the galah

duchess megxit's race that it won last friday at auckland,was a race where bob butt tried to just outsprint them with a quick last quarter. They ran a 28.7 second last quarter in that one,last quarter in 27.2 an overall time of 2.41.3. Bob Butt must have been thinking he had the fastest horse. I don't mind seeing a driver just sprint them home if it suits his horse,but given the overall time and where duchess megixt was positioned out the back,it appeared butt not rolling quicker from the 800m meant duchess megxit got into a challenging position much easier than it really should have. Maybe duchess megxit would have won anyway,whatever butt did.But i think that was a race which showed how the tactics you refer to gammalite,could have been effective if applied.

The evidence being given to the current nsw greyhound commission of inquiry is very interesting. In july this year, greyhound racing nsw ,with big fanfare,announced that wentworth park was to provide a machine that any greyhound trainer could use, that they claimed "would detect underlying,not yet visible injuries leading to further advances in injury detection and animal welfare." Called Canidgait analysis. sounded like they may have been intending to roll them out at other tracks. Apparently the machines cost $60,000 each and came from germany. only problem was the chief veterinary officer at the time of the purchase,had described them, as useless, for the purpose that greyhound nsw was claiming they would be used for. but that chief vet then resigned,but not before giving a bombshell report heavily critical of greyhound nsw animal welfare issues. That bombshell report resulted in the ceo of greyhound nsw resigning in july,almost as soon as the report became public. anyway,greyhound nsw then sought a replacement,chief veterinary officer,and the perosn who got the job was someone who had only 3 years experience after graduating from vet school and with no specific greyhound knowledge other than what they had struck when doing relieving work at some vet practices. seemed an odd choice ,maybe that was why they were chosen. But that vet resigned not long after as ,although with the offical title of chief vet,apparently it wasn't a full time posistion. (And maybe they also cottoned on to what they were walking into.)Also that vet,had not even realised when first interviewed that the position being considered was chief vet and seemingly didn't really want such a job, as they were happy being a relief vet for clinics who had vets away) that vet did get a trip to germany to see the new machines,and did think they were worthwhile,just not really for greyhounds because the maximum speed of the treadmill was only 20kmph,dogs were not going around bends on the machine,the surfaces they were on were different to track surfaces,etc.

i thought the pacers final turned out to be a contest befitting of and interdom final. luke mccarthy had to go to plan b,when a couple of drivers made decisions at the start that backfired on their own chances. ryan sanderson, driving dangerous ,interviewed pre race by brittany graham,at that point indicated he would press out of the gate a little,but not overdo it,due to the speed of others outside him. But turned out he executed his own pre race plan poorly,with him going out harder than he should and seemingly attempting for 150 metres to hold out the fast beginner in moonlite dream. Problem for him,was moonlite dream was always going to have the speed to cross him and all sanderson achieved was making the horse he eventually trailed, work too hard and you could tell after 250m sandersons horse would get stuck behind moonlite dream when it stopped and thats what happened. A better drive may have seen him run a place but the horse did well to still run 5th. the other driver who chanced his arm early was Cam hart driving curly james. He must have been working on the scenario that he could get in front of don hugo and then trail him. To me that didn['t make much sense either as that would have meant he would have to burn too hard to achieve that,and thats what he did,with hart seemingly resigned to finishing down the track after 400m and just attacking moonlite dream because he didn't get his way. i had thought it was a race where obviously the horse who ended up parked early would get cover as minstrel was always going to come round at some stage mid race. just like it did and he would have been the ideal horse to follow. also on the first bend,brad hewitt ,who had driven well to win the trotters final the race before,made a poor tactical decision and attempted to come off when the head on showed he didn't have enough room. i'm surprised he wasn't given a suspension for that as he took himself and another out of the race when they locked wheels and considerable ground. meanwhile,luke mccarthy made all the right moves at the right time,but his horse still had to dig very deep as minstrels driver also drove a clever race,realising don hugo had gone a bit harder than ideal early,tried to outstay don hugo and minstrel fought a valiant battle from a long way out,but came up just short. The locomotive won the trotters final through just sheer power. Brad hewitt rated his well and he was just too good. queen elida went pretty much like she did in the final heat. a battling 5th by her standards,after chris alford gave her the best run he could in the 1/1,given he was always going to end up outside the locomotive at the start. all in all a very good series in my opinion.

