the galah

I'm not sure whether your being serious when you say that gammalite? I can't see how anyone could watch that race and come to the conclusions you seem to have,but if your not just being the devils advocate then ,well your entitled to your opinion. As to your comment about having a never ending que if they question every driver that sits back. You appear to be saying that form,favoritism,horses abilty,tactics used and how they actually run on the day are irrelevant. Treat everyone the same you suggest as if they are all warm favorites.If your going to question the driver of a 2/1 shot then you should do the same with a 50/1 shot. Thats just ridiculous to suggest that.You should know that. As to you suggesting riley harrison should have been questioned because she over drove her horse. Thats just ridiculous as well. Sure she over drove the horse,but she was trying. Why would you want the stipes to take action that gives the perception that drivers should not try.The stipes should never ever pursue actions that create a non trying mindset from drivers.She broke and lost ground at the start but tacked on to the back of the field after 600m then made a mid race mover when the pace wasn't strong. Why would the stipes question that?The drive from harrison would be discussed with her by the dunns. Thats the way it should be. Finally i do agree with one thing "you said robbie close drives a lot of races,he should no what hes doing." Yes he does know what hes doing.Thats what makes the drive even worse.

I'll pick race 5. 1&8, race 6. 1&2 and race 7. 9&10

So it seems it was common knowledge that the horse was not trying to win before the race. How dishonest is that stable,knowing it was a warm favorite. But how about this. Unbelievably the stipes in charge at that meeting didn't even give it a mention. So those in the know beforehand knew it wasn't going to try and win,then everyone who watched the race must have concluded it was not trying.......yet the stipes never saw a thing.Astonishing really. I said many times on here that a significant portion of the cause of operation inca was the result of the stipes turning a blind eye to perceived dishonesty,by not protecting the punters interests,instead being more worried about not wanting to upset industry participants. Punters taken for mugs and no one in the industry cares.

Interesting what you heard pre race walt. I agree with everything you have said. There are no winners from the robbie close drive,just losers and in particular harness racing. You know i happened to watch the box seat today. I haven't watched it for a while because i'm not a fan of mick guerin. But on it they went on about providing a "product" that is attractive to the betting public and which encourages punter participation. Well that all makes sense and is well and good,but the elephant in the room is you occasionally have industry participants who sabotage the industry through a lack of intent. Case in point-robbie close and mounga. So no matter what bright ideas people may come up to encourage punter participation,its all a waste of time when the product you are supplying is viewed as dishonest.

Now i didn't bother having a bet today,but i'm glad i didn't because i thought mounga looked a sitter. I was surprised it was such a big drifter ,although it still started a warm favorite. Well anyone who watched that race and backed mounga would have come to one conclusion,the horse was not there to win and they did their money cold. Watching races like that and you can see why people don't bet on the harness sport as much as the gallops. Put simply,they try harder in the gallops each time. Now if someone was to tell me ,well robbie close was trying,but he just drove it bad. Well,,sorry i wouldn't believe it,because no one trying is that poor. He chose to be pushed back and sit last on an average speed when others around him move,and then goes to last on the rails at the 400m. No one is that bad a driver.The speed the horse finished at he clearly would have won without getting out of 2nd gear,but he wasn't there to win was he.

Do you think theres a connection there ranga

tried that and it worked but i'm guessing most people would have no idea that they had to do that as they never have had to in the past. Interesting to read the Sean Mcaffrey failing to give a urine sample. Seems he had trouble on the night,so he says,,so they asked him to attend the cambridge jockey club,10 minutes from where he lives,the next morning,but he never turned up. What strikes me about reading the decision is in the summary it says luk chin thought it a very unreasonable request to ask mccaffrey to turn up to have a urine sample the next day and instead they should have taken a blood sample on the friday. When you read that you have to wonder whats going on with Luk chin when he says that it was a very unreasonable request. Sounds like he was just trying to cover for mr mccafery. Now i have no doubt mr chin is a wonderful human being,but why does he think his mate should get some type of special treatment. I just think the whole thing stinks of people trying to justify preferential treatment when none should be given. Now i'm no expert,but google detection times for cannabis and it clearly says that they use urine tests because they can detect it longer after use,whereas in blood tests it usually leaves the system within a couple of days. So isn't it obvious someone who had smoked weed 3 days ago would want a blood test knowing that it most likely wouldn't show up whereas they would know it would in a urine test. Personally i couldn't care less who uses cannabis,but if you get caught using cannabis then you only have your self to blame.

