the galah

your man j herbertson wins. You can pick them gammalite. Carter dalgety 2nd with a nice drive. Wilson house on a 90/1 shot drove it likehe thought it had no chance. It probably would have run a place if he had followed dalgety,but was held up instead and ran about 5th.

Calling the horses they are driving today as slow,embarrassing and obscure i find a bit amusing gammalite. i'm sure you have heard of most of them. i only watch occasionally and would have heard of more than i haven't. The 3rd heat they are driving in today, the horses have all won over $100,000 ,several over $200,000 and one $386,000. tommorow night,which you describe as the slowest of the slow, they are driving horses that would be like r40-50 in nz,apart from that heat 6.. but you've drawn my attention to the series which i'm guessing was your intention. Ist heat due to start in a couple of minutes. i'll have a look.

i posted last week that theres actually more women junior drivers currently in nz than there are men. some very good drivers amongst them . o thornley is good. i think g thornley lost her driving form beofre she had the break, but has come back and is driving very well. Horses run for both of them. I think the reason theres more women is,men look at the industry and say ,can i make a living and have a family down the track as well. And the answer is ,unless your in the top handful,no you won't make a resonable living . And being able to look after a women financially of course is part of the attraction process. women know,no point marrying a good guy who's got no money. Its not easy for a wife who does that.I know,my wife,god bless her soul,reminds me of that every time i moan about not having enough money.oops,i've gone off track. anyways,back to the driving.Whereas the females look at it and say,well my priority is doing something i enjoy over finacial considerations, and down the track i can marry someone who earns enough to support me,then they can come back into it again when they want. actually, one thing i've noticed is woman who are drivers and can make a living,don't seem to have too many chidren Now thats just an observation,but then again women in general, don't seem to have as many children these days.Wheres all the catholics when you need them. Actually talking about children,i remember the days when addington had that big grandstand . About the 150 metre from the finsih,at the top of the stand,there used to sit enough young members of the butt families to fill a bus.Ok.maybe not that many,but there was a lot of them.No need for family reunions. They had one every week. You don't see that these days.I remember those days. My aunty would come occasionally and admire the le lievre families wonderful hair. Obviously that was a few years ago as i think their hair lines may receded a bit since then. Then i remember one day,my uncle pointing out a racecourse inspector chasing a bloke who wasn't allowed on course. I'm not sure whther he went on to own a nz cup winner or maybe that was his brother. ah the memories,anyways again,back to the junior drivers. as to your point about how many will make it after their junior status ends. Thats the thing isn't it. Hrnz focus on the juniors and neglect those very same people when they lose their junior status. I mean ask yourself.Say you may have got 4 drives a week,well if you throw in a stablehands wage, then you could probably pay the bills. But then you lose your junior status,,you now only get 1 or 2,so your income drops by $200. Who needs the free boots,skivvy,harness,free licence renewals,helmets,vests,everything is free.. The persosn who's just lost their junior status is more likely to have financial commitments..Yet they have to pay for everything and cross subsidise the juniors free stuff,even though the juniors are getting more drives and earning more. So thats why you see mnay drivers disappearing. Especially the males. Also the smaller the field size,whether it be at the races or the trials ,the less opportunity the drivers who drive will get.

i backed that one as well.yes,i guess if it starts in the same field next week it will only pay $3,which will be unders, with no guarantee it will get the same nice run. sometimes the good drivers don't get it right as well. Like j dunn on beautiful crazy,i thought it very obvious if he pulled it out craig thornley would pull out in front of him and give him the 1/1.He could have done that well before he did. R Cameron just ended up outdriving him and won the race. Not sure beautiful crazy would have placed anyway as it just battled,but did seem to miss an obvious opportunity. Some trainers are very loyal. d mcgowan one of those. I backed one of his the other night paying $21,which i found hard to believe and all it had to do was pull off the inside to win,but it didn't . I guess thats why it was paying $21 and i should have known what to expect.i. having said that,most of the drivers are consistent. Its the ones that every now and again pull off when they don't normally,that can be the ones that are frustrating. That last race ,a big win mover was sweet dreams. Now j howe is another trainer who is very loyal.fair enough,He puts the same drivers on ,even when you get the odd one that doesn't suit that driver.sweet dreams is a horse like that. Its certainly no champ, but r holmes drove it the week before and asked it to be a racehorse and it tried and ran 2nd.i know r close is a good driver and punters keep backing it.Then again j howe may think its best going to the back and inside devery time.If thats the case r close would be a genious. I know r close is a good driver but not sure why punters keep backing that horse. some of the form during the winter can be a bit inconsistent. That royal deidre who won that race just run i've noticed go a couple of good races but never the same week to week .Next week it can have every chance and stops,then again good and bad. Well today it sat parked and won easy.I see m cross tipped it. Maybe hes got it worked out.

