the galah

belle neige i thought had its chance forbury. i had a small win bet on it and wasn't disapponited in the drive. I also had a small bet on jasinova in an earlier race ,driven by hackett and thought that was a poor tactical drive,but thats the norm up there from most of the drivers. You watch nelson races and you can understand each drivers tactics. Up there,its the opposite. So many of the races are just follow them around type races and wait for next week. tonight just the same. that race merlin just won. Punters again showed they have little interest in particpating in small uncompetitive races like that.And that is supposedly their best product.Very sad really. The tote turnover on that race,even with the advantage of what is normally a prime betting time,was worse than even the 6 horse non win trot at nelson.It was such a bore of a race as well. Punters see it that much that they just turn off the north island product.. i read recently on the hrnz website the betting person at hrnz,mr peden said the northern initaive that hrnz has invested so heavily in is paying dividends. He used a one off increase in turnover on the recent cambridge meeting where betting was up 23%.,although even he noted they had 20% more races that day.That bloke talks more bullshit than anyone i've ever read. They haven't mentioned the Auckland cup betting since on hrnz website.you can guarante they haven't,because it would prove what i just said about what mr peden says. why do they cherry pick and mislead to justify their decision making.Its really just rather sad.

just to emphasis my point. if you look at the munber of drivers who drove in nz races in 2019. There were 236. in 2025, there was only 196,and 9 of those were only here for the world drivers champs. so the figure really is 187. so hrnz have introduced all these so called clever penalty junior initiatives to keep people in the sport, yet in just 6 years,there has been a 20% drop in the numbers(49 indivuidual drivers) who drove. hrnz say their concession and penalty free system is designed to keep people in the sport.Who are they fooling?

i see where your coming from.Thats where good programming and handicapping should come into play. Horses whose first win is in a weak non win race and subsequently prove uncompetitive in the 1 win grade,unfortunately are considered of no value by the handicappers and race programmers. i've made that point myself a few times in the past,but thats the reality. Its a handicapping and programming issue,not a penalty free win issue. also,if they made the manawatu races penalty free races like you suggest,then theoretically you could have a horse start each week over 2 1/2 months,have a win in a junior drivers penalty free race,then the manawatu penalty free race you suggest,as well as win 2 half points junior driver wins and be given quiet runs in the other 6 races and be unplaced,and that horse would still be rated the same as it would be had it not started.in other words instead of 3 wins and ending up back at square 1 you are suggesting they get 4 wins and end up back at square 1. HRNZ have already gone totally overboard in how they prioritise the junior drivers over other participants. LIke ,why does hrnz have a policy that will pay for the juniors licences,their gear,give them oopprtunities to get drives due to the penalty free wins and half penalties,yet say to everyone else who battles away to make a living that they are entitled to no help.Also have the dumbos at hrnz not realised that many of the people losing their drives to the claiming juniors will be the ones who were juniors up until a year or two prior. The ex juniors who struggled getting drives receive no support from anyone when they lose their junior driver status. Anyobne who thinks they do is kidding themselves. Why would anyone put them on when they can use a current junior who will get them half points and penalty free wins. Just go look at the juniors who struggled for drives 5 years ago and you will see what i mean.You never hear of them again. and as i pointed out in a post last year,the juniorsin the bottom half of the premiership are not benefitting fro0 the cureent system one bit. They are not getting any extra drives at all. the stats show that. neally i think the whole penalty free system is stacked in favour of and against certain sectors of the industry. HRNZ know it,everyone knows it,but they simply don't care about that sector. HRNZ focus is very much on prioritising some sectors of the industry over others. Its very much illustrated in the penalty free,half penalty system ,whetehr it be junior drivers or 2 year olds or 3 year olds. i

why?

