the galah

some of these races can be just as exciting,if not more,than the big race nights. That last race,i never had a bet,but found a great watch. The winner kawhi,had been bought off gavel house about a month ago for $8501. now trained by darren keast. Hes the first trotter keast has lined up at the races this year.Looking at his record i see hes only lined up a trotter 6 times in the last 4 years. I think he may have won a race on cup day with a trotter in 2020. Today driven by matthew williamson,he went straight to the front from the stand and ran his rivals ragged,but with 200m still to run he went from looking the winner to looking rather tired. Blair orange was the only one within cooe,but blair orange being the man,seemed to get his drive ,crown the moment to lift and with 100m to go,he looked like he was going to go past kawhi quite comfortably. But then,under vigorous driving from matthew williamson,kawhi turned his head and peered around the blinds he had on,and recognising he may get beaten,and alamost said,not today sunshine,your not getting past me,and kicked again to win. every harness race is a different spectacle,some are more exciting than others to watch,but for me i get just as much a kick out of watching tuesday meetings as i do cup days.

I agee with what you say about Hewitts drive in the pacers final.He took his horse and another out of playwith that move on the first bend. yet no action by the stipes for some reason. i think if we were stipes,we would have the odd argument but agree on 90%.lol. i would call wilson house move to come off the fence in the race being discussed,as one from a very switched on driver. Opportunity there to get a better tactical position there for just a second or two and he took it.Whoever wins that junior title,whether it be house or dalgety or thornley,they will have achieved it through skill and natural talent shown consistently throughout the year.House has really gone to a new level in the last 12 months.

having said all the above,its just a talking point. i see the tab has reduced her price to drive 100 winners in a season to 2.25. I think i heard the whale say a week or so ago she was at $3.50,which he thought was a good price to place a bet on,at that point. its under the banner senational season for sam on the tab website. theres only 8 more meetings in the south island ,so if she were to turn up at them all, she would have to drive an average of 1 winner per meeting. thats still a big ask,but she sure has been driving well all year.

If you apply the thinking, that there has to be contact before someone can get penalized for squeezing up another driver,then yes she did nothing wrong. but i think that logic is flawed and sets a precedent with dangerous flow on consequences.But,hey, that seems to have been the stipes thinking,which is why i have pointed this incident out.Is that their standard for safety? I can stop the video at the point where W House is 1 1/4 lengths in front of s ottley ,at which point hes half way out,then i can stop it again when hes still 1 length in front of her,fully in the one off line. as i say, video can be stopped showing hes hard on the back of the horse in front of him with s ottley a full length behind him. so given he clearly was allowed to be where he was,the stipes agreed with that in there summary,so ask yourself this,why did W House pull back and let ottley take the position he held, 100m later?. S ottley has done a lot of driving for the houses over the years,so i guess w house didn't say much,but the video tells the story. i highlighted it,because you don't see that type of intentional driving much and theres a reason for that. like i have said,if that was someone less prominent ,doing exactly the same thing, then they would have got a holiday for sure.

it looked like he could see he had 2 choices, either pull back and prevent his horses legs from making contact with sam ottleys cart ,or stay where he was and have his horse potentially take the knock and most likely break and interfere with many in the field. He chose to take himself out of a potentially dangerous position he had been put into. if you look at the head of piccadily pete,that indicates the couple of delicate changes in the direction he was being steered in. these days the stipes seem to have their focus on penalising the whip rule, than actual driving indescretions.

It looked like the stipes gave sam ottley an early christmas gift when they only gave her a warning for her drive on piccadily pete. Seems thats all a driver gets when they deliberately squeeze up a runner inside them. the whole thing seemed quite unusual. Clearly wilson house made a perfectly legal move to come off the fence,but even if ottley didn't agree with that,you can't allow drivers to react as she did. if that was a low profile driver,i'm guessing they would have got a long holiday. sam ottley has been driving extremely well for a long period of time,but that drive looked potentially dangerous. It was lucky the horse who copped the squueze was such an experiencced horse and didn't panic.