obviously theres plenty of uninformed punters with more money than sense. someone put $2000 on beautiful crazy. They did that at $3.40 apparently. The week before it could not have got an easier run in front,yet never looked like winning from the turn. Then it was like punters were thinking,well someone put $2000 on, so they all jumped on and it closed at $2.20 Maybe thats why they have that big bet aleart on trackside,they put that up knowing they have the horse at stupid short odds,knowing the big bet alert will entice punters to back it anyway. All a cunning plan.

. your looking at it as a letter that deals with abuse. i look at it differently. i'm saying look beyond the letter and analysis where the trail started.. in other words.. .1)underperforming or ineffective governance ...2) leads to dissenting opinions being expressed,....leads to... 3)inapproapriate language....4) leads to the letter. take away the first factor and theres no need for the letter. if they don't address the root cause,( number 1),then you will still continue to get 2 & 3

no argument there. My point is theres an inference that part of the intent of this letter is to suppress the expression of dissenting opinions, and they have used the basis of the letter ,as those dissenting opinions sometimes give names of those they feel are making poor decisions.They can focus on the names,the dissenting views focus is on the industries wellbeing.m so in its own a way,the letter is proof theres merit in what the people they are trying to silence ,are saying. Its like a circle which has a beginning and an end with governance of the industry.There needs to be self reflection by the decision makers in favour of that letter.

yes all those other stables are quite consistent and always have been.Telfers i just find hard to follow all over nz. not just the north island. I do like the fact that the telfer stables appear to have no qualms about seeing horses they may have trained,being sold cheap on the likes of gavelhouse..I think it shows they at least try to give the horse an opportunity to prosper and have a life with someone else if they don't shape up within the timeframe they allow at their stables. I think many other stables sometimes treat their horses like commodities and theres too much wastage. I know it must be a side of the industry that many stables struggle with,but some do try and explore other futute options better than others.

i think you've got it sussed with the backing against the north island ones. They do move up parked quite a bit like you say,but dickie seems to generally make the moves at the right time ,but they still go awful. Like that secret desire last night.was paying only $1.70.o.k it probably should have been paying about $2.20 ,but Its a horse who used to have good gate speed,but either its lost it or theres something wrong with it. the way it paced early was odd,then it just stopped to a walk with 400m to go.Personally i think it has an issue of some sorts. Perhaps a stress fracture or foot bruise in a front leg or maybe nothing to do with that. and just had the guts run out of it early. Very few telfer horses last more than 2 or 3 years . but its the inconsistency which i find so hard to follow.there is a big difference between a horse not goping as good and a horse that stops to a walk. tonight they have just the 2 in at addington. christies art in the first. $1.55 is all its paying. Often thats the time to back against them.If it was paying $4 then i think you would back it,but $1.55,isn't that too short?.