i had noticed imperial command had turned the corner. in the first few months he went to aussie he was a flop and seemed to have the same issues he had here,just before he left,,whatever they were. then he didn't race for 6 months.Since he resumed he has done a good job. I assume the good spell or some treatment identified some issue and has helped sort him out. it haven't been watching much aussie racing lately although i did see swayzee beat don hugo a couple of weeks ago. swayzee i would have thought would have been stuffed by now,but the way he won against don hugo,he seemed back to his best. He simply wore don hugo into the ground then after the finsih they showed him running strong down the back staright as if he could easily do another round at the same speed,ears flicking as if to say,that was easy enough. Meanwhile the rest of the field had hit the finish and virtually pulled up straight after, as they all looked stuffed. from my observations over the years,when horses are given perfromance enhancers ,it will always cacth up to them sooner rather than later,they mostly just get sick or disappear,yet swayzees still going. Maybe hes just one out of the box.

well,didn't pay the $1.80 that i thought it would after its last run.Instead actually paying $5.20 which seemed an amazing dividend, given it could have won by lengths had the driver just moved last time it started. C hanna driving today, got the job done well. it got a very unfair start. my bonnie lass hadn't even been given a chance to turn in and the southland starter let them go,efffectively my bonnie lass starting off a 60m handicap and the other ur horses about 40m behind.

as to the udr's If you look at the udr's of the junior drivers,you would think the north island drivers are better than the south. But they obviously aren't. The small fields totally skews the udr's in the north island drivers favour . Comparing udr's for any north island trianer,driver to someone from canterbury is like comparing apples to pears. They are very different. as to forbury's comments about crystal hackett. Well i think she isn't driving as good tactically as she could from a punters perspective,but from a trainers perspective its perfecctly fine because in the small fields they have up there shes still earning money most weesk and its no big deal to run a place ,when a smarter drive could have won,because theres always another race with a small field next week .

the biggest issues seem to come in races where there are big fields and multiple hand held tapes. in a previous topic on the motukarara starts ,relating to the month before,i gave what i thought were solutions. The thing i find strange is that there seem to have been multiple recent examples of delays in the starters assistants releasing the tape they are holding on time.. surely that can't be that hard. You hang onto it,then you look at the starter as they line up and as he drops his hand you release the tape in unison.Whats so hard aboutb that? And surely the starter is not going to say go when a starters assistant is looking the other way . it seems such basic stuff,yet apparently they can't get it right and they need extra training on it. and the stipes have come to think it normal and the stipes and jca say,well so what if your horse was disadvanteged by it,tough luck. i mean,theyactually put it in writing in this jca decision that its ok for a 2-3 second delay,yet expect a false start to be called in mobiles if a horse is 1/10 of that time out of position at the start.How does that make any sense.But it is the current reality. of course its not just a canterbury thing. the southland starter has on multiple occassions let them go when horses are 50-100 behind where they are supposed to start.i do understand where hes coming from sometimes as at least hes consistent in how he starts his races. Inconsistency can lead to confusuion. the auckland cup was an example of some horses getting a running start,some not,some out of position and that starter only had 8 to look at.

the jca ruling into a 2-3 second delay of the 10m tape being released in the motukarara christmas cup,made for interesting reading. Apparently,a 2-3 second delay is perfectly normal acocrding to the stipes and the jca has no isssue with such delays. k butt,the driver of kiss the girls noted her horse went to move when the front tape was released,but because her 10m tape hadn't been released due to a 2-3 second delay ,with the starters assistant i guess still waiting for the smoke signal,,she felt her horse was inconvienenced and that the delay was primarily the reason why her horse broke. you can also see iin the video the 20m horses were moving before the 10m horses and they too had to hesitate when they came up behind the 10m horses in front of them. apparently the 2-3 second delaywasn't normal for that tape as it went at the right time. What was also noticeable at the time was a horse on the 20m ,as per normal at motukarara,had to side step a starters assistant standing directly in front of it after the start,with the starters assistant unsure which way to go so as not to get run over.That confused the horse and driver who was about to run him/her over. and it also appeared a starters assisatnt at the back of the field was doing some stretching exercises as he held his hands up high. Maybe he had noticed the delay and was trying to signal something. Someone may need to tell him a 2-3 second delay is normal. and it raises the question,if the starter,the stipes and the jca think its fine to have a 2-3 second delay,why did they have a false start at westport a couple of days before.After all the same thing happened there. Also,the stipes report from westport noted the satrters assitants werwe given advice about that. Was the advise,don't worry about a 2-3 second delay.,as its perfactly normal and acceptable.If it wasn't and was advice on how to release a tape at the same time as the starter does,well i dunno,but whoever the starters assitants are,they didn't get the memo. the whole thing just sounds ridiculous,but its what happened.

