the galah

she or i make life unenjoyable for hard working participants. i'll give you points for consistency,for you, its always the fault of people like us. they won't bring her on board,because racing hierachy don't think like that. And its because the hierachy don't think like that,that shes not on bioard and now has an outside platform with so many followers. as to what does she know. Well i thought most of what she has talked about, is rehoming racehorses and all the factors relating to that.Well this woman has credibilty because shes walked the walk,so to speak. there is something about her which may be a bit too judgmental even for my liking,but hey i think her hearts in the right place.that counts.

well,whether you like it or not, its the best starting point. you bring people like that on board for several reasons. i do think shes genuine and is talking about issues that need constant regular tweeks as to what is best policy. you give her the opportunity to raise all grievances with you first. Knowing whats coming is better than not knowing. And you give her the opportunity for her to give her solutions,no harm done listening.. it would be a double edged sword for her ,if she was asked by the industry to work with them. so i think there is definite value in trying to get her on board,even if down the track you decided to use the knowledge of how she thinks and acts, to your advantage if matters get a public airing.As these type of things periodically do. theres a reason why the industry is so sensitive to the issues shes raised.

I get what your saying, no one can argue her findings about arcano lack specific professional forensic support. that would have proved costly had she gone ahead and paid for that herself.Instead we are left to take on face value what she says she was told by a couple of vets and that the pictures she shows are from the right horse. But i don't think its reasonable to infer, what she said was done with an intent to mislead. iAnyone who has worked in a freezing works knows lungs come in all degrees of health and who really knows when and what point stress or trauma happened in an animals life. All they can tell without knowing the animals history is it did happen at some stage. So i agree she made assumptions without possibly knowing the full life hisrotory of the horse. but to be fair,assuming she has accurately identified there was damage. But she is relying not only on that but other factors.e.g. 1) hrnz came out with statements cleary concerned at what their intelligence had told them was the use of xenon.Just reaad their press satements at the time 2)m kerr was one of the trainers widely rumoured to be involved in its use. i thought nearly everyone knew that. 3) the fact that m kerr was able to achieve a total form reversal with arcano ,from consistently running down the track at manawatu and nelson, to winning impressively at addington,after having him for just 5 weeks. Then the following week dropping out a well beaten last. 4)the fact arcano was now dead which she says was a result of the horse getting sick and not respending to treatments.-when did that happen.Hard to tell because he just shows up as being deregistered on the hrnz website. Obviously it happened some tiime in the last 5 years. 5)with your claim that aren't you just doing what you are criticisng her for doing. i.e. making assumptions. Interestly you seem to have tried to link her to being instrumental in arcano being put down. So whats the point of saying that. do you think people are going to think someone who dedicates there time to rehoming horses is somehow going to have a change that mindset. anyway,i think you overestimate what you say is her skill to be rhetorically savvy and underestimate her audience which you say is easily fooled. as i said on the other thread on this forum,i think this topic is a bit of a no brainer. Its not about her,its about what shs saying and like it or not,the reason she has 50,000 followers( i have no idea whether thats a lot or not for facebook) but it tends to suggest that the industry should be working to get her on board instread of fighting her message.think

7 less horses running in southland than the same meeting last year,despite 11 canterbury horses racing there this week. looks like it will pretty much play out as predicted numbers wise.. What the southern surge achieved was a shuffling of the numbers at their meetings. southland racing is quickly heading the same way as auckland and cambridge has. When people talk about auckland becoming a drain on the industry coffers due to meetings running at losses,to be fair they should always include southland in that same context. its the same phenomenon happening in southalnd as is in auckland and canterbury. They have lost all the small time players. How will HRNZ react to this. Will they base their response on population size. invercargill has a population around 56,000. If HRNZS do,well southland is toast, no,they won't do that. Will they start pouring money into stakes like they have auckland ,with golden gait racenights and regular $35,000 races programmed for mif grade horses. no they won't do that because that would take canterbury horses away from canterbury and canterbury numbers are already being stretched. My guess is they will run an extra southern surge type series. That way they can both,put wallpaper over the problem and placate the southern people who think they have been missing out,then they can get their talking heads to fudge and confuse by saying everything is rosey and positive,just look at the success of the southern surge.

