the galah

Gee " the tossers reveling in his misfortune" is way over the top. Mckees the personality, but the thread has not been discussing his personality,achievements or whether he's a top bloke. One thing you did say is "that does not mean the defendant agrees with worksafes summation of the facts but it is past the point where he can refute it." That's not how things work though is it. The proposed summary of the facts would have been presented to mckees lawyer who would have gone through it with mckee, and had he disputed parts of it,he would have had an opportunity to present evidence to the contrary. I think you have to take the view that everyone can learn from this. The whole point of the system/prosecution is to promote safer workplace practices through education. And I thought thats what the thread has been discussing.

Establishing standards and being more proactive go hand in hand don't they? We are talking about the prosecution side of things. It must limit liability if worksafe has approved the standards and you have met them?

I've read all these interesting replies. Maybe I've missed it,but from the replies it appears to confirm there is no recognized certificate of standard of competence which shows the person concerned has demonstrated they are competent to undertake duties listed on the said certificate relating to riding trackwork. And there is no jockey school accredited with issuing said certificates with worksafe approval even operating.. Surely that would have helped indemnify an employer if a person has an accident? It appears there maybe guidelines which trainers must adhere to when first asking said riding tasks. In other words oversight,horse,those accompanying etc which last for time frames,but . once again have they been approved by worksafe, Wouldn't that negate any likelihood of prosecution should an incident occur.? Would we be having this conversation if this was the case.. Or is this an over reaction? Isn't it either make changes to protect against prosecution,or decide to leave things as they are and accept those involved will accept the likelihood of prosecution and will be judged on their own individual practices. This must apply to both codes.

this is not referred to as the darkside without reason westview ? Who refers to the darkside? Or is it one of those comments you were about to expand on but your computer seems programmed to tell you that you were about to type a response longer than the normal one line? Maybe you are the light that will guide us in the right direction? If you are type more than one line so we can more often have a better understanding of what you mean.

That's a tough call to place any blame on the injured girl. The article doesn't give enough detail to make a judgment call like you have. You are assuming all horses react the same when they bolt and that she had been given instructions as to the strategies of how to deal with a bolting horse. The case does appear to highlight the need to have some sort of recognized policy/training on how to handle all situations ,and for those concerned to have been assessed as having demonstrated a level of competence which showed they were ready to undertake every new task.. There needs to be record keeping. Have the trainers association already got something in place where they have worked with worksafe to come up with standards which will protect both employees and trainers should an accident occur? As you infer,the nature of the job means no matter what safeguards are in place,incidents like this are always a possibility. Maybe those iinvolved in this incident should have input in developing future policy which would help lessen the chances of others being injured .

I don't think they should be called sub standard fields. They were just horses racing in the grades that they are in. I much prefer betting on races like that. The higher grade races dominated by a couple of stables with smaller fields are a bit of a turn off to me. If you gave the same pre race media exposure to say the non win race last night at addington as you did to say the junior free for all race on cup day I believe you would get a lot higher punter participation in the non win race.

Cameron drove her first winner last night. Well done to her..I

Curious,I found that a very interesting post. I did trial a system to analyze south island gallops last year, but only had average success with it and shelved it because time v return wasn't good enough.. The ratings of the horses were accurate on tracks with similar track conditions,but the major factor which lead to frustrating results was the very inconsistent performances of some of the south island jockeys.,especially the apprentices. I always thought I needed to factor in weight changes when assessing the fields,but my take on your post is weights are a factor,but are not as important as some may think. I agree with the item you posted when it says different jockeys should have different levels of assessment that need to be combined with the horses assessment. Then you have to factor in draws and the racing patterns of the horses concerned,as for an example a horse with a wide draw that goes back is at more of a disadvantage than a horse with a wide draw that can settle on the pace in my opinion because of the extra distance they will travel.

I understood it makes no difference whether you hit the horse, the shaft or thin air. I think you will get fined if you just do the motion of a strike with the whip even if they can see you never hit the horse once.

I don't agree that the stipes should take into account the inexperience of juniors. Thornley seems to have been penalized because of his inexperience, whereas A Cameron has gotten away with sub standard driving that an amateur would have got 3 months for. One rule for the juniors .another rule for the amateurs and another for everyone else. Seems ridiculous to me and will only lead back to where harness racing was a few years ago where those on the wrong end of inconsistent penalties become disenchanted.

Junior driver A Cameron after 300m steered her horse onto the wheel of the horse inside her,causing her horse to trip and break. As well she flattened the tyre of precious megan resulting in it taking no real part thereafter. An extremely poor piece of driving.t The stipes apparently gave her some friendly advice.Yet Sam Thornley loses his licence for some time for excessive use of the whip. Talk about inconsistent enforcement of the rules. Inconsistent stipe penalties seems to be creeping back. into harness racing. I don't know why some seem to be favored over others although who the stipes on duty are seems to be a factor again.

Is that sheriff? I posted on here after his 3yo season predicting the horse would have only a handful of starts in the season just gone, be dogged by sickness,and would most likely only show glimpses of his best. Turned out pretty accurate didn't it. As to this years cup. Well i'd certainly be amazed if sheriff features. It will be interesting to see whether gran chico can develop enough to be a factor in open class racing for that stable. He would be the most likely horse to be a factor in that grade from that stable in recent years..

