the galah

The stipes report says this horse appeared to choke down because driver,m mckendry, restrained it hard and it began to hit the footrests,which made it pull more.. Now if a horse is pulling hard and hitting the footrests because of that,why would you restrain it more if that is making the matter worse?.That explanation seems a total contradiction. Also why would you hang onto a horse if you think it is beginning to choke down? To me that stipes report is a bit of a joke. Either they should have stood the horse down for terrible manners,or they should have opened an inquiry into why a driver can pull a hot favorite out of a race because he doesn't want to give it a hard run,because it had pulled too hard fresh up. Since they didn't,will we see others pull their horses up halfway through a race because it suits the connections. In my opinion this would only happen in the north island,as the stipes up there really don't care what the punters think or see. And no,i didn't back copy that.

Your right there happy,wide out in the last 100m would be a very lumpy drive,but few would get that wide.. Rest of the track very wide. Thats true as well,but part of the reason for that is the grandstand is so poorly positioned and the horses don't even come into the birdcage pre race I'm sure if a pre christmas grass track meeting was held at timaru with the same promoting geraldine got,they would get a big crowd.People like to be close to the action which is why grass tracks are more appealing to the public than tacks inside tracks.

To me i think its always made the most sense for geraldine to race at timaru on the grass there. Its just i don't think those that run the timaru track would want a grass harness meeting,as they don't even let the harness go in the birdcage pre race there.Timaru people make up the bulk of the geraldine crowd in november.Thats my opinion

I should have said actual changes,not proposed,as we now know for sure. Personally i think they needed to retain harness racing in the regions. As to which courses,for example keeping Timaru ahead of geraldine and waimate makes perfect sense to me given timaru was to remain open for the gallops,whereas geraldine and waimate were twice and once a year clubs with no local gallops.And of course the populations of the cities should be a factor in my opinion,for example dunedin.

So HRNZ wanted Timaru and forbury gone and did not support them getting any dates. Interesting that Hrnz had chosen Oamaru ahead of Timaru and Forbury. One press release says timaru has 4 dates and the other says 3? Don't know why. Timaru does still have the gallops,so makes sense to see them get some harness dates. I think the proposed changes are for the best,so good to see the changes.

I think all races clubs programme must get approval from HRNZ. It is good to see clubs thinking outside the square.Who knows,programming races from areas where there is no local racing may become more popular in the future so as to encourage continued participation.

I believe happy would be referring to hrnz giving approval for the programming of such an event.

Personally this is the type of field i prefer to spend more on and do. Punters are about backing a winner,doesn't matter whether it is the nz cup or the above race.The above field has plenty of disclosed form to base a decision on. Give me one of these races any day over say that 2yo trot last week at addington where only 2 trotted,or that 4 horse high class race at auckland last week,or one of those 7 horse sires stakes races dominated by the all stars that you see so often. Who bets on those type of races?

It does seem strange that gallops keep racing at gore and timaru,yet the harness code at this stage has stopped racing there. By harness removing racing it surely must undermine the ability of those galloping clubs to be able to maintain their facilities at the current level. Someone was telling me today that Forbury was likely to take legal action around retaining harness racing. Don't know how true that is but can hrnz afford to be fighting legal battles on several fronts?Harness clubs fighting HRNZ through the courts must weaken both sides financially.

Just finished watching the replays of invercargill from saturday just gone, and it looked to me that the starter has upped his game and all the mobiles starts were good, with the mobile being driven at the ideal speed, which resulted in only 1 breaker pre start all day,which was in the mobile non win trot. Good to see no one being disadvantaged in the score up. Hope they can keep it up.

Oh dear,my tips for race 12 never looked likely. I actually had backed 9 of the previous 11 winners including one at $15 by backing a couple each race,,but i jinxed it by tipping them. Having said that my bets at addington not very good and kept me on the losing side. I think i may be better to stick to Korean baseball after all.

not as yet,but if it was north korean baseball i would be backing whoever Kim jong un has his money on.

Only on the waikato and auckland ones. Once you get to know them they are quite consistent. I think the key is to back the one you like to win,but take a couple of savers to win,as the first 50m can be alter your chances if your 1st selection gets a bump. Profits may not be as big ,but if you lose they are not much either. For example today in race 12 i would put say $10 to win on 2&6 and $5 to win on 3. One of them should win and should get a profit that way.

I was supposed to put this on the greyhound chat part. Still, anyone who may be thinking about using the greyhound website should know it is the norm to have injured dogs left in the fields. There even has been dogs on the ballots missing starts sometimes because dogs stood down with injuries 4 days earlier are not scratched until the day. The lights are on,but no one is home.

