the galah

imperial command has gone to australia. gee they must be keen on him as $21,000 & cost of flight & govt costs & don't they have a levy for nz horses imposed by hra? i still find it hard to believe someone paid so much for him.I will keep an eye on how he goes in australia. theres another ex a clark horse on gavel house currently. The better performed night watch who has done a nice job for brad williamson. Interestingly b williamson has been very honest and said the horse has bled in the past and is normally treated for that.Night watch not given as tough a preparation as imperial command when younger,although still did race a lot early for mr clark. K tomlinson did say a couple of months ago she felt night watch was best with its races spaced a bit instead of backing up one week after another. I would say night watches owners will be hoping the buyers of imperial command get involved in bidding on this one as well.

The 16 year old left no champs but did have some handy lower grade horses from limited opportunities as a sire. now off to china. I wonder what they pay for a horse like that.Maybe around $30,000? escape artist a handy 3 year old colt that b purdon trained going as well so you would think that price would have been close for him. the thing i find odd about horses going to china for racing is,if their prime purpose is racing,why buy non racehorses. For example why not buy a filly of racing age and race it then breed from it. instead they just buy mares in foal. Doesn't that seem a bit odd if they really are buying racing stock?Are there some type of rules in china that are different? No one seems to know much and just says the same thing that they are for racing,even though they won't end up racing.Beats me.

So dreams are free resumes tomorrow in the last at wyndham. hes had the two trials,in both he showed that he wants to run wide in a straight line. Hes no doubt a classy horse ability wise and is paying only $1.50 on ff tomorrow and may win,but him having to be steered hard on one rein i think could be a worry. Maybe he may just go to the front and the other drivers just conceed early,but if they actually try and beat him then who knows.Or maybe they may treat him with something to ease any possible pain which will help.

i see peter profit has a headline whch says the ATC has lost its appeal in the above case. Hes reporting the ATC now can add about another half million to their debt..still they lucky they have HRNZ as their benefactor..Whats another half million amongst friends? I'm not a subscriber to peter profit,but have just read the original decision of the employment tribunal and it sure seemed like the ATC tried to really screw mr payne over. i'll sumarise the original long decision. Payne ran the ATC tab from 2005 and originally was paid a base salary and commission based on a formula that seemingly only the fella working for the ATC at the time understood,payne and and even subsequent ATC employees seemed confused about the 2005 formula for the commission. So when payne got paid,he just took their word he was being paid the right amount. seems it was an unsigned agreement as well. Then in 2013 the ATC negotiated with the NZ TAB,an increase in % of commision they receive from 2.5% to 4% of turnover.And they went to payne and the atc and payne signed an agreement that payne was to get half of any commission once $90,000 turnover a week was reached.That was to be paid quarterly. Well the atc tab turnover kept increasing and around 2017 the ATC decided the current agreement with payne was seeing him get too much,so they tried to change it but he didn't agree. so anyway fast forward to the hearing and the ATC was sticking with ,they would be only paying payne based on the unsigned agreed 2005 formula and not the updated, signed in 2013 formula, and that they had told payne that and that he had accepted that,which he disputed. There was no formal agreement saying he had agreed to that with the atc and the tribunal ended up believing payne,which sort of seems logical as why would payne have agreed to a massive pay cut.. so the tribunal found the ATC owed payne lots. Thats a very brief summary of what i think the case was about. At the end of the day,the ATC in more debt and they must have spent a fortune on the whole legal process only to lose. Maybe that was there strategy,make payne give up because of the cost. Whatever the ATC strategy,They sure look stupid again.

when you say g dixon mucks around with too many slow ones at redcliffe,to me thats just an indication of how much he enjoys the horses,the people and the industry as a whole,no matter what the level.And the same must apply to his owners as they must be happy paying the bills. Also by him having a cross section of all levels of horses it indicates that he is making use of and being kind to the horses being bred instead of just sacking them because they may just be a redcliffe horse. Also it seems your programming of races sees many of the redcliffe lower grades often racing at albion park at different stages of their careers. Bev the goat was a horse i followed at a couple of stages. It went some handy races here and they even tried taking it to manawatu to get a win,but it didn't quite manage it.Wouldn't surprise me if it turned into a handy earner over there.Her trainer in nz,dave mcgown has a far better strike rate with his trotters than pacers. In the last 5 years i see hes had about 170 starts with pacers for 3 wins and 29 placings. You have to consider that would mostly be in fields with small numbers starting.he seems to focus more on his trotters and does well with them.

