the galah

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..

Theres a report due out this week in nsw. heres some of the evidence thats been presented at the lastest inquiry.. this was evidence given just last week. people can read it on line if they wish. to give just a very small segment...Its not fo the faint hearted.It was from the chief veterinary officer at Greyhound nsw,employed since 2023. at one point he referred to 90 dogs that had been euthanised at the 28 nsw tracks in his study period. he said in evidence.....there were dogs that had been sliced in half by a flailing wire from the lure,there were dogs that had run into poles and had their skulls crushed,there dogs with leg fractures,dogs that had there legs ripped off,dogs with torn stomachs,with twisted lungs,dogs bleeding out from ruptured blood vessels in their abdomen-they were the 10 of the 90 dogs that had been euthanised ,that he agreed with euthanisation.. However he went on to say that about 90% of the dogs who had been euthanasied at the tracks would have most likely,if pets,been taken to a high quality vet hospitals and would have been saved.He was given a budget by nsw greyhound,to set up the framework for protocol and liased with vet hospitals so that dogs could receive better care in the future. however ,given vet care is expensive and the cost for the whole recovery was on average $5,800,that was why greyhounds were being euthanised so much. he also went on to give evidence around the causes of thesignificant increasing number of injuries seen in 2023. He said he believed that a $60 travel subsidy for each starter that had been introduced in 2023 was,in his opinion,the major cause of increased injuries. The the travel subsidy had been introduced to get more starters per race and therefore give something back to participants and create greater turnover with fuller fields. what he found was with the more numbers running there was a significant increase in injury numbers ,because of course logically there were greater numbers running,but also because greyhounds who shouldn't have been racing were.. And greyhounds were being asked to race more frequently when they shouldn't have been.In fact he called it barbaric that greyhound nsw had been allowing dogs to run every 2 days... of course that happens in nz quite often i thought.well for the moment The governing nsw greyhound body came to the same conclusion and had since rescinded the travel subsidy. anyway,people should get the drift,greyhound racing in nsw has reasons to be worried as well if you read the evidence being presented at the current inquiry. i suppose,like last time,itwill come down to political support and public perception.

Technical issues to do with a 3rd party ,so they say...kept it vague to keep us guessing i suppose. turnover from 1 brodster normally equals about 20% of punters,today 1 brodster turnover = all punters that got a bet on. I think a lot of punters who bet on the dogs ,just like to have a bet running. Given many greyhound punters bet on a race,just for the sake of having an interest in the next race running, i think they most likely will just turn their attention to whatever the following race would be anyway. So i predict only very minimal ncrease to turnovers on harness racing here.Like those type of punters will already be betting on the harness product anyway if it happened to be the next race on the screen in front of them. Thats what i think from my observation of punters. As to the people who race the greyhounds. Well they have an awful lot of owners who own lots of dogs.And many of them own dogs in australia anyway.. I would guess they aren't going to turn to horse racing ,maybe there may be small numbers in a syndicate that might,but the reason they would be in a syndicate for a greyhound would often be because of the cheaper training bill for those type of owners anyway. Lead in sky coverage is the number 1 driver of turnover,but somehow i think having one dog race less,every half hour on a friday night or sunday,isn't going to increase nz horse racing sky coverage much,maybe a little here,but not much in australia and its australian betting that is difference between average and good betting pools. so personally,i think its just wishful thinking there will be any more than a very minimal impact on horse racing turnover from the greyhound shut down.

an example of how much entains problem today has effected turnover. heres the entain/tab turnover in the win pool and then in brackets the tabcorp win pools for the same race. race 1-entain/tab 2197..tabcorp(1496),race 2- 2258.(1502)..race 3-2651...(2408), race 4 5616..(10,206) race 5-5916..(7872)...race 6-4332..((4907) race 7-3692..(4541) race 8 3004..(2387). to me,given the normal patterns, that indicates the entain issues have impacted the turnover amounts coming from their nz account holders.

turnover for todays meetings wouldn't have been helped by the issue stopping people making deposits,from the banks, into their tab accounts. hopefully they get it fixed by tomorrow.