Interesting observation. To me it was hard to tell from the way he was holding the reins that he had deliberately run out to interfere with the horse outside him,but a telling factor was his horses head was straight as,then all of a sudden went a bit side on, like they do when being steered outwards. Interfered with 5 different horses through its sudden movement outwards. Hard to guess what he was thinking,as has often been the case with him,but perhaps he was trying to give tony herlihy a run who was in behind him. Maybe they are mates. Personally i had been telling someone i know for the last 2 years that mangos had lost it driving wise and couldn't be backed due to his erratic driving.I think there have been many instances of that. I had actually started a couple of threads about it on here. Seems we were seeing a symptom with the cause only coming to light recently.Pressure efects different people in different ways.

Strange that the RIB haven't put any decisions on their website for the last 18 days. Maybe the person who does that has gone on holiday and will get a shock when they come back to find no one has done their work for them and they have a backlog.Who knows but seems strange. Reminds me of the hrnz website not uploading videos of races held, for normally about half an hour after they have been run. If you have an australian tab account you can see the replays within 5 minutes every time. Actually the australian tab website is far superior to the nz tab website in that respect. They have the recent videos of races of each horse next to their form.You don't get that with the nz tab. I've often wondered why the nz tab doesn't have a link on their website for nz harness meetings, where people could click on it and go directly to the the hrnz website and access more form details and videos. Suppose that makes too much sense to be goer. Having said that the hrnz website often seems to have problems when races are on. Last sunday i tried to look at the form on the hrnz website for a few races but it wasn't working every time i looked. You would think when they are looking at ways to improve turnover,that having a website that works all the time may help encourage betting.Just a thought.

I think the clue about mr mangos was in a handful of articles written over recent months by Peter Profit. I'm not 100% sure ,but thats my guess putting 2& 2 together. Mangos certainly drove like an angry man a few months ago,as we noted on bit of a yarn,that night against chilcott when he deliberately ran her off the track for no apparent reason, but in hindsight he obviously was under immense pressure with other things on his mind.. Very sad and two sides to every story,but taupiri wonders observations certinly very relevant. The ben yole thing is nothing but a disater for tasmanian and australian harness racing.Having him and his co defendants still competeing means no one will trust the integrity of all tasmanian harness racing anymore while he is there.

I think your spot on with everything you have said brodie. I, like you, believe in the harness racing product,the horses, the people,but recognise what you have stated is the path we are on unless things change. As far as the handicapping system goes,we have discussed in this thread one of its major drawbacks,namely the same horses winning then quickly dropping back to the same grade they won in,thus being able to race much lower performed horses than themseleves again(often 1-2 win horses). So the answer is simple enough. For every win a horse has in the previous year,when rated 49 or below it shall receive an additional point from its previous rating penalty ,after its 3rd win.A win in a non win race would not be included in that. In other words,retain the current rating penalties for a horses first 2 wins when rated its 49 or below,which say is currently 7 penalty points. Then its 3rd win if it was rated 49 or below at that time,to be an 8 win rating penalty. Its 4th win,a 9 win rarting penalty,its 5th win a 10 win rating penalty. All based on wins in the last 12 months when rated 49 or below.