i never said the letter was aimed at m house.Not sure why you said that bit to me. This is the only social media forum i'm on and the only time i've seen mr house make comment is on the unhinged content ,that i used to be able to access.. Everytime i've seen him comment over the years he has been consistent in what he has said. i've always interpreted his comments to be addressing what he believes is a priority for the industry.That is,industry policies which invest in and lead to maintaining participation in the profitable revenue generating sector of the industry,i.e. the races with the best turnover/stakes paid ratio ,where the bulk of the racing participants operate. like its just common sense to me that if you have someone who operates mostly within that sector and who is day in and day out, speaking to people who participate,then what better voice to listen to. Mark jones is another person who has a similar background and network of contacts, which keeps him in touch with the pulse of the racing industries wellbeing and participants thinking. from my observation and research over the years,companies who last and who generate long term profits,focus on maintaining and expanding the profitable sectors of their business.Thats not what nz harness racing are doing. Instead they are following the path of the ones who fold or who generate losses,which is to direct resources to areas that are unprofitable and unlikely to increase revenue,even with extra investment. just common sense and i think mr house and mr jones express mostly common sense and logical thinking. you may not have thought mr jones letter overstepped the line. If you think everything he said was acceptable,then fair enough.but i said at the time i thought a small part of his letter overstepped the mark and that as a result we will see efforts by officialdom to limit all comment.And that is exactly what we got,thats why we are discussing this topic. You may think its just coincidental,i don't and found the adherence to racing code of conduct response predictable.After all ,they are predictable. i think people should analysis why you areand they should ask themselves,why was there a need to try and limit public content. to me its an obvious sign that leadeship realise they are not getting the results hoped for from some of the policies they have implemented and have found by prioritising different sectors over other sectors,within the industry has lead to negtive impacts. and leadership are particularly sensitive because many of their critics said,do that and this will happen. And well,it turns some of their critics actually have a better understanding of what works,where resources should go to get the most beneficial results for the industry. the newsletter we.re discussing about code of conduct is just a symptom of poor decision making by leadership. That is where people should be focussing,not on code of conduct letters.

thats what they aare afraid of isn't it. as i said in a previous post about mark jones on the harness part of this website,expect to see them try and silence people like him who express opinions they don't want to hear. that latest press release,was easily predicted. Like i've said,its ok for high profile breeders/owners/trainers to gave public opinions and advocate to industry leadership for their special interests ,but its not ok for other individuals to do the exact same thing, if the special interests they advoctae for don't align with the thinking of industry leadership. simple as that.

It must be hard if your a tab bookie and your pricing the stonewall runners. personally its a stable who i simply can't predict at all. They either perform well above how i expect them to go or they are the opposite and perform well below what i have them rated to.To me they are consistenly inconsistent. i try and avoid backing them,but have occasionally and the last 4 horses i've backed from that stable,they have all badly dropped out.. I've found them like that since they started .although they do tend to be consistent when it comes to the younger age group races. Its a very baffling stable and always has been to me.Can anyone work out how to follow their form.

only stonewall,but they are multi millionaires. i can't think of anyone at all apart from them,whether big or small. some younger trainers just use racetracks that are full to anyone new,or the odd one training on someone elses property or a relation,but no new establishments. They are all disappearing gradually.people are getting older and younger people can't afford to set up themselves. just the way it is. the trend will continue.

so the hrnz website has a news story"adherence to racings codes of conduct". it says words that i think could be summarised as-no criticism is tolerated in any form,as you might upset someones feelings.lets just all get along . forget the, see something,say something type thinking. so,as i predicted,they appear to be trying to silence the likes of mark jones. Now as i said in an earlier post,i think mark jones,who is high profile within the industry,made a tactical error in making an unnecessary personal comment about someone,because what that did, was allow those who want to silence him,the opportunity to actually silence all of what he said. But,as i have said previously,this push to silence people is a very obvious indication that HRNZ is very touchy about the bulk of what mr jones said. In other words,the way the have responded is what you would expect . i.e. they have to attack the messenger (mr jones),if his message was accurate.If his message was transparently inaccurate,they wouldn't have responded with the latest news item.