sounds like you living the life or reilly, yes you a lucky man. actually typing that reminds me of that tv series that sam neil starred in,reilly,ace of spies That was a good one.The real life person from which the "life of reilly "saying came from that sort of gave them the idea of the james bond movies. why have they never shown that again on tv or sky. Sky tv has so much rubbish on these days. i would rather watch re runs of the fall and rise of reggie perrin,black adder,fawlty towers,dads army or miami vice. The shield another great show,was the best tv police series,completely different and so much better and real than all the police ones you get on tv these days. hard to find anything to watch on tv these days. i guess thats why the internet so interesting. I was just watching an interview on anti depressants. They say 1 in 5 of the entire population of the usa,including young and old,are currently on anti depressants.Compared to the 1990's, the prescribing of anti depressants in the USA is 5 times greater today,yet the number of people getting diagnosed as depressed these days is about 5 times more. They were saying how anti depressants are being prescribed on the basis that its fixing a chemical imbalance of things like serotonin levels in the body,but thats all a lie . Because all the research has shown,whether it be through blood tests,brain scans, autopsies or whateverthey have tried,they find nothing different biologically between depressed and not depressed people.So the idea of an anti depressant fixing a chemical imbalnce you may have,well its just a lie. But its been a great marketing strategy by the drug companies.. thte bloke i watching not a fan of cannabis as he says all the research shows its gateway drug.he saying the potency can be as much as 40x greater these days than it used to be.Saying It effects people in different ways but proven to cause psychosis(loss of reality) which can endure for up to 18 months after use. He saying the drug companies are doing nothing to lobby against the big de criminalise cannabis push who want to make selling it a big industry in all states of the usa. And the reason he says is obvious. Because its great for their business because cannabis use leads to people seeking help for depression issues and they end up getting prescribed the drugs they sell. its a bit like if you were born in the USA back in the 1960's,you only got 4 vaccines before becoming an adult,nowdays if you took all the vaccines they recommend ,you would be taking over 80 by the time you became an adult. Thats why RFK jnr is asking,is the rise in so many of the life effecting physical and mental issues related to that. seems a fair question.who knows. its all a bit like what they said about the covid vaccine. I still haven't got covid,still unvaccinated. my wife the same. anyway, i must be bored as rambling on a bit. time for a walk maybe.i can't pop out and buy a $30 burger in oslo like brodie.

i think if you had read the above replies, you would see 1 person didn't like the new format,1 person did and 2 didn't comment either way. so to say a few old grouches,well i think thats more an indication of how you view those who post on bit of a yarn. As to your newsflash about thursday harness racing turnover being garbage and no one is watching/punting. the point i made was the ones who still are viewers and punters on thursdays, are watching mainly because of the racing,not the presenting format and if the racing is boring or an unattractive bettting product or a leader biased track,then even if the new format attracted more viewers,why would it translate into increased turnover. Like i said north island harness racing has a boredom problem.It can't be fixed by any change to a trackside presenting format. there are very few moves in the races up there. HRNZ model in that area is to saturate the racing opportunities for the horses and connections and a consequence of that is if they get a bad draw or they settle back in the running,drivers have a pre conceived mindset of lets wait for next week.Thats a real turn off from a betting and spectator point of view.

