the galah

Discussing drivers is always something i find interesting.Both you and i have seen plenty over the years and i'm sure we know what we are talking about. we disagree on b graham.i did used to bet on horses she drove quite a bit,and i formed my opinions around that.i had a good oopinion of her driving skills and integrity.Sometimes she didn't seem to drive,maybe she was on trackside presentling,but her father seemed to take over the stable drives and his horses just didn't run for him like they did for her and he was more a stop /start driver and they aren't the good ones. all those other drivers you mention,all great drivers. I know you like g dixon,but i just see him team driving too much to be a fan. But i'm defintely a fan of how he has handled leap to fame and his driving of him. One of the greatest combinations ever. i think b orange is the best driver in australasia. You rate others above him,fair enough,i just put him on top because you know he not only has the skills,but is always trying.Sure, occasionally over burn on horses sometimes,but hes doing that because hes trying to get into a position to get the best placing at a time when the pace is slackest,not just go around to run at the back,waiting for 2 or 3 weeks time. P mcmullen seems to do the same in queensland.Hes your best,as you say. What more can a punter ask for. what i find off putting about queensland harness racing is you seem to have so many drivers who are related to each other or in relationships with each other. And it shows when they drive against each other.Thats a consequence of an industry erodes its base of industry participants.Thats happening here and will impact peoples perception of the industry down the track.

so,going by how many meetings they have, addington will take a hit of close to half a million when the greyhounds are finished. Thats a lot of money.

actually at the end of the day theres a lot of realities that won't change and have to be accepted,so you have to plan around those realities and not make false promises or give out false hope. There is a sustainable way forward for sure,but are the policies currently being implemented leading us there? its best to just tell it as it is,i hope this committee does that.

Well the fact that we are speculating what the thoroughbred majority committee will be advising the minister on,is of some concern from a harness perspective. For example,will they be looking at the distribution % model for the codes from turnovers generated overseas. Who knows,but thats something the thoroughbred people have always wanted changed.Maybe all these extra meetings hrnz have been having, has been a means to increase overall turnover on the basis that there may be changes to the distribution model in the future. But i would guess,with the greyhounds going ,that may be looked at,but its only a guess. i guess they will be looking at how to maximise turnover from dates and the thoroughbreds will say,well we generate the most so we will be entitiled to the best dates,but they already get them anyway,so i don't see the dates thing being impacted much. the gallops have an issue with lots of abandonments meetings,but i don't see how an advisory committee can come up with solutions that the thoroughbred industy hasn't already tried. But i guess they will point out the financial impact of those abandonments. will they make recommendations around tracks like the messara report. I would guess they will keep away from that.who knows Some of the people on that committee haveinterests in the breeding,will they comment on that. Thouroughbreds interests i would expect will have more influence with peters,but they are the larger group so thats not unexpected. In 2018 they had an advisory group,made up of some of the same people,come up with a report,after the messara thing. Looking at where we are,did that help much? what would i personally want to see. i want to see an analysis of whether both codes are being fiscally responsible with the funding they have been receiving,whether the current level of stakemoney being paid out is sustainable,i would like to see recommendations around establishing performance based employment contracts for those leading each industry. What do you think chief.

I agree with you about wondering whether she will last here because of the weather. It must be a lot easier getting out of bed with your lovely climate.

thats an interesting take on her driving skills. Like i have said previously,when covid shut down all harness racing for close to 3 months in nz in march 2020,i changed my focus to queensland harness racing and did my own reviews of every race run in that state for about 6 months. So i saw quite a lot of her driving skills,and formed the opinion she was one of the best drivers over there as she tried every time,horses i thought clearly ran for her , she made good tactical decisions and she drove kind,which meant her horses would back up. In my opinion,the opposite applied to her father,who i had not much confidence in to get the best results from his drives.I remember when i did comment along those lines previously on here,you replied about how successful her father has been,and i don't doubt you about that, as i really didn't know too much about him prior to my focus for that 6 month period,but from my observations i thought it obvious horses didn't run for him like they did for his daughter.. my analysis of queensland harness racing was accurate i believe,as i did make a profit overall,its just it wasn't to the level that justified the time. I probably would have carrired on spending the $2000 a day on queensland harness racing if the tab had given me the rebates they said i would get,but they changed the rules and said the account i used didn't qualify for their elite thing,even though they had told me previously,spend x amount and you will qualify. That was just another example of the tab screwing me over and them trying to save a few hundred a month,which was part of the reason i have significantly cut back what i spend these days. Also,you comment on what queensland harness drivers may say about her driving,and i'm not doubting you,but to me,from what i observed,you had a lot of drivers just going around to earn their driving fee with a preconceived plan to just follow them around and get their horses down in the ratings, so in the future they may end up in a race,with a draw,where they would try. in my opinion,nz harness racing is a more honest product than queensland . I'm sure i started a couple of threads on drivers who did that in queensland one time. anyways,i not here to be a cheerleader for grahams driving skills,you would have observed her over years,not 6 months like me,but nevertheless, i do have a different opinion to yours about her driving skils.

