Happy Sunrise

Agreed. Do you agree the TAB have no balls and they are not real bookies as they do not back their judgment on horses and entice people in due to their thriftiness?

training bills and a blood transfusion........winners check gone in an instant then!

Everybody loves a bolter.

They are generally rubbish. If you look at the FF Racing Beta odds, there are horses whose odds go out after opening for no reason at all. It is just because they are so tight that no one will bet on them. Then it is like they try to entice you by lengthening them a little. For example, look at race 1 at Timaru today, 8 horses have lengthened for no reason at all as no horse has moved in on FF. 4 horses are shown in green as drifting and the other 4 are not. Mr Midnight is favourite at 2 90FF?? What is the logic by the TAB? I think they are just scared and then lengthen once they know they are not going to get hit. It makes no sense at all to bet early unless you are 100% sure you are onto something.

After Colin Harrison's double at Addington, I think it might be another smaller trainer's turn to do well tomorrow. Chris McDowell's two, Rainy River (EW) and Shardan Suzie (Place) could be bolters. Also, like Zippity Doodah in race 4, who is in a mobile which will help it no end.

Better than having no thread at all or having threads about the same things over and over and over again ?

See that on trackside. Is it designed to keep the owners safe from the horse??

But the reply disagrees. The vets disagree with you. And George Bush claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction..... Again, the reply states they have checked it all out.

A very good reply. So there is nothing in it. Just one follow question that somebody might be able to answer. If it is primarily therapeutic then why bother requesting a ban of at least one day before. What difference would it make?

Nothing like tipping 2 horses and both get parked the journey lol ?

The TAB was on the money with this one.

I have heard that bandied about before but weren't sure if it was true. I wouldn't be happy if I was an owner and my horse's odds were shortened because of a contact within the stable. What happens if Beaudiene Emerald wins tonight? What will the TAB do if they have been led astray by a contact? Would the TAB lead punters into Command Lustre as a bit of a con job so they rake in the money through multis etc? The economic and ethical permutations are pretty interesting.

Interesting betting scenario at Forbury tonight. Graeme Anderson has taken in 2 horses from outside stables and they are starting in the same race. Drawn side by side. His magical touch normally works in an instant but with 2 in, how would the TAB know who is better? The odds are so clear-cut in favour of Command Lustre. $1.65FF, Why? Is it simply because he has taken over the training of Command Lustre but only taken in Beaudiene Emerald for a short time? Simply the Dexter factor?

Putting my balls on the line is easier this week as I was castrated by my own tips last week so have nothing to lose. Aveross Ferrari at 7s FF in Race 4 and El Capitan in Race 8 at 3 60FF place. I am looking forward to Timaru more?

Who was it?