I think its very sad news. Not only for the people and dogs involved,but also for the public who follow the sport. personally i gave up betting on the dogs when they did nothing about the live baiting.i still watch a lot of their racing and my wife always follows the good dogs,just no betting When you had so many people working for a kennel saying nothing,then what confidence can you have in the honesty of that kennel. Amd that was the kennel that produced so many of the big race winners.I know a small minority of people who worked there came forward and i feel for those type of people,with todays decision,they always put the dogs welfare first and deserved better. but once trust is gone,whether it be in the major players or in authoritites ability to properly police the rules,it had to have had a major impact on the overall industries public perception. I remember the days of going to qe2 park,many characters and the dog racing just on the other side of the fence meant it was a product that had its own uniqueness and excitemnet,. And i remember cup week racing having to include a quick dash back for the dogs on thursday night after the ashburton trots. i can remember like it was yesterday,shorty bijou getting beaten one time,he ran a huge second and the trainer led him back up the straight complaining all the way about a dog that got in shortys way through the race. so many real people and their dogs were characters. mind you,so much has changed for all racing codes since the those days. i went to addington dogs on a tuesday about 2 years ago. Not one other spactator did i see. A racebook with such small print i could not read. No tote windows open that i could see.I watched the photographer trundle out to take the photo,then trundle back into the bar area. He was a very loyal supporter obviously i thouhght,but must have been lonely apart from the woman behind the bar and the one other bar customer who didn't seem to have any interest in the dog racing .Even when i watched from the raised harness winners area next to the track,i struggled to see the dogs and i left after about 3 races as i thought,no wonder no one goes to the dog racing anymore. also,theres no athmosphere when the dog racing is inside a harness track and the dogs don't even get paraded anywhere near the public. greyhound racing had,and thats the key word,had its own uniqueness and appeal,but not anymore in the south island that i can see. i often in recent times,whats happening with the safer straight track racing,but that never seemed to happen. That about summed up the, if only thing that greyhound racing had become. But what now for its followers,it very sad, irrespective of the reasons why.

so this week they have a total of 3 2 year old races at the 5 meetings with fields out. Field sizes 1x10 and 2x12. The reason for the bigger fields is i guess because they didn't have either enough colts/geldings, or fillies to split the races and run one race on the programme for colts and another for fillies. In other words to allow them all to get a start they have combined them. Well,even though HRNZ have been forced to run them this week against their will that way,doesn't it make obvious sense they should be running them like that most of the time anyway? In other words everyone gets a start,less stakes paid,larger betting pools.Better for the industries stressed balance sheet . what i think is an obvious cause for concern is just how small the number of two year olds that are racing this week. The combined number of pacers and trotters across all 5 meetings would only be in the 40"s. Remember,a 2 year old now would have been 3 under the old season calendar just a couple of years ago.i believe Its an indication of the lack of numbers that will flow through in years to come.

The draw a number out of a hat approach, by the stipes continues for these so called scratching penalties. lets be honest,the inconsistent application of the penalties rule is just a farce. Its almost certain that every trainer nominating their horses is doing so online. So trainers aren't being contacted by the clubs and being asked to keep their non win horse in the fields because the club wants a field of 13 instead of 12.if that does happen i assume they are the ones that get no penalty for scratching.(exceptional circumstances that you see in the stipes reports) In other words ,trainers are knowingly nominating their horses with little intention of starting,often thinking i'll see whats in that field and then compare it to this other field thats running say 3 days later and see where they draw and so on. take this week in the south island,we had 1,1 day penalty,1, 2 day penalty,2, 4 day penalties and 13 5 day penalties. All for the exact same thing.The 5 day penalty is what the rules says should happen. so,ask yourself this,why. well the answer is the system is a joke open to manipulation. Manipulation enabled by the stipes. Personally i couldn't care less whether there is a scratching penalty or not,but you can't ignore some people are getting preferential treatment,so why shouldn't others get the same treatment. A fairer rule change was proposed not that long ago,yet its just another one of those things that the people in charge at hrnz chose to ignore. It may not be seen as a big deal,but to me indicates a symptom of poor leadership.

