the galah

Now this man is someone who clearly knows what he is talking about. Much maligned for banning a few trainers not that many years ago,but in those cases it turned out he already had access to the evidence that those he was labelling cheats,were just that. Well hes doing it again,based on all the evidence gathered by authoritites in that recent huge drug cheating scandel in the USA.Turns out he helped fund the investigation to the tune of $2.5 million of their own money. So this is part of what he said when banning another 33 trainers,who he has evidence of having used the likes of EPO.Many had been setting their horses for upcoming racing at the meadowlands.He expects to ban more as the authorities release exactly who else was buying the performance enhancers for use on their harness racehorses. "The whole thing is terrible. They lucked out that i kept the meadowlands open,but their luck ran out because I am honest. ITS SAD BECAUSE THERE WERE PEOPLE WHO HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO CHEAT. THEY FELT THEY HAD TO FEED THEIR FAMALIES AND THEY COULDN'T WIN A RACE UNLESS THEY DID. Whats sad is Howard Taylor.Hes an owner,not a trainer.He had to be giving EPO to his trainers to use and NOT A SINGLE TRAINER PICKED UP THE PHONE AND SAID I HAVE AN OWNWER WHO WANTS ME TO USE EPO ON HIS HORSES.HE HAS 150 HORSES AND LOTS OF TRAINERS. YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT AT LEAST ONE TRAINER WOULD HAVE PICKED UP THE PHONE AND TOLD US WHAT WAS GOING ON...".But they didn't. Jeff Gural is not stupid. People in australasia aren't stupid either. They know this type of thing happens even here.Obviously not on the same scale,but it happens and authorities need to focus on it.

i think yes they did improve the 3 lengths that they seemed to lack for a month or so,but i also think the likes of sunndees sister,dalton shard,hadron collider and magic four(through a handicap let up),were all dropping in grade. I think that was the main component which saw them winning. The temporary slump in form i believe was real.You just had to compare previous performances. Not all the team,just most. But why that was is somewhat unknown,so given it was only a slight drop off,we can only guess what the reason was. They are a stable that come the big days,i personally don't put in the small category of trainers who have real major changes in form.Those that do are the ones i wonder more about.

I think he argues his point well. I'm like you,i don't agree with all he says,but i think he has some very good points. Is it not an obvious question to ask after watching Luberon. If she is sensitive to the whip being used,why don't they just run it without the whip? It just seems so logical.

Sure is a pretty horse to look at. Went all the way to queensland ,but didn't like the place and kept galloping.Certainly won easy tonight although he can gallop sometimes for no reason,just like he did in the dominion last year.I've read his trainer has a higher udr that anyone previously. certainly would go straight to the top in nsw i think. Southlanders no doubt enjoy seeing him win,but no doubt secretly wish he would move to canterbury as well. Surprising that his horse wag star paying so much later tonight. Go back a couple of starts and he would clearly have been the best 3yold around.It will be interesting to see in say 3 years how much longevity his best horses got. He doesn't over race them. Bolt for brillance i thought just ran like he has when he has come south recently. i thought he never looked like he was going any good,even if he was slow early.

well the dunn stable back winning. It had to happen.Well done to them. To be fair magic four,sunnies sister and dalton shard and the quinella hadron collider and mikis courage all looked like they should have won easy,even on recent form. They all good horses and had well placed tonight.Magic four handicapped to win and finally driven to race on speed. Surprising dalton shard paid so much. I always think k newman is a driver that given the chance of driving a horse that looks a winner on form,he will got the job done. Personally i think hes a bit under rated by some. Just on recent form,the only one that surprised me a little was who's delight. i had thought francom indie a bit of a stand out in that one,but who's delight used the draw and driven the same way he had when winning previously,so returned to the form of 3 or 4 starts ago. They ended their long losing streak with a bang,thats for sure.