i quite like hearing the drivers just before the start as it can give an indication of whether they are going forward or back at the start,which sometimes influences who you pick sometimes. i've noticed nearly all drivers say their horses have warmed up good when asked how they feel. But thats also good to know. personally id prefer if they spook to a wide variety of drivers than just the same ones,irrespective of whether the drivers speak well or not. the only issue i have with those pre race interviews is you feel sorry for the presenters who do it at night when its really cold.

tu tangata has had 1 win in its last 50 starts. I just looked at his recent starts as far as faovoritism goes and hes been win favorite 5 times in his last 15 starts but never won as favorite.. he has at times been unlucky,but on those occassions its looked like poor tactical driving decisions,but the more you watch him the more you realise he just lacks a bit of high speeed and that would make tactical moves a bit harder in races. he would be a nice horse to own as he pays his way for sure,but i would be surprised if he did that well in queensland. because he runs in the first 4 a lot,he has taken a while to drop back into a grade where he can win here.

yes the dixons and the mcmullens are very talented. But team driving is one of the main things which turns punters off the harness product. Galloping trainers can have 3 or 4 in a race,but you never hear of team riding. and its not just punters who are turned off by team driving. Those who are on the receiving end of team driving,whether they be owners or trainers view it very negatively. As to the southern racing. Yes,i like your training tips. Makes sense too me. As to the topic of having more racing in winter in southland to keep things ticking over financially for all those involved. Well,if we put to one side,whether its a good idea or not,what strikes me about HRNZ promoting this,is don't they realise how contradictory their decision making has been. like,for southland,HRNZ are saying they want no canterbury horses to race in southland in the southern surge races and have programmed race conditions to that effect. Yet when it comes to canterbury, they run some races with the opposite conditions. In other words races in canterbury that are for only horses trained south of the waitaki river. And then you have hrnz consitently saying they want to see more canterbury horses racing in auckland. But wait,theres mores HRNZ contradictions. They want to keep southland harness racing ticking over all year around fior the good of the industry there,but when it comes to the central districts they have just compressed their racedays into a six month period,with nothing in the other half of the year. its very confusing.And i think the reasion for the contradictory approaches ,depending on which region it is,is an indication that HRNZ policy makers really are confused and end up just placating groups who make the loudest noise or complain the most.Thats seems to be there approach to everything.

i used to watch the people that bet at one particular busy pub tab that had the most pokies. the best way to sum up the difference, was the people who bet on the horses would have a drink,sometimes a meal and would get a taxi home. the people that bet on the pokies mostly would not have meals,sometimes would have a drink and if they didn't have their own car,would rather spend their last few dollars on the pokies,then walk home in the rain in the middle of winter. also i got to know some who had compulsions when it came to the polkies. they said how the pokies is all about you and the machine and their is no social interaction like you get from betting on the horses. also,young people today do a lot of on line betting. thats how they get started and sometimes addicted. Currently the nz government is going through the process of allowing up to 15 companies,most of which are expected to be from overseas,to operate on line casino licencesd.the government is saying they need to regulate what is currently not regulated,that way they will have greater control.They come in to play from next year But quite rightly you would think,that has concerned nz community groups who get grants from gambling profits at the likes of pubs,as they believe that the on line competition will result in their funds providers not capturing their current market share ,therefore having less to give away in grants. then you have sky casino and the tab also saying that people will gamble on these on line casinos instead of products they provide and that it will impact them. Therein is another possible unwanted curve ball that may impact racing as thats more competition for the gambling dollar.

