the galah

That's true and I don't think House expects any team driving. Orange doesn't team drive. Doesn't need to. I meant to say in an earlier post that Mitchell showed No regard for his horse when using the tactics he did. . The point is punters will not bother investing on manawatu if they don't see the stipes taking the job seriously at meetings like manawatu. The same standard of driving should apply in every race. Manawatu should not have a lesser standard.

Its manawatu and it seems all sorts of things happen there that go unnoticed. Pretty much as you would expect. I think because they are a lesser class of horse some drivers don't care too much how hard they drive them sometimes. As to the T. Mitchell drive. Yes it was a shocker but personally I think it was just a testosterone thing and he was driving a horse he had regard for. As noworenever says,if they do question a driver they just accept the explanation anyway. For example go have a look at the drive on Burst out laughing in race 6. The driver explained the reason for it running into the middle of the track and losing any chance,then being steered wider when its stablemate came through was because it locked onto the outside rein. Yet if you watch the video it is actually hanging in with 700m to go and runs with its head turned out when,according to its driver, it is supposedly locked on the outside rein.Isn't that the complete opposite of the explanation given. What about on day one. In race 6 the stipes report noted the winner checked outside runners turning for home.. If you watch the video of that the fourth horse would have beaten the winner but for the interference but no thought of an inquiry there. Its manawatu. Its all very mysterious some times.

What did he think of the starter at Auckland the same night with Mr good and evil who was declared a late scratching? That was more obvious. I think both starters got it wrong.

Never said he wasn't a very good starter but I believe his mobile goes at inconsistent speed now and again waiting for slow horses close to a start. . I believe the addington starter is better at mobiles. Just my opinion

Blair Orange just never seems to get stuck on the fence. That race just another example of how well he drives in every race no matter where the meeting is .

We'll just have to agree to disagree. If you watch recent mobile starts at Invercargill you will see the mobile driven at inconsistent speed. The same as at Auckland sometimes.. I believe the main reason horses that are already on the mobile break pre start is because the mobile is going too slow. Starters obviously go slow if a horse is slow to come into formation,but when they go too slow it nearly always results in some breaking or hanging. I think we have an understandable fixation on Lambs starts,and I think his previous obsession with having every horse standing still for a few seconds is what led to some poor starts. I think he has changed recentIy for the better. He does do more stands than other starters and his field size is also greater.

personally I think he has been doing a good job starting in recent times. His mobile s tarts seem driven at the right speed and seem consistently good. I understand what you mean happy when you refer to horses starting so far back from the unruly position. Drivers are consistently warned for being back from a mobile but nothing is said when they deliberately start from 20m or more behind the front line. Its a major handicap when they do that and itseems to be the drivers faults to me.

Well john versteeg drove his horse well today. Will be hard from ur in a bigger field,but he ran a nice 2nd which was nice to see.

Doesn't do John Dunn much good in the pacing ranks. Just comes off second best and finishes further back than he would have. Name the last time an aggressive drive from john dunn resulted in him beating an all stars pacer? Maybe it has happened ,I just can't think of when. Won't win either way is the reality.

Very sad for any horse, and this one compiled a nice record horse for 12 months back here. What is of note is how Australian authorities handle a case like this. They actually investigate why it happened. NZ could learn something from that.

Ive got that race rated as Comfortably numb,fraud and top pocket chance in that order. I see Comfortably numb only at $1.90 on ff and fraud at $4.80. Both paying less than you would maybe expect? Hard to make much at those odds if they did come in. Ive got marantha atlas as my 4th rated. I see aveross majesty has the blinds on in that race.On form it should be hard to beat. Pastrana is another that is a chance if it trots all the way. I wonder what we will get from bound to impress. Only at $4.80 on ff. It needs the pace on and get the blood pressure pills out if you decide to back it. It should have one of those health warnings next to its tab write. something like ….backing a versteeg driven horse could be bad for your health..

The jones team has improved immensely in the last 2 or 3 months,and its been noticeable how much better they have been driven. Funnily enough since S Tomlinson has stopped driving many of the jones team her driving has also improved and she is currently driving very well,in my opinion.

Would you not agree that horses like to win and know when they have. They're not perturbed one way or the other whether they have got 5 or 6 flicks with the whip. Its confidence building is it not. Its just a matter of what type of run they are ready for that counts. I think with the hope stable what you get at the trials is what you get at the races. They don't seem to have any interest in setting their horses up for a punt by giving them quiet runs. I know you support the McGrath stable. It is a hard stable to get a line on sometimes going on their trial runs.. Personally I think they are given quiet runs because that is all they are ready for.. They seem quite successful on the punt sometimes but I often think their first starters get a little lost mentally in a finish, its like the quiet runs they have been given at the trials have not mentally prepared them for raceday. That's my opinion,obviously they don't see it that way though. The point is every trainer has their own perspective of what they want from a trial. Also there is pre race treatment (not saying anything illegal),that is given by some stables which helps performance. I haven't heard the term pre trial treatment because who does that? I don't think the hopes do that as much as some which is why you get raceday what you see at the trials from them..

