the galah

Rotorua used to be one of the worst in nz for air quality,not sure what its like now days. Washdyke in timaru probably the worst in nz if you go by days over a certain high risk level. Waimate had very close to the worst air yesterday in nz,but it varies a bit depending on the weather..Apparently experts say they see many more paitients % wise with lung cancer from the places with poor air quality. You refer to the "cool crisp air" of the south island,but air quality over winter is normally worse in the cooler places with population bases. The floods over in aussie look rather devastating for those effected.

He just has some differing opinions and ways of expressing them to most,and cops a bit of flak for that. I'm not sure what happens on social media platforms,but people do seem to like mocking him for some reason,which is often over the top. A few years ago I thought about moving to Waimate. It is a nice wee town of about 8000 people. On the negative side it is a town that often has poor air quality and higher nitrate levels in the water.Just up the road Timaru used to have the worst air quality in oceania and it still has poor air quality. I once lived in oamaru and there was always a lot of waimate jokes. Can't repeat most of them but generally you were told to come home before they locked the gates at night and not to drink the water.

Ok,didn't get that originally. Finally we agree on something.

Well leonne jones was formally in partnership with peter jones as trainers. Husband and wife. Cam jones is her son. Cam jones uses peter jones colours. 2 plus 2 =4 to me. Whats it to you.

Media have reported he's the son of leonne jones,married to peter jones.

Well it looked quite simple. Archman suffered interference which caused it to break,and Lamb got it wrong by not calling a false start.

One of the biggest draw backs for many is accessibility to affordable training facilities. The back bone of the industry in places like canterbury and southland has traditionally been the small time trainer,and it has often been through the small time trainer that the path to greater participation has been fostered for so many owners/ trainers or employees,all to the benefit of the industry as a whole. In places like auckland accessiblilty to training facilities must be even worse. Land used to be more reasonably affordable, but dairying has killed affordability for horse trainers,even for non irrigated land. For example. If you want to set up a training facility and buy 10 hectares of bare land,anywhere in canterbury will cost a minimum of $400,000,with some land in areas closer to population bases costing much more. Then by the time you put in a track,build a dozen stables with gear shed,power,water troughs,fencing etc you are looking probably all up about $600,000. Now who in their right mind is going to think that is a realistic goal,unless they have a wealthy family benefactor. There are so many variables to such an investment that makes viability near to impossible. Banks aren't going to lend money for that either. So what is the industry leadership doing. Well nothing. Its like they know its there,but its in the too hard basket. As i have said earlier,there isn't even a registry to link people looking for training facilities to use,with those that have them which are no longer used. This issue obviously needs addressed. It will only get worse without action.But no one seems to do anything.

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We see things differently. I have total faith in my judgment. But to use the UDR and win numbers. 2016 131 wins udr .5063 2017 110 .4493 2018 122 .4762 2019 115 .4828 2020 81 .4540 2021 53 .4067 Hayden cullen 2021 12 .4004 2020 win numbers were lower because of covid. So there has been a reduction in the udr and win numbers. It will interesting to see the end of season figures.

Somehow i don't think you would be much good as a punter. If you haven't been able to notice the difference in the performance of the all star horses,then your not much of a judge of race replays.

you pulling my leg? How happy you feel after visiting the hairdresser depends which hairdresser you use i suppose.

Has he even had 3 occasions? Is hunter getting him mixed up with kevin townley?

Well i think it is fair to say someone is feeding them information. Maybe also a lot of what they know comes from attending court. How are those court cases going? Has anyone been caught up in further charges unrelated to race fixing,as a result of information uncovered in inca. If so,do they currently have suppression orders the press know about. Harness racing followers need to take their focus away from how the message is being delivered,and focus on the actual message. So many people have been deceived by those who have been written about. Don't we all want that to stop. I'm not just talking about punters. heres one example. Whats the aussie who bought Smokin By from m kerr thinking. He bought a 7 win horse from 23 starts,that was good enough to start in the nz cup. He pays good money for it,takes it to aussie,only to find it immediately is not competitive, even when it drops back in grades. So he sells it cheap. Now that fella must feel totally ripped off when he learns about what is being said about the kerr stable. And here"s another thing i will say. We have people like M geurin criticising the mainstream media,yet he feeds us misinformation. I trust the press reporters over what he has to say when he starts talking about certain personalities.

