the galah

You know you've said the same above thing many times and its getting a bit silly now. Never once have i said i want north island harness racing or auckland racing to close.I don't think i've read where anyone has ever even said they want that. when someone says a business needs to restructure and run their business in a way which consolidates their ability to continue to operate a viable,sustainable business,that does not mean they want that business to end. I would have thought it obvious its the opposite to how you always interpret it. and i've persnally never said i don't want cheap cambridge tuesay racing. Again,i've said the opposite,so many times.Since you've forgotten i will say it yet again. If they are to run cambridge meetings with such small fields they need to run them with lower stakes so they don't keep losing money on them. i have said cambrisge racing is boring,some of the driving is questionable,that the stipes oversight is below the standard seen in the south island,that the oversight of junior drivers by the stipes is particularly poor and inconsistent,that its not a good betting product mainlyn due to small fields and will turn people off betting on harness racing,But i've never saidi wanted them not not run the lower class meetings. again,what i have said is the stakes need reduced and those involved need to lift their game.. you didn't throw in i'm anti north island racing people like you often do. I suppose thats something this time. and by the way,i have advocated for a policy that means stakes paid to winning and placed connections are reduced from those programmed,with the level of stakes being based on a sliding scale depending on the number of runners. i have said this should apply in the whole of nz. and that rating penalties should be adjusted to reflect if a horse wins a race with a stkae reduced because of a small field.Thats just common sense to me although i realise it will never happen as it makes too much sense. anyways heres my thoughts on who should run hrnz. I would replace everyone on the board and move mr steele and mr peden on.and one of the handicappers as well. then i would put in greg o'conner in mr steeles job. And put people like ceemenow from the other channel on the board and also put the likes of mark jones and michael house into positions where they can influence decision making.I would take j mckinnon out of auckland and offer him a job where he focuses on canterbury and has no auckland input. I like the way hes fought for auckland all the way through.I would even offer to fly you over as the rep for the north island trainers and drivers as you would do your best to fight for their interests. Of course we would have brodie as a consultant as hes always on the money and get nowornever to fill in for brodie whens hes on his overseas trips. Then harness racing would prosper and get back on track.

after watching it a few times,i guessed maybe pinn has a very short fuse.. i have no idea,he may be a very happy chappy,just it appeared not so in that race. If you owned or trained the horse he rode,would you appreciate it being ridden like a demolition derby car?

is it just me,or do others think w pinn was trying to deck the horse inside it on purpose,simply because it pushed him a bit wider. and besides,i once heard j mcdonald say,when explaining a turnaround in a horses formthat getting into a bumping duel can take a lot out of your horse and that when you see horses do that,you can excuse them for not performing quite as well as you may expect. if j mcdoanld thinks that,what was w pinn doing. pinn obviously rode ina manner that negatively impacted his own chances as well as it looking dangerous..

the consistent message most are saying is simple over inflate stakes now and thats certain to result in cuts in stakes later. by advocating for stakes paid to reflect funding levels as most are, means people are advocating for policies that maintain stake levels. I'm not sure why you infer that means most are anti harness racing. this thread was about mr steele's ability to give an ambiguous answer combined with words that create the impression of positivity. pointing out hes good at that,well thats because he is good at that. mr steele is a person who is in charge of making decisions that can impact the industry both negatively or positively.So when he makes decisions and statements people think are going to negatively impact the industry ,in particular prioritising some sectors over others,people are going to reference him as the person who bears responsibility for his decisions. mr steele does have a job where he will be judged on his results,not on where he comes from or whether he remained positive or not. Positive thinking always is overtaken by reality in the end. Thats juts how life works. thats incorrect.i rejected the argument you made ,that racing is funded annually,like a govt department,with that funding having to be spent within that timeframe or it is lost.. I also rejected the argument you put forward that the nz govt help fund nz racing annually.My reply to your post was that may apply in australia,i don't know whether it does or not,but i suggested if you think thats what happens in nz,then that may expalin why you make some of your comments. you mention the unhinged man winning a $100,000 golden gait race. The auckland club,being over $80m in debt,apparently thought it a great idea to fund the bulk of those races worth $1m on that night from club funds and add it to their debt.And you thought that is a good thing.And you also refer to the cambridge club adding over $100,000 in debt one year to their substanial debt ,by running slot races,was also a wonderful thing....oh well,your consistent. at the end of the day,i think you and i have different ideas on the importnance of each sector. You certainly place most value on the high achievers. I place most value on the sectors that returns the most profitabilty to the industry as undermine them and you undermine the whole business structure . We both want to see the industry prosper,just disagree on how to achieve that.