i'm guessing there have been occasions over the years where people in the know have taken advantage of pre race knowledge about a dog having an injury.Then back the dog on betfair to lose or back another from the kennel;knowing the more favoured dog had an injury. while unless your in the know,you can never be sure,but i have seen instances of very unusual betting moves in dog racing ,both here and australia,only to see the big drifters seemingly sore from the jump. i can remember one involving a dog that was placed in a derby,at wailkato i think it was. Anyway,it started shortly thereafter back in canterbury,addington and drew 1.Trackside highlighted the top derby run and the commentator went on about how the dog looked a sitter on that form,yet the dog continued to drift from hot favorite to about 4 in the end. The commentotor,like i think many punters,seems dumbfounded at the drift,given its form and surprised at the money that came for another runner,ifrom memory from the same kennel. anyway the derby placegetter jumped out ok,but clearly had some sort of injury and looked uncomfortable in its action and gradually drited,i think finshing a well beaten 6th..While the one who the money had come for won.Then ,from memory,i don't think it raced again. I had been told about that type of thing,a few months before,and funnily enough it was the fella who part owned that dog that told me.i was silly enough to back it early,and remember that one well.

i guess they were looking for some good press around that time.. they have a greyhound welfare and integrity commission over there and it is them who are running the inquiry. given the commission has been heavily criticised by some for failing to enforce integrity rules and the former chief vet accused the commission of "obfuscating the facts',many are saying how come the commission is getting to investigate themselves for those claims. the racing minister,at the start of the inquiry says he wants the greyhounds to keep operating and that they had made progress and that the inquiry was to get the nsw industry to stay focussed.. That comment coming at the same time the commission said injury rates were at there highest since independent reporting began in 2018. politicians,aye. the likes of edward rennell and michael dore gave evidence early on. Michael dore discussed the likes of preferential draw races. He said the data showed they helped reduce the injury rate for a start,but then last season the injury rate went back up as dogs habits changed when they realised there was more space on the inside after all,due to the intial effect of the pbd. I think thats what he was meaning. he discussed lures. he also said Preferential box draws were what they used on the straight tracks. I guess thats part of the reaon the racing is so clean at the wanganui straight track. Anyway,saying dogs are clever,try to avoid injury but want to chase and win is not telling anyone anything knew. But he showed the stats indicated that anyway. Rennell discussed nz breeding numbers ,saying due to the indutries uncertain future, the number of dogs being bred dropped 38% in the 2022/23 season,from 744 to 471 but how they were back to 548 in the latest season. It seems NSW sends many of their rehoming dogs to america as well.

duchess megxit's race that it won last friday at auckland,was a race where bob butt tried to just outsprint them with a quick last quarter. They ran a 28.7 second last quarter in that one,last quarter in 27.2 an overall time of 2.41.3. Bob Butt must have been thinking he had the fastest horse. I don't mind seeing a driver just sprint them home if it suits his horse,but given the overall time and where duchess megixt was positioned out the back,it appeared butt not rolling quicker from the 800m meant duchess megxit got into a challenging position much easier than it really should have. Maybe duchess megxit would have won anyway,whatever butt did.But i think that was a race which showed how the tactics you refer to gammalite,could have been effective if applied.

The evidence being given to the current nsw greyhound commission of inquiry is very interesting. In july this year, greyhound racing nsw ,with big fanfare,announced that wentworth park was to provide a machine that any greyhound trainer could use, that they claimed "would detect underlying,not yet visible injuries leading to further advances in injury detection and animal welfare." Called Canidgait analysis. sounded like they may have been intending to roll them out at other tracks. Apparently the machines cost $60,000 each and came from germany. only problem was the chief veterinary officer at the time of the purchase,had described them, as useless, for the purpose that greyhound nsw was claiming they would be used for. but that chief vet then resigned,but not before giving a bombshell report heavily critical of greyhound nsw animal welfare issues. That bombshell report resulted in the ceo of greyhound nsw resigning in july,almost as soon as the report became public. anyway,greyhound nsw then sought a replacement,chief veterinary officer,and the perosn who got the job was someone who had only 3 years experience after graduating from vet school and with no specific greyhound knowledge other than what they had struck when doing relieving work at some vet practices. seemed an odd choice ,maybe that was why they were chosen. But that vet resigned not long after as ,although with the offical title of chief vet,apparently it wasn't a full time posistion. (And maybe they also cottoned on to what they were walking into.)Also that vet,had not even realised when first interviewed that the position being considered was chief vet and seemingly didn't really want such a job, as they were happy being a relief vet for clinics who had vets away) that vet did get a trip to germany to see the new machines,and did think they were worthwhile,just not really for greyhounds because the maximum speed of the treadmill was only 20kmph,dogs were not going around bends on the machine,the surfaces they were on were different to track surfaces,etc.

