the galah

Orange has handled it pretty much as expected. He spoke well on the box seat and i think others watching who may have to deal with issues,whether they be major or minor, could learn from the way orange has handled it. Mick guerin is a knowledgable man,but i thought he rambled on about the issue,and should just have left it to orange.

I accept that it was the horses fault for breaking,not poutamas,but disagree that it was a reasonable decision for any driver to then drive the horse in the manner he did for the next 600m. The proof was in the pudding,as it stopped to a complete walk. As to the herlihy drive. Well i've pointed out before in the eyes of the stipes he can do no wrong. The best example of that was when he drove one about a year ago that broke,ran inside the markers,then settled,so herlihy steered it back into the field,skittling half the field. No fault then,so the krug thing nothing new.

Fair enough,bit of humour never goes astray. The case he is referring to was an investigation by the spca in nz into the alleged live baiting by the very dominant central districts Cole kennel. It eventually petered out after over a year due to lack of evidence,although it seemed some who had worked for that trainer came forward to say it happened,some alleged photographic evidence was produced,while others who worked for him denied it. A bit like happened in nsw greyhounds,except over there they had the video proof. Also similar was some alleged the authorities failed to take action to enforce the rules. I don't have any knowledge of what,if anything,poutama has to do with that. It seems rightly or wrongly,clarkie has formed a view. This thread i started is about how the north island stipes continue to give free passes to well known drivers,not about greyhounds,but some threads do that.

I like the picture,but the live baiting issue is a very sensitive issue to many in the greyhound industry,so its understandable that clarkie speaks very passionately about his disgust of its use,and of those involved..

Its their money,so they can spend it as they please. Do you get told how to spend your leisure dollar,and if you do ,do you take any notice?

Aveross spitfire won a workout at winton 2 weeks ago,running 2.58.7,last half in 56.3. It won easily by 5 lengths.The horse that ran 2nd in the workout was the horse who started favorite today in the stronger non win race,it running a very good third in its first start.

They went 2.56.95 for the 2400m non win. Just a bit fast for the spitfire,but didn't show much anyway. I had a small investment on it(the first time ever),but maybe the hard run last start may have flattened it a bit as today was one of her worst performances. Maybe have a freshen up then the next chapter of the spitfire career..?

Noel creighton and andrew faulks were good trainers there. I remember paul kerr training there.He had some nice horses. I remember backing one in a maiden trot of 16 horses at wyndham one day. It broke at the start,settled last,but apart from the leader,for some unknown reason the whole field raced 1 off the fence and it gradually went from last to the trail ,then pulled off the trail at the 400m and won. I also remember being at forbury one night when he had one break a hopple,but it kept pacing and he carried on and won easy.

I'm sure Poutama would recognise that he drove it badly. At a guess it just looked like he got a bit angry and the horse paid the price. But the point is the inconsistency of the stipes,depending on who does what. I raised the topic before the stipes report came out because it was so obvious,but also knowing the north island stipes were unlikely to even give it a mention because they give some drivers a free pass.

Actually on recent form it deserves to be rated on top,along with marie long,but that horse has a worse draw than spitfire. So no surprise to see it favorite.

They had a vet examination of the horse,but it reported nothing amiss with the horse. Well anyone with any sense could see any horse driven in that manner would have stopped to a walk. How come the stipes couldn't work that out? The failure to even question the driver over his tactics is a joke.

well in race 4 he gets tipped out and does a very skillfull job of pulling his horse up. Never a dull moment for him today.

It will be intersting to see if anything in the stipes report about his drive in race 3 today. He drove his horse out hard to almost lead,broke after 150m and went back to last,then immediately looped the field and drove it hard to try and get the lead off the favorite in a reasonably fast lead time. Then,understandably,stops to a walk at the 400m and finishes 150m last. Surely that wasn't a competent drive?

Yes tornado valley got the perfect trail,but that looked to be plan b,but she couldn't hold out the horse that crossed her early. I thought pink gallahs was one of those that was poorly driven myself,and it did very well to run 4th.Not as bad as the tough monarch drive,but given little chance in a 1700m race that they ran a first half in 1.01.5. After watching tornado valley and majestic man have the gutbuster you refer to in the heat,you would have thought the other drivers may have seen an opportunity to exploit that fact,but they didn't. The heats were really competitve and exciting to watch,but take away all the hype of the final and it looked just like a sunday workout.

