OLDWHITEMAN

I am disappointed in your HP. We know that Noodlum is a yellow-bellied stirrer but I did not expect you to stoop as low as him. I did not say Matt should be gone for 10 years. You and your loudmouth mate Noodlum have yet to show where I said that. And the reason you cannot is because I did NOT say it. Get your facts right!

I repeat quote where I said "10 years" you tosser. Your comprehension skills are zero, stirring 100%. I agreed with Honest John that his sentence was light. I never said anything about 10 years. Get your facts right you lily-livered cretin!

Whoa... hold the horses. You are talking bullshit, again. Where did I ever say he should have "got 10 years"? Don't put words in my mouth or accuse me of things I have not done or said.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/122166943/champ-to-cheat--the-fall-of-trainer-nigel-mcgrath Some interesting comments in this story, particularly from Ms Smolenski. Unfortunately, this is more bad publicity for harness racing. The industry is already struggling and stories like this will not help the industry to survive.

Six months is not long to be on the sidelines my old mate. Mr Anderson is young and he has time to rebuild his promising career. He has made some bad choices, like most of us do when young, but he can put this incident behind him and be successful again.

I expect the All Stars to dominate even more my old mate. I think the lockdown did Purdon/Rasmussen a favour. The horses out for a spell, rejuvenation for both horses and stable personnel. Horses then bought back in and prepared in a more leisurely fashion than usual? Also with no racing it would give them more time for hands on training with those horses with issues. The All Stars will clean-up in the new season.

My understanding is he was charged because he supplied the drug to others. In other words he was dealing. That is a different issue than using it for personal use. Mr Anderson may have been a user too, but that was not why he was charged.

Agree, Honest John. I think he got off lightly. We have all made mistakes when young like Mr Anderson so hopefully he will have time to reflect while on the sidelines and put the past behind him. Do the crime, do the time and come back and resume his career.

Too right HP. Miss S. Tomlinson and Miss S. O'Reilly are the best junior drivers in the country presently. As good as they are if they are driving a slow or weak horse there is not much they can do.

Cut and paste is easy Happy. Reading it is not so easy... ?

Thanks Greg, a sensible answer at last. What will Mr McGrath do now? I guess he is in luck because the Communists are promising to retrain people for free. Perhaps, Mr McGrath could retrain as a pharmacist? He has allegedly had experience with drugs so this will give him a head start on others looking to pharmacy as a career. ?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/122053331/harness-trainer-nigel-mcgrath-banned-for-eight-years-over-horse-tubing-and-obstructing-racecourse-inspectors Nigel McGrath gets an eight-year ban. Is this sentence too harsh? Or lenient?

On the money, mate! Why were New Zealanders not marching in the street about the pakeha cop who was shot down in the street like a dog? Where were the protesters when another New Zealand toddler was bashed to death two weeks ago? Marches held in places other the U.S. are copycats, sheep. The whole movement is driven by social media, most of it is full of untruths, stories edited to suit a narrow agenda. Unfortunately, today most believe everything they see on social media and on the television news (mostly fake). It is good to see that you can think for yourself my old mate.

On the money, mate. Sack him.

Is that your Mr Lamb? Surely, you are taking the piss mate? Lamb doing a good job? Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I have watched harness racing at Addington for 50 years and Lamb is the worst starter I have seen. How this guy still has a job is beyond me. He is incompetent. The number of poor starts he has been involved in must be in the hundreds yet he is still there. I am baffled to why Lamb still has a job. He has stuffed up so many starts, including New Zealand's premier harness race the NZ Trotting Cup, countless times but nothing said. Lamb does a piss poor job. Blind Freddy can see that, Stevie Wonder too. Sack him!

On the money as usual my old mate. I back my old mate Gotta Ticket but was unsure whether he was in the money or not because of screen obscured. Regardless good training from M. Gill to have horse ready considering.

