up now?

You should know by now that Thomas writes pure fiction. Not only that but he wasn't even at the Karaka Millions race meeting.

Why don't you post this sort of stuff on your popular Twitter account?

SAUNDRY STAYING PUT I wrote late last year that highly regarded New Zealand Racing boss and former CEO of Racing Victoria, Bernard Saundry was being hunted to make a return to Melbourne. The mail was right but the Chairman of Racing New Zealand and CEO of the Warriors Cameron George wasn’t having a bar of it. “As soon as I read your column I rang Bernard immediately. He wouldn’t confirm whether he was approached or not about heading back to OZ but he assured me he was staying put in NZ. He has done a great job in New Zealand and there is still work to be done,” George told me. Saundry’s knockback certainly allowed one executive to sleep better and enjoy the Christmas break.

You have no evidence that the Stewards allowed Bosson to Weigh Out overweight. There would have been a declaration if they had. I say again do the sums and allow for the 1kg vest allowance AND the less than 500gm overweight tolerance.

The permission sought was presumably as per the RIU condition NOT permission to ride overweight. Why wasn't Bosson told he couldn't ride because he was over and the trainer advised when he weighed in? Then permission would have had to be applied for to ride over weight. It appears neither happened. The fact is the JCA report is ambiguous. If you do the calculations I did then you get a clearer explanation of what happened. Briefly: Bosson weighed out less than 500gms over. That is allowed. Bosson weighed in heavier on return by 800gms. That is 300gms more than when he weighed out. That isn't allowed and he was fined. The NZTR site still says carried 56.5kg which is what he weighed out at albeit less than 500gms over. I don't see any conspiracy here.

Why is it Jamie Richard's responsibility to tell the RIU? Doesn't the responsibility clearly lie with Bosson? It isn't clear "what is going on here" perhaps you should state what "it" clearly is.

Where in this case were there different rules that are not applied to others? The minimum recommended penalty is a $200 fine. In this case the fine was $1,000.

You are missing my point Freda. The JCA report states that he Weighed Out at 57.9kg. Now the only way you can get to 56.5kg's which was the allocated weight of Quattro Quinta is to subtract the 1kg vest allowance AND allow for an amount LESS than 500gms which is allowed to be over. I assumed 400gms. Which takes it to 56.9kg's. So Opie weighed in 800gms over. The JCA report records the Weight as 58.7kg. Subtract 1kg vest = 57.7kg. Subtract the earlier 400gms allowed and you get 57.3kg. So we have a 400gm difference. 1ml = 1gm. 1 litre = 1 kilogram. 400gm = 400ml's. One cup of water is 250mls = 250gms. Now he may have had 3 cups of water and didn't sweat them all out! At no stage did Opie say he had "some sips of water" - what he did say is the following: Mr Bosson for his part said that he did not change any gear but that he had drunk too much water after weighing out.