$2.10 to win on ff. What a pathetic opening dividend . Did trial like it could win but who would back it at that price. I see the $3.40 2nd favorite is a horse that looks highly unlikely to run anywhere on trial form as well. At least the 2year old is at a realistic $151 to win.

But if you watch the races at methven the horses he drove seemed to be giving everything they had at the finish for him. Sweeney todd, Vinnie rulz and Alyssa's delight all were positioned close enough if good enough and all seemed to give 100% . His only other drive mega pixels did break. Ricky may is more likely to get that one to trot all the way at the moment although to be fair it looks like it would have been better drawn wider off the front.

Everyone competing in other competitions makes it on course by the first race so why wouldn't they at methven. It makes just as much sense to say don't include the last 3 races because people will want to go home. The current KPC require a stake of $250. $500 was last year. If you put $1000 on the tote it would distort a dividend so it encourages punters to spread their investment on other forms of betting on the same race. Of course betting a large amount say 20 minutes before race start time would see the odds not distorted to the extent they would say 5 minutes out.The club gets a greater % from the exotic bets as well. How many actually would bet that amount anyway? There is not too many out there with as big a bank balance as the brodster.

I think betting on the tote sees the best punter win and is much fairer than the fixed odds system currently being used in the KPC tab competitions. I can see why the tab use the fixed odds only and only have a $250 starting stake. They are almost guaranteed to come out significantly ahead with that type of format..In that format the winner seemed most likely to come from someone who risked most of their stake on a big collect on the last couple of races. That strategy would not be as effective in a competition that had only tote betting like methven did. I think the methven format is more likely to have the best overall punter on the day as the winner, which is what I think it should be about. Of course the club gets a greater % as well. I just don't understand the logic of expecting a punter to turn up and wait to race 4 before they start punting like methven did.

He does move around in the cart more than most drivers do in a finish, and it appears some don't like to see that. My take on that is it has no relevance at all. What is relevant to me is whether horses are giving their best when he drives them out. From my observations they do. He also knows the form of the opposition. The negative I have is now days races at a lot of tracks are mostly won by drivers who drive at a consistent pace. The likes of Dunn, Orange and Anderson are masters at that. The Hope team seem to have most of their pacers trained so as to show speed early to take up a position and then again show speed at the end. This they do well,but those type of tactics are more suited to tracks like Invercargill,the coast ,Blenheim.,etc. where there are not many lead changes .Of course sometimes those tactics can lead to horses over racing. He does get a lot of opportunities ,but I rate him one of the best junior drivers around at the moment. That's my opinion..

I was going to go but decided against it when the first 3 races weren't included. They started off with $800,so having $900 at the end was only a $100 profit. I can't be entirely sure what I would have done had I been there. Having said that I did have a good day and made a profit on all but 1 race.. These meetings are the ones I prefer. Still you've got to be in to win,and I wasn't.

It was a shame that race was not included in the punter competition. I suppose they have their format they stick too. Maybe they would have got more entries had they done so?. You would think it would be a given that turnover would have increased had they included all 11 races.. Having said that I am only looking at it from my perspective. Would be interesting to know which race had the highest turnover on from those competing in the punter competition. I thought there was some really good dividends there today.

are you saying the profit was $900 or they had $900 left? How many entered?

Expensive no more? Break out the champagne? Pay the believers

The guy with the money no doubt was disappointed with the run it got. I guess backing a horse fresh up involved an element of risk It looked like the driver did not want to give it a hard run fresh up,but because of its hot favoritism felt obligated to move at the 600m when it was obvious he had left his run way too late. All that eventuated was the horse went huge and had a very hard run as well. With the benefit of hindsight had different tactics been used probably would have won and had a much easier run. Easy enough to understand the drivers mindset, its just not what the $12,000 punter obviously expected. In fact the same could be said for the rest of the punters who backed it. That's just the way it goes sometimes I suppose.

Bound to impress made unruly for mobiles at the trainers request after tonight's run. I thought this was one of the best mannered horses around. Starting from the Unruly is a major handicap for any pacer. Strange,but true.

Then again if he was doing the driving and it won 2 it must have been pretty good. Maybe your right,although personally i think he can train them well, just his driving is so tactically poor. He is very consistent in that respect so the punter knows what they are going to get. Not everyone can be a blair orange I suppose.