Interesting you talking about grant dixon. Very early on you labelled Leap to fame as potentially the best in australia,i think it was when he was an early 3 year old and before he got on his nationwide roll.Because of that we have always followed him since. My wife always makes a point of watching all his races and she always knocks on the bedroom wall to let me know when hes running when i'm watching something in the lounge. we've come to admire the horse,his great looks and the outstanding way he covers the ground and his will to win and racing style. And we admire him and grant dixon for other reasons as well. For a start the Dixons train many horses of differing talents and you see them racing at mid week redcliffe meetings as well as albion park. To me they and the horse are relateable to your everyday harness racing enthusiast. also when you look at him racing he doesn't have the help of 3 or 4 other drivers driving from the same stable helping him out tactically.The race we discussed earlier was an example of that happening,but it doesn't apply to Leap to fame. also,i think if you watch all the horses trained by G Dixon,you can tell they don't run with any special performance enhancers to assist them,and thats part of the reason everyone who follows Leap to fame enjoys watching every one of his wins.Because he can overcome the odds.I hope his owners ,the seymours,keep him racing for a few seasons more and that he stays sound and healthy. i think leap to fame and just believe, should be what this years nz cup week should be promoted around. The slot races may be interesting for some,but getting a chance to watch Leap to fame in the flesh is an opportunity that only happens rarely.

All i can say is put the race video up and let people make up their own minds. The video speaks for itself. Have you even watched the video? At the time i happened to tune in just before they started and picked that horse g dixon drove that went 3 back the fence,i had no money on it,then when he did that move to give the equal favorite sitting behind him the perfect run and him no chance,i immediately thought what on earth is g dixon doing,why on earth would he do that. so i looked at the tab website while the race was on to see who it was he had gifted the perfect run to, at his own expense,and it turned out it was the horse in different colours driven by his wife that he also trained. Like i say gammalite,if you put up the video it speaks for itself. I don't know how to do that ,otherwise i would. I'll take your word that hes a great bloke.You know him . But if you want punters to support the industry, they have to think everythings on the level. As to who the owners were. Well now you have said that i had a look and its no other than the owners of leap to fame. yes i did read your post about the slot races,but nothing about slot races ever sinks into my brain as i have no interest in those races whatsoever until the same week they are run,when i look at the field. I honestly can't even tell you what age of horse the nz slot races are for.I know ones a trot and ones a pace.

i think aussie is more dodgy than nz by far. i think one of the most obvious cases of team driving i had seen in recent months, was at albion park by grant dixon/trista dixon on 20 july in a group 2 race worth $207,000.race 5. I don't know who solid earth properies are,they owned both the horses involved,but clearly grant dixon drove his horse to advantage its stablemate.Cheer leader and free thinker were the horses involved. The amazing thing was the stipes didn't even question grant dixon. All i can think of is he and solid earth properties are too big a names and get a free pass ,the stipes in queensland are weak and many punters would have been saying,well there you go,what do i tell ya. . You would have seen it gammalite so i'm sure you know what i mean. Grant dixon,on a $12 shot, landed in the 1/1 on the back of the third favorite,who was racing outside the leader. That parked horse was being driven by trent dawson who's style is to not give up the death seat. Dixon at the mile knew his stablemate and equal favorite was on his back,so he just went 3 back the fence and gave up any chance he had by following a roughie in the trail.Trista dixon just took his place,got the perfect run and just got the win.Meanwhile grant dixon finished full of running. Do the stipes over there run a bit scared of upsetting the apple cart sometimes?

special effects is a hard one to follow.Korbyn newman has done very well with him. the horse always showed ability for james stormont but broke virtually every start.It is by father patrick and they seem to be funny horses. the beach trainers seem to do well with them but a lot seem very unpredictable and inconsistent. Funny thing is they go well when young horses but often seem to get worse with practice as they get older. James stormont always used to chase the field after losing a lot of ground which i think bnever helped the horse when he had it. I think thats one of the worst things any driver can do,break,be 20 lengths last and still try and win. It must be hard on the lungs and the mental side for the horse when that happens. Bob cameron very rarely used to chase,even if he settled 10 lengths last.