Driver officially warned to exercise greater care. I guess the fact that the horse outside didn't break helped his cause. Hes got a fast sprint on him that winner on grass. May be a chance in something like the westport cup. it will be interesting to see where they place him in the future.

probably get a couple of days. It was a bit risky but a winning move and no harm done.If it was a southland or auckland stipes report they would say the horses outside him were hanging in and that was a contributing factor.It may still say that as maybe it was. That race was a r35-49. Just how unfairly 1 win horses are rated can be seen by comparing the records of horses in that race. For example the horse kirkman who won its first start will now be rated ahead of every runner except the winner blue rock dancer. So you have r52 blue rock dancer 4 wins 6 placings from 18 starts. then r50 kirkman 1 win 1 start, r48 topaz 3 wins 18 starts, r47 goodasgold 1 win 4 starts,kalasa 2 w 5 p 18 starts, then it dtrops to r44 american sniper 2 w 13 p 40 s,rapid response 3 w 5p 24 s r 43 takemybreath away 9w 11p 99s, r39,kennedy 4 w 6 p 79s,hes a jackalack 3w 5p 19s, r38 on report 2 w,8 p 35s, r36 lets go ringo 2w 9p 43 s r35megarock 3w,19p 71 s. So you can see by that the rating system is set up so horses who win early in their careers are forced to run against horses with superior records and it would take them to run there horse unplaced at least once a week for 3 months just to get down to a level where they could take on 9 win horses or a horse with 3 wins and 5 placings hes a jackalak. about 6 months ago i started a thread acout adesanya,a 2 win horse from the dunn stable who appeared to be slaughtered in the rating system after just his 2nd win. Well 6 months later where is he. Well hes dropped to a r45 after having been raced for virtually 6 months non stop for 1 3rd placing and a few 4ths. Now,to me he is a horse with his share of abilty who doesn't try that hard sometimes because he realised ,whats the point, due to having run in races he was so unfairly forced to run in.Obviously its up to his owners,but i wpuld imagine they must have known they would have had to pay 6 months training and racinf fees just to get back into a grade where he may have a chance.Personally i would have thought most owners would have sold him long ago to australia . but the point is the rating system is encouraging some to keep racing,but also forcing others to be realistic and make decisions to sell after only a couple of starts.,unless they have deep pockets. To me there should be a syatem which caters for both. It should have a $won factor. They do everywhere else so why doesn't nz.

Trackside sometimes captures some good clips of happy punters. The last race at kaikoura today one of those . They celebrate different in the north island. The finish of race 7 at cambridge on 12 october an example of that. all good fun i suppose

Can anyone explain how you get the inconsistencies in the scratching penalties. Like today you had a couple stood down for 3 days then the rest for 5 days. Have the 3 day ones got vet certificates,but even if they have how do they come to the 3 day penalty. Also i've noted sometimes there are horses nominating and accepting for 2 race meetings within 2 days,that are then scratched from the first race,given only a one day stand down ,then run the next day.Obviously there can't have been any vet issues.When the trainers have nominated for both meetings,the trainers must know that they have done that,like they surely just don't forget and then say to the stipes,hey i'm in another race in 2 days time,i don't know how that happened but i just need a 1 day stand down so i can start.Are they not abusing the system and getting away with it?Why should they be treated any different from someone who gets a 5 day penalty. And if you say,no they aren't abusing the system,then ok,how about all trainers be told they will be treated the same if they nominate for 2 meetings in close proximatory and can scratch from which ever one they want and still start in the race they want? I've followed the scratching penalties over some time,and there is no consistency to it all. Its got me beat how some are treated differrent to others.

Is it just me,but every time i tune into a greyhound meeting in christchurch i seem to watch a greyhound race where there is a form reversal from a dog trained by mcinerney. Maybe theres a reasonable expanation each time,but the one constant is it sure bamboozle's the commentator as to how it happens,going by his comments. How do they get them to have a run of lasts ,then come out and jump straight to the front and win.I'm not being facetious,i genuinely want to know how they do it and how a punter can pick when its going to happen. I don't bet on them,but do watch them sometimes. Do they give them some type of practice routine from the traps or take them to the beach for a day out?

She deserves a lot of credit for the way she has handled the pressure and achieved what she has with the all star horses recently. Personally i was never really a big fan,thinking she seemed to drive a bit negatively,like not wanting to do anything wrong. But shes cetainly gone to a new level with her driving. Sure shes driving top horses,but there would be a lot of pressue to do the right thing and get results. She has handled the presuure well and her recent results speak for themselves. It will be interesting to see how akuta goes against swayzee. grimson seems to have it flying.It beat leap to fame running a 1.51 mile rate for 2400m and the driver said it could have gone faster,according to a harnesslink article. I wonder what his previous trainer,tim butt is thinking. Well i think we all know what he is thinking. Tim butt was a great trainer after all. Anyway a horse that can do that must be almost unbeatable in a race like the nz cup.Hes currently paying $3.40 on the fixed odds,but you would think he may pay a bit more on the tote anyway. Inexperience in standing starts may be an issue.Time will tell.