You've often referred to the low stakes in australia and have often commented that you think when and if that happens here,its just the way it is and if it comes to be as a resultr of the current financial management and decision making by current hrnz leadership,then sobeit. having said that, you also seem to have a reacurring theme of your posts,that you either a)don't seem to believe current HRNZ leadership decisions in any way influence future stake money levels or b)think better to have high stakes now and low stakes in the future,than reasonable stakes both now and in the future. possibly a bit of both a and b What comes across from your posts is you place a lot of weight when judging mr steeles performance, on the current stake levels ,especially the high end ,and his support of the auckland trotting club. so, you think most on here are negative,depressed about nz harness racing,just constant knockers,etc. well fair enough,thats your take. all i would say ,from my own perpsective(knowing you consider me one of the most negative ones),is i have always put forward alternate ideas and visions for what i thought should be hrnz priorities and have always,in different posts given a vision of how they could be implemented.So you can say what you think about the likes ofm y posts,,but to me i am telling what i think are the truths while giving solutions.. you know,most on here belived that nz harness racing was thrown a lifeline by the injection of so much money from the entain deal and that should have ensured a viable,sustainable future.. So if people think that once in a lifetime chance to resztructure and create a workable vision for the future is being squandered,then i would say you are going to get a bit of negativity.

agreed.Things aren;t going to get any better for the average person in nz. thats why Mr steele said that when things pick up,that will be reflected in increased turnovers on racing.. Things aren't going to pick up,thats just wishful thinking.But mr steele had to say that ,as it was his way of putting a positive spin on figures which weren't as positve as he had hoped. mr steele has a mind set where he believes its in his and the industries best interests that positivity is the priority,seemingly viewing it of greater importance than reality. He may have done well in leadership positions in the past , where he has been part of decision making which has produced good results.However he will find out in 18 months or so,that strategy will eventually implode if things aren't going as well as he has said they are. You mentioned on another thread gamma about we may have a govt change in november.I always think the result of elections are always predictable enough.And i can't see any change of govt at the next election. That won't happen.People just don't trust labour after the adern goverment,like they once did,even given so many more are struggling with the cost of living these days.

i agree,i think a lot of people think that. I would also say matt peden will be gone as well . what i can't understand myself is the hrnz board. They seem happy with current policy.. if the finacial stabilty of the future of the industry is truly being eroded like many think,won't the hrnz board be judged very,very harshly. We will just have to wait andsee how it plays out. Its not that far away from being revealed. Also i think industry stakeholders can only blame themselves if things do take a turn for the worse. You can't help but note the big players and all the people in the media are continually selling the same positivity,all is well,everything is affordable,the industry is being well lead. But can you trust the media. I always use the example of mick guerin and the ATC. For several years,as the ATC finances collapsed,he ignored reporting on their true financial position,continuing to say that there was never a better time to get involved in northern harness racing,each year promoting there was never a better time for buying at north island sales ,always giving the impression auckland was doing well. For several years on here i started topics asking why guerin was silent and why he was selling a narrative that appeared misleading. So i won't be that long before its revealed whether current stakes and policies are sustainable and have been wise.Time will tell.

harnesslink haa an article regarding mr steeles answers to questions posed by b stewart an harnesslink. maybe its an annual thing. anyways,whenever i read what mr steele says,and this latest is another example,i have to admire his abilty to not answer questions,but in a way that still comes across as sounding positive. mr steele ability to word answers in the way he does, is quite skillful. for example, when asked if number of mares being bred the past season were up,he said .."a survey showed they were going in the right direction...conversations with studmasters were generally positive....we remain optimistic we will deliver on a much improved result on the prior year... I mean,a simple yes or no would have been better. Wouldn't hrnz have enough information by now to just give the numbers. personally i think he gave the answer in the final comment..optimistic for a better result than last year. My guess that means about the same or only just above last year,which of course had been a really bad year. anyways,that man sure knows how put a good spin on whatever he wants to.

