the galah

They have the video don't they for Weir.Hard to dispute that. He got 4 years for being in possession of the jiggers in 2019. Its because of the video evidence,he has been hit with fresh charges relating to the use of the jiggers. If convicted he would be banned for life from working with horses. Given they have the video,you would think proving the charges would be pretty straight forward. Thats what has been reported. The australian mainstream media will no doubt widely report the case. Maybe even get to play the video for the public to see.

Actually the Darren Weir case has similarities to Yole. Both routinely resorted to linking fear/pain ,to the use of the whip,so it would assist them achieving success.They routinely abused their horses. The fact that weir is still in the news and has upcoming court cases next month will forever taint his name and the racing industry.That great film about michelle payne will also be linked to the trainer who electric shocked his melbourne cup runner. And the case to me also illustrates that many owners are happy to overlook such animal abuse,if it enables them to get better results. Just like with Yole. The owners of the horse the weir stable abused with a jigger a few says before it ran in the melbourne cup said they are happy to keep supporting him even now when they are aware of the video of what he did to their horse,that will be used at next months court case. Lets face it,if he was not successful,they would the first to drop him. Its all about the money for many owners.thats just the way it is. And lets be honest. If people resort to that type of thing ,then yopu have to question what other lengths they will go to ,to win. The sooner people like that get life bans the better.

The winston peters speech today at waitangi was a good one.Only 4 minutes long.its worth a watch. i've always been a fan of winston,but had thought he was running out of energy and had lost his way a bit in recent years.But the winston i respect and the media love to hate,is back and firing on all cylinders at the moment. i hope he can keep it up as nz needs leaders like him to fight for the average new zealander. personally i like the way this coaltion government is performing. I'm not really a national or act supporter,but i think the combination of them and nz first has come at a time when they are badly needed. I'm pleased the nz voters and system enabled that to happen.

Well i think they do get something. Some definitely get a chip on the shoulder,and that sense of entitlement that walt refers to.Just a minority,but a vocal minority of maori. I remember when the waitangi tribunal hearings and settlements were all the go. I remember interacting with a lot of maori from one area,and it was the young maori in their 20's that all of a sudden seemed to feel maori deserved entitlements for what they perceived as past wrongs. It lasted for a few years,but as the media and political hype died in subsequent years,so did the confrontational race based language of those i interacted with.I didn't imagine it. Other people in the job i did at the time felt the same about the rise in race based intimidation that went on. a real life example of a consequence that all this divisive talk the media and labour promote. As you infer chief,most get very little that improves their every day life,and that perpetuates the cycle of resentment.

Well thats what i would guess you would be thinking,because you always under play the significance of these type of things. But to answer your question. Where do so many of ben yoles trained horses come from-NZ what harness product is regularly shown on trackside nz with nz entain betting-Tasmainia harness racing who is australias leading harness trainer-ben yole If hrnz is to constantly have stories about australian harness,why ignore the biggest story for years in australian harness racing. Have you ever thought hrnz could even be pro active in issuing a press statement,expressing their concerns, making comments along the lines that the nz integrity unit regularly polices such things as race fixing,animal welfare,life after racing,etc and they could make a statement encouraging their australian counterparts to take steps to ensure consequences which make sure this type of thing never happens again. Then again chief,that would be being proactive wouldn't it.We can't have that.Nor can we have the yole story tainting the harness industry here.so what ben yole stable is full of ex nz bred/trained/owned horses. Out of sight is out of mind is best.Stick the head back in the sand and no one will notice .

that reminds me byron kelleher is back in the news again. Seems like he had so many free passes along the way. If the system had just treated him like anyone else then he may not have done the things he has ended up doing.Then again the justice system has pretty weak consequences these days for people who commit any crime. Also,when it comes to domestic violence,some people,especially women,seem to go from one abusive partner to another. I think low self esteem is a large factor for the women who do that. My view from my life experiences is people don't change. What they can do is modify their behavior. For example stop drinking alcohol if alcohol is the trigger for their abusive behavior. But of course most don't stop,or if they do,still occasionally lapse and their bad behavior surfaces again. people should just accept who they are and behave so all the things good about them is how they lead their lives. Of course i know thats an unrealistic view,but people should at least try. Also,i think people who do these type of things often look to deflect blame by raising other factors. Also people who do things they shouldn't ,whether it be even something as simple as lying or manipulating,well they become better at it the more they do it. Also they become more skilled at amnipulating others,e.g. partner,and that can lead to poor behavior from a partner who has weaknesses like alcohol which trigger their bad behavior.