C Ferguson is one of those trainers who focuses on his udr. He won't line them up unless he thinks they are a good winning chance.Good for punters but southland needs more horses at the races and for example c ferguson has started horses 52 times this year for 16 wins and henderson hunter has started 121 times for 3 wins. C ferguson would train 2 to 3x the numbers i would think.The point i make is c ferguson horses chances are always to be respected any time he lines one up,but in southland Henderson Hunter contibutes just as much ,if not more, with his smaller team. Tact macloud ,being by sweet lou ,i think would be found out in the nz cup if leap to fame decides to run say 3.53 or even faster like he could. Maybe tact macloud could place if they only went 3.58. Maybe if he got 3 back the fence in 3.56 he can place,but the sweet lous's staying ability seems to be found out in fast run races over longer distances in my opinion. Then again maybe he is an exception and not having raced much early on and not being a bit burnt out early,must help in that respect. i hope you got plenty on your AFL team. sounds like you had a great time enjoying the final.

It was a good nights viewing on friday ight lights. Wag start was impressive. 15 lengths is a long way. I see driver m hurrell said he didn't even have to pull the ear plugs. he did the same last year fresh up winning by 10 lengths in about the same time and never pulled the ear plugs then either.He did go good for another couple of starts after that last year,but then wasn't quite as good thereafter, even though he ran some nice races. Will last nights fast time effect him going forward?sweet lous are very good sprinters and race well fresh. as tab forever has pointed out ,they ran a mile in 1.54.7 in the non win race at auckland. Imagine taking what you think was a nice non win horse to auckland and having to run that time first up. You can see why many just stick to racing at cambridge instead of auckland. talking about auckland. The last 4 races had 5,6,6,6 starters and the turnovers were very poor on those races. The nz win pools for each was between 3-4,000. Some will say,its about keeping alexandra park going,and just ignore the losses that hrnz generate.how long can they keep doing that?. Even the addington tote nz tab turnovers weren't anything to write home about. The main race was ok and the biggest with just over $12,000. Looking at the tabcorp win pools only. Gore on thursday had more in total than addington,even with addington having an extra race. the biggest pool with the nz tab and tabcorp this week was the 0-1 win trot at gore that had the power failure beforehand. Amazing how many punters in australia just bet on the next race to go. They kept putting the gore race back,but it kept popping up as the next race to go and both the nz tab and tabcorp pools kept getting higher. I saw major moth win the kilmore cup quite easily. Fancy sky racing not even giving the kilmore cup any pre race coverage on either sky channel and instead only showing the last round. Instead they kept showing some 0-1 win gallops race at the sunshine coast that was running a few minutes late. Kilmore started on time but got a raw deal.

Does he still live in fendalton,on christchurch's most expensive street,where he has one of the flashest houses? Hes come a long way from that caravan.

I guess when you say "some believe cambridge/north island racing should be stopped because canterbury deserve it more", is reference to something i posted. I'm not sure how many times i have to say it,but once more i have never said that about cambridge or north island harness racing. I have given my thoughts on possible pathways to ensure north island harness racing continues,so thats the opposite of what you have stated above.I have questioned the wisdom of HRNZ planning to invest so much money in racing at alexandra park when the club still owes the bank $80 million. i have said i believe canterbury harness racing is being taken for granted and will pay the price of hrnz's policy of over funding north island harness racing at canterburys expense,and gave an example of a prudent investment hrnz could make in canterbury using a significant portion of the money they have from the forbury sale. But really i'm not sure why you have extrapolated that out to infer what you say i said. I have pointed out that if you have a top horse,you get several chances each season to run in heavily subsidised races at the top end. If you have a top 2 year old that becomes a top 3 yo,then 4yo then so on,he may well run in 30 or 40 such races. Of course HRNZ should ensure the stakes are good,but i have suggested they have gone too far and that an inevitable cash flow crisis for the whole industry will occur, if they continue such policies. Ask yourself this. If HRNZ really do have so much extra money just sitting around,(which i find hard to believe),to put into stakes at the high end,or into auckland,then why don't they reward the clubs that run at a profit and generate the stakes for the top end. for example,why not say to clubs like methven,banks peninsula,geraldiine and rangiora..How about you get together. We appreciciate the work you do so we have decided to take 10% of the stakes directed at the top end races and we want you to use that money to have 2 higher stake days in say march.You ,the clubs can work out how the money is to be distributed on the day,but the guidelines are to be the money should be relatively spread across all races for the grade of horses catered for throughout the season.I would imagine that those clubs could come up with a finals day and a consolation day for horses that didn't make the finals fields.They could have conditions like you have to had started 5 or 6 times on canterbury or west coast grass tracks in that season and that group or listed winners or placegetters are excluded. That concept would not be anything to do with winter rewards type races which must remain then they could do the same,to a lesser degree funded,for southland/otago and central districts. they could call it money making march or whatever. The inclusiveness of such a policy would substantially lessen the criticism HRNZ get around favoritism. But everything coming out of hrnz indicates they are blinkered and unrealistic and i would guess in say 5 years will be proven to have been fiscally irresponsible.

