the galah

He has sold a few horses for good money,but can you think of any that have gone on? I personally would not be buying the horse that won today. I would think too risky an investment given the run it had tp put in today. i'm not knocking his training or driving skills. Hes tops at both.

i did read once that camels can close their nostrils to keep out the sand if caught in a sandstorm.And that they don't sink in the sand because they have wider feet sort of shaped like a snowshoe. But don't know what to look for in a racing camel.Obviously any camel with j grimson training would be the one i put my money on.

anyone watching today had to be impressed with this horses ability to be about 50m behind the field at start point ,yet still be able to get up and win in a race run in 2.55.38. Now i'm sure the punters were very happy seeing that,given he was a $1.30 favorite. But my question is,how much will it effect this horse long term.You don't see those type of performancers that often,but when you do, you often see in 12-18 months time,a horse with issues.time will tell i suppose.. the point i make is,yes it was a wonderful run by a very talented horse,but was it wise?My guess is no.

Actually,i can tell tell you running 2600m in 3.10 is very fast. Also its because i assess race by race that i notice performance changes. That is my strong suit. My ability to do so accurately is what i base everything i say on. As to your reference to you believing horses not being given the same performance enhancers as camels. Well i don't know what archie butterfly is saying and who his sources are. But i do know there was a proven link in the USA case involving the vet,seth fishman, suppliying many of the jailed horse trainers and also supplying the camel racers. It came out in that case that Fishman,boasted to some trainers that he supplied the likes of sheik mohammed al maktoum.Isn't he the glodolphin man in australia?Fishman even sought permission ,after being indicted ,to go to dubai to treat the camels.He even gained the support of the United Arab Emarati government,dubai equine and dubai camel to try and have products seized returned.Fishman said he should be able to continue because the customers were outside the USA. His case failed. It was also revealed that in 2011 he had used those same connections to call in political favours to have an investigation into him stopped.It should be remembered that his large scale horse /camel doping had gone on for 20 years. So its certainly not a strecth in my opinion ,for anyone to say that the products used on camels are also used on horses. After all,that is what the USA case proved was happening.And after all,previous testing couldn't pick that up.

I accept that cya art is a nice horse and accept the run he got helped,but it was a significant rise in class and my assesment is a signifcant increase in performance.He did after all come clear with the winner,with over 8 lengths back to 3rd.Interesting that the horse who beat him in the video you show,mach quillan and ran that fast time,hasn't won in the 19 months since. grimson would have been here only a matter of days. Telfers would have given him regular vet checks. You would hope the RIU were monitoring him,but i doubt they would have had access to that.Did they do any out of competition testing on cya art,i highly doubt that. like we have discussed previously,i agree with all the experts who have said testing has only very limited success in detecting performance enhancers. The telfers did win the last premiership so they are good trainers.

I like that he mentions the owners of the first 3 placegetters after each race. Maybe on a sunday he has a wee bit more time than normal,but it would be nice if all the commentators gave similar recognition to the owners of all placegetters.It only takes a few seconds.i know marc cookson likes to include the winning owners when doing the studio side of things. Also it would be nice if they could also give the breeders names a mention.Many of the trackside harness audience are interested in that. so i say good on you craig rail.

Thats a good video to put up chief.Obviously mr grimson was aware the horse had real talent and there can be no denying that he is a very good trainer who gets the best from his horses and that swayzee and his driver are also very good. But if you are looking for balance ,just put up the last 3 videos of Cya art,who ran 2nd in the junior free for all on cup day. The run on cup day for grimson was significantly better than the previous 2, when trained by the telfers.The telfers won last years premiership and are very good trainers. Grimson would have only been in nz little more than a week with cya art. So its just an obvious thing to ask,how does he do it. And i think given he does it with so many and is so significant,everyone thinks its got to be with some type of performance enhancement. As i've said theres no doubt hes a very good trainer,but theres no denying the use of legal or undetected performance enhancers can be the difference in winning or being an also ran. i'm just stating the obvious.

Its interesting to look at last years cup day results and see how the winners progressed thereafter. You would think winning on cup day would mean they would go on and win at least a few more. But looking at last years winners,that isn't necessarily so. You have 5, Don't stop dreaming,Majestic Man,Republican Party and Celtic Spirit and mister smartee who have all continued to race well. then you had 2, copy that and true dantasy seemingly now retired.. Then you have 3 who have had 1 win in the last year,snow robyn,heisenberg and heres herbie. Then you have 3 who haven't won in the last year. Franco josiah,royal pride and boss kenny. So from that the pattern seems to be,the good 2 & 3 year old winners seem to progress well thereafter. But if your 4 year old or older and especially if you win a supporting race on cup day then you probably will have a lean following year.At least thats whats occured with last years cup day winners.