i heard andy mccook yesterday commenting that its going to be a sad time in the next couple of months with others as relates to employment.One can only guess what he means but the comment was made after he wished rail the best.So he did say couple of months. The greyhounds still have 6 months to go. when greyhounds shut down,that will be a very sad and difficult time for the over 1000 people employed in that industry. I would be good if there could be greater transparency from the government,the greyhound industry and the likes of the spca as to what actually is going to happen to all the greyhounds.That surely is a story that media should be highlighting and bringing to the attention of the public. as to the commentators dropping in numbers. theres other excesses that you would think will impact harness racing coverage.I know friday lights thing is enjoyed by people and is very good,but if i was a cost cutter,i would be asking myself,why are we paying 2 people tio sit in the studio when obviously only 1 is needed. Thats nothing against o'connor or graham,they are both very good,but the pressure you would think will come on entain to cut costs to return as much as they can to the industry as the indudustry is clearly spending more than they should and will themselves be making cuts in the next couple of years you would think. That would be my guess for something that will happen in the next year or so.

The invercargill club would named the race,not hrnz. I think lots of clubs name races acknowledging peoples contributions. But yeah,many don't get the recognition they deserve.

i think it was hunterthepunter who said he thought brodie was the railway sleeper man.that was a few years ago now.I've never read brodie ever say he was,whether he is or not,who knows. either way,whoever brodie is,hes nearly always on the money.Hunterthe punter used to like guessing who people were. i think sometimes he was right,but often he was wrong,but he never stopped guessing.What did happen to hunterthepunter. Does he have another alias on here these days. One poster sounds like him. Who knows.

getting back to craig rail. taylor strong has reported craig rail will sign off as a southern caller after the gore gallops on sunday. "i will go back to see my mum and dad,north of melbourne and then decide what i will do'.."i love the job and have come in contact with a lot of lovely people" i looked at some old articles on rail,he started off race calling in queensland and lived there most of his life until harness racing victoria emplyed him full time to call just the victorian harness meetings ,which he did for 15 years.Apparently he had to travel long distances to call the victorian trots,but said he loved his job there. sounds like he may have moved here as southland seems to have been where his wife was from. His wife,tracey ,passed away in may 2023.She was a highly regarded member of the southland greyhound club and worked in the kennels and as a judge.I think her brothers were greyhound trainers in invercargill, anyways,it must be hard for anyone losing a job that they are still good at.Being a race caller,its not as if you can go down the road and apply for another job race calling.The life of a commentator can be full of highs,but obviously its a very competitive job and you can be tossed to the side when you become surplus to requirements. Why hasn't HRNZ acknowledged his contribution?. Surely they should have..Rail ,as are all commentators ,are high profile people within the industry. theres a bloke who has dedicated his life to harness racing and hrnz hasn't even thanked him for his service to the industry as yet. i wonder whats next for Rail.Obviously he doesn't sound like he knows what nor where he will choose to live yet.thats life,who really knows whats around the corner.

Maybe your on to something gamma. those blokes are all so wealthy ,they don't need to race at the regular auckland or cambridge meetings anymore. i only looked at the one stable,the b purdon/ phelan stable and they had 2 horses race at hawera on both days and those 4 starts were more starters than they had at all the auckland and cambridge meetings combined for the month of january. barry and scott are probably just about to step into the spa in the penthouse suite at the darling at the star, gold coast resort. probably meeting up with dean later to discuss how to win those big stake group 1 2 year old races.Win a couple more of those and that way they may be able to take not 1,but 2 months off. michael house,the lazy bugga,should have sent his team up to auckland to help out with the numbers. actually michael house probably has more starters at a 2 day manawatu meeting than all those blokes combined do for some months,if you take out the green/delaney stable. but there is a serious point that is tied up with what you say. the type of horses HRNZ are prioritising are trained by trainers who are udr focused and not hrnz are not prioritising the trainers whose horses have a high number of starts per year.. In fact,if you combined total number of starters of your favorite 3 trainers,purdon/phelan,m purdon/n purdon and a herlihy,you would see last year m house provided individually about 270 more starts last year, than your favorite 3 combined. You would wonder if one day it will dawn on hrnz ,that when they talk about increasing the average number of starts per horse, per year,that a significant factor in that is who the trainers of those horses are.In other words having policies that prioritise the horses trained by the trainers who don't start their horses often,at the expense of those that do,is blatantly obviously counter productive to their stated goal of more starts per horse per season. i'm absolutely certain that flies over the heads of the smart people at hrnz.Too logical for them to work it out.