that should have read ..planned for auckland next year.

You seem to have missed the consistency in the point that i make. That is HRNZ need to be fiscally responsible in their spending,irrespective of whether the races are for the elite or the battlers at cambridge. I have criticised both the decision to put unsustainable $ into stakes for slot races and into the tuesday cambridge meetings. I have said i think the tueday race meetings are a good idea,but the $8,000 stakes they pay at cambridge are too high. so to me you've missed that point going by your above post. To me,you want everyone to race for good money and for everyone to be able to sustain their involvement in the industry.Thats fair enough,but i don't believe its possible to have stakes at the level you suggest they should. I'm pointing out that money doesn't grow on trees and there is only so much of it to go around and that if you overspend on one thing then someone else will miss out. i've never heard brodie say they should dogmeat any horses,as you have said he has. I have heard him question why some horses are persevered with given the costs and returns for some who aren't earning.To be honest,i think thats the way 90% of trainers operate with the horses they train and discard now days.Believe it or not,thats not the way i see things,but i've come realise my approach has been unrealistic. Then you said i said the slot holders were the elite. ...Thats not something i've commented on. I have no idea who most of the people that are slot holders are,nor do i care. I'm talking about the connections of the horses involved. The horses/ owners and trainers of them who line up in those races are the elite.Surely you must realise that HRNZ have already pumped huge extra money into the stakes for many other races that they will have oppotunity to run in before the end of the year and also into the bonuses they have earnt that hrnz gave them along the way. And no,neither i nor brodie have ever said we are against slot races. You can say it as much as you like,but i have never said that nor have i read where brodie has. What we both have said is the slot races are supposed to be self funding and thats what they should be. It should not be for HRNZ to divert stakes into them. again i say,hrnz may act like they have a bottemless pit of money when it comes to the elite races,but they don't when it comes to the average races. As to nz gallops having them soon. They already have them planned for riccarton next year.

i agree . Harness racing is on a pathway of self inflicted decline. HRNZ decision to inject the extra cash into the top end is yet another example of how they window dress with a facade. HRNZ have a deliberate policy,enabled by harness reporting media,of rewarding the elite,the highly visible. Harness racing used to be like a pyramid,built on a solid base of participants with the money trickling down from the top to the bottom at a rate that was enough to see each layer of the pyramid survive and each layer of the pyramid also felt there was a chance of them getting higher on the pyramid and the greater rewards that went with that. That basic design of the pyramid has gone out the window and its inevitable that the current design is unsastainable. So brodie and myself,with our comments,are pointing out the above. Not because we don't want those at the top end to be rewarded,but because we don't want those at the top end to be rewarded at the expense of the viability of the industry as a whole.