Here we go again. About 1 hr 45m from the start of the first race and the official nz greyhound website still has dogs in the fields that were injured and scratched 4 days ago. In fact it appears all ballots are running today as well. This website truly is very amateurish.The only reason i refer to this very poorly maintained website is because the TAB websites "a" and 'o' look the same and i often end up miss spelling the names. They talk about wanting punters,but really the official greyhound website just makes punters waste their time .They often don't even have video replays of a days racing if you've missed a race until a couple of days later.

Just heard the trackside presenter say domestic action takes precedence as she crosses over to invercargill with 59 seconds to go. Commentator gets to mention 1 horse before they go up to the mobile.

Back to normal poor coverage again with the 2 minute lead in to the invercargill race 6. The aussie jumps race obviously takes precedence.

i think they hand out warnings when deserved. Sometimes its the horses fault. I like to see those i bet on be up on the gate as it shows the horse is switched on.Also it is noticeable that when a horse who normally is keen to show gate speed is not as keen, then that is normally a clear sign they will underperform, whether they be driven forward or back. The most obvious example of horses who are never switched on is those from the mclellan stable in southland. They have got so used to not trying that they don't even keep up with the mobile anymore and have lost their chance even before they have reached the start. But if a start is done consistently the same way then the drivers should know to be ready.The issue seems to be more with these big fields where they have two groups of horses off the front,with those who draw in the middle turning in a bit slower than they should.From what i have read the policy is to let them go as long as they are not pacing or trotting,in other words a slow short walk is ok. If you watch those trotting races in southland,the horse crusher collins always plays up,always then gets a running start,and nearly always there are others in the same race that aren't positioned correctly due to the delay. Have a look at Thats the story for example. I backed it in its last 2 invercargill starts,but neither time did the driver have it anywhere near its correct position,partly because of crusher collins and partly because of the driver. But who drives them is all part of the factor in how much they are paying.And we can't expect everyone to be as good as Orange or Dunn.

It may appear like that,but the outside horses are the first to turn in and get their chance to be on the mobile arm. In fact the mobile being driven at a constant speed should be what those first onto the mobile want. Thats really not a starter cause.

Seriously,if you think the starts are inferior in canterbury to anywhere else then you are not watching the same races that i am. Also,surely it has occurred to everyone that canterbury often have full 15 horse fields in standing starts,whereas elsewhere they are normally dealing with under 10. Some seem to be looking for the perfect start everytime, but no starter is ever going to get that. I agree that in the past many used to get unfair starts from Lamb,but that's the past and he has changed his stance regarding trying to have every horse standing still like he used too. So what is the current procedure for standing starts that you think most recently was discussed in march and agreed upon by all concerned? If people don't know,should they be commenting on something being wrong when what we are seeing is in fact what has been agreed is wanted. As far as mobile starts go,i have said many times that if you want to get horses to break then you drive the mobile too slow.Just watch the videos. Its so obvious. You rarely see horses break in canterbury because the mobile is going too slow,but you often see it at invercargill. As i have said before also,why is it some drivers are always ready and others not. Thats not a starter issue. If you watch standing starts you would know that if a horse is a half or three quaters length back at the start, they are most likely to begin slower than they would if they were closer to the tape. Thats normally a driver issue or a horse manners issue. Finally i don't really care who the most popular personality amongst starters is.

What were you thinking when you saw it today? $151 on fixed odds,but looked like it was going to run 3rd until the last 40m. Not likely to win one,but did show improvement.

No i'm not mr lamb,don't know him personally,just base my opinions on my own reviews of each race run in nz. None of the previous posters seem to have acknowledged that the way he starts races now is vastly different and improved from what it was a couple of seasons ago. Its like most criticising him have the mindset that he should currently be judged on the past and not the present. I've moved on from being a critic,and now see him as the best in nz. Still each to their own opinion.

Personally i think his starts are way better these days than they used to be. Overall i think Lamb is doing a good job. I have noticed some drivers often just don't seem to have their horses ready,and others are always ready and well positioned on the tape. If you want to point the finger at a starter just have a look at the mobile races in invercargill. As i've pointed out before,the speed of the mobile is the cause of so many breakers down there.The worst one yesterday was Jimmy Carter in race 9. The starter down there really needs to be given some advice on what speed a mobile should be driven at.

hereford breeder,bullshit. Stuff news stuffing it up. Nice play on words.

I wonder what effect the proposed changes in australia will have on horses bred here. I have read a couple of articles on this ,with the latest one on harnesslink. Personally i see the merit in such a change,i just wonder how that will impact the numbers bred to the most popular stallions in nz. And whether it will effect in anyway the numbers the australians recognise for racing there. Would be nice if someone in the media could write a more detailed article on it as it has been in the pipeline for some time, but i haven't seen much coverage of the topic so far.