I've found this interdom series a good watch. All the racing has been very competitive,perhaps because it started out with no really dominant horses and the 3 different tracks. don hugo's price of $2.60 seems quite generous to me. by the end of the third nights racing he seems to have 2 to 3 lengths over his nearest rival and he has the ideal draw. Luke mccarthy is the best in australasia for working his way to the front without burning early,then dominating and he seems perfectly drawn at 3. I would imagine my moonlite dream will cross and lead and mccarthy doing enough to not allow any others of those wider to cross him,then it would just be a matter of either the 2 horse(dangerous) pressing on to lead if it holds up early, which may be debateable,and then don hugo takes over or don hugo gets there first. That seems the most likely scenario to me and on last weeks form they most likely can't catch him. the same with the trotting final,the locomotive($1.55) just seems too good for the others and should work its way to the front and just win as well.Queen elida's only chance would be to burn to the front,but if she did that you would think its winning chances are gone and if it goes back you would think it couldn't win either.Maybe it runs 3rd or 4th at best.

If you want my honest assessment of him, i would say he prefers all weather tracks as his grass track record is not too good. he actually went a very tough race at ashburton during cup week,it would have been quite a physically demanding run for him as they went fast overall and he did a heap of work.Hes a horse i've backed with some success at times and i think he will bounce back at some stage,maybe after a wee freshen up,in the right race and on the right track.

I think its one of those horses that is best described as an enigma.Something thats difficult to understand or is a bit mysterious. hes a gelding and i see hes had 3 wins and 8 placings friom 46 starts and he has earned $43,000 in the last 2 years,so hes a handy enough horse who's paying his way. so i think your description of him is a bit harsh. i'm guessing his trainer is sometimes seen scratching his head after some of his races.I'm guessing ,if asked to comment ,what he thinks about his inconsistent form,he would say...well the way to inderstand him is to be confused....which of course would lead to anyone who asked scratching their head in sympathy with the trainer. hes actually from the hilarious guest family,i think she was his great,great,granny.

So they are still paying half a million in interest each month. Is mr mackinnon still describing those interest payments as "brutal and cutting into how much money they will have left to establish a new training centre" for those who will no longer have franklin park to train from? So how are the ATC's talks with HRNZ going and how much has HRNZ said they will put in,to help the ATC establish any new training centre? given mr mackinnon has said auckland can't do it alone,then if we assume that is true,it seems a no brainer that either auckland are doomed anyway,or as appears likely at this stage,HRNZ will support auckland and give them the money,inevitably having to slash stake money in a couple of years in places like canterbury and southland.Like it was only a few months back that mr steele,head man at HRNZ, was quoted as saying 75% of HRNZ cash reserves of $5m were going to be used to pay increased stakes,primarily for the big races. So the current value of the franklin property has not gone down over the last year,as widely reported ,but has actually gone up according to mr mackinnon.Is he inferring the atc has a buyer who will pay more than the chinese.Is that true or is he pulling everyones leg? Strange old industry harness racing. People just sit back and watch things happen that will impact them in 2-3 years. Perhaps heres why some do. look at the current top 3 nz leading stables on number of wins. The dunns,the telfers and purdon/phelan.Nathan purdon ranks 3rd on stakes won. They all benefit from HRNZ pouring the money into the north island.Becuase they are north island based. The dunn stable even seems to take horses from their south island stable, who go best left handed, and race them at auckland instead. Seems illiogical but thats what they do. So they are never going to be vocal about what HRNZ are doing,because they benefit.Look after me and my mates the philosophy of those leading the industry these days.

i get what your saying,as you could see will rixons horse would end up breaking 50m before it did, because his horse always was going to anticipate getting a knock and therefore would move in and break either,to avoid the knock or as happened,despite alfords late correction, it got off balance. rixon was driving the$2.15 favorite so i would guess cam hart would have been just as happy to see him lead and park queen elida. So i think Alford gambled on being able to intimidate rixon enough for rixon to back off,rixon wasn't,but his horse understandably was. I actually think alford probably thought ,it he was in the same situation as rixon was,he would back off.People anticipate others should behave as they would,but everyone is different. Its something that occurs from time to time and the stipes always seem to decide,well no physical interference occcured,lets give a warning to the galloping horse ,with no consequences for the horse or driver moving in. If stipes want to reduce the number of horses breaking and possible injury,they should reevaluate their interpretation to those situations,and take a more cause and effect approach,in my opinion.