thats interesting. Obviously many people agree with you,hence the value he went for. the horse would have been up and going since an early yearling. Alan clark is very good at getting young trotters going. Probably one of the best. people underestimate that part.But with that,you can't help but factor in whether that will take a toll on its longevity.The feiry ginga was the exception to that rule,but my theory on him was that he was so dominant as a 2 year old and early 3 year old,that he was winning without over extending himself and therefore his body wasn't under as much stress as compared with imperial command, who while competitive,wasn't quite up with the very best 2 year olds and was always busting a gut to run just behind the placegetters.. In his last standing start he refused to move at the start and took no part ,then he trialed at ashburton and totally out of character made a break during the running,galloping for 500m. And why did he break? He seems to have been hanging a little ,moreso just recently. Maybe its just a habit or maybe its because he has some soreness. Who can tell for sure. He was stood down a month ago because of soreness in a hind leg,but soon bounced back and ran 3rd a couple of weeks later. That soreness may have been related to when he went on the grass and ran over the pathway to the greyhound track at addington. and of course 1 penalty free non tote 2year old win and 1 tote win from 48 starts. Maybe he will turn out to be a good buy at $21,000 like you say,but in my opinion,whoever bought him,overpaid for him.

sounds like an r18 warning should have come with that post?

Imperial command sold for $21,000 on gavel house today. I started this thread about how harness horses aren't worth much,and then that comes along. I'm very, very surprised that someone would pay anywhere near that for him. Seemingly there were many chasing him including offn racing i think it was. He's had 48 race day starts and about 20 official trials and workouts and is only 3. He had the 1 raceday win(i backed him that day) and 1 other win in a non tote 2year old 3 horse race. His last run at the trials, he performed quite out of character in bolting in a wild gallop for the last 500m. well done to alan clark for getting such a big price.I know he has sold some others that have gone on ok after being sold,but then again there have been others that haven't. also sold was vinchetto for $4,000 ,a horse with 3 placings from 10 starts for mathew williamson. I know that ones no champ,but he seemed to be a little under valued to me. then you had Ya know. She had the 3 wins and 8 placings from 28 starts. shes a 6 year old broodmare with a speeding spur foal at foot. That package went for only $1500. Being a rating 49 she may well be able to resume racing in the future you would think, as she won when in foal. $1,500 for ya know and $21,000 for imperial command. go figure.

Thats the thing isn't it,they don't seem to rate the intelligence of those they are trying to deceive. on 9 september HRNZ announced the appointment of matthew peden as the new head of racing and wagering. Peden said...we need to increase race starts per horse per year,we need to increase market share and turnover and we need to do something about foal numbers. Well,if you read this mr peden,what i think you need to do is tell us your going to formulate some strategy for harness racing to be conducted in timeslots that maximise sky 1 coverage.He needs to start putting data together to prove how important it is and then he needs to come up with a sellable plan. he needs to break down the data and show exactly how reliant we are on turnover generated out of australia.In other words how much of each nz tab pool is made up of aussie money and how much tabcorp and betfair and other australian bookies money is contributing % wise to nz harness turnover. As i've shown above,the highest average turnover on sky 1 was on friday night at gloucester park followed by a Monday afternoon at pinjarra.Yes a monday. the figures i gave above for western australia harness racing, show that every track that had sky racing channel 1 coverage had between a 25% to 85% higher turnover compared to the comparable turnover they got when racing on sky 2 on the same day. Mathew peden has only just started in the job,so we will give him a chance. But,he can talk about numbers bred,average start per horse until the cows come home. They are important,but none have the potential impact as sky racing coverage. I've pointed out before,at manawatu one night a few months ago,they had probably one of the weakest 7 horse non win races on a tuesday they have had up there,and its turnover was much higher than you see in 95% of the races at our premier tracks.Thats because it fitted into an ideal timeslot on sky 1.

David howman certainly brings knowldge,reputation and experience with him. Winston has found a good man for that job you would think.