billy. I will just stick to your question and not the intent of it. i use the editing in about 90% of posts My normal practice is to type out my reply,have a quick read,then push submit,then use the 5 minutes available after posting that reply to edit any spelling mistakes or add anything that i may think relevant. So everyone has 5 minutes to edit their posts. i do not have spell check on my computer and 3/4 of my keyboard has the letters missing. I did twink them on one time,but the twink disappeared pretty quick anyway. So i often have typing errors in my posts for a start and edit them when i read them. And because my posts can be rather long winded ,i sometimes still have the odd spelling mistake or words joined together. being billy connolly i will throw in the first scottish joke that comes to mind. did you hear about the scotsman. He was that tight he only breathed in. oh,i've re read this post a couple of times first,so as to avoid the edits for you.

obviously your both entitled to your opinions,but theres no doubt whatsoever the stats show you are both well and truly off the mark. Prior to today,her last 50 rides had resulted in 8 wins,7 seconds and 2 thirds. today she rode 2 more winners with 2 2nds. I too watch the south island gallops and to me she is clearly the most in form jockey in the south island. as to the comaprison with o bosson. what a silly comparison. Shes an apprentice, but even having said that,your comparing the 2 ignores recent results. o bosson had prior to taday, 8 wins 7 2nds and 5 3rds in his last 50 rides. And of course he would be riding more favorites than bakker. So really her stats are very obviously just as good as his. Sure he had a good day today,but so did bakker. personally i think the reason bakker has become so successful is simple.she ihas become a go forward jockey and horses run fior her because she doesn't fight them and she allows them to run at a consistent speed. The mr pacquio ride was an example of her using the go forward tactics that are the reason for all her recent success. It may not work sometimes ,but it doesn't change the fact it is why she has become so successful in recent months. oh,and did you bother having a look at her ride on mr pacquio the start before. Perhaps you should.And did you ever think the reason it got keen at kurow was because the trainer added some new gear.

trendy van gogh, ran 6th,rather surprising since it wasn't even a starter according to the hrnz website(was scr according to them)

at least we didn't have the drone

probably good advice as far as chilcotts horses go,but i don' follow hers much anyway and am betting less and less on northern harness racing these days anyway.At least when chilcott drives,you know shes trying. With many of the drivers up there,i'm not sure whether they aren't trying sometimes or whether they just are poor tactically. But the village rebel drive. I found it funny strange type of thing, watching, as i thought every driver in nz had seen tyson race and would have been happy to sit on his back. But obviously not.

race 11 you had them run a 65.4 middle half and the horses 3,4 &5 back the inside all just sat on the marker pegs and the 65/1 shot driven by h orange was the only one to show he could judge pace,as he made a move from behind them while they just sat there asleep. then in that last race.you had m mckendry make a good move mid race as the pace slackened and you would have thought village rebel racing parked, driven by s abernethy, would have welcomed the perfect 1/1 position,but no,that made too much sense. Village rebel actually may have won with a smarter drive as it stuck on. I didn't back abernethy,i hardly bet on auckland racing anymore because i never know what some of the drivers may do,but that was auckland cup night, so you would think they would be trying. i can see the funny side of it,but why would any clever driver do what abernethy did.The answer has to be, no clever driver would,so theres the answer.