Your right brodie. Its been so obvious for so long,yet the powers that be have made no changes for some time. In my opinion the current handicapping system is one big joke. What you currently have is a system designed to greatly favour horses who in the past were capable of winning 3-5 races. Trainers race them to run them down the track 5 or 6 times,then they get back in the grade where they can win ,then in another 5 or 6 runs they are back in that same grade again,beating the same 1-2 win horses they beat 6 weeks prior. Bruce negus said that on the unhinged segment when referring to chris kyle who won at rangiora on sunday. The people with the horses who used to be 3-5 horses,think its great that they can win every 6 weeks or so. What is ignored by anyone who supports the current handicapping system is the number of individual horses winning in the below 50 grade is dropping.Its just basic maths. X number of races are run each year. So if horse z is winning 5 or 6 wins a year through going up and down the ratings system and there are more of these z horses about because its rather lucarative for them,then their gain comes at the expense of another group of horses and their owners. So what we currently have is a system which encourages the connections of one group of horses to race and encourages the connections of another group not to race. What people in charge fail to recognise is if someone is battling away,they don't need much of an excuse to say,hey this sport looks after some groups far better than others. To hell with this,there has to be something better to do with my time and money. And that is what is happening. The 2 year old bonus is another example of that. HRNZ somehow think giving the connections of 2 year olds $12,000 bonuses is somehow going to lead to greater participation.Like prioritising a minority over the vast majority is going to somehow be seen as a positive by the majority. I see on the hrnz website last week that they published the findings of a working group which seemed to recognise the current handicapping system is unfair. They recommended it change from the 1st of august. Some of their findings illustrate they are more in touch with grass roots than the decision makers of the past. One thing i didn't agree with was they wanted to make all 2 year old wins penalty free and they go back to being rated non win when they become 3 year olds. Except a small number of the bigger races. Now that makes no sense to me. The reason being its just another scheme like the current handicapping system where the number of overall lindividual winners will be less,because horse z will be winning more of the races. At the end of the day ,the current handicapping system has been operating now for a few years. Ask yourself,has it stopped the decreasing number of owners/trainers/horses.

i will pick race 1 2&4 race 2 1&2 race 3 3&7

I think if gerard o'reilly was intent on leading then he should just have let dunn go to the front then come out of the trail before orange did,and take the lead back.Just driving at a consistent pace throughout that manoeuvre. But of course thats easy for me to say after the fact,but it still was a good option at the time. I agree its interesting to share different takes on tactics used.

Its a tricky one,as john dunn doesn't normally overdo it like that .It made for an entertaining race and thats how it goes sometimes. I would say,in my opinion i thought the g o'reilly drive was the poorer of the two. Maybe mr o'reilly has seen the dunn stable take a horse to the front,then wait for a stablemate to take the lead off it,so maybe he thought your not doing that to me. But i say o'reillys was the poorer of the two drives because The Falcon has supposedly had a few recent issues going by what the trainer said when it won earlier in the month. Yet,just when you would think the horse is getting his confidence back,hes driven to have a real gut buster when he could have taken the trail and got a soft run. After all ,he came from off the pace when he won,so wouldn't you think he would be driven that way again? Personally i just think it was one of those races where two drivers intially thought they were doing the right thing,but both underestimated each others stubbornness,and both horses, especially The falcon,had much harder runs than they should have. They still did run there last 400m in 27.0 seconds,so maybe they will both go ok next time. Time will tell.

