the galah

Was talking to a workmate who is ever the optimist,. He has a system for sports betting which he hopes one day will enable him to retire off the winnings. Unfortunately for him his system isn't working too good and he has to regularly top up his tab account. Still he's ever the optimist. Anyway he texted me last week to get on the all stars at $7 in the head to head against the silver ferns. After reading an article about the silver ferns up coming game I took his advice and put a small investment at the points differential, as I interpreted the article to mean the all stars were a mens team. It seems my workmate had read the same article and interpreted it the same way. Turned out the all stars were another nz womens team and the men were playing the silver ferns the next night (which the men won). Anyway back to the point of this post. When I asked my workmate next day if he had backed the all stars at $7,he said yes, but the tab had only accepted a $29 bet,when he had wanted to put on $100. He said he was rather flabbergasted ,given he normally loses,that he was a restricted punter. Still he was thankful they had saved him money.

I have an opposite view. Personally I've been disappointed by many well known licence holders assumption that its ok to take punters for mugs. Who are they kidding. I agree racing people stick together. Does that make a wrong suddenly right. Of course not. This is not a case of a driver claiming cramp stopped him driving their horse out(like someone once did),this is pre meditated race fixing being alleged with financial gain the motive. As I say lets not kid ourselves how many of us view that..

Orange drove 18 more winners than Dunn in 2018 and Orange had 123 more drives.. So not much between them but Orange won fair and square in 2018.

If you look at Blair Oranges success this season, what I think is noticeable is he does it all on his own and does not have drivers from the same stable in a race driving to assist him. Only maybe N McGrath may do that,but even that's probably only in a handful of races. The house stable has provided him with multiple winners,along with the likes of the barrons, mcgraths and courts. Personally, from my observations, I believe operation Inca has correctly identified dishonest practices within the industry that those involved should be penalized for. I find it ironic that orange is caught up in that, given I think he gives punters so much confidence in his intent when you watch him drive.

I followed this horse happy over the summer. His performances were generally better than appeared on paper. Most of them were in a grade well below last night. Unfortunately,just when I thought the horse had given up trying too hard and stopped backing him, he came back into form. Last night was the first time that a win by him has come as much of a surprise,however mikey maguire who ran 2nd really is underperforming,maybe something to do with when he got away at rangiora after the race,and JB tyrons seems to go better when he is backing up within a shorter time period. The stuart stable does have the odd runner over perform at times, however despite having a vet for a partner, they don't appear to operate like they give them anything out of the ordinary that would improve performance. I think Pay me visa is a horse with his confidence levels high, and horses always perform at their optimum when b orange drives them. I'm not sure what grade of horse he will have to run against after last nights win.

200 wins achieved last night at forbury. yet another outstanding achievement from possibly the most talented driver nz has ever seen. Has there ever been a better judge of pace? Whether it be a non win race at forbury or the nz cup, Orange continues to perform at the highest possible level.

Gee,they must be pretty good if that's what they restrict them too. I did a multi last week that stood to return I think it was over 2 million, that they restricted to $200,000. And I thought that was being a bit tough. Needless to say they shouldn't have worried about restricting me as i was back at work this week.

Race 7 now. You have the mark jones horse Naiya francco open at $2.30 then drift markedly to $2.80 on ff at closing. This horse showed good gate speed when running 2nd in a $40,000 race at addington last start. But it soon became apparent it was just there for a quiet run when it went back to last and settled about 15 lengths off the speed after 400m in the 1700m race. i backed it,not much due to my concern about no money for it,however still disappointed that the tactics employed meant you knew you had no chance after 50m. Would have been nice to be in the know pre race. All I expect is for them to be trying.,

So ardee trouble gets hit on the front legs by the staring tape at the start., Watching the video the horse trots 2 or 3 strides then understandably breaks. The inquiry ends up being dismissed. I thought it would take 2 minutes to late scratch that horse as the starting tapes are not supposed to hit horses legs,pretty basic stuff. Ardee trouble is by brylin boyz,and I've watched enough of them to realize they are extremely touchy early in the race,and I have no doubt the tapes were a factor in it breaking.

I like race 2.boomchuckalucka place, ,race 8 first son win and race 9 . stun gun win

I've just been looking at the hrnz regulations on these races, now that the website is back up and running. It seems all jockeys weigh in after the race and must be at least 65kg,(being 10 stone 3pounds). So there is a minimum but that still keeps punters in the dark if a jockey weighs in excess of that. The races appear to be penalty free. The jockeys can only use the whip in front of the saddle while holding onto the reins with both hands.