yes,greyhound racing governance in nz for years gave the appearance it often ignored,or badly underestimated the significance of the increasing momentum, the anti greyhound racing groups message was gaining. And as the anti greyhound racing groups voices became louder and gained more sympathetic media coverage,the nz greyhound industry rolled on at increased scale and morphed into an industry that rewarded and was driven by the big factory type operators. and at that larger scale,it was ineviltable the issues the anti greyhound people targeted, were occuring at greater scale. it was always going to be a case of,be careful what you wish for. some predicted it,some have said they saw it coming with the benefit of hindsight and others still deny it should be. no point blaming the woke or the do gooders.How was it there fault?They were just doing what they do. They were always in plain sight.Yet the greyhound industry gave them the scale of ammunition that they fired. its just reality of the world we live in these days. Good governance and leadership with proper foresight may never have prevented it,but they may have delayed it or mitigated the scale of it.But too late now. all thats left in reality is for it to be dissected on the likes of social meidia. sites like this,where coincidentally some warned of the consequences. as i mentioned,given some of the evidence presented at the nsw hearing,they must be in trouble. as to horse racing. I believe with proper leadership,the continuation of horse racing, has nothing to fear in our lifetime,although you can see jumps racing will probably go in under a decade. good governance is so important for industries like the racing codes.And treating industries that support your own is of vital importance. An example is what the tab did to the publicans who had tab's in their pubs. When they reduced tote % of turnover payout by about 1% the publicans at the tab's responsed with this isn't fair, with shit or no service when you go there,no fields on the wall,reduced promotions on days like melbounre cup,less industry exposure...anyway the point is ,like with what happened with greyhound racing,the big picture is normally steering you in the face,you just have to open your eyes and plot a course which benefits the people whose interests you represent.

well thats good to here. However i'm still a little skeptical as to what they classify as rehoming,as i am of the other racing codes. but,assuming the figures i saw are correct,then in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, a single trainer accounted for over half the official number euthanised. then,as to the numbers rehomed in the abovementioned racing season,shown on the official greyhound nz website, for 2020/21 is 665 and 2021/22 577. then this trainer x, only euthanised 6 dogs in the first half of the 2022/23 season. so in effect it was inferred he would have rehomed looking at the figures,about another 80 dogs that year. Yet that year,the official number rehomed for the 2022/23 season was 96 less,being 481. so hes provided about a 15% increase in dogs to be rehomed,but instead of the number in that time frame going up,it officially went down about 15%. like i said,i'm just going on the figures that are said to be accurate,so looking at them its hard to believe that there has not been a reclassification of the definition of rehoming,euthanising or maybe it was something like the trainer got disqualified. who knows ,but the numbers look dodgy. then look at where they are being rehomed. in the october 2024 report from greyhound nz,it says in the 3 month period between august and october- 138 dogs were rehomed,being 72 domestically,11 privately rehomed by participants,1 retained by an owner and 54 sent to america to a rehoming place there. so looking at that,doesn't it seem obvious that if you having to go to the expense of sending 54 to america just to keep your figures looking good,doesn't that tell you can't find enough homes in nz. And only 1 being retained by an owner compared to the 54 sent to america. i don't know,it indicates to me that greyhound nz have gone to extreme lengths to rehome them and to have the numbers classified so as to minimise the perception of euthanisations. good on them for that,but doesn't that just all seem a bit extreme and an indication of how difficult the problem is and always will be. i'm going to give up on reading all these figures and commenting again, as the whole thing is just sad whatever way i look at it. i can tell the people on here care,so at least there are many who do everything they can to make it all turn out as best it can.