If hrnz weren't delusionla like you say,they should already had planned for and be implementing a strategy that would have seen north isalnd harness racing prosper in years to come,albeit on a smaller scale. The crazy thing is,current policy by hrnz means they are burning through a lot of money,money needed to provide that viable pathway forward. So, since they are stuffing it up,they won't have the resources in the future to restrucuyre north island racing to the level it could have been. And the worst thing is the impact current and recent hrnz policy for the north island ,will have on the south island. It seems inevitable sout island will get dragged down as well. the apathy and short sightedness of industry stakeholders who seem happy to live in the moment and support hrnz or say nothing is strange.I assume its because the biggest voices are the ones hrnz continues to throw money at.The smaller voices simply have decided to implement their exit strategy or have decided,i'm older,they don't listen to what i have to say anyway,they will reap what they sow, but i won't be particpating when things come to the crunch.thats reality.look around,it is. meanwhile people like the punters who contribute to this site,like nowornever, will do what he has just seid,Turn ther back on such a poor betting product that auckland provide as the punting rewards from supporting that north isalnd product,simply isn't worth the effort.Again,thats another reality.

rest assured brodie,the look north strategy is moving in the right direction. matt peden said so just 4 weeks ago. And the metro series,a key part of that look north strategy,well hrnz think thats working as well. just look at the 4 heats for that metro series last week,they had big numbers with an average field size of 7. that comes on top of their bright idea to get more mares to race at nelson by having a $35,000 final at addington.That got a 6 horse field for that $35,000 race. then theres what hrnz had been saying was good numbers of 2 year olds ready to race.Last week they scrapped 2 of the 3 races for them due to next to no nominations. have they mentioned how high the ATC debt has got in the last few months. Nah,whats a few million extra ATC debt. you know the thing about the turnover figures. the way they spin northern harness racing is..They pick out the racenights that they can point to turnover being up from the previous nyear. But ignore the fact that those meetings often still run at significnat losses, because even with wagering turnover up,they still don't generate anywhere near enough to cover stakes.Hrnz interpretation of that is spin to the effect,the look north strategy is working.You have to laugh.

i hope the chief takes up that offer. it would have to be a win/win/win situation.I can't see any down side to it at all. as to harnesslink. nearly all the new zealand content on harnesslink is just the exact same articles that appear on the hrnz website. besides,the reason your popular is you provide content that people are interested in. People are naturally inquisitive about the people they often see but don't really know,like they wonder,whats their background,what do they do,etc,etc. They see content that is relateable to themselves and because of that they see your content providing coverage that they believe is as deserving of as much coverage as any big timer.People believe themselves and others like them,as being valuable assets to the industry and your contentrewards and portrays that reality.After all,people of all backgrounds dedicate so much of their lives to harness racing. Thats not to say people don't like seeing big players in your content, ,they do,the thing is when you do showcase the bigger players,your actually doing them a favour because your not taking a kiss their your arse type of approach,that sometimes comes across with the liikes of m guerin.Your approach portrays the big players in a that people can appreciate,they're just doing the same as everyone and have the same love of the horse as everyone,just on a bigger scale.thats your content is unique in a good way.Anyways,thats my opinion.Tthe proof is in how popular it is. hrnz or even trackside,with all their resources surprisingly seem to be outplayed in an important part of the industry by one bloke getting help from his wife. as to the unhinged part,i don't think i've seen anyone unhinged on unhinged. I guess thats what you mean. in fact people are more likely to think some of us who post on here can be a bit that way sometimes,but hey, everyone is different,no point living in a fake world where people only say nice things.

