the galah

Maybe peter profit has jumped the gun,but he seems to think hes got the inside word. Clearly it would be a very major setback for the ATC if there is a delay. hopefully its just a delay,but that would still be very bad. Why would hrnz be gambling on the outcome of a real estate deal. If things did happen to go wrong,theres the likelihood the whole of nz harness would suffer if they continue with that gamble. The ATC have no choice ,but hrnz? The atc may well have got a $10 million deposit but haven't they said land values in auckland went down in 2023. A real estate website says in the last 12 months houses sold in pukekohe are down 4%,although another one says overall,down but not quite as much.So 2024 no better.The originally agreement was in 2022 wasn't it,when the prices were most likely higher. Its all speculation,but if there was a need for a new buyer then even if you go best case scenario,the value the land would have to go up each month before they sold it ,by at least half a million just to retain the status quo,as thats whats being added to the size of the loan they have with the bank each month. And wouldn't that be compounding so that makes it even worse. and how likely would they be to get a quick sale. Those things take time. So even if they agreed to a delay with the current buyer then their $80 million keeps getting higher. Lets hope they get paid in november. Because they have chosen to keep alexandra park then they have limited their options or at least delayed other scenarios which must prove costly givennothing happens overnight and the banks are owed so much.

the two shareholders you mention in golding meadows development Ltd seem to have a further partners in jusheng huang and joanne Lan,who live in china.Golding road just being the area near the pukekohe complex. a quick search came up with they also did another development in auckland,grande meadow developments. The golding meadows develpment filed their annual return last week on 2/9/2024.I wonder what that showed. I suppose it will all become clearer,or maybe not, when the atc hold their meeting.

hrnz have had this report for a while but still no public announcement when or if their recommendations will be implemented. Does anyone know why it taking so long?

There was a time when i thought everyone thought 30 minutes or under was the most time you wanted between races if your attending or watching. yesterday at mehven the day seemed to drag on with several 35 and some 38 minute gaps,interspersed with a couple of 25 minute gaps. the same thing happened at wydham on thursday. 35 minute gaps ,then half way through the programme a 25 minute gap which confused me as i missed a bet. i know there are more meetings on a sunday now with entain scheduling 4 nz meetings instead of 2,with harness racing losing priority,but again this is another topic where decisions made are negatively impacting harness racing.

The strange thing about the ATC's predicament is HRNZ have come out so strongly saying they are committed to saving auckland racing based on the sale. Doesn't common sense say HRNZ leadership should have waited and seen how the payment plays out before making such a commitment. Even if the ATC do get paid on time,however likely or unlikely that is,wouldn't you have to question how smart Hrnz leadeship is as they have never once mentioned what they will do in the event of the payment not being made in november. Either thats because they just plan and hope or its because they aren't transparent. Either way thats not good. Isn't that a fair comment.

All they ever say is chinese buyers. Seems a bit mysterious in some ways. Maybe they don't want anyone researching into their background. Wouldn't they file annual returns assuming they were a company. Where do they have the rest of their money invested and how solvent are they. they did pay a deposit of $10m,although mackinnon from the atc was reported at the time to say, the atc had been pleasantly surprised the amount the chinese had offered. they report all the time the real estate market in china has some serious issues. they say in china on average home prices are expected to fall over 8% this year and the volume down even more.Next year they are predicting home prices to drop another 4%. seems they have lots of apartments unsold and lots unfinished and thats badly impacted developers access to further funds and increasing developers risk exposure. So has the chinese buyer of the atc's, been impacted by that? its all a bit mysterious. It all leads to speculation and rumours like the peter profit headlines. Wouldn't the atc be having their annual meeting soon?

The eureka was an interesting race but really wasn't over exciting to watch. Luke mccarthy was allowed to dictate a slow pace with only k manning making a move from the back mid race.They only went the 800m from the mile to 800m in 59.5 which seems slow for menangle. the favorite never ending did come home fast and looked like he would have been a winning chance had he followed k manning around when she made her move on the slow pace with a mile to go. But g hall had said pre race he was going to come with one run which sort of meant he didn't have the confidence in his horse to warrant a move,which seemed surprising given he was the favorite. In the end mccarthy and manning just out drove those at the back and there horses took advantage of their drivers top tactics. I thought the first race was a good spectacle and the sky close up coverage of that race was good viewing. Early moves then a fast late finish from loyalist to come from last and win by a nose. Shame that wasn't the eureka race as people watching that would have seen the excitement harness racing can provide.