but then you had the cole case of all those fake people.Things like that just undermine your whole system. they said the trainer who officially put down the 174 in 2 years,only put down 6 the following year(2023) after he was talked to by the rib.Seriously,can anyone really believe that he all of a sudden he had an epiphany,after years of the same practice,and all of a sudden they cared more about their dogs and had somehow tapped into a rehoming service.My guess would be they just came up with a way to reclassify what was rehoming or euthanising. From my observations,people who do things like that become dehumanised to what they are doing and it just becomes pert of their every week routine. once your mindset becomes like that you don't change.

well then those that have been should have seen it coming and bear some responsibility. i was meaning people like edward rennell,as hes only been there a couple of years. seems a bit unfair to place much blame on him.the ship was already sinking. i don't know the personalities involved that you refer to,but did some benefit financially,thus tainting their judgment? Thats often what happens .People work their ways into postions of influence as they see themselves influencing decisions fromn which they personally benefit,not the industry as a whole. i do remember david scott,a greyhound nz board member, making headlines when he got disqualified for supplying his trainer with performance enhancers. Instead his trainer,nathan udy didn't use them and reported him. I don't know how that effected nathan udy thereafter,but sounded like udy was just trying to do the right thing.Of course scott had other trainers and seemingly they must have been happy to use the performance enhancers as they didn't come forward. i guess that was a story which seemed to sum the greyhound industry up. you had someone(udy),who represented the majority who were in it for the love of the sport and the dogs,willing to stand up and do what he thought was right. But in reality,that just turned into a temporary leveling out of the downard spiral of racing integrity and standing. then again,maybe there was more to that ,maybe udy had a fall out. i don't know, others may know. all industries have a bit of dishonesty and corrupt practice based around financial gain,just the greyhounds seemed to have more and it was the big names that often created greyhound racings worst headlines. Those big names may not have represented the majority of licence participants,but they sure represented the control of the majority of dogs racing.

I'm just an outsider looking in,but i thought its obvious current greyhound administrators are not to blame for the industries impending fate. they were dealt cards that they couldn't win with,no matter how they stacked them. simply,the industry, since 1981,when it had its first tab meeting,had evolved to become an industry that financially rewarded the factory type large scale breeders,large scale trainers,large scale owners. so thats what you got. with that you got an increased number of meetings,increased numbers racing and with that obviously went increased numbers being injured followed by large scale population management problems. so the industry evolved into something which inevitably lead to the perpetuation and increase in scale of all its issues.like a runaway train. one trainer in the 2021,2022 seasons reportedly euthanised 174 dogs. He may well have been accurately reporting their numbers,but were they. And what about the others large scale operators,were they being accurate,as others must have had the same rehoming issues. And thats without going into injuries.The same year newshub reported mr mcinerney dropped off 11 greyhounds at a rehoming kennel,with 8 reported having substanial injuries,which he denied they had at the time. so the industry had become set up to reward the large scale operators,the very ones who,given their scale couldn't possibly handle the poplutaion management once dogs had finished either because they weren't good enough,had been injured or had retired. should people have seen the greyhound industry evoleving in a way that would lead to their demise,of course,some obviously did,but to me its too late now to change.sa. how can greyhound have a future beyond 2 years,as the reasons for their closure will still be there in 2 years.

thats a little silly in lots of ways isn't it? Saying because greyhound punters and supporters can't enjoy there sport here,lets deprive them of it totally. ascot park has gallops as well ,i wonder what addington will lose?

but rehoming will be over and done with within a couple of years. you would think winston would use government funds to provide for the rehoming,as it was a government decision,not racing funds for that ..maybe some overseas greyhound revenue initially only,if at all. what plan is poorly thought out.The rehoming thing by government? i agree with that. seems very unrealistic,which is why our thoughts are with the poor dogs and the people who own them. as to the plan as to where the money goes thats generated from greyhounds racing overseas. I guarantee winston and the officails that made that decision would be aware where that revenue will go. racing has to grab with both hands any windfall that comes there way,whether it be at the greyhounds expense. the nz government is shutting down the greyhound industry based on greyhound issues.

