the galah

Without knowing the details,wouldn't you think the checks would most likely be related to animal welfare. Given what happened to the 5 McInerney dogs that died in late 2018, are they not just providing proper oversight on that issue?

Of the 5 charges he has to face, one is attempting to administer a prohibited substance and another of obstructing a racecourse inspectors attempt to seize evidence. It has been reported in the media that equipment used for tubing a horse was seized. But your saying he did not tube a horse.Time will tell the exact detail. Personally i don't know why Mcgrath just doesn't admit that he was doing something outside the rules,accept the penalty,then come back when his time is up.I know that may seem a simplistic view,but sometimes taking the simplest path is the best option.

I said allegedly tubing. So your telling us he did not do so?. So what did they observe him do. How about you tell us. Or are you simply playing with words.

Wounding with reckless disregard is a very serious offence,at least it normally is seen that way. You can be sentenced up to 7 years in prison. So to discharge someone without conviction,whatever the defendants circumstances, seems to give little consideration of the impact on the victim. I think the article is detailed enough to conclude that. Exactly. Its a misrepresentation of the facts. Mcgrath continued to train and only gave up when he was allegedly observed tubing a horse on raceday. He's the one that did that,no one else. Besides,as has been said before,the burden of proof is different in the courts from in racing .

That is the exact reason why that horse was driven like it was. Who do you see that team drives to the benefit of their weakest chance? Shouldn't you have worked that out ? Go watch the video of that race if you want to see how team driving works.

I'm saying the police make decisions relating to their jurisdiction and the riu make decisions relating to their jurisdiction. If their evidence gathering overlaps then its common sense to pool resources.

What are you talking about?. The coordinated raids on stables and businessmen. Why do you care whether the RIU were there. Oh thats right,that just showed their true colours. These cases may involve high profile personalities,but its their actions that are the subject of the scrutiny. The reason so many make it about the personalities is because that is the best way to deflect from the actions. And whats the bet if this involved someone within the industry that no one liked,those doing all the attacks on the riu would never be heard from. Hypocrites Some appear to long for the leadership style of the administrator who tipped off all those involved in the blue magic scandal, so they could get rid of any incriminating evidence. Those were the good old days .

Very vague post. "throws another case out of court." very unspecific. I thought there were lots of charges. Are you suggesting there are no charges relating to operation inca,or just not many left? Or is the post deliberately vague and just another cheap shot at the RIU. Say we accept there was always merit in the argument that some charges were always going to struggle to be proved,and so it turned out. But what if there were some charges that were dismissed because evidence gathered was deemed inadmissible by the presiding judge. What then? Does that all of a sudden clear those charged of any nothing wrongdoing,and that what was alleged never happened. Besides, is that not a police procedural matter and whats that got to do with the RIU. The RIU don't run the police do they? Just to be clear,we've heard from many on here and the other website about the injustices perpetrated on those they support, well how about they actually come out and go one step further and say that they see nothing wrong with what those charged allegedly did. i'm not commenting on the gravity ,or lack of,just want to know the standards of those commenting. Go on,have some balls and actually say it. Put it on the record. As to the so called RIU raid. What do you classify as a raid? Sounds like the sensationalism approach we would expect from P4P.

Can you follow what ranga is talking about? I have no idea a lot of the time.

Any chance of getting him to do my lawn?

Mark Cookson i think is very good. O'Connor i always enjoyed watching. Rusty actually posted on here how good the coverage of the recent addington meeting was on trackside with o'connor in the studio and matt cross on track. O'connor was a big part of that,so his will be big shoes to fill,. Like has been said earlier on this topic,he deserves thanks for the enjoyment he brought us and deserves all the best in the future.

