Basil

If it were my child, the bollocking he'd get from me would make the Press article look like a Nobel Peace Prize! What would you do Brodie?

But 'gutter journalism' is exactly what you're engaging in — by innuendo and nudge-wink accusations. You're also missing the point Brodie. At a time when racing is probably at its lowest ebb ever, and is hoping to get significant taxpayer support via Wobbly Winston, the very last thing it needs is to draw negative attention to itself with stories like this. Shooting the messenger doesn't change the facts. Rather than worrying about "a dedicated young persons career" who has nobody to blame but himself, you might want to think about all the other careers that are potentially adversely affected by his behaviour.

Precisely. He's got little future if he can't learn to control himself. Also, all this stuff about there "being a lot more" to this incident sounds like an attempt to shift blame onto Tomlinson and Purvis. If there is in fact "a lot more", then those saying so should either provide a few facts or shut up. At the moment, it has about as much credibility as the anonymous trainer claim that "the culture in harness racing with guys abusing girls is terrible". As for Ms Butt's gratuitous reference to a "so called reporter", this is just shooting the messenger. And quite wrong as well — Martin van Beynen is in fact a very good reporter (pretty much the only decent journalist left at The Press).

I'm pretty sceptical that anything useful or lasting will come out of Peters' grand pronouncements, particularly for harness. Now maybe I'm doing him and his promised Report a dis-service; maybe he'll come up with a brilliant plan that'll get people flocking back to racetracks and exponentially increasing betting turnover. Maybe. But I doubt it — Isis converting to pacifism is more likely! What we'll probably get is a subsidy here and a subsidy there (primarily for his galloping mates), combined with a one-off boost to stakes, which will have all the lasting effect of a can of coca-cola. And at the end of it, racing will be even less able to stand on its own two feet than before. Anyway, I hope I'm wrong. But I'm not setting myself up to be disappointed.?

No argument from me that gallops (indeed, racing in general) are "in the crapper".? But that doesn't justify the use of taxpayer money to prop them up. I have shares in several struggling companies at the moment, but I'd no more expect the taxpayer to bail them out than I would Brodie to become the next TAB CEO. Should the taxpayer have ridden to the rescue of other sunset industries such as video and record stores, or book retailers, or kodak film? If not, how is racing different? (other than that many in this forum have a vested interest in its survival) And if there's one thing we know for certain, in the same way that night follows day, it's that commercial industries that rely on taxpayer subsidies are doomed. Because sooner or later the subsidies get taken away.

"Peters said all three racing codes would be better off under his direction. 'I guarantee every code will be better off. It is not going to be difficult to do that.' " Winston seems to be getting his material from the Trump speechbook...? https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/racing/all-weather-track-south-island What I can't work out is why the galloping clubs can't fund their own all-weather tracks, just as the harness clubs did decades ago. The case for taxpayer intervention seems weak, to say the least. All-weather track for South Island By Jonny Turner Racing Minister Winston Peters speaks at a public meeting in Invercargill yesterday. Photo: Jonny Turner An all-weather racing track is set to be built in the South Island, Racing Minister Winston Peters told the southern racing industry in Invercargill last night. The three racing codes held a public meeting in Invercargill where Peters told the crowd its industry was ''terminal'' unless it was changed dramatically. Peters announced at the Karaka yearling sales in January that one all-weather track would be built in New Zealand. In Invercargill last night, he tripled that number. ''We know that we are going to have to have three all-weather tracks in this country,'' Peters said. ''There will be one probably around the Waikato, there will be one probably around Awapuni - I don't know where exactly - and one in the South Island. ''Likely to be near Christchurch. You can't muck around, you can't have 38, 46 events being cancelled and all the losses involved.'' Peters said the Government would not simply stump up the money to pay for all three tracks. ''This will be funded, I might add, by the provincial growth fund, but we want clubs to put their share up as well.'' Peters hit out at those in the racing industry opposed to all weather tracks. ''I'm reading people saying all-weather racetracks are nonsense. ''Well, leave your horse at home then, it will be for those that want to have the horses there.'' In his speech, Peters painted a bleak outlook for racing, should the industry not undergo drastic change. ''I believe racing is terminal unless something dramatic happens now. ''If we don't get this thing fixed up, then this thing will drastically decline. ''Racing is situation critical. It is possibly terminal in the provinces in this country.'' Peters pledged the racing industry would be better off once he was able to implement the recommendations of the John Messara report on the industry The report, which is due to be finished in the coming weeks, will be specifically focused on the thoroughbred industry. But Peters said all three racing codes would be better off under his direction. ''I guarantee every code will be better off. It is not going to be difficult to do that.'' Peters said the racing industry only had itself to blame for being in decline. ''The truth is that there has been a failure across the industry to face the raw bitter hard facts.'' Peters used the New South Wales racing industry, which was overhauled by Messara, as a beacon for success. ''They got John Messara in and he turned it upside down. ''Today they have announced that in New South Wales the total prize money from September this year will be $260million - that is against our under $60million.'' Peters confirmed there would be no chance that the Racing Amendment, known as the ''race fields legislation'', which seeks to tax overseas bookmakers for the use of New Zealand betting products, would be made law. Instead, he hinted at a total overhaul of that Bill. ''The state of the industry right now, and I am not even mentioning the trots or the dogs, you're $200 million in the crap already. ''Anything like the race fields legislation can't be the solution because not one person behind it had any idea what was going on in the racing industry.''