i saw queen elidas win.Racing into the first bend, it had a half a length advantage over the $2.15 favorite who was to its inside and in in the middle of queen elida and the horse on the inside.Chris alford driving queen elida allowed her to drift in and had to correct at the last moment,the inward direction she was travelling in and you could see him do that by turning its head to the side.But as you see more often than not,especially with trotters,the horse in the middle anticipates it will get a bump and moves in itself ,becoming unbalanced and breaks. they showed the head on and that was what appeared to happen,but because queen eldia made no contact,nothing was said to chris alford. personally i can't see why that type of driving has no consequences. If your driving a car and someone half a car length in front of you starts encroaching into your lane ,obviously you are going to react to avoid a collison. Thats exactly what horses do. They,like the car driver aren't going to work on the assumption the fella encroaching into their lane will correct his inward movement.

apart from the first 2 paragraphs,i think they are good points you make. Me trying to drum up negativity or referring to brodie,is of course not how we see it. I would point out,if you were to only listen to the glass half full thinkers,then you would only be getting half of one side of the argument. while brodie doesn't need anyone to speak for him,i'm guessing he sees himself like me,someone who floats from glass more full to glass more empty ,based on a realistic assessment of just how full the glass really is at varying times. Perhaps the best analogy i can give,in keeping with your glass half full/empty thing. I see HRNZ as being the ones that pour from the bottle,that are keeping aucklands glass half full,and every time they top it up to half full again,i see the contents of the bottle getting a bit emptier. And as hrnz have only that one bottle to quench the thirst of not only auckland,but everyone,then i see that as inevitably meaning, there will be less to go around in the future.If the boot were on the other foot,auckland would be saying the same. negativity,dribble...spin it whatever way you like tabforever.But remember,in the end people see through the spin and see things for what they are.Why not just tell it as it is now and formulate workable solutions.

your living the life of Riley tabforever.Nice I just watched the film forrest gump, on my free,for a month, sky movie channels. Paying to have trackside on sky does have its perks after all,but thats about the scale of my recent highlights. But,if they were to make a racing movie similar to forrest gump,i'm putting your name forward, as sounds like you would be popping up everywhere....thats all i have to say about that. me paranoid,who told you that?have you been watching me? as to the padded cell,my wife lets me out more than you realise.... As long as i take my medication. keep up the good work of supporting our racing,especially auckland. Auckland needs more like you.

Imperial command just ran again. Again the money was on.Only paying $4 for unknown reasons.I suppose Tabforever always has plenty of reserves to tap into. looked more relaxed tonight with a driver change to r payne.Drew the second line ,begun ok this time,settled back but got the perfect drag into it turning for home, but was struggling to make ground and while he kept trying,never looked a place chance and ran 5th or 6th. He actually looked like he put in a couple of rough strides a couple of times but never broke. can't blame the horse for people over valuing him when he was sold on gavel house. I will keep an aye on his form,but won't report anything unless it improves.

we've tried to find out brodie. seemingly the news is so exciting, no one can put it into words. we first asked Tabforever,who told us his mates attended,but apparently they over indulged on the free drinks that were available after the meeting,and tabforever hasn't yet been able to interpret the slurring hes hearing. then we asked mick guerin,but as he was excluded because hes from the media,hes only been able to report he heard mumbling from the glass he held against the wall. Then we were told aaron white will tell us on friday when he calls the races,but apparently he won't be there on friday as hes having eyesight trouble after steering too much at the ribbon of light. then we turned to peter profit,he knows ,but he told us,mate,fair suck of the sav, we'd have to pay $20 to subscribe for a month,and the punting hasn't been that good lately. then we put a call into jamie mackinnon,but for some reason he thought we supported the auckland harness museum and told us to p... off and that he would see us in court. so,getting desperate we turned to a young chinese chinese friend, to intepret what the chinese buyers had said,but he told us he didn't know mandarin ,but did say he knew te reo,if some sort of treaty has been signed. so,for the moment we still don't actually know much,other than its supposed to be exciting.