last week i was reading about the breakdown in relationship between greyhound NSW and ladbrokes.They have had a multi million agreement around sponsorship and support. One of the issues,which has upset entain/ladbrokes,was ladbrokes believing NSW greyhound had breached a contract whereby ladbrokes was supposed to have sole naming rites on the rugs. In other words the ladbrokes name appeared on each coloured dog rug which has the number. Greyhound nsw apparently had allowed rival betting agencies. so why don't HRNZ sign a deal with entain/ladbrokes which agrees to their logo/name, easily distinguishable, on each number that each harness horse has on. dean shannon is a harness man,why can't they get their heads together and work out something that will benefit the nz industry financially.

there must be many variables that surely people in the thorougbred industry or the harness industry must have worked out prior to the annoucemnet,just in case so to speak. well maybe not the harness industry, as i don't have much confidence in how they do their maths or even if they have shown any interest in doing any maths. But the thoroughbred industry,you would think have some figures worked out. For example ,once the nz greyhound industry folds you would think winston will sort it out so that the income from revenue generated by wagering on overseas greyhound racing,in particular australian greyhounds,which must be significant,well that income you would think will now go to the racing codes. Now i would imagine,the thoroughbred people will try and get it so they get the mmaximum slice they can,whether they argue it be market share or whatever. harness racing have to be proactive. Forget supporting the greyhound industry.Given the state of their books,its every man or horse industry,for themselves. remember,edward renell,head of greyhound nz,is doing the racing industry no favours whatsoever by currently highlighting the comparisons between the current greyhound issues,with the horse racing industries. lets hope hrnz are already formulating a plan to pitch for as mush of that money as they can. Of course,harness racing need to include in that pitch to winston,that they have been impacted greater by the greyhound announcement due to the income they will lose from having no greyhound racing at the tracks which are dual coded like addington.

but in reality it is. At least thats how i see the greyhound industry. In my eyes its become a factory type production driven by the big players who consistently line up between 50-75% of the starters at many meetings each week. Many with the same owners who own huge numbers. The industry is judged by what their high achievers do and they are judged by the lengths they have gone to achive that success. how can they not be. thats my opinion and i used to follow the greyhounds very closely. Putting the coles indiscretions to one side.Take the mcinerny kennels. Lets put their indescretions to one side as well because,while several hadn't quite reached the scale of the coles. How many dogs did they line up at invercargill then travel back to addington and race 2 days later in the last week and a half..Many starting 4 times in the space of 10 days. I posted earlier the former chief vet at greyhound nsw described that practice as barbaric when giving evidence last week and he gave the reasons why he thought that. i started a thread 4 years ago about how inconsistent canterbury trainers dogs were and in particular the mcinerny kennel.I also started another thread ,last year,i think it was, about how even the commentator said words to the effect that he found it almost impossible to follow that kennels form. I mean just think about the reasons why that is the case. problem gamblers are people who bet on anything on the screen. And greyhounds are on the screnn in front of them a lot.The fact that there may be more greyhound racing than horse racing,simply because they get through their races quicker,isn't greyhounds fault. Having no nz greyhounds won't solve the problem gambling issue in any way. entain i believe will just pay lip service to the announced closure,to facilitate the outcome best for them in the future. In reality i think entain couldn't care less about the nz greyhound industry. They may care more if the likes of australian states start to domino in the next 10 years,but entain are only interested in one thing. Their bottom line. Having said that,i do think dean shannon does have an interest in seeing harness racing continue in nz as hes got a lot of his own money invested in it. But Entain already provides so much product to bet on with so little interest to new zealanders,they will just put something else in its place.

i see that commision of inquiry won't report back to the nsw gevernment until 20 april 2025 due to the scale of the evidence being presented. but it doesn't sound good for nsw greyhound racing going by some of the evidence presented so far.Or the media coverage. counsel assisting the commissioner earlier described the "unfortunate regular cycle of outcry,review and attempted reform,but true or complete success of reforms has always proved evasive". of the 26 tracks currently in operation,not a single one meets, or has ever met,all the minimum standards set by greyhound nsw for animal welfare concerns. NSW 's chief greyhound chief executive resigned in august after the report of the former chief veterinary officer for greyhound nsw was made public ,that alleged deaths being hidden,adoption rates exaggerated and dogs being pushed to race causing injuries. I gave small exerts of his evidence in an earlier post. all sounds familiar to here. about 2000 people in nsw are employed in the greyhound industry. So doesn't sound good for them either.Maybe their end may be when wentworth park lease expires in september 2027.