Yeah,how about he spend about another $500 per hour on lawyers fees on the slim chance he might get some compensation. There would be more chance of him training this years cup winner.

Happy, do you remember the aussie program underbelly,which was based around events between 1995 and 2004,which told the story of gangland wars relating to the drug trade. One of the key players was Carl Williams(the smiling assassin) who amongst other claims to fame was he was ended up in jail for ordering and paying for the murder of 3 of the Moran family. Recently it has come out that his lawyer was actually a police informant and it seems she persuaded Williams to become a police informant. Apparently recent revelations that the lawyer(a woman)was a secret police informant has opened up a can of worms because of the breach of the client /lawyer privilege. Some of those involved are now seeking to have convictions and asset seizures overturned. Anyway,Carl Williams partner in crime was his father George Williams. Its recently been revealed by another police informant turned by the dodgy lawyer that George Williams used people who worked at TAB outlets to launder money. Williams would give the tab employee bags of cash,and when an actual lucky punter would turn up to cash a good payout,the lucky punter would be paid out with the ill gotten cash. Then the winning tickets were handed to Williams by the tab employee who would cash them at the tab and get a cheque . What a cunning plan. Next time your at your local tab it might pay to look twice at the little old lady walking out with a tab cheque who drives off in a Lamborghini.

Just watching race 10 from Auckland the other night again and I thought it was an outstanding effort by the clerk of the course and his horse to catch that driverless horse before it caused any interference. Somehow he managed to position himself,then exploded into a full gallop as the driverless horse put the foot down to try and avoid him, then he lent over at an angle,somehow grabbed a rein of the driverless horse with his left hand,then somehow slowed it down while taking it wider out of everyones way.while still having his horse under total control. Outstanding effort.

Surely you should be able to handle comments that appear on this forum without getting as annoyed as you have. How about directing your frustration towards those who turned a blind eye to actions which have tarnished the greyhound codes reputation to the point they have done irreparable damage.

That was a bit unusual today. Seemed to just lose her balance. What a top ride from buddy lammas to win today.. He has the confidence in his own ability to rate a horse and certainly his tactics were a major factor in the win. The difference in the end was the 2nd horse wanted to race handier but that's not where its jockey wanted it,so they fought each other to the point where you had to wonder if that energy wasted would be costly, and so it proved. . I thought the most bizzare thing was on Saturday when napoleon was retired from the race when it was obvious it was going to run fourth, and then actually would have ended up third due to a fall at the last fence. It seemed like the punters were robbed there as it was jumping fine..

I can't see what's stopping Methven having a punter of the year competition anyway.

I just flicked on trackside and had a bet on race 1 at the Ballarat dogs . I looked at the form on the nz tab website and picked a dog. I watched the race only to find out the field was all first starters. Checked the form on the Australian website and sure enough the nz tab mislead me by putting totally false information about all the runners.

I've posted before that she is not a driver who comes off the fence. 19 out of 20 when she ends up on the fence early, she will always stay there irrespective of opportunity to come off. She is very predictable in that respect. Thats just her style.

. I'm taking my interpretation of your thinking from what you have said. Not what you haven't. Do I believe you have been selective in your talking points in relation to the domination of the all stars. Yes I do. That's what I was going to say in the blank post I made yesterday,however I changed my mind . Its up to you what matters you are willing to express opinions on. Your reference to the all stars selection of yearling and performed horses. I agree and I don't think I have ever read comments on here from anyone who disagrees. However that's not what I have been discussing, as you know.

I've got to admit I have come to appreciate the efforts of one over da skye.. Sent to the north island and starts favorite tonight. Same result, Gallops again,but she sure does help the odds of others in the field.

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So you want me to speculate? Sure. Remember I have never said they are using anything that can be tested for. Nor have I said they are using anything currently illegal. I would guess some product with similar effects to those that deliver greater oxygen/red blood cell mass. For example there was a study about 4 years ago on 10 athletes which showed the effects of epo on 3000m distance runners. It showed 4 weeks of every 2nd day injection improves running time on average by 6%. One month after the end of injections improvement was still 3%. So some sort of derivative of that. Now greg your going to have to regularly monitor red cell levels with regular blood tests,so budget for a big monthly vets bill. Of course that is all just a guess. My area of expertise is I believe analyzing race performance. People like yourself think our leading stables are ahead of the game in everything except the subject we are currently discussing. How convenient a mindset that is for you.

I understood the point you were making. Just as I do when others make the point that they believe there is a possibiity that blood spinning gives the users of that procedure an advantage over others. My view is if the blood spinning was the secret weapon of the all stars then why would they make it available to everyone,albeit at a price. I agree with brodie when he says "their dominance due to them being more professional is bollocks". Having said that I think everyone agrees they are the benchmark for excellence in harness racing, But like ive said before,iI think they also lead the way on the use of products which enhance performance. And there have been scientific advances in this area in recent years which means the gap/dominance has become more noticeable.