Well i will tell you what i think Brodie. I think the press reporters know there is more to come and they are keeping this subject on the boil. They ,and those who decide what they print deem it news worthy. Isn't it about time you started filling in the dots.How about lets look at it from a horse performance point of view,which the press have not really touched on so far. Well those who have been the subject of the stories are. Matt anderson. Now i'm sure brodie you started a thread on the horse Noble mistress after matt anderson took over the training of this struggling non win trotter after it won by 10 lengths at addington in a very fast time. You questioned how could that happen. Who's a close associate, mitchell kerr. Anderson was Mitchell kerrs regular driver.Anderson also drove for jesse alford. Mitchell Kerr. This stable has long been the subject of innuendo relating to horse performances. The one off turnaround in form by arcano at addington was the subject of a bit of a yarn topic. Well who did Kerr also help out. steve dolan. Steve dolan. The amazing win by the horse tall poppy at timaru. that day it jogged 2000m in 2.25 horse,winning by 12 lengths and looked like it could have just kept running at the finish. When stewards received information that Dolan had in fact given the horse to kerr to train for a few days,and failed to notify authorities,dolan was fined. Remember dolan got that 10 start non win pacer form southland last year, and won by about 18 lengths at addington. I have previously started a thread on a the performance of his horses. Jesse alford. Well M Anderson was a driver he often used. The win by the Alford horse at ashburton in 2.55 by a big space was a jaw dropping improvement on its previous runs before joining his stable.Now hes been caught. So why is cam jones now the focus of the articles. I don't know. What i do know is M kerr and matt anderson were the drivers of the cam jones horse no nuke skipper,who provided jones with most of this seasons wins. Who is have the press said is lobbying to get matt anderson back into harness racing. Peter jones and ken spicer. Peter jones related to cam jones.Ken spicer former boss at hrnz. Who has been Nigel Mcraths main supporter. Ken Spicer. There you go. I have filled in some of the dots for you Brodie. I'm not even privy to what the press know. What i have just written is common knowledge. And as i have just said earlier. They no doubt have far more to write,its just whether it sees the light of day. Brodie,you and others can keep telling everyone its all a witch hunt,i don't think so.

At the hairdressers?

Personally i think they don't have the run forever,come back having broken a record without raising a sweat look anymore.Somethings missing in my opinion but they still look like they are just as well prepared and well driven as they used to be.

I'm not a fan of the way zac butcher drives sometimes,and have said so in the past. I don't deny his ability,just don't like the way he drives sometimes. On this occasion i think the stipes are quite right to ask the question over his drive on liason. They would be negligent if they didn't. I do however think that the video shows the horse is giving its best,and while Butcher is not showing much vigour,i think its because he knows its trying its best. The optics of the drive are why there is an inquiry into it. But in my opinion he should be judged on whether he gave the horse every opportunity to win and whether he was was getting the best out of it. And personally i think he was. Gammalite i don't think the Ben hope drive on easy pickings is an exact comparison as easy pickings wasn't trotting that squarely earlier in the straight and tends to break if pressured when trotting like that. I think it got more balanced as it got closer to the post. I backed it and understood why hope drove it like he did.