i thought the pacers final turned out to be a contest befitting of and interdom final. luke mccarthy had to go to plan b,when a couple of drivers made decisions at the start that backfired on their own chances. ryan sanderson, driving dangerous ,interviewed pre race by brittany graham,at that point indicated he would press out of the gate a little,but not overdo it,due to the speed of others outside him. But turned out he executed his own pre race plan poorly,with him going out harder than he should and seemingly attempting for 150 metres to hold out the fast beginner in moonlite dream. Problem for him,was moonlite dream was always going to have the speed to cross him and all sanderson achieved was making the horse he eventually trailed, work too hard and you could tell after 250m sandersons horse would get stuck behind moonlite dream when it stopped and thats what happened. A better drive may have seen him run a place but the horse did well to still run 5th. the other driver who chanced his arm early was Cam hart driving curly james. He must have been working on the scenario that he could get in front of don hugo and then trail him. To me that didn['t make much sense either as that would have meant he would have to burn too hard to achieve that,and thats what he did,with hart seemingly resigned to finishing down the track after 400m and just attacking moonlite dream because he didn't get his way. i had thought it was a race where obviously the horse who ended up parked early would get cover as minstrel was always going to come round at some stage mid race. just like it did and he would have been the ideal horse to follow. also on the first bend,brad hewitt ,who had driven well to win the trotters final the race before,made a poor tactical decision and attempted to come off when the head on showed he didn't have enough room. i'm surprised he wasn't given a suspension for that as he took himself and another out of the race when they locked wheels and considerable ground. meanwhile,luke mccarthy made all the right moves at the right time,but his horse still had to dig very deep as minstrels driver also drove a clever race,realising don hugo had gone a bit harder than ideal early,tried to outstay don hugo and minstrel fought a valiant battle from a long way out,but came up just short. The locomotive won the trotters final through just sheer power. Brad hewitt rated his well and he was just too good. queen elida went pretty much like she did in the final heat. a battling 5th by her standards,after chris alford gave her the best run he could in the 1/1,given he was always going to end up outside the locomotive at the start. all in all a very good series in my opinion.

yes,greyhound racing governance in nz for years gave the appearance it often ignored,or badly underestimated the significance of the increasing momentum, the anti greyhound racing groups message was gaining. And as the anti greyhound racing groups voices became louder and gained more sympathetic media coverage,the nz greyhound industry rolled on at increased scale and morphed into an industry that rewarded and was driven by the big factory type operators. and at that larger scale,it was ineviltable the issues the anti greyhound people targeted, were occuring at greater scale. it was always going to be a case of,be careful what you wish for. some predicted it,some have said they saw it coming with the benefit of hindsight and others still deny it should be. no point blaming the woke or the do gooders.How was it there fault?They were just doing what they do. They were always in plain sight.Yet the greyhound industry gave them the scale of ammunition that they fired. its just reality of the world we live in these days. Good governance and leadership with proper foresight may never have prevented it,but they may have delayed it or mitigated the scale of it.But too late now. all thats left in reality is for it to be dissected on the likes of social meidia. sites like this,where coincidentally some warned of the consequences. as i mentioned,given some of the evidence presented at the nsw hearing,they must be in trouble. as to horse racing. I believe with proper leadership,the continuation of horse racing, has nothing to fear in our lifetime,although you can see jumps racing will probably go in under a decade. good governance is so important for industries like the racing codes.And treating industries that support your own is of vital importance. An example is what the tab did to the publicans who had tab's in their pubs. When they reduced tote % of turnover payout by about 1% the publicans at the tab's responsed with this isn't fair, with shit or no service when you go there,no fields on the wall,reduced promotions on days like melbounre cup,less industry exposure...anyway the point is ,like with what happened with greyhound racing,the big picture is normally steering you in the face,you just have to open your eyes and plot a course which benefits the people whose interests you represent.