I've invested previously on these with good success, however I would have thought by now they would have displayed the weight of the jockeys. Surely the punter should know whether 1 horse is carrying a jockey weighing 10 or 20 kg's more than others.

Yet another warning. To me there is something dishonest going on here. They talk about race fixing, yet they turn a blind eye,week,after week,after week etc ,to the same horses with the same connections. They are making a mockery of any enforcement they do in relation to other horses manners. How can they possibly send others to trial before racing when the horses that are the worst offenders get preferential treatment.

As the great Maxwell smart used to say"missed by that much". Going forward momentum is sometimes an under rated thing in racing,and I think in hindsight he would have been better keeping that forward momentum going. Go davey did show a lot of fight to hold him out. That aside,I like what I see of Ben Hope. He is always there to give his best and is well spoken . I think he is a good role model for other young drivers.

Maybe? It had to be someone with the name greg who was on course at the time. What gregs last name is remains a mystery. Funny thing is I can remember what people have said on bit of a yarn from a few months ago,yet I always have to ask my wife where I left my phone or keys.

Well it had to happen didn't it. The useless one over the skye who broke at addington 2 days ago,and again was not stood down, does the same thing today,interfering badly with Trick Star who I stood to get a very good collect off had it won I've no doubt having to avoid a horse galloping all over the place in front of it cost it victory. How many times does this horse have to interfere with others before it is stood down. How was a horse with such a shocking record ever made favorite is another mystery. I will ask it again,why do the stipes allow this,when will they do their job?e

Maybe we don't carry much weight but we all value each others differing opinions . I agree with what you have said. One day ,a few months ago ,jj flash posted weather conditions as relates to a Canterbury race meeting,about 40 minutes before the first race started.

I noticed that as well at the time., You would think it had to be someone at the track,and they said there name was greg. We naturally assume he may be ,then again he may not be.

I don't know who jj flash is, but I think greg o'ccnnor is a very good presenter at the race meetings he covers. I agree o'connor doesn't comment as much as I would like on controversial isssues, but we put things right in that respect with "a bit of a yarn".

I was just reading the press statement by the Auckland trotting club relating to their 2017 annual report. (I could not fine any link relating to their 2018 report) One quote was "Ms Dowding(ceo) says 62% of the clubs total revenue is now generated by other departments outside of racing which continues to grow. Nonetheless,at 38% racing income growth remains important." Given the club is selling some of its major assets that generate considerable income, and now has huge debt to service,surely the writing is on the wall for this club as far as significant stakes decreases. That appears to be why they issued the recent statement about their focus on quality racing at Alexandra park ,chosing to run small race numbers. Spin. Just a way of saying we can't sustain paying stakes on racing when they already run at a loss given the stakes we pay ,because we're financially crippled."

Obviously not that simple. There seems to have been several major developments run into trouble in Auckland in the last 2 or 3 years. You would have thought the warning signs were there. Blowouts in construction and labour costs have been reported as major contributing factors in some. The ATC seem to have had multiple issues. They did not correctly analyze all the possible scenarios. You would wonder how their bank is viewing their predicament. You would have to ask if it is prudent for stakes at the atc to remain at their current levels. Any other business would be looking to not just sell any assets,like they are,,but also be looking to cut expenditure just to survive. Will be interesting to see what plays out in the next 12 months.

They went with plan b, the higher risk,higher return option. They gambled and it seems north island harness racing is the big loser. You would have to wonder how any business could possibly stand such a loss without it having a massive negative impact on its overall viability.

.Just watched race 2 at forbury. Very slowly run race yet only blair orange,on a roughie,was the only driver to show any initiative. Stopped in the end but at least he gave it a chance. I do wonder what some drivers are thinking sometimes. In that race you had the $2.80 favorite electing to sit 4 back the fence after the driver of the horse sitting parked gave him ample opportunity to come off. I don't know why the trackside presenter said the favorite got stuck on the fence when in fact it was a extremely dumb drive..

what about the drive on svelt in race 1 at Invercargill. he only started tapping the horse in the last 100m with the force that wouldn't even have killed a fly . Seemed he did not pause in between his tickles and got a fine.,

Both days a nelson it seemed the starters assistants had no idea he was there,each time someone walking into his path. Once a bit unfortunate, twice a bit strange. The assistant who walked in front of him on the first day was in front of nimah franco on the 2nd day. Someone should get that man a tape that is a bit longer.