the galah

Its a really tough horse. Reminds me of one of my old favorites ,Jerry Garcia.

That horse opened at a silly price given the way it had trialed before its first race. And the favorite in that race was left with no real chance of winning after making its move far too late. Well done to those who backed it at the long price. I wish i had seen that one.

I don't think they have a grudge against either you or j young. Its simply your not amongst their favorite drivers,probably because they have not had much luck when they have invested on your drives. I do agree with you that if anyone is going to offer an opinion about a drive,they should do so based on what they see off the video,not based on how it impacted their pocket. Its pretty obvious that Corravally star was pushed onto the fence,despite the efforts of J young to stay off the rail. Its also obvious that Jenabella had some sort of steering issue which was no fault of the driver. I think cross codes should have a look at the video again. I don't know why those details weren't covered in the stipes report. I would have thought in jenabella"s case the stewards should have had a vet examination,or at least looked in its mouth,or given driver comments,so as to keep punters better informed.

We just say drive the horse to achieve the best possible result. Mark purdon makes errors,just like anyone else. It is the motive for the error which is what we are discussing. I find it ironic that someone calling themselves gammalite is arguing that taking a trail automatically gives any horse the best opportunity to win.

You ask why i have decided amazing dream is better than Beyond Words. With that statement you have just proved the merit,or lack of in your statements. How often did you hand up the front after getting an easy lead on the $1.10 favorite? And Purdon saying it is best driven with a trail is an absolute joke when you look at its racing patterns. You say a great result for the ALL Stars. Again that is where your argument is flawed. Here we are complaining about team driving and you refer to their success as a team. The forlorn task is getting you to admit the obvious. Purdon's decision to trail Beyond words was based on it being trained by him,not on what was best for his chances..That decision appeared pre planned. Had the roles been reversed then nobody would have had an issue,because everybody knows Amazing dream is the best horse. Forbury may get a bit carried away sometimes,but that doesn't mean what he says is wrong. I,and i think everyone else know Purdon went out there with every intention to win,its just the way he executed that intention was badly flawed,he sacrificed amazing dreams chances,for the benefit of the team.You won't see a more obvious case of team driving,period,and he should be given a holiday for it.

I don't know what form book you use,but Amazing dream is the better horse and would outstay Beyond Words anyday. Purdon was pulling back as soon as he saw it coming. It appeared pre planned. I don't think your arguing this topic on its merits. I think you enjoy taking the opposite view.

Come on Gammalite. Be honest. Your telling us,Amazing dream,the horse you say should have won the NZ ffa 2 starts ago,and who is renowned for its stamina,should drop in behind a 4 win horse. Its a no brainer. Everyone who was watching thought he was doing it to assist the his stablemate. It cost him the win. He's not there to drive to help his stablemate win,hes there to drive his horse in a way that gives it the best chance of winning. p.s. i did not have a bet on the race.

Don't think they will do anything,but i do agree that was a bad case of team driving gone wrong. Mark purdon is a great trainer,but i think he would be only driver in nz to think dropping into the trail was a bright move. He does drive some shockers sometime and opens himself up to criticism. The question is was it team driving,and did it diminish amazing dreams chances. I personally think the answer to both is yes,without any doubt whatsoever.

He once transported a horse of ours to Forbury. It started in an early race and we went home after ot had run. We were in Oamaru at the time and at the end of the night he rung and we met him and he dropped the horse off. Only problem was the horse that came off the float wasn't ours. Not sure who's it was but he put it back on his float and went home to waimate. The next day he went back to forbury,returned the wrong horse,and got ours.

If your trying to bet today best to bet early as they have closed the totes a couple of minutes before the start of the first 2 races. Also race 2 result only just shown now on trackside and the tab website, with just 6 minutes to go to next race.

It was an unusual move, it looked like he thought they were going too slow,and when he pulled out, his horse didn't respond like he thought it would,so he dropped back in. Didn't show much dash at all.

The man who drove it.M Anderson. Buried him in lawyers bills and stress.. Put up its run on the 2nd day,and its previous runs and you will get context on how it was always driven. It was the hot favorite. Anyway its all been said before,and i have explained why previously. Remember the trackside comments man straight after the race described the drive as "Unbelievable". We have done this race to death. You will never change my mind,nor that of many others. Its only a race,everyone makes mistakes,consequences don't always fit the action,but Anderson drove it that way,not the riu.

Maybe they knew someone else was looking into the allegations at the time.Who knows. How unlucky you must think they were to serve up something like that to the investigation,given how honest you think that drive was ranga. That drive was a link in the chain that helped bury those involved. Yet you won't admit it.

There's an irony that the stipes report from that race has been posted under this thread. Certainly applied that day.

That trotter had previously shown ability before O'connell got it to train. He obviously has got its manners and head right and it has improved as it has matured. Haven't seen one win like he did at oamaru for a long time,so will be interesting to see how far it can go up the grades.

Go have another look at the johnny white drive at nelson,then be honest when you ask yourself who is to blame.

Race 10. i had thought Thats the story may win,but it cleary got knocked over. Stipes report said Thats the story locked wheels with Momentous when Momentous attempted to shift it in. To me this is another open and shut case,yet no action was taken against s ottley,momentous's driver. Have a look at the video and its clear that she puts her sulky wheels inside the wheel of Thats the story in a quick inward movement. Thats the story had to break because of that. Yet not even a mention of that careless driving.