peter profit has always had someone close to the action,so to speak,but don't you find it strange we rely on an australian for auckland news. Too positive and doesn't suit you say. No i can only read his headlines as not a subscriber.As to positive news,i'm always keen to hear such news,but i'm channeling brodie here, when i say i've just been telling it as it is,in the past. if thats the case,i'm surpirised the ATC would exclude media,given you decribe members like your friends chatted excitedly. wouldn't you have thought, even if they didn't want any media there,they would have wanted to control the narrative and would have had a pre prepared media release as soon as the meeting finished.i know things would need to be voted on,but they should still have had one. gee,your easily excited. Is aucklands crisis actually over,or has it just gone from looking like pulling the plug on the life support machine, to back to being in need of critical care? Anyway,nearly all the comments i've made about the auckland club have been based around how HRNZ is directing financial resources into the auckland clubs survival,when auckland continues to run their race meetings at large losses. so,until that changes ,which seems highly unlikely,then the decision makers at HRNZ will continue to be placed under increasing scrutiny,to stop undermining the finacial stability of the industry as a whole,just to prop up certain sectors with the preferential treatment. the tale of the auckland harness racing has taken another twist in a different direction,maybe,we await more details,but lets not forget that doesn't change the basics.

the first to report anything on the auckland club,is peter profit as usual. whille i can only read his headlines,it suggests good news for auckland and pukekohe. Nothing in any of the nz media so far.. peter profit also reporting a well known australian trainer coming to auckland. lets hope mr profits story is accurate,just it would be nice to know some detail if anyone has it who went to their meeting?

so here we are,just over 12 months on from my original post and Dreams Are Free is a horse with issues,as i predicted. What we will get from dreams are free in the derby,well who really knows. A recent story on harnesslink quoted trainer nathan williamson as saying,dreams are free will remain in canterbury for more tests after the derby,as he has some sort of breathing issue. from a horse being written up by many as exceptional, to a horse with issues. that must be very frustrating for his connections. will he bounce back,well i couldn't predict that with the same certaity i did,that he would have issues. Maybe he will and maybe he won't.You would think he would be getting some sort of treatment for the upcoming race. but i think the moral of the story is to recognise the patterns from racing and not try and make the mistakes others have made. then again,many will disagree i suppose.

Come on. HRNZ's bonus scheme is very close to a socialist type approach. Just ask yourself why are HRNZ paying the bonus. Surely its obvious? its because they felt they had to intervene through distribution of not only stakes,but bonuses,to get more numbers to start. Thats exactly like a socialist government(hrnz), attempting to control production and distribution of wealth that would not occur if left to a free market type approach. So they get a 12 horse 2 year old fillies race in canterbury once in a while. Whoop dee doo. You must realise if you go back 3 or 4 years ago ,prior to the season change, which put back their age change from august to december,there were far more 2 year olds(formally 3),racing after august than there is now. And they weren't paid any bonuses were they. Also,do you only look at canterbury 2 year old fields. This week auckland has a 6 horse 2 year old filly field. southland generally get about a 7 horse field. And why do you think someone who owns a 2 year old filly is more important than someone who owns a 3 year old or 4 year old or whatever. Help pay for the training fees of the 2 year old you say. Have you not worked out owners will have paid more training bills for the 3 ,4,and older aged horses they own.So,using your logic,they should get bigger bonuses.iWhat makes the owner of a 2 year old so special. 2 year old fillies are our future broodmares you say. Well,what about the owners of our current broodmares who are older than 2?Why don't they count. The dumbest thing about these bonuses, is they were never going to work. I started a couple of topics on the bonuses at the beginning of the year and everything i said has turned out to have been true. And why did i say they were never going to work,well its because if were a trainer and you had a 2 year old who wasn't going to win,then you were never going to start your horse because there was nothing in it for you,other than devaluing or bottoming out earlieryour horse. long owner,the proof of the failure of the bonuses is there for all to see,plain as day,just look at the fields. if you are still thinking they work,which you seem to be,then i suggest you run for elcction at hrnz,as they will welcome your ideas with open arms. Also,how about that chriatian cullen race,$200,000 stake with a $20,000 bonus and still only got 7 runners.You have to laugh,when you look back at the recent published thoughts of those who said that would work as well.