Surely queensland galloping people have heard of leap to fame. It used to be horse racing people everywhere were well aware of great horses,no matter what the code.But maybe times have changed.Personally i know of no one in harness,including myself, who knows much about australian gallops horses.I'm sure there are some that do,but i just don't know them. Having said that i still bet on them some days for something to do. Just as i'm sure some australian punters do on nz harness. Anyways,NZ harness would get some sky racing channell 1 coverage,between australian gallops meetings sometimes,and especially around your late afternoon.so people would see it sometimes,even if not many bet on it. And i just had a look at the tabcorp pools for today.A midweek meeting at Dalby gallops had win pools of $7,000 in their first couple of races and $10,000 in their third. Tthats the only queensland gallops meeting on today. I would assume it gets a wee bit more pre race coverage,so going on what you say,i guess even queensland gallops gets little interest from queensland people if mid week. you mention leap to fame. He won at the weekend. But they had a group 3, 2 year old race earlier that night. i watched it. grant dixon had a horse that was heavily backed into $1.60. the 2nd favorite was in front and the 3rd favorite,the only other horse given any chance by punters was another dixon trained runner,at the back on the outside. So what did g dixon do,he came out of the 1/1,kept applying pressure so they ended up running the first half faster than the final half,and hey it worked,the dixon trained runner at the back swept past the leaders and won easily,with g dixon on the hot favorite,stopping late for fourth.. Now i don't know whether g dixon deliberately sacrificed his own chance or simply over estimated his horses ablity,but anyone who watched that race would have come to the conclusion, the race was obvious team driving. so what i'm saying there,is if you watch queensland harness,punters seem to be taken for fools by some participants and ,quite bluntly,would not trust they were getting a fair go, so would quickly lose interest. why cant people just drive to get the best possible placing instead of sacrificing their own chances for another stable runner.Don't they realise the harm they are doing to how the sport is perceived. thats whats going to be nz harness racings biggest issue in years to come. Only the big stables are doing ok and will continue participating and people will see more and more team driving and punters will disengage. Gammalite,if you follow the form in southland,you would see theres a lot of tired horses who look like they badly need a spell. look at the a hunter trained horses,he lines them up every week but evry one is racing well below their best in recent weeks. Theres lots of them/ Xerion a kirk larsen trained trotter,why its still racing i'm not sure as every week it goes a bit worse. They lots and lots like that down there i could name. remember southland harness racing used to close down for2-3 months and when they did that they had probably 300-500 more horses trained in the province. It was only 30 years ago they would have 240 at some trials meetings down there. They would come up to canterbury if they wanted to race over winter. yet now they want them to race all year around when they have about 1/4 to 1/3 of the number of horses. That makes no sense to me.

so does anyone have the figures as regards income lost from the harness tracks that currently host greyhound racing? i feel sorry for the greyhound people and you would think they deserve some type of government compensation ,but wouldn't it be fair to expect the government to also compensate the harness clubs for the lost income. Probably wishful thinking.Whats hrnz doing to negotiate with the government as far as that goes,or are they doing nothing or is it all hush hush like so many. An issue that just blows in the wind and only for the ears of those its job is to spin jn a way that shows them in a positive light. They also say the equivalent of 355 people in canterbury are currently employed . I read recently about the substantial cost one trainer had incurred to relocate to aussie. currently addington,cambridge,manawatu and southland have greyhound clubs paying to host racing. addington must have significnat current inclme that they wont be getting from the end of july next year. And whats the turnover % gained from having no greyhounds. i read that grnz annual report for 2023 stated that tab turnover from greyhound racing was 361 million,representing 14.2% of its domestic and 23.3% of its overseas turnover. so exactly how much do nz punters spend on aussie greyhounds and what % or $ amount will end up coming back to harness racing. And greyhounds obviously contribute to tab running costs and the likes of the rib. Is anyone going to tell people at any point,the scale of the impact of greyhound closing will have on harness.

i agree with you brodie. being fiscally responsible is such a simple concept to understand. But when you say it,people criticise you for being negative. And on top of that,why is it people like tabforever come down on the side of no accountabilty for hrnz spending, that doesn't produce results. e.g. the 2 year old bonuses. how did the breeding numbers go this year tabforever?. by the way tabman,hows imperial command going in aussie.Do you think i was right about that one or has he just been having a long spell.lol.

I may be wrong, but i might be picking up that your not a fan of her tipping forbury. actually,from my observations of what she says, i think her tipping started off a bit average,but as shes getting to know the form, shes going to be a good tipster.What i particularly like about her presenting is her not having pre conceived focus on how great certain people or stables are. She gives credit where credit is due and treats everyone the same,before and after a race. i did laugh one week though when i was watching her tip out tu tangata and the reaction of the likes of greg o'connnor and matt cross.it was like,brittany,we've been there,done that ourselves.Lets be honest,nearly every punter has probably backed tu tangata at some stage and thought, it just has to be driven better and it will win next time,only to realise, tomorrow never comes.

i just read a very good article on harnesslink "a life less ordinary-the legacy of sundee" written by brad reid about colin hair. it got me thinking . sometimes you read or watch content by people,which obviously paints a picture of what the harness racing industry is truly like and illustrates people who care very much for their horses. In my opinion hrnz should be highlighting such things and enabling greater exposure.. the brad reid article,some of the unhinged content each week,those are the type of things that should be on hrnz .