well thats good to here. However i'm still a little skeptical as to what they classify as rehoming,as i am of the other racing codes. but,assuming the figures i saw are correct,then in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, a single trainer accounted for over half the official number euthanised. then,as to the numbers rehomed in the abovementioned racing season,shown on the official greyhound nz website, for 2020/21 is 665 and 2021/22 577. then this trainer x, only euthanised 6 dogs in the first half of the 2022/23 season. so in effect it was inferred he would have rehomed looking at the figures,about another 80 dogs that year. Yet that year,the official number rehomed for the 2022/23 season was 96 less,being 481. so hes provided about a 15% increase in dogs to be rehomed,but instead of the number in that time frame going up,it officially went down about 15%. like i said,i'm just going on the figures that are said to be accurate,so looking at them its hard to believe that there has not been a reclassification of the definition of rehoming,euthanising or maybe it was something like the trainer got disqualified. who knows ,but the numbers look dodgy. then look at where they are being rehomed. in the october 2024 report from greyhound nz,it says in the 3 month period between august and october- 138 dogs were rehomed,being 72 domestically,11 privately rehomed by participants,1 retained by an owner and 54 sent to america to a rehoming place there. so looking at that,doesn't it seem obvious that if you having to go to the expense of sending 54 to america just to keep your figures looking good,doesn't that tell you can't find enough homes in nz. And only 1 being retained by an owner compared to the 54 sent to america. i don't know,it indicates to me that greyhound nz have gone to extreme lengths to rehome them and to have the numbers classified so as to minimise the perception of euthanisations. good on them for that,but doesn't that just all seem a bit extreme and an indication of how difficult the problem is and always will be. i'm going to give up on reading all these figures and commenting again, as the whole thing is just sad whatever way i look at it. i can tell the people on here care,so at least there are many who do everything they can to make it all turn out as best it can.

but then you had the cole case of all those fake people.Things like that just undermine your whole system. they said the trainer who officially put down the 174 in 2 years,only put down 6 the following year(2023) after he was talked to by the rib.Seriously,can anyone really believe that he all of a sudden he had an epiphany,after years of the same practice,and all of a sudden they cared more about their dogs and had somehow tapped into a rehoming service.My guess would be they just came up with a way to reclassify what was rehoming or euthanising. From my observations,people who do things like that become dehumanised to what they are doing and it just becomes pert of their every week routine. once your mindset becomes like that you don't change.

well then those that have been should have seen it coming and bear some responsibility. i was meaning people like edward rennell,as hes only been there a couple of years. seems a bit unfair to place much blame on him.the ship was already sinking. i don't know the personalities involved that you refer to,but did some benefit financially,thus tainting their judgment? Thats often what happens .People work their ways into postions of influence as they see themselves influencing decisions fromn which they personally benefit,not the industry as a whole. i do remember david scott,a greyhound nz board member, making headlines when he got disqualified for supplying his trainer with performance enhancers. Instead his trainer,nathan udy didn't use them and reported him. I don't know how that effected nathan udy thereafter,but sounded like udy was just trying to do the right thing.Of course scott had other trainers and seemingly they must have been happy to use the performance enhancers as they didn't come forward. i guess that was a story which seemed to sum the greyhound industry up. you had someone(udy),who represented the majority who were in it for the love of the sport and the dogs,willing to stand up and do what he thought was right. But in reality,that just turned into a temporary leveling out of the downard spiral of racing integrity and standing. then again,maybe there was more to that ,maybe udy had a fall out. i don't know, others may know. all industries have a bit of dishonesty and corrupt practice based around financial gain,just the greyhounds seemed to have more and it was the big names that often created greyhound racings worst headlines. Those big names may not have represented the majority of licence participants,but they sure represented the control of the majority of dogs racing.

I'm just an outsider looking in,but i thought its obvious current greyhound administrators are not to blame for the industries impending fate. they were dealt cards that they couldn't win with,no matter how they stacked them. simply,the industry, since 1981,when it had its first tab meeting,had evolved to become an industry that financially rewarded the factory type large scale breeders,large scale trainers,large scale owners. so thats what you got. with that you got an increased number of meetings,increased numbers racing and with that obviously went increased numbers being injured followed by large scale population management problems. so the industry evolved into something which inevitably lead to the perpetuation and increase in scale of all its issues.like a runaway train. one trainer in the 2021,2022 seasons reportedly euthanised 174 dogs. He may well have been accurately reporting their numbers,but were they. And what about the others large scale operators,were they being accurate,as others must have had the same rehoming issues. And thats without going into injuries.The same year newshub reported mr mcinerney dropped off 11 greyhounds at a rehoming kennel,with 8 reported having substanial injuries,which he denied they had at the time. so the industry had become set up to reward the large scale operators,the very ones who,given their scale couldn't possibly handle the poplutaion management once dogs had finished either because they weren't good enough,had been injured or had retired. should people have seen the greyhound industry evoleving in a way that would lead to their demise,of course,some obviously did,but to me its too late now to change.sa. how can greyhound have a future beyond 2 years,as the reasons for their closure will still be there in 2 years.