so this is a topic i've harped on about a lot on here,but its a topic that HRNZ never seem to cast much light on. If they do,they keep it to themselves with next to no public comment.. so to illustrate just how important it is to new zealand harness racing ,we can look to western australia harness racing. Currently Western australian harness racing administrators are preparing a report directly around this issue. They have stated just how important they consider the importance of timeslots,its impacts on turnovers and the significance of that as relates to sustainablity of stakes going forward. heres some data on the difference in average turnover per race at their meetings that race on days covered by sky 1 and sky 2. Obviously sky 1 is the channel that most betting outlets and punters at home watch. tracks. Pinjarra-they race every monday-the amounts are the overall average turnovers per race for each channel.SKY 1...$245,000/SKY 2...$164,000 Albany-fridays -SKY 1 $206,000,SKY 2...$153,000 saturdays-SKY 1 $201,000...SKY 2 $123,000 Bunbury-saturdays ...SKY1 $198,000...SKY 2 $160,000 Northam-saturdays....$205,000 SKY 2 $135,000 Wagin-fridays- SKY 1 $224,000...SKY 2 $120,000 gloucester park-They always have sky 1 coverage-tuesdays $234,000 fridays $355,000 saturdays $232,000. so western australia have lobbied sky racing for greater coverage of their races on a SKY 1,but have said the biggest hurdle is harness races take longer to run than the likes of greyhounds and the gallops,so tabcorp who provide the sky racing channels, focus more on their profits from the products shown and harness racing doesn't do as well as the other codes or overseas gallops meetings. so they are trying to work out how they can get more of their harness into timeslots that get sky 1 coverage. It should go without saying that for nz harness racing this has to be one of the most crtitical issues,yet seemingly no one ever talks about it from HRNZ as being that. Why is that??? Like i said one time,had the racing industry leaders,not just HRNZ,and the labour government,had the foresight to recognise just how critically important this issue is and could have negotiated with TABCORP who run sky racing,and come up with a deal that was almost as good as entains offer,but had the cherry of a contract guaranteeing greater levels of sky 1 racing coverage,then you would think nz harness racing would have been better off long term.. But they didn't so the question now is,what are they doing about this issue. Maybe they need to have someone from western australia come over and start running the show here.

maybe the auckland trotting club need to take notice of how the melbourne racing club handle things. Apparently the melbourne racing club is struggling with recent debt due to a new $250 million stand and the proposed $160m upgrade of caufield to include facilities for an AFL club,the melbourne demons, to be located there. Mind you they are possibly selling sandown. Anyway,back to "pineapple". Melbourne racing clubs board meetings have become so acrimonious,that board members have had to sit through a 1 day mediation course. At that mediation,it was agreed a "safe word" was to be used at meetings,by board members who felt uncomfortable or felt their emotional boundaries had been crossed. And the safe word is...."pineapple". pineapple was the safe word used in a sex scene in the movie trainwreck. maybe the ATC could do something similar. Maybe,banana or jaffa could be more appropriate.

I'm not saying this is the case here,but rule 12.9(f) of the tab betting rules effective 28/10/2023- limitation on maximum winnings. it says"where the tab has reason to believe an investor or group of persons acting together... bets placed, over a number of days,using different accounts,using on line and in store....the total payout can be limited to the specified maximum . isn't the bgp an example of that,even if they don't normally limit them. Its like the bonus back bets.Say your household has 2 accounts,one for you and one for your wife. If the tab has decided to link them then they will only give you a bonus back bet on one,the first of the 2 accounts that use it. Also,i'm only guessing,but if you had a betcha account and a tab account,then if your a known winning punter then wouldn't entain link those 2 and allow the first bet but limit the amount able to be won on the 2nd account.

often the dunn trotters seem to pick up speed pretty quick after the start and newman used that to his advantage,even from the unruly.For a couple of inexperienced trotters their manners were very good yesterday. i see what you mean about major happy and it appeared newman may have thougth the same, as he seemed to want to keep driving it after the finish which was unusual,like you see some drivers do when they seem to think the horse should have done a little better. Having said that,i have had a bit of luck following major happy at times and the thing i liked about her, was i thought how genuine she normally is and that she keeps giving right to the finish. Shes always had a habit of moving her head around a bit as she gets near the post which i've put down to her sort of saying ,i'm trying my hardest so driving me hard at the finish isn't entirely fair. I think its become a catch 22 thing myself now shes had 40 starts,she sort of waits for the driver to get serious but also thinks its unnecessary.Horses are like people i think,some more complicated than others. also i thought the way she drifted straight after the start was a sign she may not have been 100% on the day.Even for a known slow beginner from a mobile,she was worse than normal. Maybe she was in season or maybe she wasn't feeling 100% or maybe she was over worked a touch in hindsight just before the race. Thats what it looked like to me. Then again her exaggerated head movements may not have been a result of any of that.