the galah

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.

Do you also have an issue with the JCA who ruled the recording was admissible and relevant. Maybe some need to get in the real world when it comes to taping certain situations. I have had my own personal experience relating to recordings.A couple of years ago i was assaulted by someone very violent, off his head on drugs,and was lucky to get away after a struggle. I rung the police,and when this one older policeman turned up,he told me it was only my word against the attacker and he would not be doing anything about it. It was only after i told the policeman that everything was recorded that he reluctantly realised i had proof of what had occurred and he would have to do something.. So the stipe taped the recording because he thought mr harbraken would do or say something he shouldn't. So what. I have sympathy for the situation mr harbraken found himself in,but he did not admit to the way he behaved. Why did he not just plead guilty and save himself embarrassment and money? Maybe he has his reasons. It appears the sympathy he is getting on here will encourage others to behave in such a stupid manner.

I'm not a fan of mr muirhead,but he was just doing his job. Rubbishing the riu again just seems a bit ridiculous to me.

Its the path where they will get the least criticism. Punters accept that marginally unfair starts happen,and that sometimes horses manners aren't as good as we would want some days. As to those standing starts,the thing that frustrates me is when drivers are happy to start 3/4 length behind the others. Its always a disadvantage. Those were other examples of decisions which were always going to create confusion and generate criticism.Thats what happened. Don't know why they went there in the first place.

As to my view on Mahia. I agree it was hampered,but accept that it should not have been late scratched.I agree the criticism of the inconsistency is deserved,but would argue that the previous Be mine tonight decision was the wrong one. Its always inconsistency in the application of any rule that leads to criticism. Its the same when you penalise a one drive a meeting driver and then ignore a high profile driver doing exactly the same thing. It shouldn't happen.

So i think we all agree that occasionally some horses drift off the mobile a little as its speeds up just prior to the starting point. Everyone knows that,and everyone had been under the impression that it was the starters job to make the call for a false start if he deemed someone was being overly hampered. The starter had to deal with the consequences if he made a poor call. Punters accepted that is just part of racing Stipes only were declaring late scratchings in very obvious cases of horses being hindered prior to the start. Then about 2 months ago the stipes started late scratching any horse they deemed to receive an unfair start. That of course opened up a can of worms as it happens in almost every race to some degree and was a policy change that was always going to be applied in an inconsistent manner and was always going to be criticised.In other words to avoid criticism,they implemented a policy which lead to greater criticism..This thread is an example of that and fair enough too. So having realised that,the stipes have gone back to the way it was,and hopefully from now on they just stick to the obvious late scratchings that no one can disagree with.

Well i just think the merit in your comments on those subjects gets watered down because it's viewed as a relentless attack on the same people.

Your a interesting fella. You actually say what you are thinking. As to the andrew fitzgerald drive,he certainly made a couple of decisions that turned out bad for him. But to be fair thats how the trainer said it would be driven in the story on the hrnz website,and thats the way it has been driven in the past,always waiting for that one last run at them. So its a horse you need to up the blood pressure medication if you are going to back it. And a bit harsh to criticize the jessica young grant drive. 1st out ,trails the winner all the way,then fades in the straight. If your unhappy with that then your going to take some pleasing. Take after me just won that race while i typed this. What a wonderful horse he's been to his connections,and haven't they done a great job with him. Another of my old favorites in jerry garcia ran another honest race without placing.

yes a win is a win,shame it wasn't last time when i had my money on it. Maybe the falt tyre it had that day did slow it up a bit. It got the perfect run,following the favorite and only having to make a short sprint.Still it was a good effort to win out of its grade. Just watched square dealer win.Jesse alford does a good job with his horses,and the horse gets well driven. Its horse that i used to watch down south when in the c barron stable,but it was one of those horses that they kept on the ur for some reason and never seemed to get a decent trip. Just shows you how some horses form can be turned around if they have confidence in the driver.