interesting what you say about the stallions.. i have noticed boring poles with rein prickers can be counter productive sometimes,especially when they aren't used to it,moreso in stands.You see some horses resenting them and its reflected in their manners. Having no overcheck is another thing that you see sometimes. Not very often in nz ,but moreso from some australian stables.Personally i have always believed that if a horse is more relaxed and is well gaited,then why the need for an overcheck. I suppose the only time it may help would be if it copped some interference and was falling,but sometimes that may be counter productive as well.Depends on the horse i believe but i can't see why more don't race without one. The emma stewart stable races most of their horses with no overcheck. They certainly went great last night although i don't think its a good look for victorian racing as they team drive and its so obvious. The worst part of their team driving is if a favored runner from another stable gets handy some of their drivers deliberately sacrifice their own chances to undo the more favored runner who's not from their stable. They either make them work or attack too far from home. And it works as with 3 or 4 in each race,they just seem to win each race anyway.It can't be good for punter confidence and turnovers and rival trainers and owners can see how occasionally they may be as good as them,but in reality they have little chance of beating them due to the team driving.I know that type of thing happens everywhere but victoria is where it looks the worst.

I see peter profit has another headline today saying "the jungle drums are beating louder that the devleoper won't pay the $90 million in november" as had been agreed. Maybe he could have used "smoke signals' instead of jungle drums as that may turn out to be more appropriate if hes right. Again you would have to ask the question,given the ATC is paying close to $500,000 a month in interest to the bank for a loan and given the ATC says they can't provide a new training centre without HRNZ funds. Doesn't that mean that if the sale doesn't go through and HRNZ are going to continue supporting racing in auckland,then every month auckland aren't paid,HRNZ will need to cut funding they provide to south island clubs for things like stakes. Will HRNZ gamble on the atc land sale going through at a later date,like the ATC did on their apartment complex?

Interesting the lugging poles observation. The leading stables like dunns and purdons seem to do that a lot.Obviously it works for them going by their results.sundees son may have had a pole on both sides from memory. I know its all about getting them to run straight but while we haven't trained that many,we have never had one that didn't run staight or need a pole. i know some horses seem to start off looking around but it seemed they just worked it out themselves iin the end it was easier to run straight,generally after about 3 months more work. So 'i've never quite understood why they can't just run straight without a pole,but it works for them. If you look at ken barrons they hardly ever wore poles when he was training lots of winners. Actually its a bit like tendon and knee boots. You have phil williamson never seems to put them on. Maybe its a trotter thing,but it works for him. Anthony butt drove one for us one day and the first thing he said when he saw it was why haven't you got shin or knee boots on it. We said well its got a great gait and he said well if it was his he would still put tendon and shin boots on because you just never know when they may get checked and where they may have to put their legs or change direction quickly,and when that happens the boots could well save your horse from serious injury. So we have always taken that advise.

masterly,gee he had that ready to win first up after a long spell. He sure can train. i hope you weren't on that one newmarket as it looked home like you say.

Thats the thing isn't it. Then theres Waitangi day when the mainstream media love talking about how the current government policies are dividing nz. then theres the protest marches.The media again showed interest in what he had to say on those. Theres always a common theme that runs through when the mainstream medias interested. For some reason the media think showing what he has to say in stories which deliberately are shown through the lens of the left leaning,patronising,self professing morally superior media,somehow is going to unite and gain respect from those they are preaching to. I'm sure the maori king did great work in a lot of areas,but those stories have gone untold.

chains,dlt and che fu one of my favorites. My wifes ring tone was poi e. Maybe Magic could play some of our favorites. Brandy(bunny walters( gets a bit of air play and john rowles was always my aunties favorite. You know,i remember going to the addington races a few years back and walking into one of those lounges the old stand had, and there was eddie low singing.He did a good version of your favorite pokarekare ana.

great you getting to appreciate that. I guess thats part of why they call australia the lucky country. Loved your story about the kookaburra.

I was watching a programme on him one time and i think maori royalty goes back to the days when nz was colinized and the maori tribes felt they would be best served and be more united in achieving the best outcomes for them by having a maori king represent and negotiate for them.So his family was born into it from there. I think thats how it worked. i guess his role was along those lines but how relevant he was,well just as you may ask about english royalty today,i suppose everyone has differing opinions. i was watching a programme on the king that died last night on maori tv. It was all in english.He apparently was a hard worker,used to drive trucks,down to earth,caring guy with the sense of humour unique to maori who someone said loved being on the ride on doing the lawns at the local marae.That actually seemed to be who he really was,not just words. But the coverage to me on mainstream tv was so over the top. He may have been a great guy but he is no more important to anyone than ones own loved ones. And if one of your loved ones died,no one outside your family and friends will hardly give it a second thought past the day.