Looks like most of those in tasmaian harness racing are either related to each other, have worked or drove for ben yole.Those that aren't don't seem to get along with the yoles Ben yole,tim yole,nathan ford and mitch ford are the ones currently barred from racetracks. Tiarna ford(apparently a talented sportsperson) and dylan ford(brother and sister) drove regularaly for the ben yole stable when they had multiple runners in previously. Seems they are related to the fords that are currently banned and when Nathan Ford was disqualified for a brawl after the 2015 tasmainan harness awards with the Hilliers,dylan ford also turned up and got charged with disorderly behavior. Now dylan and tiarna fords mother is tammy langley who often has multiple runners who run in races against the ben yole stable. They tend to be driven by either her son or daughter. Their father is Philip Ford,previously a premiership winning trainer,prior to being disqualified for 4 years for milkshaking in 2012,the 3rd serious breach he had been charged with in 8 years. His son used his training facilities and employed his father once his diqualification ended in 2017. Dylan ford was disqualified for 5 months in 2016 then for 2 years for milkshalikng in 2018.Obviously he learnt a thing or two from his father. Then you have allan mcdonough who regularly drove for ben yole and is down to drive some of the wayne yole trained horses on sunday. A harness trainer by that name was disqualified in 2008 then someone by that name from victoria,was fined relating to arsenic in a horses system while it was in tasmania last year. Imagine all them driving in a race for the Ben yole stable. Anyway,thats just from a quick look to fill time. It doesn't paint a very honest picture of what tasmanian harness racing is.Seems too entrenched and too many connections to believe they could ever clean up their act,which is a shame for those who actually play by the rules over there.

So Yoles father now seemingly has taken over the training of many of the yoles horses.He has 8 in one race on sunday. So the man who was reportedly ben yoles stable forman,who worked at his sons training establishment 6 days a week during the times of all the animal abuse ,race fixing and everything else that went on,just steps in when they ban his son. No doubt this has been the go to plan for the yoles for a while now,ever since the publicity Yoles father saying just before they banned his son,that he was looking forward to training more now he was getting a bit older.He trained his first winner for 3 years last month. Why would anyone think ben yoles father at age 71,or yoles staff who chose to work for ben yole when they must have known what went on,why would anyone think much will change? if their standards and practices were that low,In reality nothing will change,they will just get better at hiding that type of thing.

A good ,honest hard working man was dick caskey who always had a couple in work. Often raced his horses in southland and would always make the round 10 hour trip on the same day. Used to love a drink as well. I remember hearing a couple of stories about him. One was when he raced a horse in central otago and when trainers came to feed their horses in the morning,there was dick lying on the ground,half in a stall sound asleep after a hard night out. I think he was a shearer for many years. I remember getting to know him when i was quite young after my car broke down one day and he happened to be going past and helped get it going again. He seemed to know a bit about car engines. Of course that was some time ago now.He once told me how he had taken bambi to australia to race.From memory bambi stood on the mark in its last race there and didn't move and he was told by the stipes to take his horse home and don't come back. At least thats how he told the story.He spent some time shearing in australia. He was one of those characters that you wouldn't come across these days. But a really good hearted bloke.

This has made me wonder,how did the word dick ever become given the name for a penis.Well it seems the word dick came from english slang It seems back in 1550 there were a lot of men with the name richard,and about that time people who had been calling richard rick,started using the name dick as it rhymed. Then in 1665, an irish playwright,with would you believe the name Richard Head,wrote a very popular satirical novel (the english rogue),where he had a character whose real name was richard,but he gave the english slang name of dick.In the novel this dick,impregnated a woman who was having trouble conceiving. So then apparently the word dick being referred to as a name for a penis became quite popular then english soldiers,about the late 19th century started using it all the time.Up until then the word willy or yard(you would think that wishful thinking) had been the more popular. So there you have it. Whether you needed or wanted to know that or not.

The person who told me said only a handful of trainers ever used the grass and they only trained a couple and that they only ever worked around the very outside of the track anyway once or twice a week when allowed. Just a case of another club prioritising who they think is important to them i suppose.

I wonder if he ever drove against the maurice skinner trained Colossal Dick?(by.. dick adios /colossal queen)

I also used to think they should have some sort of raceday showcasing the horse, where all horse activities and disciplines paricipate and give displays. ponies,barrel racers,trick riding,carriage driving,big and small,clydsedales to minatures,Young and old. That would be the type of day where hrnz showcase the employment opportunities within the harness industry like a career day does at school. Prizes could include future tandem sulky rides at high profile horse trainers training facilities.Thats the type of day that feed companies,farrier companies,equine health companies,etc you would think would easily sponsor. A lot of work the first year but then not so much thereafter. Shame really stuff like that doesn't happen.Just wishful thinking.Harness racing has a very promotable product,but it doesn't happen as well as it should.