I always think,well if the drone really is better,then why not show it for the whole race. The reason they don't is because its not. Just because something is different and innovative,does not mean it is better. I think the popularity of drone coverage will be like the 3d movie glasses. The reason i dislike it so much is because it disrupts the continuity of the picture of the race i develop in my mind as i view it.Having to refocus several times is not something i enjoy. I read once that in england there was an issue with people using the drones to bet on the in play option on betfair. The idea being that they were receiving the picture directly,3 or 4 seconds before others who would be watching tv were. I have often wondered about peope who bet on the race as it is run(in play) on betfair. What second delay are people receiving the pictures in their homes. How many second delay is there for an aussie race for nz viewers and vice versa? Does anyone go to the races and do that on the addington races or the nz gallops. They are the nz meetings that go in play on betfair. Drones aye. I always thought that was a male bee with no sting that just sat around not doing much,waiting to see if the queen wanted to mate.i know some people like that,doesn't sound too bad,maybe.Seems they may have to get a name change one day. Seems the name drone for the things we have been talking about may have come from that buzzing sound they make,like the bees. i do remember,when i was a kid,upyou would occasionally here someone say,stop droning on,like stop maling a constant noise i guess in refernce to what the bees do. No one seems to say that anymore these days.

John dunn driving well,so thats not the issue. Its just the whole team, even today still about 3 lengths behind what they were just over a month ago. Those in the north island going similar. The punters are still backing them though.The race just run,Aardiebythehill the favorite. Punters who had not noted the stables recent form would have been expecting him to win with the run he got.I thought it was surprising the whale still tipped him to win. Having said all that,they must get a win shortly as they have so many nice horses in all the grades.

Interesting that the above comments illustrate that there are some people who actually like it. As i have said earlier,ithink its a total turn off myself. The person who i happened to watch a couple of races with earlier today moaned about it every time they went to the drone coverage. I was discussing the races at ashburton last week with someone,and guess what,they were moaning about the drone coverage before i said anything. So each to their own.

Personally i think its quite rare that you get overs for favorites when the markets come out. What you do get,in my opinion,is some market movers who are favorites and you could say well if only i had got on earlier. Personally i think that approach greatly oversimplifies things and misses the big picture. If you want an example of what i mean.Just look at the whales selections. 100% of the time they are market movers inwards. If you want to lose,back the whales selections.Its guaranteed.Its not because he is a poor judge,he is a very good judge,but his selections are exactly the ones the tab wants you to bet on.That is,horses with a good winning chance who they open at shorter than realistic odds,then can create them as win movers in,and attract even more betting at reducing odds,which are even greater in the TAB's overall favour. Your guaranteed to lose overall because you don't make money betting on horses that open up paying about 70% of what is a realistic dividend,let alone at the further reduced price. As proof of what i have just said,on another forum they have been keeping a record this month of his selections,because like on here,most believe the tab promote him,because he is their biggest asset to sucker punters in to backing on horses at unrealistic prices.. His strike rate is 33 selctions for 8 winners and 11 placings. Pretty good really.That is until you look at his returns.For a $1 e/w hes losing about 18% of his money. 75% of the horses hes selected ,who have placed ,have paid $1.50 or less for a place.5 of his 8 winners have paid under $2.30. So for the whale to have broken even,he would have to be getting on at odds at least 18% higher than what other punters are mostly getting on at. Maybe he is,but if you think you are going to beat the TAB by betting on FF on most races,trust me you won't . I recently was told by a bookie that i returned a profit 16 months in a row,so thats why they have a system set up which will see anything i back,reducing in odds. Now i used to be a person who bet on every harness race run in nz every year. Well i have come to the realisation that while i could still make money,since the bookies target my account,it will never be at the rate i did before,and now i simply find that the level of profit no longer justifies the amount of time needed to achive that. So i simply have all but given up betting on most races. And i'm a punter who used to put 90% of my betting on the tote. I had more and more changed to fixed odds as the tote prices were being reduced because the tab was monitoring my account and reducing the ff odds,thus reducing the tote odds as they always follow. Now i believe you can still make money,but for me i believe no more good sized tote betting. I believe the the way to make money now is,as nowornever has suggested,recognise what horses are over the odds when the initial markets come out. Now i've been watching,and i would say that on average there is only 1 or 2 of those at most a day,that can win.Some days none at all. I do agree with nowornever that roughies blow out in price near the end,but i have also been keeping a close eye on how the tab bookies operate in that respect. Most of the times that only occurs in the last minute or two and interestingly,sometimes after the markets seem to have closed. For example nowornever last week you discussed the horse portelli. Well i van tell you i actuallly tried to back that horse a place as they were lining up. The price that came up jumped to $9 as i tried to get it on,but the tote closed as they staryed before i could confirm it. Well when i looked at the website it had portelli closed at $11 ff place. Well, to me it was jsut another example of the ff odds being adjusted after people can no longer get a bet on.