Well,the hype from HRNZ and the media played out just as i predicted. All hot air. i mean,"will it even attract any new starters",is what i asked above of the $20,000 bonus on top of the $200,000 stake. why can i predict these things yet the so called clever HRNZ and media people can't? Matthew peden, said "the $20,000 bonus is a way of adding more interest to what is lining up to already be a very exciting race.It gives the race an extra sense of occasion and we think it will be very well received." what a plonker.

I've always surmised the increasing % of trotters in victoria may have something to do with the emma stewart syndrome. In other words,you still enjoy the horses and want to continue participation,but think,why bother breeding a pacer when you know you will not be competitive in the age group races and when you believed the most successful pacing trainer was using performance enhancers. That would be my guess. as to andy gath. i think you have hit the nail on the head when you referred to the comaprison of tornado valley and imperial command. i just looked up tornado valleys record. He only had 5 raceday starts by the time he turned 4,for 2 wins. He actually was given 12 workouts and trials,4 as a late 2 year old and 9 as a 3 year old,before he ever had his first raceday start and had won 9 of those 12. Knowing the way terry mcmillan is,he would have been just looking after him anyway and not over stressing him in those. So while he had started 57 times when gath bought him,he had reached the top class here,but most importantly for his longevity,he had been driven by Mcmillan or gerard o'reilly. And Mcmillan,often to punters frustration,always used to drive like hes out for a sunday stroll and g o'reilly always drove tornado valley in a way where he found the line,not as he does some other horses these days. i used to back tornado valley all the time and you always knew he would back up his form,because he was driven to do so. and if you asked what terry mcmillan wanted in a racehorse,he would say a top older horse. So compare that to the background of Imperial command.Its the complete opposite in every way. To me,i've always thought,as important as the horse is,is who the previous trainer was. Like i remember someone telling me the story of an aussie he knew who paid a 6 figure sum for an ex all star horse,and was very disappointed in how it never performed to anywhere near the same level.I mean,is that surprising. I think not. Andy Gath and others who are on the lookout for a nice NZ horse really have a far more difficult job than even 10 years ago.The terry mcmillan type trainers who train their horses to peak at 6 to 8 are next to non existant anymore.That g mcclymont,who had those couple of winners at addington would have been a good person to buy one off when they were trotting around southland a couple of years ago,showing real promise but galloping all the time. She fits the t mcmillan mould,but too late now. And also,the circumstances of the people selling really can dictate if someone sells,so thats a variable.

Well it turns out andy gath,the victorian trainer was the person who thought imperial command was worth $21,000.interesting. Imperial command has now had 2 starts over there. By the looks of it,someone has punted it bigtime. Maybe that was tabforever and we haven't heard from him recently because hes had to take up working again after the punt. But A Gath has trained some good horses so maybe imperial command can win shortly. In his first race over there he went out a $1.70 favorite and actually went ok for 2nd. It was a strange field,ranging from a 3 start non placegetter to imperial whiz,who's won $260,000 but seems to have dropped back to a rating 40-45 type grade. anyway,imperial command ran like he did here,showed reasonable but not high gate speed,held the lead because he had the advantage of the 1 draw,then looked one paced but kept trying and ran 2nd. then this week,in a 3 year old race,which had a couple who had won 4 or 5 and the rest being 1 win out of form horses,Imperial command looked back to the form he showed just before he went to aussie,pulling hard in the score up and always looking like breaking even before the start,which he did. Took no part.Punters did their chips again,with the commentator saying pre race imperial command came over to aussie with a good record. 2 wins from 50 starts a handy at best record i would think mr commentator. his form so far is pretty much as it was in NZ,no better,no worse in my opinion. anyway,i said i would keep an eye on his aussie performances and let people know how he was going,given some rubbished my thoughts on his value. A gath a good trainer, so he may get his manners sorted and become a happier horse than last start.time will tell.