Good points gammalite. The coverage in the racing media,or lack of as you mention,is very poor in my opinion. Its like all the public can read about or see it on abc tv,yet to harness racing meida its just another story,no big deal type thing. thers no coverage at all on the hrnz website. Those that lead the sport really do have a head in the sand approach to these type of things. The integrity unit over there must have been a total joke. Its like when they had that car accident which 5 people got injured and 4 horses died. The police officer who first investigated it found that fatigue was a factor and that yoles people were often awake 20 hours at a time when travelling to and from the traces. So the police officer wrote to the head of tasracing asking for his comments about how to improve things. What did tasracing do,they spoke to the police and that officer was removed from the case.The head of tass racing when advised of that ,then sent an email out saying,"all sorted,no further action required". then there was the steward who complained about nothing being done after being approached by a licence holder with clear evidence of race fixing. She was the one that lived next door to yole and continually complained about what she saw. So waht did they do,they limited her involvement in harness racing . The whole thing seem to have been a rort for a long time and that can only happen with incompetent oversight. the racing minsiter seemed totally incompetent. I just hope they don't allow the likes of yoles father to take over the training of the horses The public perception will be shocking if they don't shut yole down.

I don't have any problem with maori protesters or activists doing what they do,they are just are trying to get as much as they can to help themselves and their families,whether it be through settlements or influence or consultation or whatever.I don't agree with a lot of what they say,but i undersatnd why they say it. What i have a problem with is the media reporting in a way that suggests that everything they say is credible and that the current government is harming race relations by implementing policies that they said they would pre election. for example.I used to watch tv3,but everytime i see that woman that is there parliamentary reporter,shes all about stoking division. She reports on current and previous labour politicians comments as if they are speaking for the majority of new zealanders,which of course we know from the last election results ,they aren't. Some of these reporters act like they have nothing but contempt for the views of their audience and that the only way to change the uneducated viewers is to double down on reporting pieces that they think can influence their viewers thoughts enough to change our minds. if they do throw something at david seymour like you suggest,hopefully he ducks and it lands on a reporter. That at least would be worth watching.

Just watched that. Its kinda funny,but i suppose we shouldn't laugh. Looked like terry mosely just fell off after the horse jumped out good. Maybe he forgot to put his foot in the irons on one side?He sat on the side of the stalls long enough before the start and only jumped on just before they started.

Jonny alone,trained by his brother barry.won the thorndon in mid 80's. His brother peter trained little brown jug. All the jones brothers trained a lot of winners.

Matt Cross commented pre race that he she didn't warm up like you would want to see a $1.70 shot warm up. He commented that her gait wasn't the best. I thought at the time he said that,that his pre race comments were a bit unusual, as to make comments like that about such a hot favorite,was risking himself being ridiculed a bit if the horse had won. With hindsight,obviously his pre race observations were very insightful.I hope the injury she has is something she can recover from.

I see the handicappers/race programmers are doing their very best to make sure the higher grade horse numbers in the north island stay as low as possible. I mean you can't make this stuff up,its so bizzare. They complain about that problem,yet perpetuate the problem.. They are now programming penalty free races for the higher grades at meetings like hawera. If you win the $20,000 high grade pace or trot at these meetings and are driven by a junior driver,you get the win penalty free.The same is happening in the south island now in places like southland. Also the grade just below you also get a penalty free win. People moan about horses not progressing higher to provide more numbers,yet its the people who programme the races that are part of the cause.Isn't that pretty obvious? They also seem intent on programming races that keep the intermediate grade horses in the lower ratings. For example,Caufield won its 6th race from 40 starts yesterday,plus he has 8 placings.Yet he still only has a rating the same as a 1 win,1 start horse.