Unfortunately, I'm not quite old enough to remember seeing Tactile and Robin Dundee in the flesh (although I may well have done so). I was a great fan of Lunar Chance in 1975, but he was never really the same after a dismal trip to Auckland at the end of that year. My impression, although this is straining the memory banks, is that of those three horses, Robin Dundee was held in the highest regard round the Southland traps. Their respective records would tend to agree with that assessment. One would have to think that Robin Dundee has a strong claim to be 3rd-best-ever Southland-produced pacer, behind only the big two of Cardigan Bay and Young Quinn.

Yes, as an ex-Southlander myself, I can certainly appreciate the view that Young Quinn ranks among the very greatest pacers produced in NZ. And certainly the second-best 'internationally-performed' after Cardigan Bay. But, and this is only my opinion, I'd take issue with the claim that no pacer since "has come close". As far as their NZ/Oz racing performances are concerned, I'd say both Christian Cullen and Lazarus have surpassed him. Yes, Young Quinn was absolutely brilliant in 1975, but before that he'd had two goes at the NZ Cup and came up short both times. Of course, you might say that Laz had two goes at the MM and failed to deliver on both occasions. But, at least in my view, the NZ Cup ranks a bit higher than the MM. And YQ won his ID on home turf, whereas Laz won it in Perth — where YQ so badly failed in 1974. Then there's CC — with both a Cup and a MM as a 4yo, he could have been unambiguously the best-performed of the three of them, but injury cut short his only ID campaign. Anyway, all good fun, and there's no right or wrong answer. Only our personal prejudices...?

A psychology PhD thesis could probably be written on the things that attract us to particular horses for reasons beyond the punt. So who knows why, but first up for me was Noodlum. As probably the first of the 'super-juveniles', combined with the singular nature of the name, there's no doubt he had a following that went well beyond the racing world. Then there were a couple of trotters. First was the great Nigel Craig; the second the even-greater Scotch Tar. Having spent his first season or so as something of a rogue, Nigel Craig then adopted a very simple racing strategy: get to the front and stay there. Sometimes the sitters got him; more often they didn't. I was at Addington the night he became the first Australasian trotter to break 2 mins for the mile. Scotch Tar was the complete opposite to Nigel Craig, as he could win, and lose, a race from anywhere — the slightest thing would put him off. Plus he had a trainer/driver (Slim Dykman) who seemed almost as eccentric as the horse. But the combination of unpredictability and freakish performances had many of us looking to see if he was in the fields for the next meeting. Even now, 40-odd years later, I can remember half a dozen Scotch Tar efforts as though they were yesterday. I was overseas for most of the 80s, so nothing stands out from that time. But there were two who became great favourites in the 90s. One is obvious — Christian Cullen. He was like a new breed of horse, who just oozed charisma from every pore. Far more people knew of the rugby player he was named after, but great as the latter was I thought the horse was an even more unique athlete. The other from the 90s is largely forgotten now — New Age Man. I've never seen, before or since, a horse with a greater will to win (at least not until Lazarus came along). No matter how he got roughed up during a race, he always found a way to get to the line first (literally, since he won all 14 of his 14 starts). Then just as he was getting ready for open-class stardom, he suffered a career-ending injury — a kind of equine James Dean. Finally, I also had a soft spot for Eastburn Grant. Partly because of the circumstances in which I became aware of him — he was the winner of the very first race I ever saw on Trackside (Action TV as it then was). There I was, trying to tune this new-fangled channel in, when all of a sudden picture and sound appeared — a field of horses was going round the highway bend at Geraldine, and I heard the commentator (probably Reon) say "And Eastburn Grant is last". The next thing I knew, the very same Eastburn Grant went from last to first in the space of 150m, and then just kept on getting further in front. I remember thinking to myself at the time that you don't see speed like that in a maiden trot very often! Of course, despite having a rough gait and being plagued by unsoundness, he went on to become a superb trotter who won a Rowe Cup.

What's even sadder is that I suspect "all involved" aren't feeling a thing.

What part of "level footing" do you not understand Brodie? It's very simple: anybody who claims to be against the 10-strikes rule on the grounds of complexity but then doesn't support doing away with the whip altogether is either (i) insincere about wanting to get rid of the 10-strikes rule or (ii) believes hitting horses is a good thing. That's it, there are no other options — you can't have your cake and eat it too! QED.

The previous rule did not work at all fine — that's why it was changed. I agree with you that the new law is dumb — how many harness drivers can count to 10 under pressure anyway? — but the solution is not to go back to the old rule. Rather it's to get rid of the whip entirely. All horses would then be on an entirely level footing. Nothing could be simpler.