See this horse is a $3.00 ff favorite in the naxt race. Surely a false favorite given its draw,distance and its pacing action. We will see.

It was amazing that it took about 40 minutes to get a result. All they had to do was look at a video and count the distance,and look at the horse and decide when it was galloping and when it wasn't.

Litlebitoflove didn't gallop for 150m and quite rightly kept the win. There was nothing wrong with the Shan noble drive,so don't know how you could possibly come to that conclusion. I have watched Call me trouble video countless times and in the video i watch there is no way it galloped 150m. They must have decided to include the part where it regained its gait and trotted roughly with its head around as being in a gallop. But trotting roughly is not galloping. Just watch its legs.Its the poorest decision i can think of in recent times by the JCA.

I have watched this several times,slowed it down many times,and have come to the conclusion that anyone who backed Call me trouble really have been robbed by an incompetent decision. I understand the rule is you can't gallop anymore than 150m. Well by my estimation,by counting the markers,its galloped between 115-120 metres. So how it got disqualified is a total mystery. Its on the video,it gallops for 110m, trots for 30m while hanging,gallops 10m then trots. How can punters have any confidence when decisions like that are made? It wasn't even a hard decision,yet they still got it wrong.

We had as big as was legal,with the extensions on,we put him as far forward in the cart as we could,had every bit of gear remade,he had hopples that were 74 inches long and they still looked too tight. I couldn't even get shoes to fit and struggled to get someone to make them that big, with the right steel. And of course when your dealing with one like that you have your trials and tribulations along the way that can be a bit demoralising. I think he would go well in those standardbred a.m.p shows they have,as anyone who sees him says he looks outstanding. Oh,and my advice to anyone who may be starting off ,is if you have a horse that bolts on the training track,and you can't restrain it,just go with it and keep it on the track and keep going round until it gets a bit tired. Use your energy to restrain it at the right time,and try to do it gradually.Also,don't do that at the point just before where it normally comes off the track,as you don't want it to be veering off on you, as that could be a little bit dangerous.

Bolting horses is an interesting topic,as i think one of the first things any trainer should tell a new,inexperienced employee is how to deal with such a horse.Its very important if you are to avoid future injury to person and horse. In my view,their are several causes,but i agree with the chief that the breaking in process is very important for future manners. I have found that the trainers who take their time,and have a good reputation, are the best ones to use.Same if doing it yourself,its surprising how good they turn out if you take your time.. I also found that those who do it cheaper always seemed to get it done quicker,and always the horse had poorer future manners. So that is a factor,but obviously the horses nature/breeding itself is important as some obviously are more highly strung. Then the gear issue i referred to earlier. Just as pinching gear can cause a horse to buck,horses that are geared up incorrectly or are simply too big,can hit the sulky with their back feet,which of course leads them to panic and their natural inclination is to try and get away which means they can bolt. Thats why in years gone past drivers used to drop a leg turning for home when in the sulky and make contact with the back feet to make the horses run faster. Something no longer allowed. Everyone will come across horses that bolt if you work in a stable. I have had a couple i trained. The first one i had i worked out early if i just let him go and he would bolt half a round, then i just took hold of him and he became as relaxed as. I used to have to get him lead on to the track for a start,but he soon got out of the bolting habit. Although one day i had him driven by another good driver in training,who i told to let him just go if he wanted to bolt for 400m,but that driver,even though he was very experienced tryed to restrain him and ended up bolting 5 rounds. The other horse i had that used to bolt simply was too big,and would hit the footrests at high speed which used to cause him to panic and either bolt or gallop. In the end he just wouldn't run at top speed as i'm sure he was worried about hitting the cart.He was as big and powerful a standardbed as i have ever seen,and i thought as fast as anything i had ever had,but he never raced.

For what its worth in my opinion the best thing to do is give them a bit of clear air and let them run. No point fighting them. Thats what most drivers do. The ones that restrain them hard often choke and fall. Normally they are the ones in the field without an option to let them run.So many examples of that.(e.g.megarock last week) Occasionally you will see a driver in the open do the same. I remember watching a horse MIss waikiwi restrained so hard one day at winton the woman driver actually was strong enough to get it to fall.(16/12/18). So there are examples of horses that may want to bolt,you just don't see them intentionally put into positions in the field that could be dangerous. Horses that hit the sulky with their back legs develop a fear factor and that can effect them all their career. Its rare,but some horses stride is simply too big for the sulky length allowed. If thats what your saying happened to mr pyers, well i can believe that, as it looked like he really wasn't in control. I can't have been nice for him. I personally think when driving a horse like that you just have to be aware that you can't end up boxed in on the fence where you have no options.Of course thats not always easy.

Licence holders aren't going to tape conversations with stipes where the licenceholder loses his temper. Thats not going to be much help to them. But if they want to tape their any conversations with stipes just in case,well go ahead,whatever good that would do. Besides advocating for something you say should not happen is a contradiction. Why have some referred to INCA? What has harbraken got to do with INCA other than they both involved the RIU Whats muirhead got to do with inca? Muirhead was asked to deal with the matter by HRNZ. Is it their fault as well? If not why differentiate? Do you think the stipe should have just let him run the horse in the workout and then charged him with a more serious offence? To me this is an uncomplicated case. My view is its just another example of criticising the RIU when it is not deserved,and that undermines future criticism of the RIU when it is deserved. Hold your fire until you can make it count.