Well,i have always checked in on this forum from time to time and i had thought you started off a long time ago as the canary in the coalmine and that canary kept singing the same song,over and over and based it on stats and data. some chose to minimise your contributions,some chose to ignore what you said. But it seemed clear to anyone thinking logically,that you were warning,in your own way,of the impending terminal fate of greyhound racing in NZ. and you were asking ,whats being done to prevent it. that was always my take on your posts. I used to think,how can anyone possibly think your motives were anything other than to protect the welfare of the dogs. If ever anyone can say,i told you so,i think its yankiwi. i really think ,from reading what many are saying about the rehoming ,that the greyhound industry really do need to become vocal about the fate of all their greyhounds,to ensure as many of them have a happy life when the racing is all over. I think,the small time people most likely will do everything they can,i just hope the factory type breeders do as well. Both have been dealt a very unfair hand by the political parties. For the greyhounds sake,the public ,nearer the end of the racing,have to be made aware exactly how perilous some greyhounds fate will become and demand accountability and funding from the government,to ensure a better overall fate of the dogs.

i just turned trackside on,and blow me down theres whanganui straight track grass racing. i guess because wanganui was the area i thought dodgy things happened,i hadn't noticed. Strange that i hadn't seen it before given how much i have trackside on,but apparently its been going every couple of weeks for about 5 months. anyway,having watched a few of todays races,i think the straight track racing at wanganui has to be the best viewing of any trackside greyhound meeting. Much better viewing than you seeIt than the likes of capalaba and healesville that i see each week. Only thing is its well inside the galloping track and really,would have no atmosphere as its so far away from the public. Had it been just over the fence from the public,then i can imagine greyhound racing ,with a track like that,could have got a far better following if raced every sunday afternoon. A bit like the appeal of the grass track harness,but on a smaller scale. anyway,what if seems of no help. but whats pretty obvious from the races i have seen today,was how little interference occured,how straight the dogs ran and that they really can be quite majestic in their own way.I have to say i don't feel the same when i see them run around a track. anyway,what are the injury rates so far for that track?does anyone know.. Probably they don't deserve tyo keep going because the main bebeficiaru is the kennel who yankiwi has highlighted earlier in regards to how dishonest they werse shown to be around the rehoming thing. It does make you wonder,when greyhound nz saw the writing on the wall,why did they not pivit to the straight grass tracks like wanganui all over nz..

i see the tab website still saying you cant deposit money from banks into accounts so sounds like a trip to a money machine then to a tab required to make a deposit into account,if it continues to be a problem..

Theres a report due out this week in nsw. heres some of the evidence thats been presented at the lastest inquiry.. this was evidence given just last week. people can read it on line if they wish. to give just a very small segment...Its not fo the faint hearted.It was from the chief veterinary officer at Greyhound nsw,employed since 2023. at one point he referred to 90 dogs that had been euthanised at the 28 nsw tracks in his study period. he said in evidence.....there were dogs that had been sliced in half by a flailing wire from the lure,there were dogs that had run into poles and had their skulls crushed,there dogs with leg fractures,dogs that had there legs ripped off,dogs with torn stomachs,with twisted lungs,dogs bleeding out from ruptured blood vessels in their abdomen-they were the 10 of the 90 dogs that had been euthanised ,that he agreed with euthanisation.. However he went on to say that about 90% of the dogs who had been euthanasied at the tracks would have most likely,if pets,been taken to a high quality vet hospitals and would have been saved.He was given a budget by nsw greyhound,to set up the framework for protocol and liased with vet hospitals so that dogs could receive better care in the future. however ,given vet care is expensive and the cost for the whole recovery was on average $5,800,that was why greyhounds were being euthanised so much. he also went on to give evidence around the causes of thesignificant increasing number of injuries seen in 2023. He said he believed that a $60 travel subsidy for each starter that had been introduced in 2023 was,in his opinion,the major cause of increased injuries. The the travel subsidy had been introduced to get more starters per race and therefore give something back to participants and create greater turnover with fuller fields. what he found was with the more numbers running there was a significant increase in injury numbers ,because of course logically there were greater numbers running,but also because greyhounds who shouldn't have been racing were.. And greyhounds were being asked to race more frequently when they shouldn't have been.In fact he called it barbaric that greyhound nsw had been allowing dogs to run every 2 days... of course that happens in nz quite often i thought.well for the moment The governing nsw greyhound body came to the same conclusion and had since rescinded the travel subsidy. anyway,people should get the drift,greyhound racing in nsw has reasons to be worried as well if you read the evidence being presented at the current inquiry. i suppose,like last time,itwill come down to political support and public perception.