thats a little silly in lots of ways isn't it? Saying because greyhound punters and supporters can't enjoy there sport here,lets deprive them of it totally. ascot park has gallops as well ,i wonder what addington will lose?

but rehoming will be over and done with within a couple of years. you would think winston would use government funds to provide for the rehoming,as it was a government decision,not racing funds for that ..maybe some overseas greyhound revenue initially only,if at all. what plan is poorly thought out.The rehoming thing by government? i agree with that. seems very unrealistic,which is why our thoughts are with the poor dogs and the people who own them. as to the plan as to where the money goes thats generated from greyhounds racing overseas. I guarantee winston and the officails that made that decision would be aware where that revenue will go. racing has to grab with both hands any windfall that comes there way,whether it be at the greyhounds expense. the nz government is shutting down the greyhound industry based on greyhound issues.

last week i was reading about the breakdown in relationship between greyhound NSW and ladbrokes.They have had a multi million agreement around sponsorship and support. One of the issues,which has upset entain/ladbrokes,was ladbrokes believing NSW greyhound had breached a contract whereby ladbrokes was supposed to have sole naming rites on the rugs. In other words the ladbrokes name appeared on each coloured dog rug which has the number. Greyhound nsw apparently had allowed rival betting agencies. so why don't HRNZ sign a deal with entain/ladbrokes which agrees to their logo/name, easily distinguishable, on each number that each harness horse has on. dean shannon is a harness man,why can't they get their heads together and work out something that will benefit the nz industry financially.

there must be many variables that surely people in the thorougbred industry or the harness industry must have worked out prior to the annoucemnet,just in case so to speak. well maybe not the harness industry, as i don't have much confidence in how they do their maths or even if they have shown any interest in doing any maths. But the thoroughbred industry,you would think have some figures worked out. For example ,once the nz greyhound industry folds you would think winston will sort it out so that the income from revenue generated by wagering on overseas greyhound racing,in particular australian greyhounds,which must be significant,well that income you would think will now go to the racing codes. Now i would imagine,the thoroughbred people will try and get it so they get the mmaximum slice they can,whether they argue it be market share or whatever. harness racing have to be proactive. Forget supporting the greyhound industry.Given the state of their books,its every man or horse industry,for themselves. remember,edward renell,head of greyhound nz,is doing the racing industry no favours whatsoever by currently highlighting the comparisons between the current greyhound issues,with the horse racing industries. lets hope hrnz are already formulating a plan to pitch for as mush of that money as they can. Of course,harness racing need to include in that pitch to winston,that they have been impacted greater by the greyhound announcement due to the income they will lose from having no greyhound racing at the tracks which are dual coded like addington.

but in reality it is. At least thats how i see the greyhound industry. In my eyes its become a factory type production driven by the big players who consistently line up between 50-75% of the starters at many meetings each week. Many with the same owners who own huge numbers. The industry is judged by what their high achievers do and they are judged by the lengths they have gone to achive that success. how can they not be. thats my opinion and i used to follow the greyhounds very closely. Putting the coles indiscretions to one side.Take the mcinerny kennels. Lets put their indescretions to one side as well because,while several hadn't quite reached the scale of the coles. How many dogs did they line up at invercargill then travel back to addington and race 2 days later in the last week and a half..Many starting 4 times in the space of 10 days. I posted earlier the former chief vet at greyhound nsw described that practice as barbaric when giving evidence last week and he gave the reasons why he thought that. i started a thread 4 years ago about how inconsistent canterbury trainers dogs were and in particular the mcinerny kennel.I also started another thread ,last year,i think it was, about how even the commentator said words to the effect that he found it almost impossible to follow that kennels form. I mean just think about the reasons why that is the case. problem gamblers are people who bet on anything on the screen. And greyhounds are on the screnn in front of them a lot.The fact that there may be more greyhound racing than horse racing,simply because they get through their races quicker,isn't greyhounds fault. Having no nz greyhounds won't solve the problem gambling issue in any way. entain i believe will just pay lip service to the announced closure,to facilitate the outcome best for them in the future. In reality i think entain couldn't care less about the nz greyhound industry. They may care more if the likes of australian states start to domino in the next 10 years,but entain are only interested in one thing. Their bottom line. Having said that,i do think dean shannon does have an interest in seeing harness racing continue in nz as hes got a lot of his own money invested in it. But Entain already provides so much product to bet on with so little interest to new zealanders,they will just put something else in its place.