Some tracks do have rough crossings but i think motukarara's is pretty good. I often wonder whether the occasional horse that breaks there is as much about horses noticing the change in colour of the grassed surface of the crossing. Personally i don't worry about whether horses come from the back anywhere myself. I only worry about where they finish.If they are good enough to come from well back but not quite get there,then its up to the driver to make a move a bit earlier. I also think harness racing,like any out door sport is best on warm days. I guess some peoples plans for the day may be effected,but i'm sure the majority who intended going today will look forward to going on a warmer day next week. The only down side would be if it impacted the size of the fields for other meetings next week. Also,i think taking into consideration how a track will hold up if it did get rain on the day,is a valid thing to consider. Grass tracks that get cut up due to racing on wet ground effectes the future quality of that tracks racing surface. Methven gets a lot of use with their trials and workouts as well.So why wouldn't it be a consideration when they can run the meeting a few days later and not cause that issue.

Did you think he was throwing a dummy pass? I see he has only been training the winner for 2 or 3 weeks. Maybe it just went better than he thought it would. B barclay who drove it also elected to stay on the pylons at the 1200,but got off near the 700m. The winning of the race was when he made his move and he got around them while the pace was still just average.i think B barclay just made better tactical moves. That was a strange race where it looked like the drivers all expected the p williamson trained favorite would win,and they all just drove a bit negatively. Seemed a strange move for b williamson,driving the 2nd favorite, to give the lead away to his stablemate with 1000m to go after setting a rather slow pace. I guess he must have thought the favorite would be too good,but it just stopped.

I noticed it couldn't be accessed for about 3/4 an hour at one point. As to todays races. Southland has become a lot like auckland or addington on some friday nights. So many favorites and hard to find anything worth betting on these days. smaller size fields than there used to be seems to be a major contributing cause.. Then in some races you have the ferguson trained runners and you know no point backing against them as they generally win easy and can often run unheard of fast times. They had a non win horse run 2.54.4 for 2400m last week. Must be pretty demoralising for the locals having to compete in races like that and if you were thinking about racing a canterbury horse down there,you would think twice. 7 winners today paid under $3.90. 1 did pay $20 but it was a first starter and had only ran at oamaru trials where there is no video coverage. Missile paid $11 but he was a risk as he went awful the start prior. He's a meister at $6 was one you could have backed. The whale had tipped nutcracker in that race so was no value and life of art,while looking a standout on recent form,you had to be weary because the well backed hoffman runner in the previous race had been a flop.Its a stable i find hard to predict myself so generally look for something else,if anything. The whale did get the one winner today,the coaster. It opened at $2.70 which seemed a nice price but only the whale would have got on at that price as it immediately dropped when he backed it yesterday,like everything he tips does. But the point is,it was only a year or two ago that i used to look forward to southland meetings as it was a place that still had some winners that paid reasonable dividends. But i don't even bet in half the races there anymore. I would only spend about 1/20th of what i used to at southland meetings not that long ago. I would say the bookies seem pretty on to it with some of their favorites. Sea fury only paying $2.50 seemed well under a realistic price,but it won easy. Falcons watch at $2.70 was a crazy one given his recent form,but he actually managed to run 4th so they weren't far away with there price. I noted there was only about 21 different drivers who drove today,of which a handful were owner trainers who drove there own.Maybe thats where the drop off in participation has been. At least we have methven tommorow. Sounds like it will be very cold. The mile racing is a bit different,but its just a matter of factoring that in when making selections i suppose. I've just looked at the ff dividends.It seems only 1 i like is paying slightly more than it should,but its off ur and not sure whether the driver will make a move early enough,so a risky bet. i did like americano,but hes only paying $3 which seems too short even if i think he may win. Apatchoffold only paying $2.50 another i like that really is too short to be worth backing. Stephs boy may look a top chance,but at $1.90 not worth betting on. I have just looked and the whale has tipped americano and stephs boy,so thats probably why they paying such silly prices. Anywat thats my ramblings about todays racing.