I thought the coverage today was excellent. Having mark cookson there with the whale as his sidekick is a good combination. Greg o'conner always tops with his interviews.Watched unhinged as well to top it off when they on other meetings. I thought they got the amount of drone coverage just right for cup and show day. Never had a bet myself today,but thoroughly enjoyed watching and think everything about the racing this week has been great. Personally i didn't think that any nz stable operated with the advantage you sometimes see at the premier meetings. That made watching those who had success more enjoyable as well.

you will have to change your name to nostradamus forbury. Akuta had every chance but maybe tuesdays run took the edge off him. Maybe that fella grimson knew what he was doing not running swayzee and is more clever than we think. Aardies express i thought might have run better,but nodded like it was sore like it always does.Shame its not 100% as shes very good.

Well i hope you got plenty forb's. Lets hope Muscle mountain doesn't have the issue he had today again.The Hopes started on a high and ended on a low. Mr love who won the first race seemed to have quite a runny nose afterwards,but ran great,then muscle mountain looked great ,but had the fibrillation. what a brilliant drive by mark purdon.Just seems to be able to produce those drives so consistently in the big races. And nathan purdon seems to be doing a great job training them. They seem to have a lot of women on their staff. Maybe thats part of the reason for their success.

are you thinking muscle mountain may break at the start forb's? Its hard to see him getting beaten if he goes away with them And as i have said many times,ben hope is one of nz's best drivers of trotters. who do you think may cross akuta.only beach ball or heza sport may try. heza sport went a big race in the cup.If beach ball did cross he would try and lead all way anyway with akuta in trail. Maybe your hoping heza sport leads and then trails beach ball. Then ardies express may win. i haven't had a bet myself today,but the racing and coverage has been great.

I just watched the unhinghed interview. ben hope saying the dam would be a very good buy for someone as she has left some nice horses. I see the mare only 12yold. seems a good opportunity for someone to buy a nice mare.

I think lay betting is when the bookies offer more generous odds on a horse,hoping to entice punters to bet on it.They do that because they think said horse will not win. I think lay betting also applies when you think a favorite will not win,so you place money on it to lose in one of those betting pools they run overseas. I guess it is called lay betting,because in effect by your betting strategy being the one horse to lose,you actually win if any of several other runners in that race win,thus you don't have all your eggs in just the one basket. Like you said,maybe the saying was to do with chickens and eggs maybe.

were you on mr love forbury. Backed up his impressive win at rangiora with another today for the hopes.Ben hope seems to think he's pretty good. I see mr love's mother for sale on gavel house.I wonder what she will sell for?

I have got it right. FRAUD BY DECEPTION. The deception being they doped the horses.. Every time you say that i post the prosecuting attorney generals press statements and the judges comments given at sentencing,which refer to the systematic doping and mistreating of horses. When you say fraud,you need to include the rest of the wording of the fraud charges.

as far as those new york cases went. Like i have suggested before,Vets can knowingly be just as dishonest. There were 7 vets charged in the US horse doping cases.

Apparently it was through monitoring someone employed by the banca stable that authorities gained the evidence to search Banca's property. When they searched his property they found a list of horses with written instructions on what and how to administer custom made drug concoctions.oops. But back to nz. One of the best things about this years cup week has been the nice weather.

richard banca. Former leading yonkers harness trainer,now prison inmate. There are heaps of examples If you look at history. For example the high profile New York trainer Lou Pena was investigated about 10 years ago.They subpoenaed all the veterinary records of his and owners working with him. They found that on 1,710 occasions horses he had raced, had breached the withholding times with drugs administered.Despite his horses being regularly tested,he had not one return a positive......so much for testing. As one prominent person said about the most recent investigation,we have learnt there is too much focus on testing. It doesn't catch them.The most important thing these days is having boots on the ground to do the investigative work. We also realise that politics can be a major factor in holding back investigations. Administrators don't want to deal with a big scandal.

Of course that is the main reason for his success,and of course other trainers like emma stewart and jason grimson are top trainers. No ones arguing they aren't.