I read recently of the passing of maurice jones(reese jones). He was a successful trainer who from memory had brothers barry,peter,cliff . All top horsemen. i think he had a son who was a handy jockey at one stage as well and was the uncle of a jockey or two. Those brothers trained a lot of winners between them including some really good ones. From memory the jones brothers used to be regulars on the west coast circuit. A different era,but not so long ago.

You say theysometimes run the top 6 in the heats then top 6 in the semi's. Well that seems to mean you do accept they have more than 2-3 runners in each race. Take this year. In those vicbred heats they had 1/4 of all starters,but when you break it down to their numbers in the pacing heats,its much higher because they don't have many trotters. Your not coming up with a good argument if you are referring to the all stars. I know everyone thought their dominance in those age goup races not that long ago was a bad thing.Everyone except those that support the all stars that is. I will tell you a story. I once was in the north island about 25 years ago.On my travels i came across the former part owner of a very,very good horse who in the latter part of its career had been trained by the purdons.I spoke to the owner about what it was like to own such a horse.He told me the story of how it was wonderful but their experience was soured by seeing their horse being used as the horse to undo the favorites from other stables on more than one occasion in the big races. e.g. like an interdomion final. In fact their horse could well have won had it not been driven in such a way. I remember the race in question and the discussion the drive received.You could probably guess the horse i mean if you remember the race and remember who won it and who owned it. So the point is,every horse that is team driven and chances diminshed simply to enable a better finishing position of a stablemate,has owners,breeders, punters who are left feeling unfairly treated and conned to a degree.

i would have thought you knew what i meant by that. i was referring to how they look after their horses when i said that.

So its a bad look because someone has 7 of 10 runners in tasmania,but its a good look when someone in victoria has the same thing. Its the vic bred races i'm referring to. They are the ones emma stewart dominates numbers wise. my view is,what or wherever the races are is irrelevant. Run any race anywhere ,where you have one stable with over half the runners and punters,rival trainers and owners,will look at that and say they will be team driving.. I'm just saying that was one part of the murrihy report that is worth thinking about. I'm not comparing how the stewart stable operate to the yole stable in any way.

i agree they would have to create specific rules. And yes i do think in the future that will come to pass,thats if there are enough other trainers still going to have a viable industry. just look to tasmania as to how the overall number of participants has played out with the yole dominance. You realise that in tasmania ben yole had 6 or 7 in a field at one stage and just continued to grow. in those age group races in victoria emma stewart very often had 1/3 of the starters and sometimes over half.Hows the turnover and stakemoney on victorian harness going. the media celebrate that part of the stewart dominance,yet have a double standard when they refer to ben yole. To me what i have said is so obviously a major problem.

Its a tricky one isn't it gammalite. It would seem unfair to the honest, caring harness racing participants in tasmania to lose harness racing through the inaction of officials who turned a blind eye and ignored what the yole stable was doing.Many did everything they could to bring attention to it all,so for them to be penalised would seem rather unjust. Hopefully the harness industry keeps going and in the future they emply people in their integrity unit who actually have integrity. The yole stable are clearly dishonest and those they employed almost as bad apart from those brave enough to give evidence against their former employer. I can't imagine anyone with any integrity working too long for a stable knowing all that was going on. I view the tounge tie horse case as rather sinister to me. While theres no doubt it would have been accidental to leave it on for 4 days,the employee who came forward said the horse looked like it was going to die,wouldn't eat,looked really skinny and had a really sore tounge. One would assume it must have swollen up rather badly.. Yet despite that and despite the protests of the stable employee they took that horse to the races 2 days later,knowing it would have already been in a distressed state. It had run 2nd the week before,but ran 211m last. Thats a deliberate act of animal cruelty in my eyes. Also something which i think the harness racing media will likely completely ignore,is the findings that having one stable with so mnay runners in a race invites dishonesty. Just look at the dominance of the emma stewart stable in so many of those age group races in victoria. Its a bad look and people just turn off the sport when they see so many from one stable in a race. People have to be consistent on that. If its a bad thing in tasmania,its a bad thing where ever it happens.