Nice efforts by majestic man to place 3rd in heat and final. Tornado valley back to best in heat and got the job done in final. Having said that the final was a bit of a bore as far as a race goes.with them running the second 1/4 in 33 seconds. Even anthony butt on tough monarch looked like he had fallen asleep ,but apparently it was a $300,00 race.

I guess the length of suspension in some way relates to the number of drives. But if you compare the seemingly countless number of warnings other drivers have received without penalty for the same charge, then Chalmers quite rightly must be asking why treat him any differently? That amateur race last night did have some bad driving. B white and S blake both getting 2 month suspensions and $300 fines. As far as the mick guerin article goes,It is well written and gave balance to those who don't follow the sport closely. Maybe for those who follow harness racing closely,it was good to read oranges comments,but as i have said earlier they were pretty much as expected. Whether he likes it or not he is a role model,and when he makes an error of judgement people look to how he deals with it,and he has set a good example of how to deal with a negative in a positive way. I thought the Miss impression disqualification from 2nd was the debatable decision last night. The video coverage showed it brushed the outside of 1 marker,then went inside 2. I know thats not supposed to happen but going inside two markers has not lead to disqualification in some instances previously.

Actually he did have the 3 drives,making mid race moves on 2 of them.but maybe had he got more we would have seen more moves in the races.

The riu don't announce if their are positives do they,so there is no transparency from the riu on that issue. Also while there is no denying m guerins knowledge and entertainment value,he operated the very same way as this von beynon fella does. i.e. he picked and chose who he wrote about depending on who his mates were,and whether the story would reflect badly on them. So personally i don't miss reading a m guerin article.

What track do they come from the back if they don't overdo the tempo up front early in the race? I do have a theory myself that on the grass tracks that have lush grass due to recent rain, that the fence is best because its grass covering is less due to more traffic on the fence,which translates to being faster . The difference between a good driver and an average driver is the good driver nearly always goes forward,and the average driver nearly always goes back. Of course many of the horses are driven by the trainers who drive to what they view are the limitations of their horses,instead of driving to give them the best possible chance. Also yesterday the likes of tim williams did not have any drives,and he would have been a go forward driver had he been there.

This combination has certainly been working very well in recent times. Rogerson seems to have been around forever but is just as good now as he has ever been.I guess training horses is a skill that the you refine over time. And D Ferguson seems to be driving with confidence and skill,and combined they have become a very strong team. I wonder how old Mr rogerson would be now. He never seems to change much when you see him on tv. Also anyone know why the amateur driver M northcott hardly drives. She used to be in the top handful of amateurs but you rarely see her drive now days.

So chief,you don't want him writing negative articles,but you would make an exception to that if it was written about Mr Woodham? Is that what you are saying? Then we have the suggestion from others that an article be written about the journalists negative stories on harness racing. Well that would be counter productive as it would just draw more attention to the stories already written. And the criticism about him only writing mostly negative things. Isn't that what most of us do on this forum,so isn't that a case of "the pot calling the kettle black". Maybe its true that we,as well as the journalist should write more positive content,but thats not how it normally goes is it.

I don't see why everyone keeps knocking the journalist. He's just doing what journalists do. Just as those supporting Andersons pathway back are doing what they can. Why wouldn't they. Personally i don't see anything negative to the story. Just a bit premature to write about it as its not really that interesting to the general public at this point.

One thing that i don't think has been mentioned which i can't work out. If all the people at the party were mates,how come they let someone who is a mate partake to the extent they are over the limit for race driving the next day?

But it was in a far stronger field today ,so it was not surprising to see it fade out after doing a lot of work.

I agree,i just put it out there, as the way he has expressed his view of others is similar to the characteristics of those he says he dislikes. I think he needs a bit of self reflection. Also,as i have inferred earlier. I don't know why some are making excuses for Butt and Orange,when butt and orange themselves will not look for excuses,and you would think will take full responsibility.