i've just been looking at the price of bare land in canterbury. say you were wanting to purchase some land to train a couple or say you wanted to try and make a go of training professionally. well,half way between rolleston and prebbleton theres a 4 hectare block of bare land for $860,000 plus gst. then you could head out past lincoln way,rather wet out there so hope you like mud, and spend over a million on 10 hectares and get about 4 sheds with that as well, or head a bit further out and pay over 2 million for 30 hectares with a house.I think that may be a dual code trainer who owns that property,although could be wrong there. Or you could go half an hours drive from the southern side of christchurch and pay around $550,000 plus gst for 4 hectares of bare land on the outskirts of leeston, or pay around $750,000 for 4 hectares of bare land on the far boundary of west melton or you could head an hour north west of christcurch and pay about 1.2 million for 40 hectares of bare land. so,the 4 hectare properties are probably about right for someone who trains just 3 or 4 and could put in a small track,but if your going to train full time you would be thinking you would need at least 10 heactares. so thats just the price of land,of course you would have to add on the costs of putting in a track and building stables,appropriate fencing,power and those type of things. so,the hobby trainers in canterbury only need about a million in spare cashto spend time on a hobby they enjoy and the person wanting to make a go of it as a trainer full time,well they probably need to spend about 1,500,000 spare cash, before they even think about training a horse. so there are very few people,if any who are likely to set up new training establishments. And of course,people who currently have training establishments,whatever the scale,are likely to cash up as they get older. And theres a lot of trainers who are getting older in canterbury.In past decades land used to be much more affordable for horse trainers,which is why you had so many scattered around the boundaries of christchurch.Not any more though. it used to be those in the past who invested in land on the outskirts of canterbury knew they had a major asset(the land),to sell in the future whenever they wanted.those days are long gone as the cost of land these days means thats not even a starter. Thats why i always say,if hrnz doesn't invest in providing land and facilities,which of course they could run at a profit,then its inevitable harness racings footprint in canterbury will shrink faster than people realise.Then it will all be too late and all you will have is the big stables,who prefer to focus on udr's and don't run many horses at the meetings that currently generate profits for the industry,running in small fields on friday nights,dominated by team driving and low turnovers..

tabcorp had already stopped nz people accessing their account from nz since the beginning of this month. betfair i always thought dodgy as regards their in play betting on horse racing. for example there is an 11 second delay if you look at the sky tv coverage start time and compare it with the tab website. i often wondered whether there is actually a couple of second more delay with betfair. i once had an account on betfair and i learnt not to bet on in play australian racing because of the dalay.For example 90% of the time you could nearly always see who had won by looking at the betfair prices ,even though your tv screen showed the races still had 200m to go and they were all bunched up and you could still get a bet on (but only on horses who never won). actually if you did bet on something that turned out to be the winner in the last 400m,you never got it on as its odds would slash to below whatwas showing as available to bet on,you would drop the price you were willing to accept,again if it was to be a winner,someone somewhere else had taken what was available before you.I'm sure somewhere someone had an inside advantage,whteher it be the delay or the algorythms. I think nz punters betting on in play on australian racing was for losers. Actually i had intended to try out using the delay as an advantage and go sit at the races and bet here. But they closed my account before i got the chance. They gave no reason and i had made a small profit overall,but i had one bad night and that may have been a factor.i was just trying out a system i had and i had still made on overall profit though so that annoyed me as they simply just closed the account,refused to respond to requests as to why they had done that and when i rung them up the bloke actually said,oh we're doing that a lot to our nz customers at the moment,but he wasn't sure why. betfair,like tabcorp wered paying the nz codes for use of their product betfair obviously less,but i wonder whether any increased turnover redirected bu nz punters into nz pools will create much of a win for racing. sport i would imagine it will. Like,i'm sure a lot of the people betting on nz racing on betfair were new zealanders and they aren't going to invest much with our tab are they? i really only followed nz harness on betfair and found the odds were nearly always unders for everything. as to tabcorp,if you take out the nz people that were betting into their pools on the nz product,then that may well leave their pools so low they discourage australain punters to bet on a lot of the races. thats why i thought the likes of nz harness racing may gain next to nothing,even possibly lose with the new legislation.in other words the funding they lose from all the aussie bookies could be greater than what they will get from the nz punters whose only choice now is the nz tab. t will be sports is where the nz tab will gain.

Thats roughly 80-90 million left over after all debt repaid.Heck they could even put some in the bank if they wanted after relocating. when they do relocate,it should be to somewhere where the racetrack and the training complex are one and the same. Imagine that. No transport costs for the owners whose trainers are based at the new racetrack.

oh,i think we all realise that to go somewhere else ,they would have to have something like a 5 year plan to ensure continuity of enabling racing and training to continue before a new complex opened.