If you look at the USA trainers who used the peformance enahncers. As an example there was vlear evidence that the leading trainers at yonkers significantly improved there winning records at the exavt same time as they started using performance enhancers. Its documented,its a fact.For example one leading trainer at yonkers trained 55 winners in 2014,records show he satrted using in 2015 and trained 174 winners and in 2016 trained 200 winners. The chief ignores countless examples in history when you say its never a factor. So i agree with forbury that it will be a factor in the likes of emma stewart and jason grimsons success.

So your able to articulate some of the reasons you think the likes of Purdon is so successful,fair enough,but i don't agree with your suggestion that someone like purdon himself couldn't do the same. Whats with the RIB having to work in a stable for 5 years thing. Thats may be relevant to many of their duties,but so is working for the police relevant when it comes to other parts of their job like reading people and investigative work. As far as purdon goes,he does have history as far as blue magic goes.Thats a fact.Trainers are always under constant pressure to get the best results for their owners, Thats a fact. Given he has dealt with that,if anyone knows the pittfalls and how to deal with such things,he would. When you talk about my need for scandal,i just think thats a bit of a joke that you suggest thats what i want. You see i have in a couple. One bloke i worked for went out of his way to pass on his knowlefge to his staff and was a top communicator and was happy to answer questions about anything any stranger would ask him. Then the other bloke was just a snob who i thought you could attribute a lot of his success to his vet. Thats what his stagg also told me. Purdon gives the impression he like the first og the 2 i mentioned. In fact i would say that most harness trainers are.

So you've proved your capable of answering the questions,but then say you don't think a successful trainer would do that because they would be giving away their competitive edge. The competitive edge thing as an excuse for not answering basic questions is a load of rubbish in my opinion. I also think your comment about critics not working as hard as successful trainers is also rubbish. I think if a half decent journalist went to our best,Mark Purdon and said to him,can i have a sit down interview with you for an hour or two and in it i want to get an insight into what it is and how you do it, that you think makes you so successful as a horse trainer and driver.I want anyone who wants to,to be able to view this interview. Then you said to him,no subject will be off the table. Everything from feeding to training to facilities to shoeing to staff to track maintenance to veterinary treatment to other treatments,routine,etc,etc. He would also be asked what value he put on each and so on. I believe someone like purdon would be quite happy to pass on his tremendous knowledge,knowing that by doing so he is helping and encouraging others to participate and achieve while helping them avoid possible pittfalls. You see the difference between you, several journalists and me is that i actually think mark purdon is the type of fella who has enough self belief that he has the confidence to pass on his knowledge and would actually gain satisfaction knowing he may be helping others. So i ask myself,given i'm seen as a critic of him sometimes,why do i view him that way when his supporters don't.

for mr grimson. I would ask him. You refer to the haters,so obviously you have an awareness of what is said about you. So for anyone listening to this interview,can you tell me what you focus on as being the most important aspects of training or feeding or anything else,when you take over the training of a new horse.. from there i would listen to his reply and most likely ask him for more specific information,phrasing it in a way that there are many people involved in the industry who are eager to learn what you view as important so they can improve themselves. That way i would have given mr grimson the opportunity to sell his credibility to those who may doubt him. You know not every successful person wants to keep everything secretive and there are some who may well believe that they should in fact be given the opprtunity to explain what makes them successful. But of course,we are left to believe no such trainers exist,because journalists feel they may compromise them somehow. I really do think what i am saying is as much about how the journalists actually view the trainers and because of that perception,they feel a need to protect them from scrutiny.That in itself tells you something.

We will have to disagree on this one gammalite. I view archie butterfly as a lover of the harness sport and a hater of those who harm it through dishonest activity and cheating. I also disagree on your view of the journalists. I think your explanation of what type of questions they can ask and the relationships they have with certain high profile trainers and the lack of transparency that goes with that, is part of the reason many people view those trainers with suspicion. You mention mick guerin.So he went on the box seat during covid and had no hesitation in insulting anyone who chose not to be vaccinated by saying they didn't deserve respect and he didn't care what they thought.Yet the same mick guerin can't even ask a qestion as to how someone trains or feeds a horse because he wants to maintain his relationship with them.Now thats a double standard with a flashing light on top in my book.I like mick guerin in a lot of ways,but i defintely don't think he is a man that can be described as being ethically consistent,as you suggest he is.In my view he is the opposite. And consistency in how people treat others,irrespective of who they are, is something i value myself.