the galah

the first new zealand race starter,by king of swing is running on thursday at addington.Fanfare its name. its won each of its 4 trials so far,so looks promising. its a half brother to minstrel and some other handy horses. The dam is a mach three mare that it looks like the butts have bred 11 foals from the 16 yer old mare,so she already been a good producer. king of swing certainly a wonderful racehorse and seemingly very intelligent. will be interesting to see how fanfare goes. king of swing was $5000 plus gst last year in nz,$8000 plus gstin aussie. aussies obviously expected to pay the higher stud fee even though he's based there. Not sure how that works.

yes hrnz thinking has been,,because they're aren't many 2 year olds around to race, they need to encourage more and to achieve that the answer has been large bonuses,increased stakes and this year pay 90 of them $5000 just to start,even if they run a tailed off last. thats how hrnz think. its consistent with their thinking when it comes to north island harness racing. Up there they don't have enouigh horses to fill the fields, so HRNZ think the answer to that is more races. so theres that consistency in hrnz policy,that is ,the less horses you have available,the more racing you put on for them and the more you give them higher stakes to aim at. now clearly anyone can see that has not been working whatsoever and never made any sense in the first place,but they get points for consistency,even if its stupid. then hrnz's answer to the ATC financial worries is,don't worry,keep going as you are,because we've got your back and we will throw a few million into your financail hole,because we believe the population of auckland is going to all of a sudden have a change of heart and start supporting the harness product in auckland.And hrnz will budget $20m to build a training complex on a property that they don't even own. then HRNZ has said to cambridge,well,we know your in deep shit financially,but what does impress us is you only owe hrnz about 1.2-1.5 m,now thats pretty dam good when we compare you to ATC..So look,we know the slot races you ran added significantly to your debt,so hey,we have a solution to that. Lets have HRNZ run those slot races and take the financial hit,that way the good aussie horses can come and take even more nz harness indutsry money back to australia for their billionaire owners.. again pretty consistent thinking by hrnz. then there was nz sires bonuses. What they did there was say to people,breed to a nz sire and we will pay you bonuses when they race and win in years to come.But ,thers a catch,we may cancel those bonuses before you ever race.For unknown reasons,many seemed silly enough to think they may be getting a bonus for their foals sired by nz sires in the future,but no they wont,as very predictably, hrnz cancelled those. But your right brodie,not much point saying the same thing repeatedly as even we get tired of reading our own posts. as to the 2 year old race programmed for southalnd this week.My guess was they would get zero nominations. I based that on it appears they have no qualified 2 year old in southland yet. and the $12,000 stake.at addington. Points to hrnz at least showing some common sense by reducing the stake by 20% due to the small number of starters. But even a $12,000 stake seems ridiculous given it will generate no turnover whatsoever. It will be interesting to see whether the 20% is smoke and mirrors. In other words, will they be reducing the winning stakes by 20%,or is the 20% reduction just what would have come off anyway,due to not haveing any also rans to pay staring money. In other words ,unless they reduce the winning stakes,then they really are just playing with people.

i wonder how many they will get niminated for the southland 2 year old race. My guess is 0. we will see soon.

i see hrnz will take some comfort that numbers being nominated have increased for this weeks 3 x 2 year old races. this week they have a total of 10 nominations for the 3 races. 6 in the fillies race at auckland,0 in the colts and geldings race at auckland and 4 for the combined,colts,geldings and fillies race at addington. things are definitely on the up.

what i'm saying is you have all these people with really good business qualifications running things already. Have a look at the profiles on the hrnz website.They are some very well qualified poeple if you want successful business people. so you;'ve already got the type of person youv'e described you want running things. So is the answer not obvious, other capabilities and knowledge are also required to run harness racing. Harness racing is an industry unique to itself.

tennis semi final effecting betting figures? why would that be anymore of a factor than any sport.Just can''t see why a tennis semi final would have more impact than any warriors game or any rugby or cricket on at the same time on friday nights. I did notice today on trackside the off course and on course presenters talked about tennis for the last minute and a half of pre race talk twice for races. Personally i had no idea why they would spend the most importnat part of lead in coverage talking about tennis.Apparently venus williams still has a powerful forehand.Great. I do know shes only won 1 singles game in the last 6 tournaments shes played,but obviously the forehand gets the presenters more interested than the races they are previewing.. as to the quaddies. Todays quaddie had a $1,400 carry forward and the final pool was actual money invested. was the addington one over $20,000,or was it just the amount guaranteed by the tab on friday. most of the races today had higher win tote pools than the main race at addington on friday night.

that race was a good tactical battle. dixon obviously had a pre race plan to put a bit of pressure on kingman on the bends. kingman didn't hang like last week but still not 100% on the bends and every time leap to fame put a little prssure on kingman ,mccarthy would have to give himea bit of rein as soon as they hit thestart of the straights and then he would take hold of him again and he slightly over raced for a bit ,so each time he used just a bit more energy. it only told in that last 100m and it was then that leap to fame pounced.Dixon drove a very clever tactical race. Swayzee ran well,but simply the first 2 dictated the speed which meant swayzee never got into the race.