Workmates,,that has made me chuckle. When i first participated in the harness sport over 30 years ago the stipes always wanted to talk to me. Only trained a couple but was always getting warnings,swabbings,inquiries.Told one of them one day he reminded me of that robot out of the programme "lost in space" who always went round waving its arms saying warning,warning,... Initially i was respectful to them but soon realized some of them didn't deserve my respect and just returned the lack of respect. Same with when i was assaulted in my then job 15 years ago.. When i expressed my opinion on how poorly the police had handled the case i then spent 6 months getting pulled over many times for licence checks,etc. That was all some years ago. Then i have had the opposite experiences. The current stipes that i had dealings with always seemed fair and deserving of respect. Same with a couple of dealings with the police i have had in recent times. Even felt sorry for the police recently when i called them to deal with someone who had been violent and off their heard on drugs and then watched the police end up in a fight with that person and his dog. The point is i'm on no ones side,but the two things i dislike most in harness racing are the use of performance enhancers and drivers that go out there with the intention not to try. So when we finally have the RIU, who's job it is to police such things,actually doing something,then i'm going to support their intent,no matter who it involves. All we get from the side of those charged is the them and us attitude,personal attacks and just a load of unnecessary crap. I'm not telling those who have been charged how they should feel about the whole experience,but those that support them shouldn't be telling me or anyone else,that its wrong to believe in fair play and honest intent.

So the RIU had the evidence to prove a charge against Mcgrath? You know that would never have been proved had they not had the police evidence. So many just don't get that you need the punter. Its never ok to occasionally deceive him/her in such a blatant fashion.

Not saying we have to have the same opinion. I'm saying the RIU laid charges against Mcgrath and Mcgrath eventually plead guilty to one of those. And i again will say,you had the former high court judge say that it was pretty obvious from the evidence that mcgrath was guilty,yet mcgrath apparently had a list of high profile licence holders that were going to give evidence as to his innocence. How do you rationalise that. Before anyone gets carried away with what happens in the court proceedings, you need to realise that the riu will lay charges in their jurisdiction. The police is not the riu,and the riu is not the police. They may have similar witnesses,similar evidence but they have different jurisdictions with different thresholds of the burden of proof. Who do i support? Simple. I just think everyone should drive their horses on their merits and those that use performance enhancers should be penalised. Its not a them and us thing to me. Just deal with each matter without the need to make it about personalities. I'm a fan of Orange,dunn,etc. Same as i think Mcgrath is a good bloke. Being charged as they have hasn't changed my opinions of them,when i view them, i view them in totality, not just on indiscretions similar to many have made in past history and who never were charged. Besides, personally i don't care as much about other peoples opinions as most do.I just express mine on social media and would do so to someones face if asked. One thing i will say though is,I think the johnny white case was one of the most blatant cases of a horse being pulled i have seen. And yet no one on the side of those charged has ever addressed the fact that the actions of its driver just happened to occur when the police were investigating those involved. If you want a role model in how to deal with authority,i think Cran Dalgety is someone you should look at. He has had to deal with the riu a few times ,but he accepts when he has to pay a penalty for indiscretions/mistakes and just moves on.

Do you actually believe what P4P writes on the other site? I personally think he is an idiot with all his comments. P4P is all about the them and us approach. And sadly it seems so are many others. You say "the RIU looking like idiots." Where do you get this stuff from? They have only heard the one high profile case so far related to evidence gathered from the police operation INCA, as far as i have read. The trainer you support was found guilty was he not. So what are you on about?How did his mates help him? What did they do that helped mitigate and negate the possible consequences of his indiscretions? Nothing is the answer to that. I feel sorry for him because he had his circle of supporters embolden his mindset,totally out of touch with the possible consequences of following that path. If you want to know whether i am right. Just ask yourself where is he now?

When i looked up the tab takeout figure a couple of months ago,i found in 2018 for every $ spent it was... 15% win and place 21% quinella 25% trifecta,first 4,double,treble 26% quaddie 27% pick 6 and place 6 when i rung the tab recently they told me you got rebates if you spent over $98,000 per year. I know the rebates on their website says 1% win ,place and quinella and 2% exotic bets for a spend of $10,000-25,000 per month 1.5% ....... and 2.5%... $25,000-49,999 per month 2% and 3% $50,000-99,999 per month 3% and 4% $100,000-250,000 per month 4% and 5% $250,000+ per month. I agree. Its even worse if your putting on a place bet on the nz tote. I think the big changes in the prices on our tote is because of the small pools and as the chief and i have referred to ,the website being so slow to update. I think the australian bookmakers do lay some money off on their trots and dogs on their totes. They only have to put a small amount on to influence their tote dividends.They get way more $1.00 place dividends. Given some bookies pay out on the 2nd best of the 3 totes over there its simply a way for manipulate the potential payouts. They can't lose really if they take for example $500 a place on a dog,and they put $150 a place on 2 of the totes that would be enough to make the dog only pay $1.00 a place.