All the talk in the other thread about the weight of drivers could all be correct but it appears the truth is in the dust sheet...take that off and you will win ? Tussle, what a great little trotter and here is a story about her and a dustsheet. Some other great trotting names in this story too. 1986 TAUBMANS DOMINION TROTTING HANDICAP The theory of wind resistance played an important part in Tussle's courageous Dominion Handicap win. Moments before "Shorty" moved away from the shelter of the birdcage and into the uncompromising 14 knot easterly on the track, her owner-trainer Dr Cliff Irvine untied the dust sheet on the sulky and tucked it under his arm. Irvine successfully tried the tactic at Addington 25 years ago when Light Mood took third in the President's Hadicap at long odds. "It was blowing a gale that day, and Doug Watts said to me in the birdcage 'why don't you pull the mud sheet off?'," Irvine recalled. The 65-year-old Lincoln College veterinary professor "hasn't had occasion" to use the ploy in the last quarter of a century, but after consulting Tussle's driver Peter Jones, and his old cobber Derek Jones, he had no hesitation. "Derek told me he had done it when Soangetaha won one of his Auckland Cups, and Peter said he didn't mind getting gravel in his face, so we took it off as quickly as we could in the birdcage. On a very windy day it acts like a sail and it would have a retarding effect - it is tough enough for her with Peter in the cart, being a little horse, let alone having a spinnaker out there." And Irvine's snap decision was vindicated when Tussle, after her familiar beginning to land in fourth place, was left straining into the wind with still 1800 of the 3200m heartbreaker left. By then comeback hero and 1984 Dominion winner Basil Dean had his rivals struggling to stay in touch with his eager front-running, which reminded some of his awesome 2600m world record two years ago. "When he was attacked by Admiral Soanai down the back he got fired up and on the bit, so I thought it best to let him bowl along," driver Kerry O'Reilly said. "I could see Basil Dean was serious," Jones said, "and she's just as good parked as anywhere else in the field...but she was struggling to keep up with him." Sally Marks, Tussle's faithful companion and strapper, watched dejectedly as the pack bounced down the stretch with a lap to travel. "She's hanging badly - I think she's had enough," Marks said, pulling in another lungful of Pall Mall and walking aimlessly towards the outside rail. Tussle did look beaten as the 800m peg came and went, her trotting action unusually scratchy and her head bobbing from side to side. With a fierce tail wind down the back straight for the final time, Basil Dean punched three lengths clear and the murmurings of the crowd sensed an emotional upset. "But he wasn't quite up to it," O'Reilly said. "I knew half-way down the back he was struggling. He's still got the speed, and he's sound, but he didn't quite have the race fitness." Basil Dean's ground-devouring stride began to shorten on the last bend, and tiny Tussle quickly gathered him in and scooted two lengths ahead. And as first the sturdy warrior Jenner, who had followed Tussle throughout, and handsome favourite Melvander (who had tracked Jenner) balanced themselves before attacking, she lowered her head, flattened her ears and cut through the wind to the post. With 100m left, both Jenner and Melvander seemed poised to gun down 'Shorty', but with her new found strength this season she determinedly held the pair out to score by a long neck. Veteran Christchurch horseman Jack Carmichael could not quite cap his successful Cup carnival, settling for second and $20,000 with Jenner. "I thought half-way down the straight he might get to her, but she was just too good," he said. Melvander finished a further long neck behind after almost exploding into a gallop 50m off the line. "I was smiling around the corner, but then he started to trot roughly and I had to take hold of him," driver Jack Smolenski said. South Auckland mare Landora's Pride rattled into fourth ahead of Simon Katz, while the others struggled home victims of a punishing last 2400m of around 3.04. "She simply outstayed them all," Jones said of Tussle later. "She can really fight them off now, and had them covered all the way down the straight." When asked if he considered removing Tussle's dust sheet made the vital difference between winning and losing, he replied: "It was blowing quite hard and I suppose it's got to make a difference. She was battling into the wind from the 1800m, she had the worst run of all the horses that figured in the finish, but she kept going right to the line." Irvine described Tussle's Dominion Handicap win as one of her two greatest performances, the other being her dazzling 2:31.9 national record for a flying 2000m which she set fresh-up in September. "She always surprises me how well she goes and how she keeps on improving, even this year as a ten-year-old," he said. There are few mountains now left for the champion daughter of Tuft to climb. She has captured the two most prized trotting crowns in New Zealand: the Dominion Handicap and the Rowe Cup (1985). Her 3200m time, despite the ravaging gale, was 4:13.81, which lowered Indette's national record for a trotting mare. And the $65,000 winner's cheque bumped Tussle's earnings to $268,055 in New Zealand, making her the greatest stakewinning trotter in history. Credit: Matt Conway writing in HR Weekly

Il Campione won 9 and Kay n Kayes won 8 for O'Brien awhile back but no group one races obviously. I presume they were training up that way at the time?

I hope you are not suggesting Globe takes his horse to Equine Blood Solutions a week out from Cup Day? ? I think it will be cheaper if Globe just keeps having his beer transfusions on race day....

Doesn't matter punter, just ignore the troll.

And this from Blenheim. You would think a small body like the RIU would have consistent language. It is all semantics and nothing to do with what is actually happening on the track but it is very hard to apply a rule that seems fair to all with something like this.

7 of the 12 winners were NZ bred, including Seel the Deal, Beyondthesilence and Pacing Major.

His horses always seemed to be good. Cameron and Kerslake too.

I imagine Kakama had a $1000 multi of Madeleine Stowe for the win and Black Art the place.... He is off out for dinner. ??

When I say just as important I mean they contribute to the whole product of harness racing. If those 14 trainers disappeared, and the others on the coast, then maybe the trots in Nelson and Marlborough and the lower North Island would disappear. Then the small pond would get even smaller. Obviously, the 'big guns' do contribute more. I just like to see the littler players be recognized for what they contribute. As for the abuse of the 'Gill' contribution that is plain rude. I also can't take anything in Oldwhiteman's post seriously when it refers to the big guns as being the 'All-Stars' A troll is a troll is a troll.

Please post your wisdom and knowledge more often, Ashoka. It is great stuff.