I have been reading the weekly trial updates from a form analyst that they have on the HRNZ website. Whoever does it is doing a good job. It must take a bit of time to watch them all but whoever it is seeems to be able to recognise potential winners. I think its been a good innovation.

i see the caufield cup winner was only passed fit to race 3 days prior to the race. Apparently the trainers said hes just lazy when being trotted up for inspection. You should watch aardies express warming up next time you see it run.Obviously it races fine and i'm sure they would have had the vet go over it thoroughly to see if it has a problem. Hopefully it doesn't effect its longevity.

I see it hasn't taken long before some clubs have gone back to reducing their stakes to the same as what they were before all the hype about increased stakes because of extra funding. For example ,all the methven races this week are for only $10,000. Isn't methven one of the richest clubs asset wise? then at winton they even have a non win race for only $8,000. Southland used to be a province that said non win races were a priority and should always have good stakes.Thats obviously no longer the case. I guess some of these clubs must be struggling just to get by, as they don't appear to be paying out the full prizemoney that HRNZ supposedly are funding them.Can't figure out why methven so stingy though. Was it all just smoke and mirrors? Stake increases over hyped yet again. we've seen it all before ,which is why the above was predicted,unfortunately.

I agree that Aardies express is a huge talent.Surprising they didn't leave it in the nz cup as it would have been a top 3 chance.I think its the most talented horse that stable has had so far. The only thing is everytime they show it warming up, it looks sore to me. It must be one tough horse or maybe have some sort of treatment to help it overcome that. I agree akuta has 3 or 4 lengths on the best of the others. Yesterday it was surprising that the driver didn't have it anywhere near the tape and that lead to it settling towards the back. The one thing you can say about standing starts is 90% of horses who start behind the others in the middle of a field,will nearly always be slow away. Vice versa applies. The horses up on the tape have a far better chance of beginning well and normally do. The only time there is an exception to that rule is when a horse has drawn wide and it gets some space early. That race was yet another example of what i have just said. Nathan williamson had his horse right up on the tape and his horse was 1st away,o thornley and s o'reilly had their horses back from the tape and they were the slowest away apart from the ur horse.Thats where races often are won and lost and the likes of blair orange and sam ottley are experts at having their horses well positioned at the start.Obviously the horses manners are a factor,but the likes of american me and akuta are safe beginners. Having said that ,olivia thornley made the move on akuta at just the perfect time and handled the pressure well. good to see muscle mountain back in winning form.Ben hope let him roll earlier yesterday and Oscar bonavena had to maintain his sprint longer.Oscar bonevena may be able to match muscle mountain for speed over 250m,but obviously muscle mountain can go another 300 at that speed when oscar can't. The drone coverage being shown after the race as you suggest, does make more sense if they are to keep using it. That way people who don't like it can do something else without missing anything when the race is actually being run.

For an example look at the coverage of race 10. In particular look at the drone coverage down the back straight. What you can tell is all the drivers are wearing white pants. One horse has a red dust sheet,another a blue. Thats it,the drivers colours can't be picked up.

A top days racing at ashburton today,but the trackside coverage of the first part of many races was ruined for me by the drone coverage.It just makes it so confusing. If they are to persist in showing something that i know many viewers hate,can they at least split the screen and show the normal coverage so people like me can see where there horse is. The reason i say that is pretty obvious. How can trackside ignore that with the drone coverage its only possible for viewers to follow the one horse,you do that by fixating on its movement from the start point? As to where the other horses are in the race,there is simply no way any viewer can focus on several runners. Its roo hard from the drone coverage to follow the movements in the first 200m.Its hard enough to follow one,let alone 14. I've tried it and i can't do it and i know every horse and its colours.Its especially true in the bigger fields Compare that to a normal shot and anyone watching can tell you where every horse is.

I just read mr butterfly"s headlines,not a subscriber. I think he has good instincts myself, but if he's suggesting the hope's a have a potion then i'm pretty sure he is wrong. To me,the hope trained horses have never run like they have ever used a potion.