Technical issues to do with a 3rd party ,so they say...kept it vague to keep us guessing i suppose. turnover from 1 brodster normally equals about 20% of punters,today 1 brodster turnover = all punters that got a bet on. I think a lot of punters who bet on the dogs ,just like to have a bet running. Given many greyhound punters bet on a race,just for the sake of having an interest in the next race running, i think they most likely will just turn their attention to whatever the following race would be anyway. So i predict only very minimal ncrease to turnovers on harness racing here.Like those type of punters will already be betting on the harness product anyway if it happened to be the next race on the screen in front of them. Thats what i think from my observation of punters. As to the people who race the greyhounds. Well they have an awful lot of owners who own lots of dogs.And many of them own dogs in australia anyway.. I would guess they aren't going to turn to horse racing ,maybe there may be small numbers in a syndicate that might,but the reason they would be in a syndicate for a greyhound would often be because of the cheaper training bill for those type of owners anyway. Lead in sky coverage is the number 1 driver of turnover,but somehow i think having one dog race less,every half hour on a friday night or sunday,isn't going to increase nz horse racing sky coverage much,maybe a little here,but not much in australia and its australian betting that is difference between average and good betting pools. so personally,i think its just wishful thinking there will be any more than a very minimal impact on horse racing turnover from the greyhound shut down.

an example of how much entains problem today has effected turnover. heres the entain/tab turnover in the win pool and then in brackets the tabcorp win pools for the same race. race 1-entain/tab 2197..tabcorp(1496),race 2- 2258.(1502)..race 3-2651...(2408), race 4 5616..(10,206) race 5-5916..(7872)...race 6-4332..((4907) race 7-3692..(4541) race 8 3004..(2387). to me,given the normal patterns, that indicates the entain issues have impacted the turnover amounts coming from their nz account holders.

turnover for todays meetings wouldn't have been helped by the issue stopping people making deposits,from the banks, into their tab accounts. hopefully they get it fixed by tomorrow.

I think its very sad news. Not only for the people and dogs involved,but also for the public who follow the sport. personally i gave up betting on the dogs when they did nothing about the live baiting.i still watch a lot of their racing and my wife always follows the good dogs,just no betting When you had so many people working for a kennel saying nothing,then what confidence can you have in the honesty of that kennel. Amd that was the kennel that produced so many of the big race winners.I know a small minority of people who worked there came forward and i feel for those type of people,with todays decision,they always put the dogs welfare first and deserved better. but once trust is gone,whether it be in the major players or in authoritites ability to properly police the rules,it had to have had a major impact on the overall industries public perception. I remember the days of going to qe2 park,many characters and the dog racing just on the other side of the fence meant it was a product that had its own uniqueness and excitemnet,. And i remember cup week racing having to include a quick dash back for the dogs on thursday night after the ashburton trots. i can remember like it was yesterday,shorty bijou getting beaten one time,he ran a huge second and the trainer led him back up the straight complaining all the way about a dog that got in shortys way through the race. so many real people and their dogs were characters. mind you,so much has changed for all racing codes since the those days. i went to addington dogs on a tuesday about 2 years ago. Not one other spactator did i see. A racebook with such small print i could not read. No tote windows open that i could see.I watched the photographer trundle out to take the photo,then trundle back into the bar area. He was a very loyal supporter obviously i thouhght,but must have been lonely apart from the woman behind the bar and the one other bar customer who didn't seem to have any interest in the dog racing .Even when i watched from the raised harness winners area next to the track,i struggled to see the dogs and i left after about 3 races as i thought,no wonder no one goes to the dog racing anymore. also,theres no athmosphere when the dog racing is inside a harness track and the dogs don't even get paraded anywhere near the public. greyhound racing had,and thats the key word,had its own uniqueness and appeal,but not anymore in the south island that i can see. i often in recent times,whats happening with the safer straight track racing,but that never seemed to happen. That about summed up the, if only thing that greyhound racing had become. But what now for its followers,it very sad, irrespective of the reasons why.