its not all doom and gloom gammalite. as i've said before ,never let a crisis go to waste. i know we all think we are experts on aucklandt,but really any half wit can see they should cut out the dillusional thinking and start talking about where the auckland club will relaocate to. As soon as they do that,they can then start talking positive and selling the future. I wonder,are some people making decisions hanging onto to auckland at alexandra park because they see their own source of income being reduced.who knows but some of the things those people say are odd. but anyways gammalite their last annual report(2024),which came out in november,said they had net assets of 93.4 million.At that point they said they only owed the bank $76 million,so that loan would may have gone up a bit,but say ,hypothetically they were able to sell everything they had tomorrow,they would still have ,at a guess get between 80-90 million. so instead of making it all a long painful death of alexandra park,they should start thinking about the bright furure they have somewhere else.. hows that for a positive spin. that should qualify me for a job at hrnz or the atc.

obviously no one is listening. I suppose thats predictable enough. Todays races all seemed to try and start on time.Invercargill especially don't like to grab a few extra seconds of turnover. the only thing i notice is the invercargill starter likes to drive the mobile really slow which can cause the odd galloper and possible false start.Don't think hes doing that to increase turnover though. Actually the 2 races that had delays today,i observed and saw there turnovers increase by over 25% of the figure that was on the website a minute after the delays happened.So it could well have been more. imagine that. all someone has to do at hrnz is say,lets introduce some pre race start procedure for most races or delay the start by between a minute or 2 and hey presto a 20% increase in turnover. I would imagine they would get a pay increase,an extra weeks holdiay and since hrnz love the bonuses,they could throw a $4000 bonus as well. Maybe they could do what those aussie gallops meetings do,just walk the last horse or two,to go into the stalls for that extra minute or two.. seems simple enough to me.

I don't doubt what you say about mcmullen being a very good driver. Its just the way he consistently drives gus which i lack confidence in. I saw him interviewed before last nights the race and he said the interdom final has been there aim all season with gus and i think that shows. Its a bit like marketplace using lead in races to have it peak for the big races.And i think like marketplace,gus is deliberately being underdriven and punters can see that and when they see it happening over and over then they think thats just a bit dodgy.thats my opinion anyway.the all stars were our best example of trainers who could perepare their horses and drive them in a way where punters had confidence they were always trying.,unlike the way i see gus. i'm of course looking at it from a punters perspective and how that impacts whether people bet on the races. i woulldn't be surprised to see him make a move in the final. That may turn out good for him if he doesn't have to work too hard after making the move,but it could also turn out bad for him because his horse has been conditioned to be a softie recently mentally and it may just say,this is harder than normal and gallop. i actually think p mcmullen is the reason a lot of those races at albion park are a bit boring. Hes a clever driver who,if he drives a favorite with a nice draw,likes to position them on the front end,whether it be in front or parked. And when he sits parked,he dictates the pace to suit him and the rest of the drivers seem to get intimidated into worrying about having to work too hard to get past him if they make a move and simply just wait and in effect throw away there chances. that of course also comes back to the factor of faster tracks being more boring because its too hard for those at the back to make a move

i just watched another race before i go to bed and the commentator said the same,just a sprint home,the backmarkers had no chance..

good tipping there gammalite.Once it got the run behind its stablemate it always looked good.the dixons do that a lot,the slightly more favoured runner does the work and the stablemate gets the economical run. The draws meant they could do that and your tip was good enough to capitalise on the nice run it got. the horse quality is high tonight,but the racing i thinks not been very exciting. it seems in every race tonight they settle in their positions,no one moves up,then only go average speed, then they sprint home from the 800m and the ones up front naturally don't stop. it was like in every race the drivers were witing for next week. a bit like watching racing at auckland,but just had more horses in them. acrually you mention gus. I watched some of his runs before and after you tipped him a month ago. I'm sure hes the best trotter there,i just don't have much confidence in the driver,p mcmullen.He just keeps getting beaten by just following them around ,seemingly waitng for next week.Again he drove a poorly judged race tonight.i'm sure if he had say b orange driving he would have won all his recent starts,apart from the one he galloped at the start in.bet and win the only other chance in the final. the way leap to fame won,it looked like he might even be getting better,if thats possible. anyway,you've got the first of the three legs in.2 to go.

so according to tonights results, they aren't paying any extra for running 5th. So maybe that does mean they will lose a point if they run 5th?

i guess that $550 would be the equivalent of about $2000 today. i think if they end up racing for that as a winning stake,then that would mean what you describe as a slow horse,which i guess means the majority, would have to win about 15 races a year to pay for its training. somehow, i think thats not such a good plan.