Well the Ray murrihy report into tasmanian harness racing truly makes shocking reading. It would be quicker to list the things ben yole hasn't done detrimental to harness racing and his horses,as the list of what he has done is so long. But heres a brief look at some of the things they found did occur Perhaps to start,lets set the scene.Heres an example. They left the tounge tie on a horse(blings on fire) after a race in which it was placed..A stable employee reported to tim yole that the horse still had the tounge tie on 4 days later and looked like it was going to die.They took the tounge tie off. They had it entered for a race in 2 days time. The yoles decided they would still take it to the races. The stable employeee complained that the horse looked disgusting and that they couldn't go to the races..... but they did. It ran a long last,beaten 211metres. It ran so poor a vet exam was ordered,but unbelievably the vet found nothing wrong with it. Then the report said it was regular practice to terrorise(the reports words) horses in their wash bay prior to the races,by putting blinds,ear plugs on,then actiavting them while whipping them on the rump and legs. Anyway you get the picture of how disturbing the actions of Australias leading harness trainer were. But to list some of the other findings 1)race fixing 2)Team driving 3)raceday treatments 4)intravenous injections within 1 day(although apparently it was normal to inject all horses with 2 substances 2 days prior. 5)horses kept in poor conditions-too many in small paddocks,poor ground conditions,no protection from weather,horses being bullied by dominant horses and not getting enough feed. 6)poor vet treatment record keeping Anyway enough of mr yole. What about the findings as regards the office of racing integrity. Seems no one ahd any confidence or trust in them. IThe report found that some of their behavior had no integrity at all and it found some of the things they told the inquiry were on the balance of probabilities not true,. In other words they were liars and covered up stuff. They even abused people who complained ,ignored complaints,ignored a complaint from one of their own steards that a driver had approached her with evidence of race fixing. Seems they never even followed that up and when they did after the media got hold of it,they didn't keep the records and then lied about all that as well.The findings around the chief stewart painted him in a very poor light. It also said they should have been doing more unanounced stable visits and investigatory work,but didn't. It also highlighted that if anyone had a problem with a n official,no point complaining because they just investigated themselves,which they didn't do anyway. The report found a "disturbing number of participants either had left or downsized their interests in tasmanian harness racing".... i wonder why? the report also found that part of the problem that the yole stable had got away with the animal welfare side of things for so long was because the rspca was hamstrung by the poor legislature and rules and regulations currently on the books,and that they didn't seem to have practices in place to consider the racehorses welfare after racing like they should. Thats as close as they seemed top get to addressing why yoles known as chainsaw. 7 yole former stable employees gave evidence. Finally it refered to their handicapping system. And funnily enough even made mention of how it was unfair it was for low start,low grade horses to be graded above horses who have had so many wins,. Observing the handicapping system was designed to see more and more horses drop in grade,in what it called a race to the bottom. Sounded very similar to nz actually.

i remember being there that day. In fact i think i can spot myself watching the race against the outside fence. great days.

There's a really good story on neil brady that Duane Ranger wrote,written 2 weeks ago. Its well worth the read . I don't know how to post such things on here but if you google duane ranger harness racing,he has a website. His latest story is about riley butt . Perhaps someone smarter than me on how to post stuff may put it up for everyone to read?