You know i once had a fella train a horse for me, a very ,very good trainer. He no longer trains. This would be 2O years ago. One of the things he said to me i remember. He said if you knew you were competing against others who were giving stuff that gave them an advantage over yours,then what would you do. Would you want to get left behind...or words to that effect. Then about 10 years ago when travelling with another trainer i knew, he was telling me about a conversation he had with another leading trainer that week who was complaining about another high profile trainer having something that was giving their horses an edge. The fella i was talking to said he told the trainer your only unhappy because what you use to help performance isn't as good,to which he said the trainer replied well yeah. Both trainers had positives not long after,but not because the ineffective riu at the time actually wanted to catch them. I also had another conversation about the same time where we discussed a recent RIU press release that said they were aware a small group of stables were using a drug which they were going to start testing for and told trainers not to continue using it. That was at a time when the RIU used to sweep everything under the carpet because they didn't want the bad publicity. The trainer i was talking too joked as to what stables would lose form and who the vet was who had put the trainers on to the performance enhancer. He also joked how long it would be before they got back into form. Sure enough the stables he named all lost a leg for a month,but then miraculously all came back into form. Then there was the time about 20 years ago when an owner i knew was telling me how the really nice horse he had trained in the north island had just up and dropped dead,and that the said trainer had 3 die that week in similar circumstances,which he thought very suspicious. He changed trainers after that. But the most telling thing is what you see with your own eyes. As i have said,i think things are currently as honest as they have for some time.But that is only because we have a pro active RIU. In the past the RIU have been complicit by overlooking and pre warning trainers. You can't just change overnight attitudes learnt over long periods of time. However you have to start somewhere,and thats what we are currently living. The key is for the RIU to continue what they have started and help make permanent changes to peoples attitudes and behaviors.

He was a wee champ. I once visited where he used to train and he had a good set up. Thats the thing about harness racing,if your younger there is so much money needed to buy the ground and then set up a training facility,and its a shame that some properties that used to be occupied by trainers, have facilities that are sitting there unused. I've always thought there should be some sort of registry that hrnz could operate whereby private facilities that are available can be listed so as to provide a link for those looking to train. And that hrnz should be pro active in liaising and trying to retain facilities that are there when someone retires or sells,as the person taking over the property may be happy to receive some form of income from renting out their facilities,and would be more likely to do so if they knew the organisation that ran harness racing maintained some type of oversight should the unlikely event of a dispute occur. It could also help income for some trainers who do not have the numbers any more. Just one of those things that is missing,but seems overlooked. The brian i was actually referring to was brian o'meara. I remember as a kid being at the races at addington and he had a hot favorite that was late getting there,only turning up in the birdcage a couple of minutes before race start time,and was scratched by stewards. Apparently he had stopped at the pub on the way to addington,and lost track of time and only realised when someone told him shouldn't your horse be at the races.

Is that you brian? Do you still gear them up in the float?

They could introduce minimum penalties for breaches of certain rules if previous breaches of the same rule has occurred. Perhaps a 3 strike rule could be introduced for the type of offence being discussed. That would help give the impression they were getting tough,but personally i think in reality it wouldn't change or help much,and some industry participants would most likely not support its introduction.

I thought it was good to see Cullen finally have his own racing colours. One of the strengths of that stable has always been their drivers ability to rate them and run at consistent speeds,and i think the drives yesterday made them look a bit more surperior to the likes of the hill horse who lead and worked early,than there actually is in ability. The disappointment of the race for me was the dalgety horse casino action. Ran 3rd in a group 1 the start prior,but just battled yesterday. Its form has been very inconsistent so far.

You can think what you want about what i say. But just because you condemn those who have transgressed in your current post does not mean "most on here" have posted opinions condemning their actions. We can't be reading the same things on here. The focus for many has clearly been on attacking the RIU and the press. I actually think you expressing the view that the likes of mcgrath and alford should be banned forever is a typical over reaction from someone who is taking things completely out of context,similar to what you have with the press articles. Why on earth should alford,who has no previous history,be banned for life. Why should Mcgrath get a life ban? How could that possibly be fair when you compare what has happened to others in the past,yet you call my opinion garbage. What next. What say someone comes up in court in the future on drugs charges. Will you want them gone forever as well? Your saying harness racing is the victim of sensationalism and unbalanced reporting by the press. Well thats the world we live in. At least i have expressed constructive ways of how industry leaders should be handling that side of things. You just go on about how harness racing is the victim.How does that help change the news cycle?

So all this focus on condemning who writes the stories,and not one reference from all those making the recent posts condemning the actions of those he writes about. Says a lot,and i'm giving up pointing that out.