i see that commision of inquiry won't report back to the nsw gevernment until 20 april 2025 due to the scale of the evidence being presented. but it doesn't sound good for nsw greyhound racing going by some of the evidence presented so far.Or the media coverage. counsel assisting the commissioner earlier described the "unfortunate regular cycle of outcry,review and attempted reform,but true or complete success of reforms has always proved evasive". of the 26 tracks currently in operation,not a single one meets, or has ever met,all the minimum standards set by greyhound nsw for animal welfare concerns. NSW 's chief greyhound chief executive resigned in august after the report of the former chief veterinary officer for greyhound nsw was made public ,that alleged deaths being hidden,adoption rates exaggerated and dogs being pushed to race causing injuries. I gave small exerts of his evidence in an earlier post. all sounds familiar to here. about 2000 people in nsw are employed in the greyhound industry. So doesn't sound good for them either.Maybe their end may be when wentworth park lease expires in september 2027.

Well,i have always checked in on this forum from time to time and i had thought you started off a long time ago as the canary in the coalmine and that canary kept singing the same song,over and over and based it on stats and data. some chose to minimise your contributions,some chose to ignore what you said. But it seemed clear to anyone thinking logically,that you were warning,in your own way,of the impending terminal fate of greyhound racing in NZ. and you were asking ,whats being done to prevent it. that was always my take on your posts. I used to think,how can anyone possibly think your motives were anything other than to protect the welfare of the dogs. If ever anyone can say,i told you so,i think its yankiwi. i really think ,from reading what many are saying about the rehoming ,that the greyhound industry really do need to become vocal about the fate of all their greyhounds,to ensure as many of them have a happy life when the racing is all over. I think,the small time people most likely will do everything they can,i just hope the factory type breeders do as well. Both have been dealt a very unfair hand by the political parties. For the greyhounds sake,the public ,nearer the end of the racing,have to be made aware exactly how perilous some greyhounds fate will become and demand accountability and funding from the government,to ensure a better overall fate of the dogs.

i just turned trackside on,and blow me down theres whanganui straight track grass racing. i guess because wanganui was the area i thought dodgy things happened,i hadn't noticed. Strange that i hadn't seen it before given how much i have trackside on,but apparently its been going every couple of weeks for about 5 months. anyway,having watched a few of todays races,i think the straight track racing at wanganui has to be the best viewing of any trackside greyhound meeting. Much better viewing than you seeIt than the likes of capalaba and healesville that i see each week. Only thing is its well inside the galloping track and really,would have no atmosphere as its so far away from the public. Had it been just over the fence from the public,then i can imagine greyhound racing ,with a track like that,could have got a far better following if raced every sunday afternoon. A bit like the appeal of the grass track harness,but on a smaller scale. anyway,what if seems of no help. but whats pretty obvious from the races i have seen today,was how little interference occured,how straight the dogs ran and that they really can be quite majestic in their own way.I have to say i don't feel the same when i see them run around a track. anyway,what are the injury rates so far for that track?does anyone know.. Probably they don't deserve tyo keep going because the main bebeficiaru is the kennel who yankiwi has highlighted earlier in regards to how dishonest they werse shown to be around the rehoming thing. It does make you wonder,when greyhound nz saw the writing on the wall,why did they not pivit to the straight grass tracks like wanganui all over nz..

i see the tab website still saying you cant deposit money from banks into accounts so sounds like a trip to a money machine then to a tab required to make a deposit into account,if it continues to be a problem..