the thing is brodie,the people on the hrnz are all very successful,well qualified and have been part of governance in other areas that has proven successful,same as mr steele and mr peden. They too have good qualifications. So the industry has the people with the qualifications you said are needed,yet most aren't happy with the decision making. i don't agree with who you think should be in charge. I believe thats where hrnz have gone wrong. i believe they need people with a better understanding of nz harness racing,those who have lived and breathed the sport and who have in the past risen to positions of governance and have shown the capabilities to be in leadership roles.

i have read lots of what you have written over the years. Cleary you have a deep undertsanding of the whole indutsry.Knowledge of the nz industry and knowledge and understanding of its history and the drivers of where it is at today,are vitally important. As to mr peden and mr steele . I think your above comments too easily make excuses for poor decuision making.From what i have seen,both peden and steele are intelligent men who can think for themselves,even if i don't agree with much of what they say.If they are following someones agenda,then thats their decision to do so,no need to say its someone else driving it.. what they lack,is what i said in my first paragraph of this post,and thats the essential knowledge needed to guide the industry going forward,in my opnion.peden and steele seem detached from the real nz people,its not there fault in a way,as thats not there background. as to mr mooney.I may well have a previous interaction with him where i wasn't impressed in his response,,but certainly i think his work on that handicapping committee which he chaired produced work that made an awful lot of common sense. I think he too has valuable knowledge to contribute, as long forms of a team of people where people with other backgrounds and knowledge,who don't allow him or anyone person to push self indulgant agendas.The prioritising of the overall good of the indutrsy as a whole must always be first,not certain sectors given greater importance than others. Everyone within the indutsry should be made to feel part of the same team.In particular Grass roots up is how any organisation needs to be focussed.

so mr steeles been here about 18 months and people are guessing he can't even answer his own questions and hasn't worked out hes being poorly advised.Gee,if that were the case,then harness racing really is screwed it that i the calibre of the perosn in charge.pPerosnally i give him much more credit than that,efven if i don't agree with him. As to the board being ill advised. do people think they're that stupid they can't work things out themselves. Well bugga me.

So you think mr steele can't answer his own questions. thats funny anyone would think that.. besides,those people have differenr styles.Both confident,but different.You should read more of their press releases. unless of course,if peden is answering steeles questions like you suggest,then maybe steele is answering pedens questioins,hence theres the answer. for their different styles. Sounds like you think mr peden sneaks in while mr steels out of town,sits in the bosses chair,feet up,smoking a cigar answering his mail.

i thinl we need throw mr cook into the mix for consideration on the hrnz board. Shouldn't the Hrnz board have people who live and breath harness racing like mr cook who also has administrative experience.. only thing mr cook,when gamma said the leading northern trainers were getting lazy as they didn't have many starters this week,i'm sure he was just meaning to take the piss,so to speak. As to gamma and mr steele always saying. they need big stakes to attract the best horses and thats why they over inflate the industries big races. we all know thats a load of rubbish and the proof has been i watching who lines up where. Its been the same for years. as i pointed out last year,the victorian cup had the best field in australiasia and it was the first time they had slashed the stake to $250,000. the sames going to happen this year.republican party's going to run against swayzee,kingman and leap to fame again. last night they had a $175,000 race and the best 3 ran again. Yeah,the mega ,mega rich who own the likes of leap to fame,swayzee,kingman. The difference between them coming to nz is primarily based on just how high the stake is.If it was,why do they never actuallyn say that. Have you ever heard one of those owners moan about the victorian stake being slashed last year. No,you haven't.But administrators here seem to think thats how they think,for unknown reasons.

you misjudge me gammalite. Nothing you say i ever take personally or get frustrated over. I think i may frustrate you with some of the opinions i express and personally think that occasionally shows in your replies. But i never think you have any intent to make it personal or offend me.Thats not you sunshine. i totally disagree with that. i think the opposite. And of course i would say that because i agree with the points he continues to make about the financial aspects of governance of the sport.

Gee,if thats holding your line then how dangerous is it to be a jockey. everyone sees things different i suppose. The last time i commented on a jockey riding in a manner that i thought was dangerous was a couple of minutes after i watched a race at cambridge a couple of years ago which turned out to involve a fatality. .Only difference was today the jockey had more intent to put his rival onto heels whereas the cambridge one was a terrible misjudgment. i thought it just good luck pinns riding didn't cause any injuries to the horse it was knocking around or the others that would have gone over the top had it fallen. Today there was slight outward movement by the horse racing a length in front and just to their inside,but i still can't see why any jockey would have so little regard for a fellow jockeys safety,even if they weren't happy about being pushed out. That horse that pinn knocked around was very lucky not to clip heels and fall.

and i forgot to add,i would get mr unhinged to have be involved in the marketing strategies,what content appears on the hrnz website and give him a place on the board as well.