There is more to it than what you say. I'm convinced there is a deliberate attempt to undermine betting on the tote,and instead promote betting on fixed odds. Why else would trackside tv hardly ever show the tote dividends in the last few minutes.They only show fixed odds. There can be no other explanation for it. Once again this is a decision made my morons. There is absolutely no reason why they can't show both,yet they don't. Its unbelievable really. If your betting on the tote you have to sit in front of your computer and look at the tab website and watch the tote dividends,and that can be a time consuming process as the website is so slow in updating the dividends.

I went to the local tab today and deposited some money in a couple of accounts. I decided to use their self service terminal to see how long it took. Well to put 17 notes in,it took 7 minutes. Incredibly slow,just lucky no one was behind me. About 1 minute of the 7 minutes was used up when it refused to take one of the notes i put in 4 times. It was one i had got straight from the bank,couldn't understand why it was not accepted. I confirmed the time from the 2 tickets i got back. And this is the way of the future. Does the person who has made the decision to transition to self service machines in the next 5 years at racetracks, have any idea of how it will slow down betting. There is only two logical explanations.Either it is a strategy to discourage people going to the races or the people making the decisions are morons. Or perhaps its both.

To be fair,Dunn is driving well. I'm tipping the $1.35 shot in the next to get beaten I'm not a fan of N Purdon as a driver ,and think he should never be paying anything so short. I'll go for crackerbrie.

I guess we will just have to wait and see. Anyone associated with the "cole " greyhound kennel surely is tainted with the live baiting scandel,how can they not be. That must include those that worked for him and said nothing and the owners who continue to support someone who is charged with serious animal cruelty.. Ineffective administration has kept him as their glamour trainer. Given Cole is still dominating the greyhound sport, previous administrators of that sport can hardly come with glowing references. Trackside keep interviewing cole before each race at wanganui tonight. I just can't work out why they do that. It just is a reminder to not back on the CD dogs.

Who would buy one off the all stars? Your never going to improve it. Did it look sore? They have an awful lot of their better horsesend up going sore. Thats happened to about a dozen of their best ones this season. Mind you another dozen replacements just come in. One i have been watching in aussie is smoken bye. The former kerr trained horse has been a flop for its new connections. If i was an aussie i would look at buying southland horses.

So very accurate nomates.

I agree with the comment about making the last fence further from the finish. They don't have to reduce the number of jumps,just don't put the last one within 400m of the finish. You mention your not sure whether the harness industry have a re homing programme . They do promote life after racing. They call it Harness Education and Rehoming Opportunists.(HERO). I have seen the Markham family from methven promoting it and have read about Jackie law in canterbury rehoming over 600 and brenda middleton in the waikato re homing over 500. There are several others who do a marvelous job.

Basil,i have been thinking you appear to believe that having a monopoly has been the major factor which has lead to the poor performance. That's where we differ. If they had no monopoly/had a competitor they would still have performed just as bad . Its the people who have been running it in recent years,making the stupid decisions who have been the problem. That is whats needed changed. That has been the problem. Monopoly or no monopoly ,the cause is still the same. We don't need a monopoly to recognize previous poor leadership and decision making. You also seem to work on the assumption another competitor would be better. That's not a given either.

We will have to agree to disagree. No own goal at all. The point i was making in the example i gave was that both businesses suffered big time for a couple of years as far as income went because there were not enough customers for 2 companies. One went broke in the end. IF you think seeing the tab go broke is good for the industry then we will have to disagree. I still don't understand why you can't see having the already small betting pools cut in half will only discourage betting.