My impression reading that is, well sure,those people obviously know what they are doing,but what are the specific areas they are going to be looking at. "an advisory committee to tab nz-the regulatory arm of the national betting agency." are they looking at the geo blocking thing.. Are they looking at how the $100 million the tab gets is spent when that legaslation comes in,if it does in time.whats the latest on that legaslation.Are they trying to work it so racing gets a better % of funding if ,due to changes the government could make , could enable entain to earn more from the likes of sport. Are they going to be looking at the distribution model. Will the gallops try and get a better deal than currently and will harness racing % be impacted negatively from any such recommendations. What about the greyhound money . maybe none of those things,who knows. so the announcement sounds ok,but specifics are needed before we can come to many conclusions. i suppose,the most positive thing,is the people. But as with anything,they all have specific areas of interest in their specific codes,which don't necessarily align with large sectors of the industry. You only have to look at how HRNZ is prioritising some sectors and how that directly related to a reduction in numbers being bred and licenceholder numbers.are we going to see that or maybe this group will stay away from things like that?

thats a tricky one gammalite. He would be the best on disclosed form for sure. He was outstanding when winning a couple of starts ago at addington,but then next start he won more on heart than performing to his best. Maybe that previous run had flattened him a little,but then again maybe they have fresened him up and he will perform at his best again. Then you factor in the standing start. I have had a look at his previous standing starts. He has had 2 raceday stands and both times went away then galloped for no reason after 100m,but was amongst horses. He has begun safely but slowly at the trials. In his favour is he will have room drawn the outside so may get away without breaking,but it is only 2000m. so,i have no doubt confused you a bit and thats because i'm a bit confused myself as to whether to back him.I think the current price is about right given all the factors. so ,i don't think i have helped you much with my thinking.

backed in to $1.65 favorite after opening at $2.80. to me thats crazy short. Maybe its drawn to place with an ok run. Still you never know,that stable is having a great run.

yes its a factor,but even when they have 2 meetings in a week they still get their largest numbers, at this time of the year.Theres a definite pattern each year. like the winton meeting you refer to had 110 starters and there was an invercargill meeting just 4 days prior.

this week invercargill have 121 horses accepted to race.They even have ballots for the non win trot. in july they have 2 meetings that they never had last year. looking at the numbers,that would be one of the highest number accepted at a southern meeting in the last year. interestingly the meetings that got the most numbers over the last year ,with just a couple of exceptions,were meetings held in late april/may and june. the meetings with the lowest number of starters were from august to mid november.. so to me thats an indication that trainers,by this time of the year,realise the very cold months are just around the corner,so they are getting as many runs into them before they ease off on the numbers they train. if you look at canterbury ,i think you would find the same pattern. Hrnz and southern racing administrators obviously are working on the idea that to get the very low numbers running between august and mid november,they will provide new racing dates in july and the southern surge races in august. sp they sre really saying,keep your horses in training over winter. well,if trainers do that,which i guess some will,well when do they give their horses a break. Horses aren't machines and if you race and train them all year around,especially in the cold of southland,they will need a break. If you follow the form of horses who have raced in winter before you will observe what i say.It will just dilute their numbers at a different time of year or effect the longevity of the horses. so what i'm saying is ,long established patterns happen for a reason. trying to establish new patterns,comes with risks. its like the things you here administrators always go on about. E.g. we need more young people. Like i've heard that one for donkeys years and adminstrators still ramble on about it when, very obviously,if you want more people involved,target people like your current customes and don't focus on age.. everything to me,is so often viewed upside down by people. what should happen is people should go off existing data and patterns that haven't changed for decades. in other words,work on mamimising returns for southern trainers and owners,that can be achieved without having more horses race in the middle of winter. in my opinion.