did you see about an hour after you posted, they had on trackside aaron white and 2 bowlers,one gary lawson, in the commentary box. Looked a bit like a golden oldies front row. actually i don't mind a white giving his bowling mates a plug leading into races. The reason i say that is,mr white is linking in his own subtle way,the sport of outdoor bowls and the sport of harness racing.And there are definite links which the racing industry these days does nothing to foster. A white probably the only one that seems to be at least trying. you may say,so what. well i will explain why i thinks its relevant. firstly ,it takes me back to the days when one of the 3 clubs at addington(before they amalgamated into 1) recognised the link between harness racing and certain sports and to foster that relationship, they dedicated race nights to each sport.It may have been the canterbury park trotting club,although i stand to be corrected.In my mind i seem to associate those type of nights with names like brian hastings,who was a president of the club and who had been a well known nz cricketer. The club had a bowls night,where they would have selected members of each club take part in a roll up/sudden death /next to kitty in the birdcage.It used to have a grass bit back then. the golf night they would have the same concept with the promotion being chipping closest to the pin. the rugby night they would have the fastet men from all the rugby clubs have a 200m sprint down the hme straight. The same with the rugby league clubs. they had a cricket night. i can tell you from having been to many of those meetings,it really gave the race nights a boost in attendance and in sense of occasion and entertainment.You would remember them as well i think ranga. thats why people say,those were the days. It wasn't just the racing,it was the people you met on course,it was the administrators who fostered relationships with the whole community in a way that linked everyone. i've said it before and now say it again. for racing to prosper,you have to get racing into the psyche of new zealanders,to get them to subconciously view and accept racing as part of the fabric of their community. and you do that through subliminal messages via visual exposure of the sport. anyway,back to the link between bowls that started my post. i will quote the figures from a nz bowls study from 10 yearsago.I'm sure the figures i quote would still be relevant today. 85% of people who play outdoor bowls do so for enjoyment and they value the socail aspects of the sport.Fitness and sport performance were the next 2 main reason.but the social side was just under 4 times more important to most. playing in teams,groups of friends and for clubs is very significant part of bowls. lawn bowls is played outdoors at facilities based around man made club rooms. 52% of out door bowlers played 1-2 times a week and another 31% played 1-2 times a month. 64% walk eegularly,32% fish,31%play golf and 31%swim. 84% first started when over 35. 79% are european 67% are 55 and over. 67% are male. .........the similarities between bowls and harness racing is there for anyone to see. now i can give you my own anecdotal experience i've observed with bowlers. i also have observed the same with golfers. they like to gamble. so my point is,if the people at hrnz reallyn wanted to spend there money promoting ownership through syndication,they need to be directing some of their attention to bowling and golfing clubs as these are the sports which have participants who fit the profile of who is likely to become interested or involved in a small way in the sport. these bowling and golfing clubs are fertile ground for planting the seeds for future participation. hrnz should have some in each of the populated areas specifically designed to promote and liase with this clubs and even have a policy which they can formulate ,which is mutually benefical to both sorts national organisation. its not just harness racing that could benefit fom the relationship,it could work both ways as the sports could boost their numbers by fostering participation from harness people. anyway,its a sunday,so thats my sermon for the week.

if you were able to google the tab nz website,you would see it says under "location restrictions" " If you already have a tab account but are travelling or staying outside of nz,you will not be able to access your account while travelling abroad".

yes,i get what your saying. There were some positives .but describing it as they did in that article,was only painting half a picture. as i pointed out,its a bit simple to say,hey things are good ,because turnovers up 25.9%,when the number of meetings was up around 59%.. i really think they treat us like they think we are dumb. if they are going to comapre years,the first figure they should tell us is the profit/loss for july 2024 and 2025 ,then break it down to the profit loss for each individual meeting in july 2024 and 2025,then break it down futher and mention the things they did in that article. they are deliberately pulling the wool over peoples eyes when it comes to the sustainabilty of regularly incurring losses.

steele also says in that article the number of customers is up 20% and the bet size has increased. If thats the case,they why isn't it shown in the turnover figures. remember the % increase in harness race meetings held in july this year,was double the % increase in turnover. and in the article he also citng the geo blocking as contributing to the increase. On the contrary,it appears the geo blocking may have seen no betting turnover increase,if you look at the turnover figures Also previously harness racing would have been getting a % of the turnover of money invested by nz punters with the overseas bookies on nz harness. But that doesn't apply anymore does it.