Yes Brodie, we know you like hitting horses — you've told us so many times! But I suggest you watch Exhibit A in the case against doing so: https://harness.hrnz.co.nz/gws/ws/r/infohorsews/wsd06x?Arg=hrnzg-Ptype&Arg=RaceVideo&Arg=hrnzg-RacehdrID&Arg=216475 The assaulted horse — Arden Rooney — never raced again after that week (little wonder). Kieran Manning should have been banned for life, at least from NZ, after that sorry performance. And if you think the "animal rights activists" don't care about whip use in racing, my advice would be to think again. They currently have bigger fish to fry, but that they'll eventually fix their beady eyes on racing is a racecourse certainty. And when that day comes, it would behove us not to give them easy targets.

I'm going to stick up for Oldwhiteman and say he has a point. A pedantic point, and a crudely-expressed one, but a point nevertheless (if one discards all the hyperbole). I'm sure even the Gills themselves would not claim they're as important to racing as "the big guns on cup day". Employing the same degree of 'lateral thinking', I'm going to nominate LYELL CREEK as the best horse to come out of the Marlborough/Nelson/Westland region — on the grounds that he qualified at the South Bay racecourse! And yes, I know Kaikoura is politically part of Canterbury, but it has long been, and was at the time of LC's qualification, part of Marlborough for rugby purposes, which is obviously far more important. ? If that doesn't get me a chocolate fish, then all I can say is that I also remember a couple of very good pacers in Bonnie Charlie and Lady Jess racing out of the Keith Powell stable.

Very doubtful, imho. In 21 years (and counting!) of having at least one child in the state education system, I've yet to meet one who's even vegetarian, never mind an animal welfare activist. Special arrangements for my vegan daughter have only ever been made very grudgingly. So hardly the PETA breeding ground you seem to be implying. As far as lefty-ism (and greeny-ism) is concerned, this has indeed been a bit more prevalent (although in my experience more common amongst male teachers than females). But even then, the kids are smart enough to see through it. Most that I know are, at heart, pretty materialistic, hedonistic, and sensible. They claim to dislike my Archie Bunker play-acting, but their actions say otherwise. Chlöe Swarbrick is the exception, not the rule. Anyway, back to racing. I love watching jumps racing. It interests me far more than flat gallops. I still cite the 2001 GN Steeple as one of the greatest races I've ever seen. But there's no doubt that, if fatalities are a measure of cruelty, it is a very cruel sport (citing numbers from a single, barely started, season fails Stat 101 I'm afraid). So I agree with Happy — the animal welfare activists are right to target it. Indeed, we should be pleased they're doing so, as it distracts them from other less-salubrious practices of racing in general. BTW, how did we get from 'The Peters Report' to here??

As many predicted at the time it was announced: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12070159 Jobs for the (galloping) boys...

Amen to that. Feeding the trolls by complaining on here just guarantees they'll keep trolling...

Very impressive indeed. Great shame he lost The Dorchester.

Nobody's mentioned Ultimate Machete. He'd be my long-range pick (which, given my track record, means he's essentially got no chance!)

On balance, I agree with Brodie on this one. Winning a fast mile at Menangle certainly requires some degree of staying ability, but it's a very different kind of staying ability to that required to win a fast 2 miles on Cup Day at Addington. Top horses are invariably good at both, but very few are equally adept at both. Lazarus and Black's A Fake would be good recent examples of those who excelled more at the longest distances, while Smoken Up and Christen Me probably had a slight preference for the shorter trips. In the specific case of Field Marshall, everything he's done to date would suggest he's more in the SU-CM camp than the L-BAF one. In a weak year, with the right run, he could win a NZ Cup. But if he struck horses like Lazarus and Smolda, he'd struggle.

It's actually very simple — the letter after the horse name indicates where the horse was bred. HR was bred in Oz, so he's 'HR A'. As for 'fairness', there are any number of US-based horses that previously raced in Oz using the N modifier because they were bred in NZ.

For horses, I'm not sure to be honest. For humans, 40 mins would definitely qualify under the recovery/maintenance heading. But doing that every day would, I'd have thought, be counter-productive. If the horse has had a really hard race, then 40 mins is likely to be too much. If instead the objective is to keep it sharp and race-fit between races, then 40 mins jogging won't do it.

Absolutely. But is it really true that some trainers do slow distance work with horses that are in race mode? Nothing much surprises me these days, but that certainly would! How and why they'd think that to be a good idea is a bit of a puzzler — all it'll succeed in doing is deaden the horses' legs.

Very true. But as Lydiard conclusively showed, you do need hours of 'jogging' before starting on reps and intervals. The key is to keep pushing the jogging pace up, as going at the same speed gets too easy as fitness improves. I imagine most of the aerobic training is done off-site and Purdon/Rasmussen only take a horse over when it's ready for fast work.

Here are the NI stable representations at Cambridge Jewels days: 2008 36.1% 2010 40.2% 2012 41.0% 2014 42.7% 2016 46.8% 2018 40.0% (assuming all emergencies are scratched) So actually the lowest NI turnout at Cambridge since 2008, which surprises me a bit too. Still, all the year-to-year variations are well within the margin of error and so probably just random variation.