I agree with you about the weather on tv. I hardly watch the news at all now for that very reason, nor the weather as for some reason it irritates me when i hear a white person speaking in maori.I always change the channel when they talk in maori. For a start i have no idea what they are saying and secondly i find the whole maori language promotion by the media and corporates, is mostly patronising and fake. Its similar to the woke mentality that the media and corporates force on people and its no conincidence that both agendas are promoted by the same groups. Here we have these white people making out that maori language and maori culture is so important to them,that being seen supporting it gives them some sort of moral superiority over others who aren't on board with it.You can just see it in them. In reality they go about their every day lives giving little thought to those who struggle just to make ends meet ,often living week to week in their every day lives.Maori are far higher represented in that area,but that area is not the focus. The maori language is.. Now not everyone promoting the maori thing is like that,some genuinely do care,but they are in the minority and media and corporates and most who are,they are just fake in my opinion. To me so much of promoting the maori language and culture is tokenism. These corporates who push the maori language,they will take advantage of maori just as much as the next person. i don't blame them for making a $,but don't patronise me as to your motives. I watch the maori tv channel quite a bit. They do have some good programmes on there. Obviously i don't watch anything that doesn't have captions on if they are talking in maori,but if you really want to know what matters to maori,who better to tell you. And yes i know their language is of great importance to them. Thats real for them unlike what i mostly see on mainstream tv. The labour party indoctrinated this into our education system. Ask yourself this. Is nz more united because of the previous labour parties policies? Obviously not.

I rung the helpline by mistake the other day. I had googled the betcha 0800 number, but obviously that number must be on the betcha website somewhere as it came up. You know,i had the phone on speaker and after listening to it for about 20 minutes of i'm sorry for the delay,we are busy...and having heard every second song in maori,it dawned on me this may not be betcha. It did strike me,that going by the music,there seemed a bit of racial profiling of those that might ring them. Talking things maori. Is it just me,or is it every time i've turned on the tv for the last 6 days,the maori kings funeral is on. This afternoon it went for hours,my wife complaining about missing judge judy,then i turn on the news just before and there it is again. I turned the tv off went and made some tea and came back 5 minutes later and changed the channel and there it was again,so changed to the other news channel and blow me down,it was on there as well. i'm sure he was a highly respected man,but the media coverage just seems out of proportion given most would not have heard of the man until recently.

gammalite,talking things NSW,i see in the last month or so cameron fitzpatrick is back driving after 9 years disqualified for particpating in that no swabbing green light scandel. His original application was turned down but then he won on appeal. Then greg bennett did the same thing,appealed the decision not to let him back, but in his case the same judge decided the cases were different and wasn't satisfied bennett had shown a change in circumstances anyway.Apparently the nsw integrity unit still want his phone records from 13 years ago years ago,but at the time he said he lost it and was still sticking to that story. It not sure what that all means. Harness racing hard to shake perhaps.

Is anything?. But its the type of thing punters talk about. I don't have the nz figures but i can look up the tabcorp figures and generally the pattern is exactly the same for the nz pools as the tabcorp pools. In other words the higher turnover races are the same. So that race i have been talking about,the win pool turnover came in 5th in the tote win pools,if you compare it to the 18 races held at addington and aucklandi last friday. In fact when compared to auckland the win pool in the last race at cambridge was greater than all but 1 of the 8 races at auckland. So tote pools reflect punter participation which reflect the number of people watching the race. In other words theres more people watching the low stake,1 win battlers that you describe them as than the races you may prefer to watch at auckland. Each to their own. And obviously I was supporting my opinion with stats and pointing out the 0 from close to 60 winning strike rate for horses waiting 3 back the fence at cambridge,until getting a clear run at the passing lane, which was the reason you disagreed with me,may indicate you are wrong.. And no,i don't agree horses coming 5 wide lose 6 lengths either. But yes,i agree that i've made my point enough now.. also;i hadn't expected anyone to disagree with me as i had thought i was just pointing out the obvious,but hey that assumption of mine turned out to be a bit off. The continuation of the thread seems to be losing a bit of context of the woman concerned driving. Its only the 1 drive and she had plenty of good ones. Infact she has an extremely good strike rate for someone just starting out .