Hiow many fillies would have lined up in the sapling stakes if they had to run against the colts. probably none as why would they.thats why they have a separate race for fillies. look at the welcomes takes the week before. Trainers aren't stupid. They don't like seeing their horses get their heads kicked in with a good thrashing on the track.did you see the gaps between the first 3 and the rest in that race.the 4th horse finished a well beaten 16 lengths with the other starters coming in at longer intervals. As i predicted right from the start. The 2 year old bonus scheme for winners would get zero more starters . Those who thought it would really just aren't very clever. yet they are who is leading the industry. as mikenz said earlier,the only positive is some of us can say,well we told you so. as i said right from the start,why would anyone line up a 2 year old to get a bonus if it wins,when its not good enough to win ,bonus or no bonus. After a couple of years of smaller than ever fields,the geniuses at hrnz seemed to cotton on to that and came up with a new scheme. Lets throw a few thousand at them just for starting. No need to win,you can run a tailed off last and still get paid. Perhaps the srtangest thing about that was you had many trainers saying,yes,thats a great idea,i will spend up big time at the sales and win one of the three larger bonuses and if i dont,instead of turning my horse out after qualifying as a 2 year old,i will keep it going,pay another few weeks training fees,but get those training fees back by running down the track in a race. You know if someone said that to me beforehand,i would have said,no people aren't that stupid,but hey thats one thing hrnz actually got right going by what trainers have been saying. Having said that,if that actually happens and to what degree,only time will tell. there have been some positives being pushed by entain which hrnz have implemented in my opinion.its not all negative.Just,when hrnz do the thinking,it seems to be more of the negatives happen.

I agree the $500,000 gammalite more realistic. thats about what they will run for in say 5 years,. the reason i and others think the big races and aged froup features need to have reduced stakes is simply because we believe stakes will have to be reduced in the future because of the current overspending. In other words be financially responsible now and you can have much more to go around in the future. And its also because we believe its illogical to do whatever you can to support and maintain participation at the highest level when those are the races that mostly run at significant losses....while on the other hand doingnext to nothing to encourage those who breed and race their horses at the meetings that run at a profit . in other words hrnz policies currently is to prioritise and over invest in the loss making side of the harness racing product and under invest in the profit making side. i mean,ask yourself,does that make any sense.

heres the quote from m peden from hrnz in that press release.He says a lot of stuff that anyone could pick holes in. "we want to see more racing(horses) which in turn will see more wagering and engagement" the same press release says ..the southern surge is open to only horses trained south of the waitaki. so,if you want more horses to race at those meetings,why programme races that guarantees you won't get any canterbury horses at those meetings. and as i pointed out. What about the winter rewards. so far ,half way through the qualifying timeframe,they have only 2 trotters who have met the criteria. They have 6 that have raced enough,but 4 are non winners and the winter rewards excludeses no winners. so there you already have 2 $25,000 races and its done next to nothing to get any extra horses race there. Personally i think southland should close down over winter like they used to because they simply don't have enough horses ro race all year around. By encoutraging people to keep their horses racing and in training over winter is guaranteed to dilute their product at other stages of the year. 30 years ago they had several hundred more horses in training throughout southland and they had no winter racing,but now when they have got such a significantly reduced numbers,they think they can race all year around. it makes no sense and the proof is in the pudding when you look at field sizes and betting product attractiveness.

But as i pointed out at the time,thats not the case. proof of that was the 2025 hunter cup. It had a significantly slashed prizemoney,1/4 of the nz cup,yet it got the best field to race in the last year in australasia.. and you say the prizemoney of the slot race got leap to fame to nz. so using the prizemoney the connectiions earned from the slot race as being the level at which nz can entice the best from aussie here,why did mr steele go around telling people a million$ nz cup was what was needed to get them here. Clearly he was wrong. And why would he tell people having a million$ nz cup would result in higher turnover than a $750,000 stake. like whio would argue that punters will bet more on a $750,000 race with the same field thand a million$ race with the same field. yhnvlike the fields the same,but pun i mean,if people are going to say one thing and the reality is another,and you point that out to people and they still stick to what they are saying,then you going to think they aren't too clever.(not meaning you gammalite)

thats the thing. Hrnz giving special treatment to auckland has consequences. one of those is,quite rightly areas who have similar issues with lack of numbers,like southland say what about us. so hrnz throw some money there way to placate them. and all the while the industry coffers get depleted as more meetings run at greater losses. and the reactionary short term fixs ,it could be argued are only hastening the train thats coming and is carrying the day of financial reckoning. HRNZ appears driven by reactionary thinking to those who have their ear or complain the most or are the most desperate. And what seems to being obviously overlooked is the final stronghold of harness racing ,the canterbury area,will be silently haemorrhaging breeder,trainer,horse numbers. Those in canterbury, who just sit there and say nothing to protect the industry in their area,in my opinion will deserve whats coming in the future. i have no doubt about that . so who are canterbury's highest profile trainers who i've never read say anything about protecting canterbury.. the dunns and the telfers. the ones with the stables in auckland. its all driven by self interest.I'm just pointing out the obvious. . expressing opinions on sites like this won't any difference.other than to niggle some people who may read it ,