the people at hrnz and in the media just think the average nz harness racing follower is dumb. for example. their is a story on harnesslink,written by bruce stewart and quotes mr steele. its headlined "betting numbers up significantly" it goes on to say betting turnover in july was up 25.9%,compared to the previous july. but then it goes on to say,what any thinking person would be asking themselves,that being their were 7 more meetings hald this year as compared to july last year. so 12 meetings held in july 2024,then a9 this year, well thats an increase of just under 60% of meetings. so the betting turnover went up 25.9% as a result of a 60% increase in the number of meetings. really they need to also give us a breakdown of the number of races rtrun in july of each year amnd the total stakes paid in july of each year if we are to get an accurate picture. Who do they think they are kidding. these people treat us like we're dumb. Why should we trust anything they say when we know they continually manipulate figures like they do. also,if you have bettimng turnover increasing at a rate this year,less than the number of meetings last year,then doesn't that mean,your overall losses are probably higher this year than last.

i posted about what i had read about xenon on a topic on this forum 5 years ago. Russian athletes were using it about 15 years ago. tests on rats had shown a 70% xenon 30% oxygen mix doubled epo levels a day later. A quote from HRNZ at the time " international racing laboratories(including nz)are acutely aware of the potential threat that this type of substance could pose to the integrity of racing" But i'm not going to get into an on going argument with you about its performance enhancing effects. besides reading the facebook page of the nairn lady, about what she found with arcano is consistent with uncaring or desperate treatment of a horse. yes i know you thought having 3 horses from the same stable suffer heart issues and drop dead at the racetrack. I didn't. You don't find something your not looking for. when i said earlier it was over 1 year,to be accurate the 3 horses from that stable died within 4 months. yes i know you keep saying you think all drugs are detectable.you always say that.I really don't know whether you actually believe that,as i think its obviously wrong. again everyone knows if your using a test thats not designed to pick up certain performance enhancers or all the derivatives of certain performance enhancers,well you won't get any positives. Thats what they said happened in the usa. i've tried to keep my reply brief as this topic is about animal welfare and i also don't want to go over things we've already discussed at length in the past.

there can be no denying what she says has occurred in the past. The only thing i would say is we need to be a little bit cautious in inferring these problems currently exist at the level they have in the past. when she talks about vodka. Well thats not something i'm up with the play as to whether its ever been much of an issue in racing. Having said that,a few years ago i did have a greyhound trainer tell me thats what he and others would give dogs occassionally if they wanted them to downgrade or if they were punting something else in the race.I assumed it wasn't that common,but i have no idea myself. the fridge gassing,formalin thing,well thats why woodend was viewed as a hive of illegal activity for a while there. Of course the problem there was it wasn't fair to lump all trainers at woodend as being cheats. But it was accurate to say they came from a training area where % per capita of cheats was very much higher than anywhere else. but when opertion inca came around,one flow on effect was about 5-6 years ago,the riu of course poured resources into uncovering other illegal activity and they were actually successful. The likes of j alford got 9 yeras for the formalin,c jones got a few years,even being caught injecting the very same horse alford had been training after it being transferred to him after alford was disquialifioed. The fridge gas horse that the nairn lady refers to was used on arcano,well they never caught m kerr for doing that to any of hiis horses but he of course was extremely well known for being very volatile while he still had his licence.I guess thats what happens when you lose over $1 million on the punt and you have defrauded so many people. Then you had m anderson who infamously was the driver behind the catalyst for the police decision to continue with operation inca.Of course he went on to be known more for assaulting and strangulation of his partner,although the damage he did to her would have been more phsycological than physical long term.And of course he was guilty of being he distributor of party drugs to others in the industry,which he got from someone within the indutsry who i believe got them from her hairdresser,although that bit i don't think ever really came out.Of course m anderson was m kerrs regular driver. anyways,you get the picture. Harness racing had some really dishonest people who in some cases were proven to have used and in other cases believed to have used the substances that this woman nairn talks about. All to gain an advantage with the motive money. of course the upshot of the RIU catching these people was 3/4 of the industry thought about time,yet a very vocal,often high powered group was not impressed and believed it was better for racing to swepp such things under the carpet and avoid the bad publicity. of course now you get stables with trees cut down,big gates,all to avoid the riu spying on them from a tree. Like there were people who most thought were doing nothing wrong,yet people wondered why di you need to cut all the trees down. the RIU was relentlessly actacked in some circles.. The chief someone who falls into the 1/4.The industry is its own worst enemy in that respect.. as a result,it seems these days the riu doesn't do much enforcement in a manner that is likely to catch anyone. actually i did think the riu investigators became emboldened by their success and maybe slightly overstepped the line occassionally. anyways,people who say thsi nairn woman doesn't know what she is talking about,well thwey don't know what they are talking about. its just the scale and current relevance that i'm not so sure of. And i've always said the cheats like the ones i mentioned above are the poor mans cheats. The clever ones are the ones who get their vet or say maybe an owner who makes regular trips to the usa,to bring the better,undetectable stuff in.i think when they took down the mass producer af performance enhancwers in the usa it has helped nz in some ways. Also,liike i have said so many times,if you follow the form you can teell. for example i started a thread one time about the way a certain trainers horses would perform and noted there was sometihibng peculiar abot hiow some of his horses ran. I inferred that it was something they were being given or fed that was impacted their hearts. Well of courtse i got criticised for it in this forum,but 12 months later that said trainer had several high cobalt charges. then of course,at6 one stage you had 3 telfer trained horses,within a year, all stop to a walk and either collapse and die on the track or back at the stables. Now,of course when i posted that boy did that set some people off. But its a fact it happend. An offical inquiry found nothing. it was never going to. But i think the telfers addressed the problem and took steps to make sure they weren't doing anything for it to happen again and it hasn't.the nairn woman has made the point that horses are underdeveloped when they are trained and raced as 2 year olds and i think you will find the stables that do put the pressure on early clearly have more bone issues than the ones that don't. The telfer stable is an exmaple of that,but thats not their fault. Their owners and the indutrsy pour so much financial incentitives to race 2 year olds these days.