the failure of hrnz to prioritise and maximise harness racing exposure by utlilisling unhinged content is one of lifes mysteries. for some time i have thought,wouldn't it be great if bit of a yarn had a forum,linked to the harness forum,where the unhinged post race interviews could be clicked on and viewed. you could guarantee it would lead to a very significant increase in people using the chiefs website and would expose harness racing content to all users of this website,including more galloping followers viewing harness racing content.. thats what i would like to see,forget hrnz,they aren't up to the job ,get it on bit of a yarn. i have no idea whether that is practicle or how it could work but i can certainly see the benefits for the chief,unhinged and harness racing if that happened.

thats very sad to hear. he seems a really nice bloke and a good commentator. He obviously did his homework on the likes of first starters breeding,often rattling off who they were related to,thereby giving recognition to the breeders,a very important industry sector,who nurture those families and never get the recognition they deserve.. he also always gave recognition to who the owners of the horses were that placed. Again,something which i'm sure people appreciated . i heard him say 2 or 3 weeks ago he was going to miss the trackside crew and wondered whether someihing was in the works. its surprising hrnz haven't had a story on it.i haven't read anything.They must know commentators are very well known people within the industry and there is a public interest in this story. The lack of hrnz or media coverage is poor.Harness followers shouldn't have to guess about something like that by reading the name of a race. i suppose the upcoming closure of the greyhounds was going to always impact commentator numbers. The likes of dan fogarty i think a very good up and coming commentator so you would think they will retain people like that. Just the way life works. but as i say,its very sad when you hear anyone lose a job,especially if they are good a it. i felt particularly sad when kevin payne and jason teaz lost their jobs. I really did believe j teaz,in particular had an empathy with how punters view a race and added colour. Thats 3 southern commentators who they have discarded now who all must feel how unfair it all played out. anyway,life aiin't always fair,but lets hope craig rails expertise is not lost to the industry

while on the promotion type thinking for that meeting. i think they need use the promotion of new zealands leading drivers being there. the point being,you've got a crowd ,many of who have probably never even heard of blair orange or zac butcher. what i would do is have hrnz fund the air fares of nz's leading driver,blair orange,new zealands leading woman driver sam ottley and new zealands leading junior wilson house. Then i would get 2 local classic car enthusiast ,with cars that can be driven with the top down. then i would have those drivers introduced,along with the leading north island drivers,zac butcher and leading north island junior harrison orange and leading new zealand female junior, crystal hackett and have them driven up and down the front straight.Maybe have a bit of music,say fly bye from blue playing over the speakers as they do that to add a bit of colour. Then i would have them go in front of the main stand and have a pre promoted as the biggest lolly scrambe in nz racing history,where they move around and throw lollys to the public. Amongst the lollies could be prizes of say 5 betting vouchers, inside a lolly papers.Get a nz candy company involved in providing the goodies and reward them with nameing the big races after their produucts. also i think the commentator could also be asked to highlight the horse who races on the day who has won the most money. For example romeo foxtrot could lead out the filed in his race and the commentator go through his record,highlighting how he has been such a good earner over a long period of time. Maybe the trainer and owners could get introduced as they lead him out in front of the field.the commentator could also,only pre race,give a mention of what those drivers are driving. I don't believe a whites mentioning of drivers nick names throughout races is helpful at all. People want him to commentate a race,which hes good at,not tell tehm what someones nick name is. anyway,the point is,these type of meeetings need to utilised to create that spark of interest in the sport and its people and horses,that seems to be totally under promoted on unique racing days,like taupo could become.