i can understand why you say that,but personally find the whole thing a bit surreal and hard to get a handle on. so much history,so complicated,each side placing self interest above everything else. I suppose thats how things work though and its the innocent who have no control over these things who pay the heaviest price,as always. i have followed it and it seems the timing of the hamas attacks was related to israel making recent peace deals with other arab countries without having to make concessions in its conflict with the palestinians in those deals. Seems they have been negotiating along those lines recently with saudi arabia,irans arch enemy. So it seems the hamas attacks were a way of derailing those agreements. Lets face it,its not Israels fault for trying to want more stability defence wise in the region. I read a poll recently,and i have just looked at it again and took a few notes which i think are interesting in helping understand it all. The poll was of people who live in gaza and the west bank and was taken just a couple of months ago. heres some things the poll said which you may find interesting. Support for hamas,the ruling party in gaza,spikes during armed conflict,but even now most palestinians do not back hamas. Gaza residents are more critical of hamas than those in the west bank.44% in the west bank support hamas and 42% in gaza. But depsite all that,57% in gaza and 82% in the west bank believe hamas was justified in lauching the october attacks on israel. A large majority believed hamas claims that the attack was to defend a major islamic shrine in jerusalem against jewish extremists and to win the release of palestinian prisoners. Only 10 % believed hamas had commited war crimes in israel,although the majority had not seen the videos. Seems the palestinian media have fixated on the war in gaza and the suffering of civilians while giving little coverage of the results of the hamas attack. The poll found the level of anti america/anti west was huge,driven by what they viewed america and the west were allowing to be done in gaza. They haven't had elections since 2007 in gaza or the west bank and the palestinian authority don't have the same goals as hamas.It was 2007 that hamas gained control of gaza. The Palestinian authority used to run both the west bank and gaza until 2007.The PA have been heavily criticised for working with israel in coordinating security in the region. So it all appears Israel will be stuck with running gaza when this latest conflict ends.

I like it.The three wise men who have traveled from afar. Brought together ,not by christ,but by bit of a yarn. Who would have thought that...... Then again,maybe that might be overtstating it.

I think you should watch anything professor John mearsheimer,from the university of chicago has said. Hes an expert on the history of ukarine and is someone i followed when they first started talking about the possiblity of war. Hes the fellow who for years has been saying that the wests policy,primarily driven by the USA, of pushing ukraine to join NATO was inevitably going to end up in destroying Ukraine. Hes the fella who consistently has been able to predict what later has unfolded in ukraine. He said the war stems from a huge mistake in 2008 the west made,which was to openly say and pursue policies that would enable ukraine to join NATO. He said putin has been saying since then that unless ukraine remains neutral,that russia had no choice but to wreck and weaken ukraine. He has consistently said the idea russia wanted to conqueror ukraine was a nonsense. He said russia have worked into their strategy of having a neutral ukraine,to include conquering the more natural resource rich part of ukraine,but that putin and russia never wanted a war to start with. He said it was the bidens administration policies which pushed the matter of ukraine joining nato with more active rhetoric and policies,which pushed the russians even more into a corner so they saw a western backed,nato joining ukraine as an existensial threat. the professor insists the west is directly to blame for the war. like i have said ,he has consistently been right on predicting what will and has happened.His views on ukraine and where it was heading have been accurate for years if you look at when and what he has said. He has recently said that the usa and the british did intially think ukraine may win the war but through 2023 they now realise the russians clearly have a good chance of winning the war if they want to commit the necessary resources. The professor was heavily critical of the USA,saying even when it became obvious ukraine was going to be destroyed,the biden administration doubled down . Of course so many establishment republicans have supported the policies that have destroyed ukraine. So when chief you say Putin is a nut case,you are just ignoring history.

golden bays an interesting one. I would imagine whoever first bought it from nz would have paid a reasonable sum. I remember it went ok at the trials here,then showed what i thought was big improvement when it had its first and only nz start on nz cup day,running under a 1.55mr itself when running about 7th after a wide run. They said on trackside it had tossed its driver out beforehand and run around the track but they still started it.Maybe getting all spooked up had helped it,who knows. So i've occasionally watched it when its run in australia and its gone like its trials form. Handy but not the horse that ran on nz cup day. It did win first up in queensland though. So will be interesting how it goes for grimson.