i watched it at times. i quite like it as its entertaining enough. Once a week about right. the unfortunate thing is these blokes are backing at cambridge meetings and they are sometimes betting on favorites who settle at the back. its a shame cambridge is such a front running,advantageous track to be on the inside in the first 2.it lowers the appeal of the racing.But it is ,and combine that with north island drivers who don't show much positive initaitive even at the best of times,in the lower stakes races nad you get--- boring,do you think that driver was even trying,a lot of the time. Last night they had some $20,000 races and you got some movement but the week before,on the normal $8000 stake races, the only driver to move up all night was an imported south island driver,s ottley. so what i'm saying is the presenters may be entertaining enough,but the racing product is not very entertaining. actually i did like the wee fella with the glasses the first week as a couple of times he said,well that driver left it too late to make a move. It was very obvious what he was saying was correct,anybody could have seen that. But the fella poppewell beside him quickly tried to move him on from stating the blatantly obvious ,as if poppewell didn't want to come across as a sore loser. I thought that was a shame,because whats wrong with stating an opinion,which anyone could see was true. It reminds me of when jason teaz was commentator. He always used to make comments about drivers tactics and whether they were good or bad. Thats why i always thought he was one of the best. he would be far better than aaron white as the north island commentator. Aaron white is a good commentator but he doesn't say things about tacticss which accurately describe what punters can see on their tv screens.. Punters like it when a commentator makes comments about tactics as the race unfolds. anyways,i don't mind the thursday night crew,just the cambridge racingproduct needs better drivers with more intent and that aint going to happen.

to quote your first paragraph " old disenfranchised men,who are so bitter and cynical that they do nothing but continually attack the industry. Especially those that are succssful. In my opinion that is anti racing". Thats the label,in this thread, you've put on people who not only through their words,but their actions have shown to those who know them,that at least they are trying to do what they think is best for the present and future health and welfare of the racehorses and ex racehorses, in their care. Its interesting you also found this nairn womans comments about the damage that can be done from use of some performance enhancers,as anti racing. Me thinks your words that i quote,somehow seem a bit harsh chief.Your thinking, it sort of reminds me of that kinks song,its a mixed up,muddled up shook up world. but hey,at the end of the day,even though i disagree with what you say about this current topic,i'm not silly enough to label you anti racing. Because i know your not.