Because Winston Peters racing industry backers are from the thoroughbred industry. Winston looks after his cronies. Harness racing is irrelevant to him.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/racing/300036885/prominent-harness-racing-trainer-nigel-mcgrath-admits-charges-but-denies-tubing-allegation McGrath has a long history of performance enhancing incidents. I think he should be banned from harness for good. Some will say that is too harsh but how many chances does McGrath deserve? Prominent harness racing trainer Nigel McGrath admits charges but denies 'tubing' allegation Mat Kermeen07:36, Jun 18 2020 JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Nigel McGrath has pleaded guilty to three racing charges but denies an allegation that could see him banned for a decade. A high profile harness racing trainer has admitted three racing charges following a dramatic raid of his property, but claims he is innocent of an allegation that could see him banned for a decade. Canterbury-based Nigel McGrath has pleaded guilty to attempting to administer a prohibited substance on a raceday, refusing to supply information to a racecourse inspector and obstructing a racecourse inspector during an investigation. The dispute of facts and crux of the case surrounds the substance of what was or was about to be administered to the horse when the raid was undertaken on March 13 this year. McGrath has admitted breaking racing's "one clear day" rule - a charge of orally administering a horse with a legal substance (Air Support, a herbal product intended to aid a horse's respiratory function) within 24 hours of a race. But he has denied a more serious allegation of "tubing" a horse to administer sodium bicarbonate (regarded as a performance enhancing substance), laid by the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU). Tubing is a practice where a tube is inserted through a horse's nose into its oesophagus to administer a liquid substance. ADVERTISEMENT The RIU's case centres on a confronting video of the raid, taken by its investigators, that was played at a hearing at Addington raceway. JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Racing Integrity Unit investigators staked out Nigel McGrath's property. Defence counsel Pip Hall, QC, argued for a monetary fine for the three charges McGrath has admitted to, while the RIU has sought a 10-year disqualification. McGrath's fate will be decided by a Judicial Control Authority (JCA) committee of Jane Lovell-Smith (chair) and Tangi Utikere in the coming weeks. "I ask for a further chance to prove I'm not a cheat as I've been portrayed," McGrath said when giving evidence. The hearing was told that RIU investigators, acting on an anonymous tip-off that McGrath was tubing horses with sodium bicarbonate shortly before taking them to the races, staked out a shed away from the main stabling area at his property near Rolleston. Three RIU investigators then confronted a startled McGrath and an associate Robert Burrows with a horse McGrath confirmed to be Steel The Show, who was due to race at Addington just three hours later. STUFF Nigel McGrath is a highly successful harness racing trainer. The investigators took possession of a backpack that contained tubing gear, a bag McGrath described as private as he repeatedly asked for it to be returned before snatching it back. No sodium bicarbonate was found, but RIU counsel Brian Dickey claimed investigators had caught McGrath "red-handed". No Air Support was found either, but McGrath claims he found the empty bottle of Air Support and the equipment used to administer it after investigators left his property. Dickey said it was "bordering on a fairytale" to suggest the items were present during the raid but not found by or drawn to the attention of the RIU investigators. McGrath said he didn't do that because he was in shock. RIU investigators said McGrath's demeanour was "aggressive and obstructive". He refused to answer questions. IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Nigel McGrath told the hearing he was extremely remorseful but not strongly denied the 'tubing' allegation. He was told not to make it worse during the raid. He appeared to answer, "it can't get any worse". McGrath agreed he was obstructive but denied he was abusive or aggressive. At the hearing, McGrath claimed he couldn't handle the raid that came on the back of the worst two years of his life following Operation Inca, a National Organised Crime Group investigation that was centred around allegations of race-fixing. He said he was overwhelmed and in shock. "It was like the world was caving in," McGrath told the hearing. Dickey put it to McGrath that the shock was because he had been caught as he was about to tube the horse, but McGrath said being caught breaking the one-clear-day rule was bad enough. He pointed out he invited investigators to "come back later" and initiated contact with the RIU the following day. He claimed he snatched the bag from the investigators because he didn't want the tubing gear tested; it would have shown traces of substances used lawfully in the weeks prior. McGrath says he made a stupid and spontaneous error of judgement to administer Air Support orally and did not plan to tube the horse. He claims he instructed Burrows to fetch the Air Support, and Burrows fetched the backpack because the Air Support was in it. When Burrows was interviewed during the raid, he told investigators he and McGrath were giving the horse "Air Supply". Hall said the RIU's claims the horse was about to be tubed were nothing more than "guesswork and speculation". Andrew Grierson, the veterinary advisor to the RIU, gave evidence that there was no way to know for sure what substance had been or was about to be administered without a sample. Hall claimed the prosecution had lost its sense of perspective when submitting for a 10-year disqualification. When giving evidence, McGrath said he was extremely remorseful. He strongly denied a claim from Dickey that he believed harness racing's rules didn't apply to him, having appeared before another JCA hearing two months earlier. McGrath was arrested on September 4, 2018 as part of the Operation Inca police raids, but his only charge was dropped in August 2019. The RIU subsequently laid a racing charge which saw him handed a six-month driving ban and ordered to pay costs of $11,500. McGrath has been barred from entering any racecourse since the March raid. He has also voluntarily handed in his trainer's licence and removed all racing horses from his property to show he was taking responsibility. But he intends to continue in the industry that he left school to join when he was just 15. Hall said it beggared belief McGrath and Burrows colluded to come up with a story of administering Air Support just in case they got caught. If Steel The Show had been impounded and swabbed by the RIU, the matter would have had a much simpler conclusion but the RIU did not proceed. McGrath said he was willing for the horse to be tested but Dickey argued that was a remarkable submission given he ordered the investigators off his property. McGrath claimed applying Air Support was not motivated by money, adding he would have only earned around $400 if Steel The Show had won that night and said the product helped boost recovery and was not performance-enhancing. Steal The Show and another McGrath trained horse Cloud Nine were scratched from their races on the night of the raid.

I listened too, mate. Hopeless. He said nothing, aimless waffle. No plan, no vision. Nothing will change with Mr Holden at the helm. You are on the money as usual! ?

Do Surf Life Savers operation in winter my old mate? Holden doesn't inspire much confidence. Freeloader?

Good idea mate. Many horses try to jump the crossing now so a hurdle won't make that much difference. ?

Let's hope that the club also fix the blatantly dangerous crossing that has been there for so long it is hard to fathom. Frankly, I am unsure how Motukarara was spared from closure, it is a terrible track.

Gerard and Sarah O'Reilly both driving well. O'Reilly team is on song. Be on.

Good riddance to him. He has been a stain on the industry for decades. I wonder what he is doing now?

I'll be on at his next start. Generally, when someone posts this sort of story the horse wins next start. I am not a great fan of the Lillee stable but I am sure they will get the horse going better soon. Kings Landing will win next start... be on!! ?