We have been talking about a horse that chose to go 3 back the markers at the 400m and gave up the perfect uninterrupted drag into the race. But as to your huge advantage thoughts. We aren't talking the leader or trail horse,but 3 back the markers. Like i said earlier,i went back over the last few meetings to see if it does favour that position as you suggest.I've even gone back a bit further for you. So how many winners came from that position in the last 7 meeting held on that track? 1 is the answer and that horse was off the markers before they turned for home as the first 3 on the markers had gone clear. So out of close to the last 60 races run at cambridge,0 have won by waiting to the passing lane to get a gap. One night there was 4 or 5 that got tyhe gap as soon as they hit the passing lane,which is unusual at cambridge,and they managed to place but as i mentioned earlier it was mostly you had a less than 1 in 6 chance of paying a dividend. And of course thats not factoring in momentum and race pattern,as was applicable in the race concerned.

heck,that sounds a real ordeal.We had wondered where you went to. It must have been really difficult for you to get your head around having to go through that,let alone the physical discomfort and pain. You have youth on your side so hoping you fully recover and heal quick. from the words that you use in your posts,i also hope your being used as a mentor in some sort of way,whether it be within or outside harness racing. Anyway, thanks for the update and hope you achieve your goal of 100 winners next year.

Good points again. Looking at the wording i used in my first post ,your probably right there as well. On a different note. I've wondered why A harrison hasn't been driving. i know its a difficult sport to make much of a living from,but A harrison seems to have gone missing from the driving ranks for some reason. She has driven close to 100 wins as a junior. Does she still work in the industry?

it all seems to depend on the track doesn't it.. Somes tracks like ashburon have the passing lane about 250m before the finish and enough room for a couple of horses. addington seems to be about 220m and cambrige less than 200m. then you have tracks like manawatu with an even shorter run to the finish. Very few at manawatu seem to make much ground on the markers in the straight. grass tracks like oamaru have a longer run to the finish after the passing lane starts and there seems a track bias favoring those on the fence there also. The further from the finish a passing lane starts the better 3 back the fence is as a position. Also its obviously all about forward momentum. If the horses on the markers are going forward then it makes sense to save ground if you can,but if they aren't and are losing moentum compared with the rest,then don't go on the markers.

Also i would point out, its not accurate to say 3 back the markers at the end of the back straight at cambridge, is a position winners sometimes come from. In the last 20 races at cambridge,the horse 3 back the markers with 500m or less to run, has placed 2nd twice and 3rd twice.. 3 of those 4 placings occurred in races where the horses 1,2 and 3 back were 1st,second and 3rd turning for home. Only 1 horse who placed, passed more than 1 horse from that position at the top of the straight. In the last 5 meetings at cambridge,there was only 1 winner come friom 3 back the markers and that again was in a race where the first 2 on the markers had gone clear so the horse concerned had come off the markers prior to the start of the straight.

Joe casual would have an opinion. i'm no joe big punter,but my $20 still counts as much as the next guys. The races last night were not good betting races. I only liked slainte in the trot,which i never backed because it was the plunge horse. The other winner i thought that stood out was the horse in question. And if ever there was a race run to suit a horse coming from tha back on the outside,that was it. But hey,it wasn't a major loss for me. i know of others who had more on it and they were disappointed too but puntings like that. . so any race can be a race for backing a winner. Its just up to the punter.. Anyway how i feel about a bet is nothing to with the amount bet. I copuld lose hundreds on a horse and just turn the page to the next and not give it another thought. Whereas if i lose $5 on something i think may be dodgy,then i feel taken for a bit of a ride. As to the stipes.Your possibly right to a degree. some punters read the stipes report all the time,some never and some when they see a drive last night. Without doubt i think the stipes should have questionesd the trainer and driver. Without doubt that would have gone somwe way to punters thinking that at least their interests were being protected. One thing i definetly believe is the areas where harness racing gets the most participants and the most punter participation,they are the areas that punters have the most confidence in the oversight of the stipes provide. In other words,in my opinion,auckland is a weak area for harness racing and that equates to the level of stipendiary oversight. Canterbury is strong and that is reflected in thorough oversight. Turned out,with the benefit of hindsight,you were right on this occassion about that. But hey ,i still rate her becuase as i say,horses seem to run for her..