I think the racing at taupo has been a very good initiative by hrnz and the waikato club. Good size fileds and it looks like a nice crowd aregood to see. just a shame the weather not ideal,but still you can see a lot more people and kids than a normal north island race meeting. That has to be part of the strategy for north island racing going forward. Provide a grass track circuit with dates coninciding with public holidays.its just about getting the right number of racing dates that still sees the public and owners and trainers turning up in good numbers. the crossing may ned a little bit of work but its not that bad. some horses break on crossings no matter how good they are. i really like the idea of having the rail out as far as they have.It means the horses are getting to run on the parts of the track that the gallopers won't have used as much and therefore it would be smoother.I'm not sure about right on the outside of the track as far as that goes .. and the fact that the horses are actually racing closer to the public due to racing wider on the track,really its that closeness to the public which is a major part of the appeal of grass track racing for the public.Thats where people can get a feel for the buzz the sport can provide when so close to you.Only thing would be maybe a passing lane,even if only for 1 horse,would help the punters. another positive for sure is the 25-27 minute intervals between races. these sunday meeting where there was 4 nz meetimngs and when they had some 40 minute intervals are a a real turn off for on course patrons. today taupos got it spot on. My only suggestion to promote that may help that meeting is to promote it as a bit of a market day,where you work with local authorities and interest groups to coincide with promoting their things. It would get even more people at the track I've seen where a club had a market day every month on course,then one day it just happened to coincide with a race meeting,and the number of people who attended was quite substanial. It just provided the meeting with an extra buzz even if those people weren't punters,you could capture the childrens interest with a kiddie tote or something.Even the likes of those travelling gypsy perple who turn up with there caravans and trucks and read palms and sell there goods and all that type of sttuff.I'm not into it but i've observedwhere a town where they turned up every 3 years or so,and half the town went for a look.Anyway,just a couple of ideas. But what we see at taupo i think is what the industry needs to capitalise on and the decision makers and club officials and track amnager who made todays meeting happen deserve much credit. Its just a shame the weather looks a bit dull.Still if i was young,a we bit of drizzle wouldn't stop me from having a good day out.

just watched that interview. Orange saying he was surprised go home denise was favorite and thought pre race she was a false favorite.Orange such a good driver you can never discount anything he drives,that being the mistake i made on this occasion. on the positive side,while i have only been able to watch the last 2 unhinged posted contents on my computer for the last year or so as it would not go back any further than that,i was showing the wife the unhinged content on my phone last night and discovered that if i go onto unhinged via my phone i can see all the recent things that have been posted and got to see all yesterdays interviews.Im pleased i found that out.

interesting. coalition for the protection of racehorses,i didn't even know there was such a thing. I guess they must have moved on now the greyhounds are going to be shut down. peter profit website highlighting this race as well. the most disappointing thing,as i keep highlighting,was they have ammunition to fire all because the horse fell .. and just imagine,if these people criticising the harness industry,cottoned on to the fact the stipes decided there was nothing wrong with the 2 juniors knocking over the driverless horse,yet incredibly instead chose to speak to j dunn,the very driver who showed common sense and drove in a way which protected the safety of the driverless horse. thats been the point of my posting. I find the whole thing rather incredulous really. Had the stipes not turned a blind eye and green lighted the dangerous driving,they simply could have replied to the criticism by saying,its not the sport that is dangerous,it was inexperienced drivers poor judgment that was the casue of the fall and that the stipes have penalised those drivers,taken steps to ensure they didn't drive like that again and by doing so had made ensured the safety and well being of both driver and horses,going forward....But they didn't,instead choosing to think solely of the junior drivers and not wanting to upset them,giving the impression that drivers feelings are more important to the stipes than safety. so all this bad publicity is a self inflicted wound due to north island stipes incompetence.

have to laugh. good thing im not a bookie. after 200m i was thinking to myself,well i was right about go home denise,but then takes short cuts,gets the gaps and wins. helped a lot by the leader falling in a hole at the top of the straight but still went better than i though it could. Thats the problem when prince teka in the race. He always stops quickly with 400m to go if the race is further than 2000,so when he was in front i knew holly highlander in a spot of trouble,still it probably got out in time to win anyway. matt crosss aying pre race holly highlander was far and away the better horse in the race and its tote price dropped to $2.60 but mark cookson picked go home denise so its price only went out to $3.60 on the tote. oh well,i suppose prince teka will win over 2 miles next time now i've said that.

well ,since i posted about go home denise its dropped to $2.40.I obviously don't have any followers,unlike the whale.

just watched the whale tip holly highlander on whale watchon trackside and immediately it price dropped from $4.80 to $4. I think it will drop even more myself.. the whale has his followers.