so this week they have a total of 3 2 year old races at the 5 meetings with fields out. Field sizes 1x10 and 2x12. The reason for the bigger fields is i guess because they didn't have either enough colts/geldings, or fillies to split the races and run one race on the programme for colts and another for fillies. In other words to allow them all to get a start they have combined them. Well,even though HRNZ have been forced to run them this week against their will that way,doesn't it make obvious sense they should be running them like that most of the time anyway? In other words everyone gets a start,less stakes paid,larger betting pools.Better for the industries stressed balance sheet . what i think is an obvious cause for concern is just how small the number of two year olds that are racing this week. The combined number of pacers and trotters across all 5 meetings would only be in the 40"s. Remember,a 2 year old now would have been 3 under the old season calendar just a couple of years ago.i believe Its an indication of the lack of numbers that will flow through in years to come.

The draw a number out of a hat approach, by the stipes continues for these so called scratching penalties. lets be honest,the inconsistent application of the penalties rule is just a farce. Its almost certain that every trainer nominating their horses is doing so online. So trainers aren't being contacted by the clubs and being asked to keep their non win horse in the fields because the club wants a field of 13 instead of 12.if that does happen i assume they are the ones that get no penalty for scratching.(exceptional circumstances that you see in the stipes reports) In other words ,trainers are knowingly nominating their horses with little intention of starting,often thinking i'll see whats in that field and then compare it to this other field thats running say 3 days later and see where they draw and so on. take this week in the south island,we had 1,1 day penalty,1, 2 day penalty,2, 4 day penalties and 13 5 day penalties. All for the exact same thing.The 5 day penalty is what the rules says should happen. so,ask yourself this,why. well the answer is the system is a joke open to manipulation. Manipulation enabled by the stipes. Personally i couldn't care less whether there is a scratching penalty or not,but you can't ignore some people are getting preferential treatment,so why shouldn't others get the same treatment. A fairer rule change was proposed not that long ago,yet its just another one of those things that the people in charge at hrnz chose to ignore. It may not be seen as a big deal,but to me indicates a symptom of poor leadership.

I've found this interdom series a good watch. All the racing has been very competitive,perhaps because it started out with no really dominant horses and the 3 different tracks. don hugo's price of $2.60 seems quite generous to me. by the end of the third nights racing he seems to have 2 to 3 lengths over his nearest rival and he has the ideal draw. Luke mccarthy is the best in australasia for working his way to the front without burning early,then dominating and he seems perfectly drawn at 3. I would imagine my moonlite dream will cross and lead and mccarthy doing enough to not allow any others of those wider to cross him,then it would just be a matter of either the 2 horse(dangerous) pressing on to lead if it holds up early, which may be debateable,and then don hugo takes over or don hugo gets there first. That seems the most likely scenario to me and on last weeks form they most likely can't catch him. the same with the trotting final,the locomotive($1.55) just seems too good for the others and should work its way to the front and just win as well.Queen elida's only chance would be to burn to the front,but if she did that you would think its winning chances are gone and if it goes back you would think it couldn't win either.Maybe it runs 3rd or 4th at best.