With A Dream

I think you are right about that. If Avondale sold their land & Alex Park sold theirs they could jointly develop a racecourse. It halves the cost for each club & also saves on operating overheads such as rates, insurance, some staffing costs etc. Also it means the facilities get more use. The question is where to locate it. Ideally on the city limits where land is a bit cheaper but not too far away so people will still want to go there.

I hate having all weather tracks inside grass tracks, The horses are too far away from the public. I think there’s a lot of merit in that idea. Especially if they developed it in conjunction with Avondale as I think any green field development would quickly soak up the revenue from selling Alexandra Park if they had to develop it all themselves.

They are lucky Major Torque didn’t win otherwise it probably would have been more of a controversy than it already is.

There aren’t any. That’s my point. People often believe what they want to believe regardless of the evidence or lack there of.

That’s what the polls say.

Not for everybody. Two thirds of Republicans are still dumb enough to believe Trump won the 2020 election

I think Mark maybe suspended. The real mystery is why Nat is not driving. I really thought she would have turned up to drive Self Assured last Friday, and then not taking the drive on MN is just strange. Has she given up driving or will she turn up on Cup Day. Does anybody know?

Really nice guy. He was a plumber by trade and I got him to do my house plumbing repairs back in the day . RIP

Bettor Wish is doing very well in the States with a small first crop (35) He is leading 2 year old sire on the earnings per foal basis. Stood for $8,000 + gst here but it’s probably a safe bet that will increase next season

Also the National meeting on 11th August - The National Pace is for R60+ and only has a stake of $16.5k. I checked and it is an increase on last year but it wasn’t that long ago that those higher rated races at Addington were run for $17.5k. I do think there’s smoke n mirrors going on. Some races at Addington seem to have had stake decreases while others have gone up. It’s very hard to work out how much Addington have really increased stake money.

I guess so. It is confusing because the program doesn’t state what type of meeting it is. I note the minimum stake on Friday is $13k and assumed that would be the minimum amount for Friday night meetings, but now I see the meeting on Friday 18th August has some $12.5k races. Addington seem to be all over the place with their stakes while you are correct, Auckland seems to be passing the increases on in a more transparent way.

Will be interesting to see how it plays out then. You are right that different clubs may have different approaches.

I think the announcements of stake increases are largely based on what they were before the reduction. For example the group 3 races traditionally had a $30k min. That was reduced some months ago to $27.5k. The new minimum is $40k I believe so the announced 10k increase is on the original amount. The minimum overall stake is $11.5k from memory so that is good. Not sure how it will effect say the rating 50 - 80 races. They may be the ones to miss out. Will just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Creatine starting to show up here. Not many Trot sires of his quality shuttle here.

Wasn’t getting a great deal of support here. Served 30 mares in his first season sat stud and 25 last year.

Forgot to mention Always B Miki also leaves some nice group performers

Somebeachsomewhere seems to be a great sire of sires. Will be interesting to see how Bettors Wish and Tall Dark Stranger go. Lazarus seems to be doing well but it’s still early days.

Downbytheseaside, Captaintreacherous Sweet Lou are all doing a great job & are relatively young compared to BD & Art Major. Breeders & trainers seem to really like Captain Crunch. I don’t think I have ever seen an unproven sire get so much support. Time will tell with him.

Lol same here. I hated it until my parents took me to show day & I was hooked from then on.

I noticed that myself Galah. Wasn’t sure if Mangos horse was just running out by itself or if Mangos was doing it on purpose. If the latter is the case it was very childish behaviour by Mangos. Chilcott was absolutely entitled to hold her ground. In fact I feel she was obliged to so as to give her horse the best possible chance of placing.

Was wondering that myself.

I always thought that as well. Years ago at Addington I watched a few races and didn’t even realise it wasn’t Reon commentating.

Great to see Sarah get the drive on Invitation Only even though she doesn’t work for the stable anymore.

I remember he had some kind of controversy at one stage but can’t remember what it was over. Not sure but I think he may have done quite well financially selling his training establishment. Easier than making money training horses.

Worked for Des Grice in his early days