Yes i remember them at addington.They were very entertaining and always brought support from their sporting clubs numbers wise that added a different dimension to the nights racing. i also remember bowls night where they would have a roll up and then there was golf night which from memory was where they did a bit of putting. I know from many years of observation that sports like bowls and golf have many harness followers and punters. Of course rugby clubs used to have their night as well and i think that may have been sprints as well or maybe they wer the ones who pulled the sulkies. All those things at addington. Then there was pubs nights i think. Darts is another sport which had a lot of people in that liked a bet.Thatb would have been an easy one to have a promotion on course. Race days at country clubs used to always have the undie run. Not enough people for that these days but i can imagine on days like geraldine in november,that type of thing would go down great with the pre christmas crowd they get,but it never happens these days. Of course all the kids activities were always good to attract the families. Of course no reason that sports clubs and kids activities on country race days couldn't intertwine. Also some clubs used to have racedays where local radio stations would have representatives on a local committee to promote activities with the raceday being called the radio station or newspaper raceday and would be heavily promoted by them for free. Never seems to happen today. But somehow it seems that HRNZ has taken the focus away from clubs promoting on course attendance and clubs no longer have the energy or desire to go there. Given how it all worked so well in the past its rather sad,but thats the way some things have become. No reason it wouldn't work again and its the type of thing sponsors could be found for,but like i say you get the impression the energy,drive and resources from hrnz and clubs is no longer there.

Thats sort of a different topic from what i've discussed. I personally don't think young people really give much consideration to body shapes or what current participants look like or wear, when it comes to them considering participation in harness racing. When you raise the point of "who is the future of harness racing? young people". I look at it this way. firstly If you run a business you should recognise and understand who your customers are and why. secondly the most likely pool of new customers are always going to be people similar to your current customers,so in other words that is who you should target and consider for future participation. $ spent on marketing just need to look at who attends and when currently.Then direct the marketing $ in that direction.Niche marketing for certain days. In other words days like cup day,more focus can be on young people,say 18-35. I'm just talking big picture. It all depends on what sector of the industry you are trying to attract people to. For employment in the industry i think harness racing underplays the female side of things. Harness racing has many very good female role models. That needs to be promoted more. For punters. The industry should follow the advice from the wagering companies on things like that. But the stats tell the story on the average age of punters on horse racing. Sports groups is another target group they could warrant marketing,but once again only on niche days. But if your looking to attract more owners and regular racegoers at tracks like addington,then the traget group should be people over 45. Again there is a niche market for grass track days where families should be targeted. The industry needs to look at the different sectors within the industry and have different strategies for attracting each group. Thats why i say when i hear people say the future of the industry is young people,i think to myself ,well no its not. The future is people the same as who are currently involved. You just want more of them. This emphasis on young people to me is like a rest home saying the future of our industry is people in their 60's. Well yeah they may be,but not for another 20 years in most cases.Just start marketing for those customers 5 years out and not 20 i say.

Fitness and especially being overweight, are factors which would influence performance for someone whose job it is to commentate. Its just common sense to me. We all know that for example,someone who is overweight has reduced lung volumes and greater chance of laboured breathing.Studies show that .Just look around. I make this comment about aaron white because it wasn't that long ago that you could hear him breathing when he did race commentaries. I didn't imagine it and i found it off putting myself. Trevor wilkes was the same near the end of his career. Thats why i suggest it was factor at that time in him being better at calling short races like greyhounds and gallops. Now he may well have taken steps to improve his weight and lung capacity in recent times.i hope he has as he would know better than anyone how it impacts his job. People may gloss over it,but it is a relevant point.